Lightbringer

@subtledoctor

Very interesting ideas.  Challenging assumptions and premises is a very powerful method for solving thorny problems. I see a couple issues to solve with your suggestion.

1. Initial motivation.

What makes these games work is a background focus. While you may be free to go wherever and do whatever, there's always a background threat nudging you forward. In BG1 the Dark Figure and the assassins reminded you to eventually go to Nashkel, the Bandit Camp, the Cloakwood, and BG City. In BG2, the periodic reminders that Irenicus is a threat out there, and Imoen is captured, keeps you somewhat focused and provides a framework for your random adventuring.

I think there needs to always remain an overarching reason why we're in Athkatla going around adventuring. Without a background in-game purpose, folks tend to lose interest.

On another note, there isn't really a distinction between chapter 2 and chapter 3.  Both of them have you adventuring around Amn pre-Brynnlaw. You're either getting money for your patron, or you're doing missions for them. In my game, because I wanted Fade right away, Chapter 2 lasted for about 1 in-game hour. I consoled in the gold and went immediately into chapter 3 so I could pick up my NPC. I'll spend the entirety of my time pre-Brynnlaw in chapter 3. The distinction between 2 and 3 is arbitrary and largely unimportant, story-wise. The real split is when you leave Amn for Brynnlaw.

2. When to trigger an abduction.

If you attempt to trigger an abduction based on CHARNAME doing some adventuring first, how is that decided?  You've already touched on that. Mod setups vary widely, so relying on a certain number of large quests completed or a character level or a number of days are all very unreliable. Some folks do stronghold quests after the Underdark (which was, oddly, the original intent of the game devs). Others may enter Amn at level 12, and want to do all the things plus a ton of big mods before setting sail. How many days are needed to complete the Fighter Stronghold quests? Many dozens. The Paladin quests? Only a few.

I think triggering an abduction at any time before Brynnlaw recreates the original problem -- adventuring without Imoen and creating pressure. The goal of this mod -- I gather -- is to eliminate that pressure, not simply relocate the start of it. Any given moment chosen for an abduction while still in Amn would lead to a certain number of players being left in the lurch, and having to decide whether to continue adventuring or to go rescue her.

I really feel like the abduction occurring on arrival in Brynnlaw is a great solution to that mechanic. The player has already committed to that adventure, so no plans are interrupted. The problem remains, however, of why we want to go to Brynlaww in the first place.

6 hours ago, Endarire said:

FYI, Super Firkraag and BuTcHeRy specifically increase the difficulty of Firkraag and the surrounding area.

That BuTcHeRy mod looks right up my alley. I'll have to give it a go on my next playthrough. Thanks for the tip.

Okay, I loaded my pre-Firkraag save and walked directly up to him in formation, unbuffed, and initiated combat. This is my full team, but no careful strategy ( even by my low standards), no buffs.  SCS is on Tactical, so normal HP, but dragons have contingencies and sequencers, and cast their spells instantly as innates.
 

Firkraag : Spell sequencer: Dispel Magic, Haste, Spell Deflection. (I guess PfMW was just the Shadow Dragon)
Dragon Fear pops.
His first action is Lower Fire Resistance on my F/M -- possibly targeting my lowest HP character.

Only my CHARNAME fails the save vs dragon fear. Now my Pally breaks combat to cast remove fear.

As my CHARNAME is fleeing, Firkraag takes a swipe and hits for a sixth of her HP. Of note, she has the highest AC of the group by far, at -16, and Firkraag hits by rolling a 6 on the die.

Two more hits on CHARNAME and she retreats to drink a potion. Firkraag starts tearing into next near character, that F/M who's resist is lowered.
Fire breath. OUCH. CHARNAME has 90% Fire resist so she's okay. My least resistant character, the paladin, takes 80 something points of damage. Everyone gets knocked down by 1/3 or so.

Low hit rolls from party. First melee hit. Firkraag contingincy Stoneskin.

Well, now I need to deal with that. I go ahead and do Secret Word to remove Deflection, and Breach. Thanks to two mages, they go off simultaneously. Now, Haste is gone too.
Note: Ancient Red Dragons hit easily and hit hard. The F/M who got her fire resist lowered dies to 4 claw attacks. Poor Fade.

A couple more attacks land on Firkraag. He casts Stoneskin again. Now that one of my mages is dead, only one remains to Breach, and she's the one who did so last time. I successfully cast my last breach on Firkraag, removing his stoneskin. He turns his ire on her now. CHARNAME has had enough dart throwing out of reach (high APR, plus STR and mastery means they do good damage), so she wades back into melee.

As we land more blows, Firkraag tears my last F/M  to ribbons. Nalia goes down.

Firkraag is now near death.

One more hit from Tyris Flare, and Firkraag is down. So are two of my characters.

Tyris, my Rang/Cle, casts raise dead on Fade. Meanwhile, Isra chooses a highly inappropriate time to engage in a flirt. I tell her to mind her manners and use her Blessed Bracers to resurrect Nalia.
She does so, and Nalia immediately flirts with me, and more concerned about getting her blood on my clothes than the fact she just died. (Yes, I'm multi-romancing, get over it :P)

Amber, my F/C, casts Heal on Fade, and now the two who got killed are the healthiest in the party. Dragon is dead, and we are alive.

...

That was a much more interesting fight. Maybe going in full party, but unbuffed is a better strategy.
 

3 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

(Though it's a bit odd he only popped PfMW and Deflection... doesn't he usually employ more defenses than that?)

Those two were the ones that jumped out at me, as they were the ones I needed to counter to continue my assault. I did notice he was hasted, as well.

3 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

It may happen sometimes, but it will tend to drift in one of two directions: enemies who are supposed to be powerful will be disappointingly easy, or enemies will be annoyingly invulnerable (which is very different from "satisfyingly challenging").  I can't stand it when fights are disappointingly easy. It makes me feel like I'm wasting my time. 

Can't agree more.  I'm still trying to find that balance. It's tough when my goal is also to "pile on all the stuff."    I'm still not convinced those two are mutually exclusive, though!

3 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

(I just played through Nalia's keep without Improved TorGal, and I don't know why I even bothered.)

Why is that?  I really enjoyed Improved TorGal (with my super party). Was it too hard or too easy? You have a very differently designed party than I do, so I could see too hard. Then again, you also employ a lot of those very clever tactics that I don't, so I could see it being too easy.
 

3 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

without

<forehead slap>  Reading comprehension is good, boys and girls. My bad, I agree wholeheartedly

Thanks for the replies so far. @subtledoctor, no haranguing received at all. In fact, some of ours (and a few other people's) conversations on this sort of topic are exactly why I posted it. These dragon fights, for the first time, made me seriously question the viability of my strategy for power curve management. Your counter-ideas are very valuable. As you indicated, this is a good discussion for others who might try a pile-it-on kind of EET game. 

I have a lot to consider. For sure, this party is very highly optimized. I thought about a vanilla group, say, Minsc, Jaheira, Nalia, Keldorn, and Yoshimo. Only Minsc and Keldorn are offering decent melee, but they're going to get quickly worn down by dragon claws. You have one healer in Jaheira. Her silly club specialization isn't helping with it's 1d6+7ish. Nalia is spell support, but weak as a kitten. Yoshimo is dragon food in melee, so he's using a crummy shortbow, until he gets his first taste of dragon breath and loses some 80% of his health.

Two of my most fond memories of BG2/ToB are the rush of power when you emerge from the Chateau -- items and XP that were unheard of in BG1 get thrown at you like party favors straight off -- and the godlike levels of invincibility that my Monk CHARNAME possessed by the end -- and yet still that final fight was difficult.

I love getting stuff in these games. I love treasure. I love seeing that power curve grow. At the same time, I want my foes to put up a fight. My current power level compared to vanilla is probably on the early to mid-ToB side (though lack of 8th and 9th level spells and HLAs make quite the difference).  The difficulty curve felt just right in BG1, with NTotSC and DSotSC. I predicted early BG2 would be a bit of a slump period, where the game would be a little too easy. This playthrough is an experiment to see if I can create an non-cakewalk game while still enjoying the rocket power curve.

This isn't a defeat, but a new challenge. I think what made the dragon battles not work for my game was twofold: lack of bonus dragon HP to compensate for high damage output, and too many characters. I underestimated the output potential of my full 6-man party. Going ahead, I'll avoid using my whole party for just about anything. I'll revisit that much later, but it should hold for most of BG2. I already use only 1-3 characters to explore. I wonder how things like TDD will compare?

I can appreciate the appeal of the kind of game you describe, Subtledoctor, but I don't usually go for it. My ideal difficult battle flow is this: I start out strong, get hit with a setback or three, have to reconfigure a strategy to overcome, I overcome, I destroy the opposition. The outcome is never really in question, just what kind of work do I have to put in to achieve it. Maybe one of these days I'll give your idea a try. I just know I tend to get frustrated or demoralized when nearly every fight could kill me.

My battle strategies are what I've heard called "warheads on foreheads." I don't really do a lot of super clever debuffing spellcasty stuff. Buff my warriors, soften with some damaging spells, and charge in with blades. Very unsubtle and, frankly, unsophisticated -- not really suited to a "getting by on my wits/I can't believe I won that" kind of party. There's a reason I made everyone multiclass as a fighter, so they could still contribute to the "real" fighting

I think leaving my party as is, using only 4 of them, and giving the dragons triple HP, would have resulted in a very satisfying challenge for what I'm trying to do.

Not long before this, I finished the D'Arnise Keep. I was not quite as well geared, but perhaps only one level behind.  I think what made the difference was the number of opponents -- In D'arnise SCS, you have a highly souped up and hasted Tor'gal, a couple Spirit Trolls, a few giant trolls, and a yuan-ti mage -- all of which have the capability to put the hurt on the party. Plus they start out in groups separated from each other. Vast difference to be 6 on 1 surrounding.  Preparation, and anticipating rapid solutions to problems makes a big difference, too. I studied up on how to counter SCS spellcasters (which include dragons, to some degree.)

I've played and DMed D&D for about 20 years now in editions 2, 3, 3.5, 4, and 5. You're right about how getting the jump can end a battle before it really starts. Allowing a tough foe an extra couple turns, though, can actually turn that tide away. Dispel, then wing buffet (that I'm more likely to fail saves against after dispel), and half my party may be unconscious. Good luck saving against the breath weapon, then. Boom, now the battle is a lot more sketchy. With another 400hp or so, that could've easily happened. I'll have to try it and see.

I recently had an experience that gave me pause on my power-curve strategy for EET.  I don't know that I have particular questions or conclusions, here, but more of an open topic. This is kind of a long analysis of what I experienced, in the hope that someone else looking to balance out an EET/megamod playthrough might find it useful.

Some of you may be familiar with my idea for how to handle the large XP gain in an EET/megamod setup. I have no caps, and no across the board % reductions -- going against recommendations. I know that I'll be outleveling content from mid-BG1 onward until late ToB. To compensate, I enforce multiclassing on all characters (cutting xp in half, but granting the resources and survivability of multiclassing), and use SCS to increase the difficulty of the foes I face.  I also accepted losing my gear in Chateau Irenicus, except for one or two items (a helm I consider iconic for my CHARNAME, and a couple items used in recipes later in BG2).

So far, it has worked rather well. I tend to use a small team for actual adventuring -- sometimes just my CHARNAME, a fighter/monk (Monastic Orders of Faerun), sometimes a couple more -- to keep things interesting. The SCS Tactical Challenges have ensured that larger boss battles are still dynamic and challenging for the whole party. In SCS, the Tactical difficulty level seems to be the sweet spot. I like to win decisively, but with the enemy getting to put up at least a little bit of a fight, first.

I decided to try my hand at the 2 dragons in early BG2. I had just defeated the Shade Lord, and had an easy enough time with it that I thought I might stand a chance against the shadow dragon. She lasted one round. Surprised, I went after Firkraag. He lasted 2 rounds.

I didn't use any cheesy tactics -- other than the fact that both dragons start blue, allowing you to surround them before battle. For Firkraag, I even issued the Challenge. I just completely dominated them both. It actually felt kind of bad.

Both dragons opened with contingencies, creating Protection from Magic Weapons and Spell Deflection. Firkraag added Haste. Dragon Fear was ineffective, from Resist Fear. One of my fighter/mages paused attacking to cast Secret Word, eliminating Spell Deflection. My other Fighter/Mage cast Breach, removing PfMW. Then everyone chopped both dragons to bits. I don't even remember if the Shadow Dragon lasted long enough to do anything else.

Firkraag at least popped off a Dispel Magic, removing most of my buffs and protections. One of my figher/mages suffered from dragon fear, and a hasted Firkraag clawed 50hp out of her 150hp max (approx). A quick remove fear from the Cavalier fixed that, followed by a recast Stoneskin from the Fighter/Mage. Then Firkraag was dead. Adding insult to injury, the 2nd to last blow on him was from the Flail of Ages, removing his haste effect.

What is troubling me is that I don't think simply caving in to an XP reduction would help much. I think my structural choices in team design is what caused such a grave imbalance of power. We are lvl 13 multiclass. All of my team are warriors. The only non-multi is a Paladin -- lvl16. Otherwise, I have a Fighter/Monk (fighter/thief, really), a Ranger/Cleric, a Fighter/Cleric. and 2 Fighter/Mages. I have the resources of a thief, 2 clerics, 2 mages, and 6 fighters.

This meant that:
All of my team had Draw Upon Holy Might on them except the F/Ms (2 clerics, CHARNAME, and an item for the Paladin). This meant Dex scores in the 20s, allowing them to act before the dragons. Full Con bonuses to HPs. Even my "mages" had around 150hp. We all had Prayer and Chant, Emotion Hope, and Protection from Evil.  That led to a +3-7 to saves/attacks/dam/AC (something like that), until dispelled by Firkraag. Due to EET, 2 of my team had natural Str scores of 19 (books from BG1 and NToTSC), the others had 19 and 18/00 (items from mods). All these scores became things like 22 and 23 after Holy Might. 

In order to get to use all those wonderful new items from all the mods, everyone dual wields except the paladin.  This meant that my slowest characters "only" had 7/2 attacks per round. I also opened up full grandmastery to anyone with a warrior class, so we were all at least Master level in our weapons, some moreso. I didn't haste anyone, apply oils of speed, or drink any potions. If I had applied the recommended 25% reduction in XP, we would have lost ... a couple levels? Maybe be level 10 multi instead of 13? I wonder how much of a difference that would have made. I think most of it is structural choices in proficiencies and classes, plus gear.

Our gear was all over the place. I had gone back to BG1 areas to reacquire a couple highly useful items -- namely monk robes from Slow Boat. Thanks to mods, I had access to a few things early. Thalantyr Item Upgrade produces a belt with +3AC, +1Str, and HP Regen, out of the Girdles of Bluntness, Piercing, and Slashing (and a few other things). Normally in BG2, the slashing girdle comes much later, but I found one in Dungeon Crawl. Quick trip up to High Hedge and done. Another mod in BG1 rewarded me with two of the thief rings you normally get in the Underdark. I kept it through the Chateau, making the Thief Gloves from Weimar Item Upgrade way early, via a spare Bracers AC3, also from a mod. I also got a Demon Heart from NTotSC, kept it, and upgraded the Celestial Fury early. 

We all had at least +3 weapons. 2x +5 (Celestial Fury upgraded, and the Warblade of Twilight from Tower of Deception), and the +4 Usuno's blade from WK. Scratch that. The Fighter/Cleric has the Flail of Easthaven -- extremely powerful, but only +2. All but 2 of my weapons are from vanilla BG2. Fighter/Monk -- Celestial Fury and Caelar's blade (SoD equipment mod). Pally -- Warblade of Twilight (mod). Rang/Cle -- Stonefire and Frostreaver axes (both vanilla). Fig/Cle  -- Flail of Ages and Flail of Easthaven (both vanilla). Fig/Mag -- Usuno's Blade and Scarlet Brotherhood Ninja-To (both vanilla). Fig/Mag -- Blade of Roses and Foebane (both vanilla).

What I'm getting at, I think, is that these are all individual options or consequences of an EET Megamod playthrough that -- taken alone -- may not amount to much, but together produce a stupidly powerful and capable party. Of course, that same party also has mostly +1 Protection rings and cloaks, so the power is not universal. I'm still in early BG2, having completed the slavers/sewers, skinners, Jahiera/harpers, d'Arnise, Windspear, and now Imnesvale (plus Dungeon Crawl, Tower of Deception, Ooze Lounge, and Southern Edge mod content). In vanilla, starting out at level 7, I would probably expect to be level 10ish by now, IIRC.

I think I'll continue as I have been, thinking that things won't really start getting more beefy until Spellhold and the Underdark. For dragons, I'm going to up the difficulty in SCS to include tripling the HP. That would have produced a different fight -- possibly dramatically different. Maybe the dragons would have been more interesting if I had chosen 4 of my party to face them (say, leaving behind 1 each of the redundant clerics and mages), instead of the full 6. I wonder at what point the game will "catch up" to me? Has anyone else experienced anything similar?

That definitely makes sense. As noted in the compatibility thread, you've got "good guy" response in mind that isn't totally revenge focused, in order to meld well with mods that require it.  I'm sure whatever you come up with will be great.  I definitely look forward to having all the (in-game) time I want to explore Amn and environs alongside my lovely childhood friend Imeon

On 9/17/2020 at 1:51 AM, jastey said:

But I don't see Irenicus having taken something of Imoen exactly. I4E's story is more that he stated explicietly that he will come for the PC and Imoen. The reply option I have in mind will be along the lines of the PC going after Irenicus because he is threatening not only them but their friend Imoen and killed and tortured others.

Makes sense to me!

Sounds great, Jastey. I wasn't worried about Fading Promises anymore, since -- as you noted -- it was only one path of many to reach the end of that mod. I was mainly thinking of Shadows over Soubar. It's good to see that you've got an idea in mind that keeps the concept of the altruistic hero

8 hours ago, jastey said:

So, how having this one reply option about going after Imoen disabled by Imoen4Ever will "close off" the romance path is not really clear to me: it will take one possibility to increase the counting variable. Which still leaves 63 to reach the needed 6...

Glad to hear! That still leaves Shadows over Soubar.  Have you given any thought to my suggestion in the other thread of simply changing "rescue" to "help", and indicating in the Promenade that Irenicus stole something from Imoen's soul?

I love your work on this mod. It really feels like you're restoring what the BG2 story should have always been -- SoD too. In my game, I made Imoen a multiclass F/W. She was as skilled a mage as Dynaheir and yet still needed exclusive "training" from Lia I know I4E doesn't necessarily change that, but it does make it a little less heavy handed if Imoen still gets to adventure with us

Thanks so much for following up, Jastey!

Slow Boat is still there. The link referenced was missing some pieces. Here's the correct link.
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/15959/mod-twas-a-slow-boat-from-kara-tur-quest-store-new-items-release-90

Ah, good to know. I can't say I'm completely positive it wasn't offered at install. I may well have skipped it, knowing that I wanted to get Fade fast, and being willing to rely on headcanon to excuse goofing around in Athkatla for months before Brynnlaw.

Next playthrough will likely be sans-Fade (great NPC, just doesn't fit the schema I have planned for next run), so I'll probably use your fee change. Thanks!

@DavidW Quoting from the readme:

Increase the price asked by Gaelan Baele (BG2, BG2EE, BGT)

EET not listed, wasn't offered during install. Now this was with v32 (.6, I believe?). I quoted from the readme for the current version.

Cool ideas everyone! I surmise the reason the quest was cut was because by Chapter 6, the player just wants to charge ahead to Irenicus. He's been taunting them the whole  game, after all.  Other than the timing of it, I love the idea of hunting down items carried by various powerful "bosses" throughout Amn.

@subtledoctor I'd be very interested in what you come up with. SCS's increased fee isn't available for me as an EET player, and since I want Fade as quickly as possible (she's offered to your party by Aran Linvail), it's not much of an incentive. Heck,  in my current playthrough, I consoled in the gold, paid it, got Fade, then later on donated 15k to a temple to pay back what I "borrowed", so to speak.

I'm likely to start using Imoen4Ever on a permanent basis quite soon, so having another in-game reason to need to go cavorting about the realm sounds great.  Right now I sort of headcanon a vague idea of needing to gain power to rescue/defeat Imoen/Irenicus and quickly change the subject. Tying the macguffins into the stronghold quests sounds ideal. I'm one of those who wants to do all the everything before Brynnlaw.

Wow! Yet another fantastic perma-mod I'll be adding for the next run that I didn't even realize I was desperately missing. Great stuff, Jastey!

@ALien

Awesome! Glad I could help.

I tested your implementation, and yep it works. Constant Improved Alacrity. Since my testing character was also wearing the Robe of Vecna, I cast 2 fireballs, Slow, Detect Invis, Dispel Magic, Stoneskin, Mirror Image, Energy Protection (Acid), and 2 Cloudkills in about 2 rounds.  Definitely an item that requires a bit of judicious self control on a player's part.

Side note: I read the Basic Modder's Guide to Github in your sig. Now I finally know what commits and pull requests are! Maybe one of these days I'll take the plunge and graduate to Modder, instead of just a tinkerer.

Here's a version with only the fixed +5 damage to Chaotic Evil targets.

I imported the item file from the original archive into my override and ran NI. Thanks to the way the BGs process text, the item description was random stuff about elves and Baeloth. I'm guessing that won't be the case if the item is included in an installed archive. When I replaced it with my un-nerfed version, the item description was back in place.  Good ol' Infinity Engine weirdness.

It may be that dropping this into the override of an existing install will cause those text problems. The safe thing to do would be to replace the file in the ToD archive directly, pre install.  It should be found in the ITM folder of the archive.

va#calan.itm

17 hours ago, Endarire said:

@Lightbringer
What's your PI mod list install order?

It's been over 6 months since I ran PI, so I'm having to remember what you're looking for. I found a file called Sorting Order.txt -- I seem to remember creating (or it being created) an external file for PI to use. If it's what you're looking for, please see below.

17 hours ago, Endarire said:

@Lightbringer
May we get a version of Tower of Deception from you with this fix on GitHub so it's preserved for posterity?

Thankee!

Tower of Deception was updated to work with the EEs by @agb1 and is on the BiGWorldProject GitHub page.  Should I collaborate with him and see if he'll do a new release with the corrected file?  In the meantime, I can upload to this thread (or somewhere else) the file with just the fixes. Just let me know what's appropriate.

16 hours ago, AL|EN said:

@Lightbringer

Can you do a version with only fixes, without removing penalties? Also regarding "spell-casting effect" - it doesn't work but if it would, it would be too powerful? 

I'm sure I can cook that up. 

The spell casting effect listed on the item description is that it allows the wielder to cast 2 spells in one round. The ability code (is this an "oppcode?") is 188. "Increase spells cast per round."  From what I've read around various forums, it was reported not to work correctly. I just had my fighter mage wield it and she was casting fireballs at the same rate as the other mage in the party.

Here's a thread where it was discussed:

http://www.shsforums.net/topic/45002-a-lot-of-stupid-questions-bwp-910/

Right now, the sword is a +5 2-handed sword with a high (15?) int requirement to wield. It is not Paladin exclusive, unlike Carsomyr. the original designer said he wanted to give non-paladins a good 2-hander. It allows the wielder to cast Draw Upon Holy Might 2x/day, grants +30% MR, and deals an extra 5 damage to Chaotic Evil targets. It also inflicts a dex penalty of -1 to the wielder, and has a 5% chance per round of inflicting a berserk state on the wielder for 10 rounds.  It is not cursed.

I can give a report on Tower of Deception. It was a great deal of fun. It was well balanced, if maybe a little strong on the XP -- though, to be fair, all of BG2 is a little strong on the XP.

The "big reward" toward the end is a 2-handed sword that is quite powerful for that point in the game. It isn't overboard, but it's certainly a Flail of the Ages or Celestial Fury competitor. It is a +5 weapon, but the Holy Avenger beats it hands down. I consider it an appetizer for my Paladin. Thanks to SCS, I can't just go plop traps down near Firkraag and roflstomp him at level 10 like I could in vanilla.

The sword has a few drawbacks, and actually a fairly serious bug.  I went ahead and fixed that bug and removed the drawbacks. I shared the fixed (and un-nerfed) item file at the below posting for anyone interested. Tower of Deception remains solidly on my mod list.

@Caedwyr @Endarire

Your goals sound similar to mine. I have a couple friends who are major D&D geeks who have never played the BGs. (One of whom would say he has played BG2, but upon interrogation would reveal he never left Waukeen's Promenade . We're all fairly power-gamery, but want the enemies to keep up with us. It's like I've said: I don't want to tear through the enemies like paper, but I'm good with tearing through them like balsa wood, or occasionally cheap pine.

I'm currently curating a set of mods for a group "experience all the things" run with these guys, to come once IWD-in-EET finally drops. We won't be using NPCs, instead each of us running 2 PCs. I'm not really doing much kit or class modding, except for Monasteries of Faerun, and I'll probably add the Artisan's Kitpack later. The main thing I'm doing is including about every stable quest and content mod that is mostly stable and isn't completely ridiculous (YMMV, of course). I have almost every megamod for BG1&2, and almost all the quest mods.

Here's my strategy. I removed all level caps. I have no XP reduction. I actually included Trap, Lock, and Spell XP, but at a slightly reduced rate for early character and spell levels -- full BG2 after the early bits. To compensate, I have enforced multiclassing on all characters. That's essentially a 50% XP reduction, but -- and this is CRUCIAL -- it doesn't feel like you're being cheated out of what you've earned.  I am largely relying on SCS to help the monsters keep up with my party. I also installed the Max XP for all (including monsters) tweak from one of the big tweak packs (EET, A, CD, don't remember).

It has worked extremely well so far. I faced Sarevok about level 9 -- after both NTotSC and DSotSC. I woke up in the Chateau around level 10 or 11. The early BG2 "crap I'm naked and poor again" bit was still interesting. I am currently about level 13. I've done all the questing in the city areas, D'Arnise, Windspear, and L1 of Watcher's Keep. I've also completed a few of the quest and content mods of BG2, though I haven't began the larger ones -- particularly TDD.  SCS does a great job of keeping things difficult and I love that I can tweak it at any time with the slider.

I've also endured three (3!) party NPCs being kidnapped, 'cos I guess Fade and Amber got jealous of Nalia . I'm glad Isra and Tyris aren't going to put up with that kind of nonsense

My theory -- that enforcing multiclassing would compensate for the XP glurge from the mega mods and trap/lock/spell -- has proven largely correct. I feel very powerful, and I feel like the game has no trouble keeping up with me. I'm very much looking forward to exploring all the extra quests and areas from TDD and the Colors of Infinity locations, and plunging into Spellhold and the Underdark.

This looks amazing!  Yet another work from the past year that is destined for a permanent spot in my install list for next run

You've said you wanted ideas. I would love to see something done with the gnoll stronghold in BG1. I always thought it should be a much greater undertaking than it currently is. I remember that Dark Horizons does some really cool things with it, but the rest of the mod was not to my taste.

Maybe tougher gnolls, or more of other kinds of creatures, toughen up the denizens of the caves, etc?  I'm usually around level 5 by the time I'm there, and I can often just berserk Minsc and let him solo the place.