Mods for Baldurs Gate 1 and 2?

[born in shadow]

Hello everyone, I recently picked up Baldurs Gate 1 and 2, along with the expansions for both. I was wondering if there were any mods out there people would recommend as essentials? Are the games well enough off that I can enjoy them vanilla? I played most of the way through BG2 about...ten years ago, so I'm a bit fuzzy on how the game was.

[The Jester]

Off the top of my head, I can think of three which I like to use, which I would consider essential to having a much more rich experience to playing the Baldur's Gate series.

BGTutu: which will combine both BG1 and BG2 into one seamless game using the BG2 engine.

BG1 NPC project: Which makes the NPCs in BG1 behave a lot more like those in BG2 (i.e. more dialog and comments on your surroundings and events).

The widescreen mod: Allows you to customise your resolution to fit the capabilities of your monitor beyond what was originally programmed with the games.

[Stark]

How seamless are we talking? BG1&2 with all the stuff would be ridiculously long, and that sounds awesome.

[Vendetta]

It's generally pretty good. Takes all of the BG1 content and drops it into the BG2 engine, so you can use all of the BG2 rules, classes, spells, and kits in BG1, and then as soon as you finish all the BG1 main content it just fades out and you wake up in Irenicus' prison.

The only thing I don't know is how the current versions handle Tales of the Sword Coast, it used to be parcelled off seperate from the main BG1 game, so you'd do BG1 - TOSC - BG2 - TOB, rather than BG1 and TOSC being interleaved.

[Thanas]

It's generally pretty good. Takes all of the BG1 content and drops it into the BG2 engine, so you can use all of the BG2 rules, classes, spells, and kits in BG1, and then as soon as you finish all the BG1 main content it just fades out and you wake up in Irenicus' prison.

The only thing I don't know is how the current versions handle Tales of the Sword Coast, it used to be parcelled off seperate from the main BG1 game, so you'd do BG1 - TOSC - BG2 - TOB, rather than BG1 and TOSC being interleaved.

It does not do so anymore. You can now play BG1+ Tosc, then go to BG2 and TOB.

How seamless are we talking? BG1&2 with all the stuff would be ridiculously long, and that sounds awesome.

Two seperate games, though. If you want to combine BG1+2+all expansions, then you have to download the Big Picture Mod.

Anyway, the best way to get tons of mods is to follow this easy guide


However, the best way to find out what you want in BG is to read the readmes of the mods. I'll simply link to the largest mod groups out here:

Pocketplane group
The first modding group and the home of the best tweaks and fixes, including the BGTutu stuff.

Ease of use is another must, though it is included in most stuff these days.


Gibberlings 3
Home of many of the best NPC mods out there. The BG2 fix and tweak pack are a must have.

Spellhold Studios
The third big group out there. Good, quality stuff.

Chosen of Mystra
Chosen of Mystra. Mainly focusing on some NPC mods. Note though that the creators can be a bit of dicks (e.g.: Writing a mod which had the sole purpose of making a joke with the community, needless to say some players were not surprised to find out after 70 hours of play that their chosen goal was actually unattainable. I found it funny, others did not).

Black Wyrm's lair.
Another good collection of various mods and fixes.

So, to be blunt:
You will need to do a lot of reading before deciding what to install. Especially with NPC mods.


I'll recommend a few NPC mods here, but take note that this is all just based on my personal taste. And also note that not all of these mods may be compatible with each other and I know I had to make a few programming fixes.

Speaking of which, get the following utilities:

- DLTCEP
If something is not triggering correctly, this is the best tool to reprogram the triggers correctly. I love it. Note: Do not use it if you have not made a backup.
- Shadowkeeper Best tool to modify the party's values, equipment and check if trigger values are lined up correctly.

EDIT: I'll stop here for the time being and continue to list my favorite mods in a seperate post.

[Thanas]

All right, the following are mods I played and which I found to be of good quality:


BG1 mods:
- BG1 Tutu
- Tutu enhancements
- BG1 unfinished business
- BG1 NPC mod

All of the above are essential to your BG1 experience.


BG2 mods to come later.

[Johonebesus]

There is somewhere at Spellhold Studios a utility to download and install most of the popular mods at one time. It doesn't have it's own thread or featured link, but if you don't feel like spending days searching through the several big sites, this can streamline the process.

[Thanas]

There is somewhere at Spellhold Studios a utility to download and install most of the popular mods at one time. It doesn't have it's own thread or featured link, but if you don't feel like spending days searching through the several big sites, this can streamline the process.

Guess what is linked to in the guide I linked to.