Mod recommendations

Remove all ads!

I'm preparing for another run through of BG2 and my experience has been mostly vanilla. Could you guys recommend some good mods?

 

What sort of thing are you after? Extended content, NPCs/banter, kits/rule changes, tactical mods?

 

i'm looking for anything good. extra content or npcs would be nice. i installed flirt pack, duengon be gone,and banter pack but i'm sad to say i couldn't get saerileth working

 

Are you playing with ToB installed?

 

Yes

 

I don't know why, I just had a hunch.

Vhadin, please see this recent thread for a reasonably detailed analysis of what I and many others consider to be some of the best mods for BG2. Also on there is a suggested installation order for them.

 

There are TONS of mods out there that are worth trying. You have to research to find what fits your style... SCSII is an excellent mod. Unfinished Business, any current Fixpack/Tweakpack, Assassinations(for the devil in you ) and most of the NPC mods are worth it. BG1 NPCs in SoA is nice where it adds a ton of the original NPCs and a new area(though it adds a lot of overpowered items, though you can just not buy the items and call it a day.)

Spoiler

I use it for the NPC selections. It also lets you fight in the pits at the Copper Coronet. See Shar-Teel for more.

If you want a mega-challenge in enhanced difficulty, Improved Anvil is your choice, though I found it ridiculous to certain point. SCSII adds a smoother level of enhanced difficulty w/out the BS of IA.

Alernatives, gives you another path to Spellhold if you don't like Aran Linvail or Bohdi as partners.

Divine Remix is a nice change as it adds a remake of how Clerics get their spells and changes the Kits for Clerics.

The Adrian NPC mod was well done I thought. Simple, but another decent evil-mage-type to choose from if you tire of Edwin.

The Undying mod as 2 NPCs, Callisto, an evil Elven Berserker chic. She is tough and thinks of nothing but revenge. Also adds Ninafer, another elven female, but this one is a F/M, so she is a great support character.

There are many more. Like I stated above, you have to research them.

 

Create the your first three party members in a MP game, then save and exit the game. Open the MP Save folder inside your main SoA folder, cut the save file and paste in the Save folder instead. then restart in Single player and your saved game file should be there ready to go.

If you never tried Divine Remix, I say give it a whirl. It adds alot of different specialty Clerics. Clerics of Tempus can specialize in Weapons. Clerics of Cyric gain the Dread Blast ability, Clerics of Sune get a Charisma bonus at creation, etc... I think there is 10 options instead of the original 3. The mod adds Major/Minor access to Cleric Spheres as per 2nd Edition AD&D rules. It is spot on.

 

Generally the order as I know it is...someone else please correct me if I am wrong.

Patch
Widescreen mod
Fixpack
Quest Mods
NPC Mods
Other Mods
SCS II
Tweakpack

 

Another thing to bear in mind with installing mods is to install the ones LEAST likely to get an update first. Shimmying things about a bit on mods installed last is a lot easier on the game than trying to update something older due to the nature of how the game stores and organises strings of text.

So if there is an NPC/Quest/Other mod that you really want to try but is still in beta or is updated regularly with crossmod features or general fixes I'd slot it in just before a tweak pack or dead last.

Not likely in this instance I suppose - but always worth mentioning before "Irenicus is spouting lines from Aeries' romance, what mod did this and for the love of the gods why?!"

 

dmc, I know you said you don't want to install too many mods, but I can assure you that this one will be so minimally intrusive and yet improve the game beyond bounds: you should try Virtue. It totally revamps the reputation system and makes it actually feasible and logical. Check it out!

Oh, and Blades, I always thought Widescreen Mod goes last - not that it matters to dmc as he wants to be able to make custom parties.

A random question, Blades: why in your post is the word "mod" a different colour to "Widescreen"?

 

I didn't notice that. Good eyes. I wa looking at a different install order thread prior and copied Widescreen mod and pasted it into the list. Must of came from there.

I thought GUI/Widescreen went first...

 

Haha, I know, bit random. Anyway, from the readme of the Widescreen Mod, I quote "GUI mods for BG2, IWD1 and IWD2 must be installed BEFORE Widescreen". Therefore since people often want to use e.g. the Tutu GUI mod, which must be installed after almost all other mods, it seems logical to always stick Widescreen at the end of every install list.

 

May I recommend One Pixel Productions? Improves BG2's graphics by re-introducing BG's avatars, as well as adding other graphical enhancements. Also, I wouldn't want to neglect to mention the BoM Item Pack, by olimikrig, Malovae and some bloke called The Magpie (never heard of him)