Mods for first time playthrough?

[Darth Scythe]

I am want to play this and the sequel for the first time, I know for pre enhanced edition there was a mod that organized the two of them into one game but it doesn't look like I can do that because I don't have the dlc for this.

Is there something similar to that for enhanced edition? Also what mods in general are good for first time playthrough?

[Leeux]

I wouldn't recommend using mods at all for the first time... as each mod you install, you introduce a possible cause of bugs and unexpected behaviour that you wouldn't recognize if you didn't already know what to expect from the base game.

The only things I'd suggest installing is, an UI mod of your liking (if you dislike the base UI, that is) and perhaps BG1 NPC Project, and only because of its excellent quality... IMO is a mod that should be part of the base game :)

((EDIT: But, again, with the caveat... if you don't try to play the game as vanilla at least once, you wouldn't notice how much BG1 NPC Project adds to the experience... i.e. at least for a bit, IMO you should play the game as it is, at least to get acquainted with the mechanics and NPCs in their vanilla state.))

Also, maybe some of the minor tweaks from Tweaks Anthology for QoL could be recommended, like the increase item stacking, but I'd still recommend you at least play the game for a bit with no mods and see if there's something that annoys you that you might wanna change through mods.

The "play all games in a single continuous campaign" mod is called EET (Enhanced Edition Trilogy) for the EE games, but in order to be able to install it you'll need to also have Siege of Dragonspear DLC.

[Darth Scythe]

Hm alright I'll play for a bit before looking into mods I guess, maybe start with the QoL stuff. Dang, I was hoping I wouldn't need the dlc.

Is the dlc recomended or nah

[Leeux]

Hm... it's hard to answer that :/

IMO, if you can get it on offer at some point, buy it and play through it at least once... It's a good piece of content, pretty substantial and with some stuff that's worth seeing and playing... OTOH, some aspects of it are a bit below the quality of the base games, IMHO.

I personally bought it, if for nothing else than to be able to play EET, but I haven't played in full yet... so my opinions could change after that.

But at first, from what I've seen other people comment and from footage from playthroughs on YT ... new areas added are gorgeous and the main story is acceptable, even if a bit linear and contrived, in some aspects... there are new companions and items and stuff to see, places of the map to explore, but the sad part is that none of that is of any real significance for the rest of the experience (i.e. almost nothing it's carried over to BG2, and certainly none of the companions appear in BG2, so you grow attached to one of them, tough luck...)

Also, another point to keep in mind is... fights in the DLC are balanced to be harder than in the normal game, partially due to the fact that the difficulty slider has different effects (i.e. in the base games it just increases enemy damage done and health pools, but in the expansion it also affects pull composition and challenge rating of stuff that spawns, and also a bit of their behaviour too,) and coupled with the fact that enemy AI is a bit better than for enemies in the base game, can make the experience jarring if you're just coming to it after experiencing the base game for the first time. But this could be a good thing, depending on your taste and if you like challenging content!

So, my recommendation would be, yeah... I think it's worth it but IMO, in your case, maybe for the future, once you finished at least BG1 and BG2+ToB once and are more familiar with the workings of the game!

Unless you wanna play all the game in story mode or something like that, and in that case it shouldn't matter.

EDIT: typoes, and forgot to add: don't take only my word for this, wait for other people to reply with their opinions too! As I said, it's hard to answer because it's mostly a matter of subjective preference.

[wendigo211]

Originally posted by Darth Scythe:

Hm alright I'll play for a bit before looking into mods I guess, maybe start with the QoL stuff. Dang, I was hoping I wouldn't need the dlc.

Is the dlc recomended or nah

The writing and plot stuff is bad to mediocre. E.g. you infiltrate the enemy camp pretending to be one of them three times. However, the combat is pretty good. Bigger battles, harder battles and more enemy variety.