I finally finished my BG1 game (yay!). I'm starting to shop for my mods for BG2. Could people please provide me with the must haves and the must have not mods? Lists are fine but explanations are better.

It depends on what you're looking for.

Must-Haves
G3 Tweakpack
Dungeon-Be-Gone (MUST HAVE...unless you're a first time player)
Banter Pack (If you like banters)
Unfinished Business (Must have)
Quest Pack (Nice but not necessary)
G3 Fixpack (Important - install after patches)
Extended Thief Stronghold (by Blucher, a little hard to find)

Good NPC Mods
Kelsey (solid, but I don't like him)
Tashia (cute :p And solid)
Imoen Romance (very, very, very good writing)
de'Arnise Romance (if you like Nalia...)
Keto (haven't played her through yet but she seems very high-quality)

I guess I should have been more specific with my game to save helpful people some effort. I'm playing as a half-elf cleric/mage so the thief stronghold won't work for me. I'm not interested in NPCs this run through since I'm using the canonical party from BG1 (Shadowkeeper to make them match their BG1 selves) I'm picking up Viconia too. She was in my BG1 party until I rescued Dynaheir.

Other than that it looks like you have some strong suggestions. A couple I was acquainted with but the banter pack is new to me. I'm not using Dungeon-Be-Gone as it sets the tone nicely for the game and I haven't played BG2 in a few years so it doesn't grate on me. Thanks again for the suggestions!

BG2 Fixpack/Baldurdash
Kivan
Xan
Auren
Angelo
G3Anniversary-v4
Tower of Deception
Dungeon Crawl
BanterPacks
IEPBanters
Romantic Encounters
Crossmod
iiItemsmod
iiProjektiles
Rogue Rebalancing
BG2 Tweaks
SCSII/Imp Anvil

Thanks, Shaitan! More goodies to peruse. I usually like modding my games but having just finished BG1 tonight I'm game to get back in the action. Hopefully I'll be modded before bed so I can spend a good chunk of tomorrow in BG2. Just a clarification, for those who may post, my character is illegal. I modified in Shadowkeeper. The PC is actually a cleric/wild mage. I already grabbed JOG's wild mage mods.

Oh, and let us not forget the FlirtPack! Absolutely must-have.

Ones I can't do without are:

NoBottoms
FlirtPack
BanterPack
Ease Of Use (certain aspects)

There are others I use like DungeonBeGone, Underepresented Items, Fade, Kelsey, Unfinished Business and a few others, but I reckon they're luxuries as apposed to 'MUST HAVE THEM'!

I've not played in a while though.

1PP (v2 + addons). Just for the gorgeous flaming swords.

Avoid Saerileth like your life depends on it.

Imoen Romance (very, very, very good writing)

Damn right.

Now dangit disciple you said you were gonna play thru with saerileth & take screenshots of all of her gory deaths!!! I hope you are still planning on doing this(Please, Please, Please)

Isn't imoen like your half sister and all? thats a little..............creepy

She can be considered so. However, this is an often debated point with strong supporters of either side and tends to derail any thread that is unfortunate to bear it. Basically, your shared father being a god that was in different avatars when impregnating women means you probably share no genetic material (and if you did, it would likely be without flaw) and so it becomes debatable whether you are in fact siblings. If you want to discuss it further, I don't mind doing so over PM, but, as I said, doing so here will simply cause us to divert this thread away from its purpose. ;)

In regards to the original question:
Tweak Pack - Unlimited stacking at the least!
Fix Pack - for obvious reasons
Banter Pack - banter is what makes BGII
Flirt Pack - Makes the orignial romances far more interesting

are probably the ones I would not consider playing without. There are others that, in practice I don't play without, but those are the main ones.

The Imoen Romance is indeed well written, although be warned that it is much harder to get than the originals. Jaheria would be far less effort to romance and goes into ToB, so you should take that into account.

Avoid:
A few NPCs- most are fine, but there are some bad apples out there
Total Conversions - you still want to be playing BGII
The Darkest Day - looks like it could be packed with exciting content? Bugged, poorly implemented and badly written

Dungeon Crawl, quest pack and unfinished business are indeed must-haves. I would recommend Assassins and Tower of Deception as well.

If you are playing BG2 for the very first time I wouldn't take any NPC mods, but if this is your umpteenth time, Kelsey, Amber and lvl1NPCs really add to the replay value.

My experience of mods is not on a level with some others (I was happy with the vanilla game until this year) but of those I've played with I recommend:

Ascension: adds some harder fights, which are all optional bar the final battle. Main reason I installed it was for extra Sarevok stuff (if you kept his Sword of Chaos, you can give it back to him and he will upgrade it - his dialogues fire a bit more regularly - and he has some more input into the final battle) and the fact you now also have the option to turn Balthazar to your side rather than fight him. I use the improved Illasera, Gromnir and Yaga Shura fights because they are more fun. The harder Demogorgon, to me, is not fun, but some people enjoy the challenge.

Angelo - really great NPC mod. Romanceable by females but useful and interesting even if you aren't interested in the romance (though to be honest, it's a really fun romance once you get over him being old enough to be the PC's father). Comes with two quests and you can talk to him a lot. Didn't experience any bugs.

Edwin romance - very fun romance for a female PC (Int of 14 required). Some people have reported problems getting certain events to trigger but it ran without problem for me.

Romantic Encounters - I've only played the female encounters thus far - great naughty fun if you want to shag your way around the Faerun. Some encounters have adult content and others are less explicit. Quite a few are very amusing. I'm going to try a male PC on my next runthrough.

Iylos - a ToB only NPC. Nicely made and he really kicks ass. I had some dialogue issues with the version I tried (2.0) but these were fixed the moment I reported them (it's at v.2.3 now).

I've also tried the Viconia Friendship (for female PCs, and males who would rather romance someone else) and IEP banters. The Vicky friendship isn't always easy to get off the ground but it's quite interesting if you can make it past the first two banters (she's very picky about who she befriends). A ToB component is in the works so you may want to wait for that.

My next runthrough will also feature Unfinished Business - like Ascension you can install different components. I've only played using Sarevok's Remorse (adds some more dialogue for him, plus more about Yoshimo in SoA, which is interesting), Crooked Crane (more about Aulava and Tiro) and a few minor fixes. Will be trying the Valygar/Suna component next time around. There's good stuff here, for sure.

Avoid Saerileth like your life depends on it.



That is a pretty harsh thing to say about a mod DoTW, i have it installed myself and i realy realy like the Saerileth mod. It would be more fair to the mod to say that the Saerileth mod wasn't to your liking...but that everyone should try it themselfs to see wether they like it or not.

The fact that you do not like that mod doesn't mean everyone else should dislike it aswell because you write it so.

No, but still avoid it if not for the anoying person (Searileth) then for the lousy soundfiles.

Different words Shaitan, but the same meaning. You do not like the mod, others do like it. But i will not continue this because that wasn't the point of this thread.

Regardless of how one feels about Saerileth, Shaitan makes a valid point- more effort could have been put into making the sounds fit in well. They are rather jarring on occasion as they are.

And the idiotic olde english half the time! WT% was up with that? I lasted about 2 minutes before i slaughtered her.

I absolutely loved Romantic Encounters. Talk about spicing BG2 up...

That is a pretty harsh thing to say about a mod DoTW, i have it installed myself and i realy realy like the Saerileth mod. It would be more fair to the mod to say that the Saerileth mod wasn't to your liking...but that everyone should try it themselfs to see wether they like it or not.

The fact that you do not like that mod doesn't mean everyone else should dislike it aswell because you write it so.

Harsh? I'm the freaking DotW, one of the harshest, self-centered a**hole you'll ever find on this board.

But back to the subject - the horrible waste of internet space called Saerileth. She boasts the most horrible soundset I ever had the misfortune of hearing. Then, she has dialogue for just about everything and their dogs. Then there is the fact it's either Charname or that jacka** Edorem, and don't get me started on the guy's pathetic attempt to steal her from you by STRIPPING YOU OF ALL CHARISMA ENHANCING ITEMS. The very first run I did with this annoying little biatch I painfully carried through ToB (a LOT of caffeine and MJ were involved too), and eventually I couldn't take it anymore so I zapped in a helm of opposite alignment, just so I could become normal (that would be chaotic evil) and be rid of this self-righteous, holier-than-thou zealot. Hell, she makes Keldorn look like a freaking peace-loving hippy.

But you do make a point... everyone should try this mod and see for themselves - and see why this mod is one of the most horrible POS ever.

I absolutely loved Romantic Encounters. Talk about spicing BG2 up...



Harsh? I'm the freaking DotW, one of the harshest, self-centered a**hole you'll ever find on this board.

But back to the subject - the horrible waste of internet space called Saerileth. She boasts the most horrible soundset I ever had the misfortune of hearing. Then, she has dialogue for just about everything and their dogs. Then there is the fact it's either Charname or that jacka** Edorem, and don't get me started on the guy's pathetic attempt to steal her from you by STRIPPING YOU OF ALL CHARISMA ENHANCING ITEMS. The very first run I did with this annoying little biatch I painfully carried through ToB (a LOT of caffeine and MJ were involved too), and eventually I couldn't take it anymore so I zapped in a helm of opposite alignment, just so I could become normal (that would be chaotic evil) and be rid of this self-righteous, holier-than-thou zealot. Hell, she makes Keldorn look like a freaking peace-loving hippy.

But you do make a point... everyone should try this mod and see for themselves - and see why this mod is one of the most horrible POS ever.

Lmao, that is one way of dealing with it..oh well. :D

Talking of fun mods, if you're evil, or morally flexible, then get Kulyok's Assassinations. Great fun! (Though it makes me feel guilty at times). There are 10 missions in all (9 before you go to Spellhold, which I've done, and one after you off Bodhi - I've not got that far yet - and they vary a lot in terms of the targets. Some deserve it, some don't. You can show mercy once or twice but be nice too often and you'll be an ex-assassin. Incidentally, you don't need to be an actual assassin or even a thief-class. The only thing you can't be is a paladin, for obvious reasons. (Having Mazzy or Keldorn in party also presents a problem).
It's over at Pocket Plane.

I'm also looking into some mods. Havent played for a few years now and I'm realy looking forward to returning to one of the best games ever made!
Planning on installing Fixpack, tweakpack, banterpack, Ascension, Tower of deception, dungeon crawl, unfinished business,crossmod banterpack,quest pack, possibly lvl1NPC,possibly Imoen romance.
New NPC chosing between Kivan, Kelsey, Amber, Soulafein and Saerlith. Planning on bringing along Imoen and Sarevok aswell as the above.
Also considering SCSII or Improved Anvil. Which of these would you chose? Have I missed any great mods? Problems with compatibility?

I'm also looking into some mods. Havent played for a few years now and I'm realy looking forward to returning to one of the best games ever made!
Planning on installing Fixpack, tweakpack, banterpack, Ascension, Tower of deception, dungeon crawl, unfinished business,crossmod banterpack,quest pack, possibly lvl1NPC,possibly Imoen romance.
New NPC chosing between Kivan, Kelsey, Amber, Soulafein and Saerlith. Planning on bringing along Imoen and Sarevok aswell as the above.
Also considering SCSII or Improved Anvil. Which of these would you chose? Have I missed any great mods? Problems with compatibility?

Among the mods you mentioned, Improved Anvil will not work with the following ones:

- BG2 Ficpack (Improved Anvil requires Baldurdash v1.12)
- BG2 Tweakpack (You can use Ease-of-Use instead)
- Ascension
- Unfinished Business
- Kelsey

Other mods in your list will work with IA. You can check IA's readme (http://forums.blackwyrmlair.net/index.php?showtopic=1735) file (and the installation document attached to it) for the complete list of mods which won't work with it.

Amber NPC was also incompatible with IA, but the problem seems to have been fixed in Amber's latest version (though its newest version has not been tested with IA by anyone yet).

Between IA and SCSII, I would recommend the latter- especially if you are only just coming back to the game. IA is very difficult and is a case of 'all or nothing', while SCS can be modified according to your tastes.

That isn't to say IA doesn't have its good points (more items and randomised items come to mind), but some of the battles struck me as feeling a bit out-of-place/over-the-top (the Borinall fight being a good example). You'll have to metagame. A lot. Additionally, as you can see from Sikret's reply, IA is less compatible with other mods than SCS- you'll have a bit more choice if you install SCS.

IA is very difficult and is a case of 'all or nothing'

This is true.

Additionally, as you can see from Sikret's reply, IA is less compatible with other mods

But IA adds more new content to the game than the total sum of all mods which are incompatible with it (not to mention that some of those mods are also mutually incompatible with each other and can't be installed together even without IA). Moreover, IA is bugfree. ;)

All this said, I agree that a player who is very new to the game or has returned to play after a very long period of absence should probably play the vanilla game (with no game enhancing mods) to get more aquainted with the game (spells, items, etc) before trying IA.

Hmm, so maybe I should go with SCSII then. IA looks to be a very good mod, but I think I will save it for later.
Any other comments, suggestions or incompatability issues? What about the install order?
Thanks alot for the quick respons!

I think I've posted this about a dozen times in the last few months. :D

First off, read each mod's readme for installation instructions. In the absence of instructions on ordering, here's the general order:

Install these first (in order):
SOA
TOB
Official Patch
Non-weidu mods
Baldurdash or G3's BG2 Fixpack (I prefer the latter).

SCS II should be installed last (if you plan on installing it).
BG2 Tweak Pack should be second last.
Level One NPC's should be installed after any mod which adds kits, so that the Level One mod will recognize them.

All other mods should be installed somewhere in between. I believe Ascension should be installed early in the process.

With respect to IA, it has some very nice features (new content, new items, item randomizer, new kits), but it is very challenging. You need a lot of time and patience to find ways to work through the various battles. If you're looking for more challenge than the vanilla game, but nothing too extreme, SCSII is the way to go. However, fans of IA will say that, if you're willing to put in the extreme effort needed, the satisfaction you get when you finally win a battle is definitely worth it. So basically, to each his/her own. :)

Thanks! Must have been temporarily blinded before, cause I couldnt find the searchbutton...

--

Install order:
BG2
ToB
patch
Ascension
BG2 Fixpack
Solaufein
Kivan
Kelsey
Amber
Saerlith
Banterpack
Crossmod banterpack
Unfinished business
Dungeon crawl
Tower of Deception
Quest pack
Lvl 1 NPC
Tweak pack
SCS II

Does that look alright?

I'm not sure whether Ascension should be before or after the Fixpack (although I seem to recall reading something recently that said it should be before).

Other than that, it looks OK, but there are several mods that I'm not familiar with, so take my advice with a pound of salt.

Edit:

Found it. Ascension before Fixpack. (http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showpost.php?p=643481&postcount=4)

I can't see any obvious errors either. As far as I am aware, that is a pretty safe install order.

Remember that Quest Pack has some errors as UB also has a few. Peruse those foras to find out what to do.

That looks like an excellent set of mods and install plan (well, except for Saerlith ... vomit :) ). There are several components of UB that are pretty wonky though, so be sure to double-check which parts of that you should avoid installing, just like Shaitan advises.

The only other things I'd recommend considering are, if you are playing on a widescreen monitor, check out the Widescreen Mod (http://www.gibberlings3.net/widescreen/) from G3 - it really makes a difference, and I've experienced zero problems with it. Also, naturally, I feel obliged to pimp my signature.

Regards,
Luiz.

I would strongly advise you not to install Unfinished business, like Shaitan says that mod is pretty buggy and caused some problems in my last game. If you are really determined to install it then skip the Suna Seni part of it since it doesn't go that well with SCS2 ;)

To late, already installed UB and started my game, no problems so far but I havent realy done much appart from Irenicus Dungeon. Should I uninstall Suna Seni? I have talked to her but I gues I could go back to a previus save. Or is it so buggy I should just uninstall all of it? And if so, do I have to start a new game or can I just uninstall it and continue with the same save?
I'm actully looking forward to Saerlith, mostly to see if shes that horrible. I would like a paladin in my party, no goodie-two-shoes party is complete without one holier-than-thou-paladin ;)

Don't know if I already mentioned it, but Romantic Encouters is immensely enjoyable. Spices up BG2, litteraly.

To late, already installed UB and started my game, no problems so far but I havent realy done much appart from Irenicus Dungeon. Should I uninstall Suna Seni? I have talked to her but I gues I could go back to a previus save.


I haven't pinned this bug down (it didn't happen on my own playthrough). The worst that will happen, I think, is that a non-hostile Suna will show up in an ambush. Ignore her.

To late, already installed UB and started my game, no problems so far but I havent realy done much appart from Irenicus Dungeon. Should I uninstall Suna Seni? I have talked to her but I gues I could go back to a previus save. Or is it so buggy I should just uninstall all of it? And if so, do I have to start a new game or can I just uninstall it and continue with the same save?


I didn't encounter a bug, so it must not always happen. Of course, the bug could be that something didn't happen when it was supposed to, but I didn't notice the lack.

Chances are that your game will be safe enough to continue.

Ok, thanks all for the help!

I would strongly advise you not to install Unfinished business, like Shaitan says that mod is pretty buggy and caused some problems in my last game. If you are really determined to install it then skip the Suna Seni part of it since it doesn't go that well with SCS2 ;)

What bugs does UB cause? I've only ever had problems with SumDingos quest pack.

I've been playing UB and have had no problems with the components I've installed, including Suna Seni. Then again, I am not interested in AI/performance tweaks, items upgrades and the like - I generally just go with NPC or quest mods.

My current install includes Ascension (with tougher Illasera, Gromnir and Yaga-Shura), Assassinations, UB (off the top of my head, because I'm at work and the game is at home) Kalah and what he was offered, Valygar/Suna, Restored Crooked Crane, NPC Portrait Restorations, Corrected Character names, Sarevok's remorse), Romantic Encounters, Edwin Romance SoA and ToB with different Viconia epilogue, and Viconia component of the Flirtpack. No major problems yet with this build.
Generally, I think less is more with mods - installing a huge number of mods will up the chances of issues significantly.

I think the Restored Minor Dialogues component of UB has caused some issues with the G3 fixpack, though I read somewhere this issue was or had been fixed.

The UB release also contains a fault that may potentially break any mods using the Crooked Crane inn script (its script "fix" itself introduces the bug). As far as I know, the developers fixed it in their local version after my report, but the new version hasn't been released yet.

I haven't pinned this bug down (it didn't happen on my own playthrough). The worst that will happen, I think, is that a non-hostile Suna will show up in an ambush. Ignore her.

I had that bug a week ago and it spawns a non-hostile Suna that can't be killed (even with ctrl+y). I don't know, I just don't like when things aren't 100% smooth in my games so that's why I suggested removing UB :p (apologies to the makers of that mod, I mean no offense).

As for other bugs there's Kidnapping of Boo and it's un-killable Trolls (although I think there's a solution for that one), I had problems with the finish of that quest as well (it was long time ago though so I can't remember the exact details, something about not being able to talk with someone to conclude the quest...). The Crooked Crane part caused problems with the ToD mod (had to CLUA that mage to end the quest). Oh and I also think UB caused the Aerie running away bug which I wrote about in my last thread.

Romantic Encounters is a real gem though, you just have to try that one :D

David W, I've been playing version 4 of SCS II (installed it ages ago, finished Irenicus then lost interest in ToB).

And I was going over the changes in version 7, and wanted to ask if the "No sleeping in the Illithid Lair" component is optional. Its just that, I think the Illithid Lair can be hard enough as it is, and not being able to sleep to replenish Chaotic Commands kinda sucks.

Great mod though, I like the difficulty level (although I confess I dont play with everything turned on).

David W, I've been playing version 4 of SCS II (installed it ages ago, finished Irenicus then lost interest in ToB).

And I was going over the changes in version 7, and wanted to ask if the "No sleeping in the Illithid Lair" component is optional. Its just that, I think the Illithid Lair can be hard enough as it is, and not being able to sleep to replenish Chaotic Commands kinda sucks.

No, but plausibly it ought to be. If you want to comment it out of your local version, delete the "no resting in illithid lair" block of scsii\psionic\psionic.tph (about 25 lines in).

Personally, I think being able to renew CC makes it too easy, since the illithids are basically defenceless against it - matter of taste, I guess.

I've played UB a couple of times and not had any problems with it. The Suna Seni bug is almost certainly SCSII's fault, not UB's (as I say, it's harmless, just cosmetically annoying).

No, but plausibly it ought to be. If you want to comment it out of your local version, delete the "no resting in illithid lair" block of scsii\psionic\psionic.tph (about 25 lines in).

Personally, I think being able to renew CC makes it too easy, since the illithids are basically defenceless against it - matter of taste, I guess.

I've played UB a couple of times and not had any problems with it. The Suna Seni bug is almost certainly SCSII's fault, not UB's (as I say, it's harmless, just cosmetically annoying).

The problem with mind flayers, and with psionics in general, is that you only have your saving throws to defend you against their lethal powers, and at that point in the game, those are quite low. Not to mention, their intelligence drain doesnt have a saving throw I think (but is a physical attack I think).

End result, your defenses are useless, a succesful psionic attack from them results in a dead party member, and succesful psionic attacks happen rather often. And, magic is useless.

Of course, as you say, with Chaotic Commands there are powerless against you. Its the only defense against them, and unfortunately happens to be extremely powerful.

If you didnt have the greenstone amulet, or chaotic commands, how else would you tackle mind flayers?

The problem with mind flayers, and with psionics in general, is that you only have your saving throws to defend you against their lethal powers, and at that point in the game, those are quite low. Not to mention, their intelligence drain doesnt have a saving throw I think (but is a physical attack I think).

End result, your defenses are useless, a succesful psionic attack from them results in a dead party member, and succesful psionic attacks happen rather often. And, magic is useless.

Of course, as you say, with Chaotic Commands there are powerless against you. Its the only defense against them, and unfortunately happens to be extremely powerful.

If you didnt have the greenstone amulet, or chaotic commands, how else would you tackle mind flayers?

Probably ration my CC spells, use potions to improve saving throws, that kind of thing. CC does have a long duration, remember - you can get through a lot of the lair before it runs out. I wasn't trying to block it entirely, just dull its edge a bit. But as I say, making that part optional looks like a good idea.

I recall Brime potions being a big help. (you wouldn't have to ration CC)

I recall Brime potions being a big help. (you wouldn't have to ration CC)

You only get those by fighting through half the Illithid lair, and they last for 4 or 5 rounds I think.

Divine remix greatly shortens the duration of CC if I remember correctly. Or if not, replaces it with something less powerful with a shorter duration.

True, that with one or two casts of CC you should be fine.

Divine remix greatly shortens the duration of CC if I remember correctly. Or if not, replaces it with something less powerful with a shorter duration.

Yes. (I can see that DR+ no rest would be kind of lethal!)