Mod and Party Help

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Hello, good sirs, you may have heard of me, if you haven't, that's okay too.

I have a few questions for you BG vets. Some of the questions require an indepth knowledge of the game's workings, and mods, so I understand if I get very few responses to the post. I also apologize for the size of the post, but that's just how the dice roll.

I would like to ask the following:

1. Is there a limit to the number of hits per round one can make?(5?)

2. Are there any mods that are not listed below which you might believe are compatible with my current setup??

3. Are there any mods listed below which will make my game NOT work in some areas?

4. Any good mods that just make the game harder in general?

5. What are the best mods for removing xp caps as need be?

6. Do you like my party concept?

7. Do you like my classes concept, and would it corrupt the game to have NPCs change their class makeup?

8. Can I acquire a HLA ability twice, and use it twice a day?

9. Is it 'okay' to have certain classes have 3 int and 3 charisma(Minsc for example)

10. Any advice on the following plan?

I intend to start a new game of Baldur's Gate 1: TotSC with BG1Tutu and other mods, and proceed to import those characters in the successing game, Baldur's Gate 2: ToD. I do NOT intend to use BG Trilogy.
I intend to go through Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, with the two expansions.

In my journeys I am not against cheating to get what I want. Either by passing a part that is corrupted by modding/otherwise, cosmetic changes(portraits), editing character stats because I don't want Minsc to be a ranger, etc. I do not, however, want to make the game easy, in fact, I would rather it be more difficult than ordinary.

For Baldur's Gate 1: TotSC| I intend to use the following mods(in no particular order):

1. Baldurdash's Fix packs.
2. Baldurdash Language text update.
3. Dudley's fixes.
4. Dudley's tweaks.
5. Some form of xp cap remover.
6. BG Tutu conversion.
7. Tutu tweaks from g3.
8. The Grey Clan addon.
9. Harder BG1 Patch.
10. Firewalker addon.
11. heart of fury.
12. ease of use.
13. dragon mod.
14. vault mod.
15. Child of Mystra forge mod.
16. NPC addon that adds banter...

I'm hoping that I will be able to play every aspect in the game succesfully with these mods here, but due to the nature of the modding process, I realize the difficulty in this. If anyone has encounters of conflicts, please, let me know.

For Baldur's gate 2: ToB| I intend to use the following mods(in order of display):

1. Baldurdash's Fix pack.
2. Big Picture Mod, which includes the following:
Tortured Soul,
Shadows of Soubar,
The Darkest Day,
Ascension.
3. Never Ending Journey.
4. Freedom Reign,
5. Reign of Virtue.
6. Redemption.
7. Weidu Item upgrade(Cromwell/Cespnar upgrades more items)
8. Kelsey
9. Banter Packs V4.
10. Ajoc's Minimod.
11. Munchmod.
12. Kensai Ryu's Brown Dragon.

I'm hoping that I will be able to play every aspect in the game succesfully with these mods here, but due to the nature of the modding process, I realize the difficulty in this. If anyone has encounters of conflicts, please, let me know.

My party

Me.
Imoen. For lockpicking/trap disarming
Minsc. For boo.
Keysel(From mod/addon) I would like to use him for the novelty of using an add-on NPC. Does he really have more content than other NPCs that come with the game? Until I get him in BG2, I'll use Viconia, although she has a much darker personality than my other players, I don't care if they don't!!!
Dynaheir For a mage.
Ajantis For a paladin.

The reason I chose this party was for usability(fighter/fighter/fighter/thief/cleric/mage), as well as dialogue storyline. I do not know, but I think this would represent a good amount of excellent dialogue. If you have any suggestions as to another party combination(I intend to keep this party throughout the entire game, filling in the holes as needed(collecting party, people dissapearing, etc))

One thing that I wish to do is use an editor to custom make each character's abilities. I do not want them to change balance wise, but I would like to alter their classes and what not.

My class, Kensai Thief.

1. Should I specialize in Katanas?
2. Is it 'okay'
3. How hard will it be to hit the limit with this template?(including every kind of spell assistence IE: haste items/spells/etc. Will I hit the speed limit(if any)?

I believe I read that there is a total of 90 points that you can get by rolling dice, if I can't get that much, then I will shave off points in this order -> intelligence/charisma, but still attempt to retain 18's in str/dex/con/wis.

(90 points total)
18 strength
18 Dexterity
18 constitution
9 Intelligence
18 wisdom For Resists
9 charisma

I intend to start off as a Kensai, I would like to specialize in Katana's.

At some point in time I would like to dual class to a thief, so that I gain the backstabbing ability, as well as the 'Use All Item' HLA, among other things.

With an XP cap removed, I would like to gain the best effectiveness of my classes as possible, this means waiting until the best time to dual class them, without having to worry about running out of XP for the second class to get some of their abilities. The obvious limit, of course, is the amount of xp that can be gained in one run through the games. Taking that into account, I'm not entirely sure when I would want to dual class my kensai to a thief. I want him to be mostly fighter, to be a frontline warrior doing the most damage. I do not intend on using him to open locks/ set traps/disarm traps, etc. But I would like him to be able to use the USe All Item HLA from the thief.

If I'm not mistaken, I will aquire whirlwind at level 14, and greater whirlwind at level 15. Is it possible to say, level to 16, and get greater whirlwind again, therefore being able to use it TWICE a day?

Imoen's class, Thief dual classed Mage or cleric.

1. Is a thief neccesary in BG1 or BG2, to break open locks and detect traps and such???

Her original path was pretty good, and I need a thief for stuff. I intend to use her for only thief like things(open locks etc)..
I'll probably end up dual classing her as a mage, or maybe a cleric.

Minsc's class, Berserker or monk.

Minsc was somewhat of a dilemna to me, he was a ranger, yet his 'lore' was to use a two handed sword. To fill in the need for a 'tank', I think I might just make Minsc a berserker.

One dilemna I'm running into is how am I able to best transform Minsc into a tank. My options appear to be:

Berserker
Barbarian
Monk...

Since I know very little about monks, they're somewhat of a question for me. With the nature of leveling, will minsc become a very good tank later on if he becomes a monk?

Can I dual class Minsc(as a monk) with a thief later in the game, and also get the use all item ability?


Dynaheir's class, mage.

I have absolutely no good idea of what to do with her.

It would be fun to make a wild mage, if I were to make a specialist mage, I would probably go conjurer, or maybe invoker. I would probably use imoen for my 'utility' spells.

Ajantis is somewhat of a wild card. I was thinking about getting the archer, Kivan, instead, so I'm not sure what to do with him...

Any suggestions?


I thank anyone who can, for their help. I don't want to mess up later, which is why I'm spending so much time on the beginning of my BG life.

 

Dang that's a long post. I can answer some of your questions but I'm not reading all of it.

1. I think 10 attacks per round is the maximum.

RE the mods, installing more than one non-Weidu install mod is asking for trouble. I'm not sure about Neverending Journey/Freedom Reign/Reign of Virtue, but if they are not weidu you probably shouldn't use them with BP.

4. Making the game harder: you want Tactics (http://www.weidu.org) for BG2, don't know about BG1.

5. XP caps for BG2 can be removed with Ease-of-Use from http://www.weidu.org IIRC. I just used the TeamBG one for BG1 IIRC, though I never hit it anyway.

8. Some you can, like Whirlwind Attack and Assassination. Most of the fighter/thief ones.

 

I could give you about 100 in a few minutes. Read the thread at the top of the forum. Just about anything WeiDU will work.

I wouldn't recommend running NEJ with BP. The two are probably not going to work well together.

Tactics-http://www.weidu.org
Improved Battles (sorry, I can't remember the link for this).

There's also quite a few that improve certain dungeons/areas.

Ease-of-Use-http://www.weidu.org

For most of the abilities, yes.

It shouldn't corrupt the game, but certain dialogues and banters may not make much sense.

It won't screw up the game, if that's what you mean.

I'd have something else in addition to katanas.

The total is 108.

Absolutely necessary? No. Recommended? Yes.

I'd go berserker.

 

New questions:

1. Are there any item editors for BG2? (Upon finding out about the Sentient
Sword(Lilarcor), I decided I 'needed' it. However, to make things proper, I
'needed' it on my main character. However, since my main character needs
katanas, I've decided to change the Lilarcor into a katana).

2. If I do exactly what the Big Picture mod suggests, and do not install any
other mods, can it be expected that my game will run as flawlessly as a
vanilla install of BG2?(or better with Baldurdash)

3. A Kensai, I believe, gets a 1 extra THAC0 and damage bonus per three
levels he gains. Does this end at 20, or continue on?(and then where does
it end?)

4. I have a few questions about the HP levels one gets when dual/multi classing. Now, I read about the AD&D rules, that for the first 10 levels, fighters get 10hp per level, and thieves get 8. I also read that multi classed characters will have their hp cut in half. This means that a multi classed fighter and thief will have 80hp at level 10! Where as a simple fighter would have an hp of 100 at level 10! Is this true? IT also may mean that if I were to dual class a fighter to thief at level 10, then level the thief up to level 10, he would have 160 hp!! How can this be right? How does it work if not this?

Amendments:

1. Decided to go the multiclass pathway, and use SK(shadowkeeper) to edit my
avatar to make him Kensai/thief multiclass. This also allows me to play an
orc, though that does make the multiclass thing even more of a cheat. Makes
more 'roleplay' sense to me though, since Tuco is usually a barbarian/orc
type character in games.

2. Decided to use Minsc as a berserker in BG1, but in BG2, make him a
Monk(with SK)

3. Decided to specialize in scimitars or maybe longswords in BG1, then use
SK to change it to Katanas in BG2.

4. Decided to tone down a few of the mods, to prevent spending 80 hours on
BG2 to only find an unaccomplishable thing due to mod conflicts. They are
still a gamble to me, I, of course, want the most content in my gameplay
experience, but a game-breaking error in the latter stages of the game could
cause me to simply quit, it's not as easy to fix as Morrowind.

5. Decided to use the following as my party in BG1:

Me
Imoen
Minsc
Dynahier(changing her to 'wild mage' for fun)
Viconia
Kivan (Making him an archer)

6. Decided to use the following as my party in BG2:

Me
Imoen/Yoshimo
Minsc
Viconia
Kelsey
Kalgyar(sp, I'm making him an elven archer)

7. In ToB I intend on kicking out Kalgyar and inserting Saverok instead.
If by ToB my unlock/trap detect skills are good enough, and I don't need
imoen, I may opt to kick her out instead, we'll see how good archers are
compared to imoen.

 

1- 5 Normally. 6-10 are reached with Whirlwind/GWW/Imp. Haste/Other spells
2- Read Icelus's mod list, it's stickied to the top of this forum.
4- Tactics, Improved Battles, Super Firkragg.
5-If I were you, I'd get the level 50 xp patch from SP.
6- You can't Play bg2 with Ajantis and Dynaheir,

SPOILERS!!
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They both die
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7- So you dont get surprised, you cant specialize in katana's in BG1, you have to specialize in large Sword, which includes, IIRC long, bastard, katanas.
You also wont be able to choose kensai until you start bgII
8-For some, yeah, for all spells, and UAI and things like that, no.
9.Sure. If you dont have him talk, no difference. Theres a ring in the circus IIRC it sets CHA to 18.
10. Hope for luck.
11. Monks can't D/C with anything.
12. You cant use Kivan Either in BG2

download IEEP from teambg.net (or .com)

Do it properly. make a new kensai test char. in BG2. Export. Open him with SK, copy affects tab. Copy special abilities tab. paste onto your real char whom you exported earlier. BTW if you play BG1 first, you can't be an orc OR a wildmage.

Remember, MONKS CANT D/C

 

TucoRamirez, if the old moderator Extremist were here he would slay you for using Shadowkeeper and not be ashamed for it.

 

Hey, at least I'm installing all the 'make stuff harder' mods that I can. I've no way to gauge the damage done until I start playing, but mobs might be 4 times as powerful, opps!

 

Ack! Don't use IEEP! It's so outdated right now that it's not even funny. Get DLTCEP.

Then why aren't Improved Asylum and Improved Battles on that list?

Probably not.

Technically, the level of a character is what you get if you add all of the levels together. So your level 10 fighter/mage is not going to be 10 fighter/x mage.

What's the question?