Renzokuken

1: Unsure, there's mods that make it go either way for consistency's sake.. I'm fairly sure their soundset changes to match the game they're in if they have one for it, at least. 2: Yes. This also means you can run into the silly situation of Imoen not being dual-classed, which makes parts of SoD and BG2 make no sense. 3: It's been a while, but I think the characters are in line with their BG2 versions where applicable, but I know it's another thing you can pick and choose when you install.

Porting the assets and areas over to explore would be presumably far more simple than trying to bend the narrative to accommodate PST's story. Being able to screw off to Sigil at various points in EET would be fun, but trying to get everything ported as what's more or less a modder's resource until somebody decides to make a story with it seems kind of wasteful. Then again, how to integrate IWD into the Bhaalspawn's story has been a matter of contention instead of just letting it be a time-bending romp. There's multiple instances of the Bhaalspawn traveling to other planes in the canon games already, it wouldn't be hard to handwave a connection between these areas and Sigil. A door between the ToB Pocket Plane and Sigil, an alternate way out of Avernus in SoD, a way to supply the Planar Sphere with more fiend hearts to travel there. Even in BG1 you could probably find a connection somewhere, and this isn't even accounting for the fact that sometimes, people just take a wrong turn and somehow end up in Sigil. On the other hand, PST isn't known for much of anything except its writing, and the areas and encounters without the writing would feel odd.

Being able to functionally play a 3.5 character in Baldur's Gate is a fascinating idea. Minmaxers and powergamers would have a field day with it, since the system is so much more open than 2e's multi/dual classing system. It also seems like something that would break extraordinarily easily, either the difficulty curve of the game, or the actual game itself, without a lot of testing, and once things other than EET and IWD-In-EET are thrown into the mix, all bets are off. Still, I remain incredibly excited by the idea and possibilities that come from shoving all of these games together. EDIT: It seems like the class system would work more like PnP than NWN's, with all of the class-sepecific restrictions in place. That does make me wonder though, how are monk's AC bonuses calculated? Does their AC improve based on their wisdom in this hybrid system? Are existing BG kits compatible with this system? Because I can very easily see Monk/Cleric and other similar combinations as being especially powerful under this, just like they were in PnP and NWN.

PST is far, far more story focused than any of the other IE games, and trying to incorporate its story elements into BG is a nightmare waiting to happen. That said, I agree as to including its creatures and areas, at the very least for new things to explore and fight. Having a Djiin or something be able to transport the party to Sigil would be kind of neat, even if it's a mostly storyless, contextless romp where you can pick a few fights and buy from whatever shops there are.

A genie or a time portal or something that allows us to play our actual party and gain proper rewards is far preferable to me than a framing device that totally separates the games. If the IWD1 content is kept to itself, away from the Bhaalspawn, why not just play IWD:EE on its own? Time Travel is totally possible within the Forgotten Realms, it's just kept under lock and key by Mystra(l) because she doesn't like it. There's magic gates in the setting that allow a fairly limited form of time travel. So Time Travel as a concept is totally fine in setting, so the possibility is there. It wouldn't take a whole lot of lore bending to come up with some explanation for it to happen.

I wasn't aware that porting things 'back' from IWD2 would be as simple as that. Another concern is that BG:EE, SoD, EE2 and IWD:EE can all be purchased in a bundle together on Steam or Beamdog or whatever, while I think IWD2 is only on GoG at the moment? If an IWD2:EE came out, this wouldn't even be an issue any more. I'm uncertain that balance could be maintained in IWD2-in-EET, but that's got little to do with the absence of 3.5 mechanics and more to do with the fact that the nature of EET, combined with making the IWD stories an optional area, makes the game very open ended and would make it hard to account for a party's equipment or power. Also everything I have to say is that I'm super excited for this to be released some day, so a good deal of it is just me getting antsy and impatient.

I have to question the wisdom in trying to convert assets from a separate system into EET (3.5 and whatever engine IWD2 uses to 2E and Infinity), but it's good to know the project wasn't abandoned. I hope that, even if the IWD2 content is required, that there's a way to disable it.