EET mod recommendation

[Telcontar]

Hi,
I am fairly experienced player, although not much experience with modding.. well not with modding Baldur's Gate at least.
I played the game a lot since early 2000s, but I usually get bored and quit before finishing. Beat BGI + TotSC some 5-6 times, on tutu mostly. I only once played right untill the end in ToB.

I found out about EET, and decided to give it a try.. I installed something, but somehow I messed something up which caused a lot of characters and items to be duplicated, it seems most of them are from DTotSC and NTotSC .. and having duplicated items with often different stats, some stronger and some weaker version.

I digress, I don't want to trobuleshoot what went wrong, what I am looking for is a recommendations for mods that make game fun and above all else immersive. Given that I am not that well versed with modding scene for BG trilogy, do you have any recommendations for mods that would suit my style and needs?

-So, no mods that drop dozens upon dozens of +3 items all around. 

-From the mods I have seen, I like stuff that mostly tweaks game, like true grand mastery, only charisma influences the prices, no item price deprication, etc..

-Also I like unfinished buissiness, romantic encounters for BG. Stratagems is probably a must.

-I might skip all the big world and big quest mods, although if there are some really good ones, I might give them a try.

-Also I am not interested in 250 new NPC's I have hard time deciding upon a party as it is, and I want to play the game with mostly the same party, start to finish, I'll add Sarevok in ToB. I might accept a new NPC if it feels right and good but most NPC mods that I have seen are boring or / and overpowered.

-The only cheat mode that I plan to use is 'happy party patch' since I am too lazy to bother with finding a way to constantly lower party reputation. I don't think that reputation is a good indicator of alignment anyway. 

So mostly looking for mods that add immersive content to exiting NPCs, banters, maybe some magic and items but that doesn't feel overpowered like having a +3 sword three world maps into the game.
 

[Lightbringer]

Hi Telcontar. Welcome to the wild world of BG modding! I'm not sure how you wound up with the duplicates -- something definitely went wrong.

Definitely avoid the Sandrah Saga and Dark Horizons. While having cool concepts, they actually do throw +3 weapons at you in the first few maps of BG1. The original versions of DSotSC and NTotSC did have very unbalanced content, but newer versions have been re-balanced for EET and are quite good. I do recommend at least the NTotSC that Jastey remade. DSotSC is a bit of a straight crawl, and can cause some immersion loss. I enjoyed it, but I'm fairly easy.

Stone of Askavar is fun, balanced, and seamlessly integrated. I cannot recommend SCS highly enough -- and this comes from someone who doesn't usually go for difficulty increases. The in-game slider for SCS is revolutionary and makes it pain free.

Even if you avoid a ton of NPCs, consider Finch NPC, if she fits your party idea. Fun, cute, bookish gnome cleric who is wonderfully voiced.

I had a similar discussion with another person on the forum a year or so ago. Let me see if I can dig it up. We went into greater detail, and the other poster seemed to have similar goals as you.

[Lightbringer]

Here's a good thread to check out.
https://www.gibberlings3.net/forums/topic/31281-cahirs-eet-epic-run-mod-order-help-request/

The mod list is on page 1. He lists his requirements on page 4, and I go through a discussion with him about BG1 mods on pages 4, and 5. The whole thread is a great example of the entire community coming together to build a mod list, and is worth perusing.

Depending on your playstyle, this is also a good thread to look at. It gets a bit into the weeds, but might be informative for long term balancing plans.

https://www.gibberlings3.net/forums/topic/32042-curbstomping-firkraag/

I've been experimenting with the balance between challenging, yet not frustrating, difficulty and a satisfyingly high power curve. The thread examines some of the pitfalls and solutions for such a gameplay idea.

Both those threads are good, as you can see different philosophies of play (mine and Subtledoctor's) hashing it out. Somewhere between the two of us, you should find the kind of game you're looking for!

Edited February 4, 2021 by Lightbringer

[Telcontar]

This is very helpful, thank you very much. 

[xiaoleiwen]

BG1 NPC MOD is a must if you prefer the vanilla npc to have banters and interjections such as BG2. The writing is really good and fit their personality very well.

I used to dislike any NPC mod / quest mod because I prefer to keep my games as vanilla as possible (for 18 years) and I thought mod written by non-professionals cannot be good, but after trying some, I changed my opinion because some NPC mod and quest mod are really cool and I will definitely try some more in the future. In my opinion, good NPC mod can give me more motivation to replay because I have finished those vanilla quests multiple times already and nothing new to expect in the vanilla game anymore, but now I can see how a different NPC reacts to the vanilla quests and event. The great works from modders have given me more reason to play BG series for another 10 years~

I finished BG1 and SOD recently with Sirene, Drake and Aura NPC mod. Quite fun and highly recommended for Drake (for personality and good quest relatable to BG2) and Aura (quite fresh to introduce lore of Kara-Tur and Lantan, quest, her inventions and Class Kit).

As for BG2, there are a lot of MOD adding friendship / romance to vanilla NPC and some I heard very good. There are modded NPC returning from BG1 such as Xan, Coran, Tiax etc in case you are interested. Some of them are written by same authors from BG1 NPC mod so you can expect certain degree of consistency in the writing. I'm just started my current BG2 playthrough and very impressed with Xan BG2 npc. His dialogues are very fun and the new quests added for him are very lore friendly and have some continuation from BG1. Vanilla NPC will also interact in his quest such as any vanilla quest.

There are also banters packs for BG2 vanilla NPCs which you may like.

You may have a look here:

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/50340/bg-ee-2-0-and-siege-of-dragonspear-compatible-mods/p1

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/34882/list-of-bg2ee-compatible-mods/p1

 

 

Edited February 8, 2021 by marcnivar

[Lightbringer]

Cannot agree more about BG1 NPC Project.  The Dynaheir romance is quite good. I assume the others are as well, but I haven't tried them.
Other excellent NPC mods I enjoy include:
Finch (BG1), Isra (BG1-ToB), Fade (BG2-ToB), and Amber (BG2). I change their classes in EEKeeper to fit what I want. For example, my Fade is a fighter/mage multi, and my Amber is a fighter/cleric multi.

I also appreciate the Nalia romance, as well as Auren Aseph. I'm currently checking out Tyris Flare -- good so far, but limited time spent.

Edited February 18, 2021 by Lightbringer

[xiaoleiwen]

On 2/10/2021 at 7:42 AM, Lightbringer said:

Cannot agree more about BG1 NPC Project.  The Dynaheir romance is quite good. I assume the others are as well, but I haven't tried them.
Other excellent NPC mods I enjoy include:
Finch (BG1), Isra (BG1-ToB), Fade (BG2-ToB), and Amber (BG2). I change their classes in EEKeeper to fit what I want. For example, my Fade is a fighter/mage multi, and my Amber is a fighter/cleric multi.

I also appreciate the Nalia romance, as well as Auren Aseph. I'm currently checking out Talia -- good so far, but limited time spent.

 I'm taking Isra in my current playthrough, her Bg1 part is decent but nothing really stand out for me, but I'm impressed with her quests in B2. I just finished two of her quests and now whatever she told me in BG1 have meaning because they are related to the quests in SOA.

At the moment I really appreciate Xan, Isra and Adrian come with quests that the quality is as good as vanilla quests

[Telcontar]

On 2/8/2021 at 11:58 PM, marcnivar said:

I used to dislike any NPC mod / quest mod because I prefer to keep my games as vanilla as possible (for 18 years)

 

 

To a certain degree I indetify with that as well, but often the reasons why I avoid custom NPC's is that there are too many of them. I haven't played, or should I say finished BG for more than a decade, and I can't even pick between all the vanilla party members. And my idea here is to play with same five party members throught the game, sixth slot is kinda rotation...

But you did got me thinking about some of those mods, but I think if I go down that rabbit hole I will have to play the whole game 2-3 times.

But those mods that add (quality) content to vanilla NPC, will certainly be included in my list. 

[Lightbringer]

Totally understand. Another advantage to sticking with the Bioware NPCs is that if/when the IWD-in-EET mod finishes, your party will be full of banters for it.

If you want to keep the same crew from Keep to Throne, you're quite limited. The only BG1 NPCs that make it to BG2 -- at least initially -- are the ones that wake up with you in the cell. That's Minsc, Imoen, and Jahiera. Viconia is available for recruitment after you escape, and Edwin shortly thereafter.

Now, it's no coincidence that those are also some of the favorites of many BG players. If you're looking for other BG1 NPCs to carry through to the Throne, there are some mods that add them into BG2.  I think Kivan & Deheriana does that. Jastey's Adjantis mod for BG2 does -- though if you don't romance him (as a female bhaalspawn) you'll miss out on some content. There's a Branwen in BG2 romance mod. You've got some options.

[jastey]

7 minutes ago, Lightbringer said:

Jastey's Adjantis mod for BG2 does -- though if you don't romance him (as a female bhaalspawn) you'll miss out on some content.

Well, the romance, which is a bit "doh", but apart from that, the smaller quests and reactions to game events etc are available for non-romance case, too. The friendship track has less dialogues than the romance, that is true. For ToB, Ajantis doesn't feel as connected to the PC's destiny if they are not romancing so he doesn't have to cope that much with what is happening.

[Telcontar]

17 hours ago, Lightbringer said:

Totally understand. Another advantage to sticking with the Bioware NPCs is that if/when the IWD-in-EET mod finishes, your party will be full of banters for it.

Yeah, I found out about that IWD-in-EET thing few days ago on this forum, and I am seriously thinking of posponing my BG run until it comes out.. but will it ever. The reason why I came back to BG trilogy is because I wanted to go through it one more time before BG3 comes out and I delve into it (I know the story is mostly not connected, apart from sime easter eggs, but it is the same setting).

[Lightbringer]

We've been waiting for IWD-in-EET for several years. Development is ongoing -- though it's been nearly a year since there have been signs of it.  The developer, K4thos, has disappeared before for stretches, and then returned with new achievements.  It's quite possible that he, like others, are waiting for Beamdog's 2.6 patch for the I.E. games to release, as that will break many, possibly all, mods.

I'd wager we're several months away, at absolute best, from IWD-in-EET -- and that's a fair amount of wish-casting. There's probably only about a 50% chance IWD-in-EET releases before BG3.

[Telcontar]

 

On 2/13/2021 at 8:01 PM, Lightbringer said:

If you want to keep the same crew from Keep to Throne, you're quite limited. The only BG1 NPCs that make it to BG2 -- at least initially -- are the ones that wake up with you in the cell. That's Minsc, Imoen, and Jahiera. Viconia is available for recruitment after you escape, and Edwin shortly thereafter.

There is a certain half-orc introduced in BG:EE that I am quite fond of. GIven that I always play good characters, it's a bit contradictory that the characters I like most are evil, Dorn, Viconia, Edwin, Sarevok Bealoth (I avoid him cause he is a bit overpowered, but his comments are quite amusing). They are mostly quite strong characters in terms of gameplay, so it kinda compensates I guess.

Hm well it is a question, I guess, if it will ever come out.. but given that I am still postponing playing Witcher3, I might wait some time for BG3 as well. Although I might just do a mostly vanilla EET and call it a day. 

[Endarire]

There's the BG1 NPCs for Shadows of Amn mod which works with EET.

[Lightbringer]

Heh. I didn't even think to consider the EE NPCs. There is also Dorn, Neera, and Rasaad, that's true.

That mod looks pretty neat, Endarire.  Thanks for the share!

Edited February 16, 2021 by Lightbringer