Help with Mods for IWD: EE

[Hockey85]

Just looking for suggestions for my first playthrough of IWD.  I have thousands of hours of modding exp, just not with infinity engine games, so Im a bit confused as apparently these mods work for multiple different games.... but most seem to be centered around Baldurs gate.

I have the tweaks and the fix pack are these still necessary? 

Other than that I would like to avoid making any changes to the game that are too dramatic.  I would like to perhaps use mods that add some new spells and depth to magic users, specifically clerics and mages. Also a mod to add more variety to the itemization.

Just looking for suggestions as to what should be ESSENTIAL to improve the base game experience, and possibly some suggestions for tweaks to magic users to add more variety.  

 

So far I have the

-Tweaks/fix pack

-Find it IWD - added items to the game (is this good?)

-More style for mages

-Some added portrait mods

I am also looking at "scales of balance" should I use this?

I cant seem to find any comprehensive mods that just add tons of spells and items and all the spell mods seem to be centered around just certain classes. 

[Jarno Mikkola]

26 minutes ago, Hockey85 said:

I have the tweaks and the fix pack are these still necessary? 

Is this a IWD game, or in completely difference a IWDEE game ? And no, there's no IWD fixpack for IWDEE... so it's only necessary to the non-EE IWD, if you are very particular about descriptions being exactly correct. It's no where near as needed as the BG2 Fixpack to the (non-EE) BG2:ToB game where it actually fixes stuff, that mods can and are likely to use.

As for tweaks, as the word should tell, none of them are nessasary, they are alterations on how the basic stuff works, so they can be what you want to have, but none of them are needed.

SoB mod doesn't work with the non-EE IWD, so ... as that is completely different ruleset. Yes, they might be similar, but very different. But it work in the EE version. Well, most of it.

And as for IWD moding, you will likely want to have as many IWD NPC party member mods as you can, as the player generated ones are completely silent. That is, if you like NPC mods. And yes, those work in all IWD types of games. Here's one. There are others.

Edited February 28, 2021 by Jarno Mikkola

[Hockey85]

Yes my IWD is the EE version. 

My personal preference in these types of games is having my party be comprised of 100% custom characters.  I absolutely hate "Orgin" type characters and prefer to have every single aspect of every party member designed by me from the ground up. The ability to do this in IWD is literally the only reason I chose to play this game, if this option wasnt available in IWD, I wouldnt even be interested.  I realize this removes their story aspect which sucks, but is a worthwhile trade to lose the banter and such to have a custom party.  Do the NPC mods just add new custom characters or do they add dialogue to your custom made ones?

I think Im going to avoid tweaks and rebalance mods, but I would really like a mod that adds a larger variety of items and I would also like a mod that is some kind of spell pack to make magic characters more spicy.

Like I said I have been looking at "Find it IWD" and "More style for mages" which add items, but I cant seem to find a mod that is a spell package that adds tons of new spells. 

Edited March 1, 2021 by Hockey85

[Jarno Mikkola]

1 hour ago, Hockey85 said:

Do the NPC mods just add new custom characters or do they add dialogue to your custom made ones?

They add dialog to the party members, between themselves and the 1 custom assumed protagonist. Also if you want, you can edit the characters as much as you want with the EEKeeper, Near Infinity or other tools. But most of them don't really need to be, or very little, as the install options are more variant than a single class NPC the most BG2 NPC story mods have.

Uuh, yeah, the topic title was IWDEE...

Also, the BG2 also has the option to have every single character to be your design and silent. To do this you simply start the Multiplayer Game with the TCP/IP protocol with a single player, making the characters and then saving the game, quitting the game, going into the games folder, and move the save from the "mpsave" folder to the "save" folder and loading the game from the single player side of loading a savegame. This will allow you to play with them without the somewhat awful multiplayer add on interface differences and the other systems that were clearly added on. Well, you might want to leave room for Imoen. Or not.

I'll leave it to others to recommend spells mods.

Edited March 1, 2021 by Jarno Mikkola

[xiaoleiwen]

Whether you will like npc mod is depend on whether you like the experience in bg2:

custom main character who is the leader

+

5 other companions that you will find them during your journey and ask them to to join the party to help you. They will talk to each other, have friendship/romance talk with main character, comment/ interject on different quests, which is a lively adventure compared to having 6 custom character who are quiet for the whole game.

if you hate this, just ignore the following,

If you like this kind of experience, you may consider all npc mod stated here, which offer you 15 npcs with the features mentioned above:

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/79347/the-new-light-collective-thread-for-lavas-and-aionzs-mods/p1

If you are hesitating, you can still install these mods actually, then create a 6 custom characters first, and start your game. You will see them in the game, and can then try and decide whether you like it. Custom or mod npc can leave the party and rejoin anytime.

 

Edited March 1, 2021 by marcnivar

[Hockey85]

Ok thanks for the responses.

Maybe I can download the custom character mods, then once they are in my party use the save game editor to edit their stats and appearance to how I want my party composition, but leave the rest alone so I still get their dialogue.  

Would this be possible with the save game editor?  Or would I have to mod the files prior to starting a game?

[Jarno Mikkola]

1 minute ago, Hockey85 said:

Would this be possible with the save game editor?

Yes, like I said, you can use the EEKeeper to do this.

[Hockey85]

Well, I enjoy this kind of thing so that sounds like the best solution.  

Seems like you also have to use the "cross mod banter pack" to get all these new companions to talk to eachother.

[Endarire]

For mods, I recommend LavaDelVortel's IWDEE mods: https://www.weaselmods.net

Edited March 1, 2021 by Endarire

[Jarno Mikkola]

16 hours ago, Hockey85 said:

Seems like you also have to use the "cross mod banter pack" to get all these new companions to talk to eachother.

Well, you don't "have to", but the mod adds stuff, as in, it was later added on. So there's some without it, but more with it, and it adds stuff between mods, so it's best to install last.

Ouh, and to clarify, the mods work differently between the non-EE IWD game, and IWDEE game, in that in non-EE game you have to select the NPC you want to join the party during character creation, while in the EE games, they can join the party later on. This is due to the original game not having a function for this action.