Must-Have Mods?

[Corylea]

I just bought NWN2 from GOG because people tell me that "The Mask of the Betrayer" is quite good and is the closest thing out there to the wonder that was Planescape: Torment.

 

Is is possible to skip the main game and go directly to "The Mask of the Betrayer"?

 

I didn't buy NWN2 when it came out because I heard that it was terribly buggy. Which mods are must-haves for this game, ones that fix bugs (or annoyances)?

 

 

Thanks!

[Tchos]

It is possible to skip the main game and go directly to MotB, yes. You just start a new game, choose New Campaign, and select Mask of the Betrayer. The campaign is designed to lead on from the original campaign, but you won't need to know anything about what happened in the OC to complete MotB. There's one place where you meet a character from the first campaign who knows you, but what he tells you about your former companions is to provide closure, and does not affect your campaign.

 

It expects a higher level character, since it follows from the OC, but I believe it'll automatically level you up to the appropriate level if you start it with a new character. You could also import a higher-level character. The game comes with a selection. Just check their levels, and make sure you pick one that's level 18.

 

Personally, I liked the OC, but others disagree. I played through it once, and I plan to play through it again at some point, taking some alternate choices, and using Kaldor Silverwand's OC Makeover for its extras from the expansions, and maybe a romance pack. I encountered very few bugs when I played through the OC, and only one that required me to use a console fix.

 

MotB does indeed have a Planescape: Torment vibe in its theme, and it's a beautiful journey through the witch-led land of Rashemen and the spirit realms, though some people don't like the mechanics of the player's curse that it introduces. There are mods to remove the inconveniences of the curse, but I chose not to use them. The way I played, it wasn't actually any trouble.

 

As for bugfix mods, you definitely want the Client Extension, downloadable here. Most of the bugs you read about were patched in the expansions, but this takes care of more.

 

There's also a mod that says it fixes some OC bugs, but some things in the list sound like personal taste issues rather than bugs, and I didn't need them anyway, so I can't vouch for it.

 

If you like to play at high resolution, and also like to be able to read the text (especially in dialogue-heavy areas that don't use the cinematic conversation system), then I of course recommend my own mod, Tchos' HD UI panels and dialogue compilation and expansion.

 

For better looking characters, Xaltar's NWN2 Facelift Pack.

Edited January 28, 2013 by Tchos

[Corylea]

Thank you! I'll check those out.

 

If you haven't played it, I recommend The Witcher (the first one); it and Torment are my favorite RPG's.

[Tchos]

If you haven't played it, I recommend The Witcher (the first one); it and Torment are my favorite RPG's.

 

I have both Witcher games, and I left off somewhere in Chapter 2 of the first one. I've mostly been playing NWN2, but I will get back to the Witcher games. Your avatar is my preferred character from the Witcher. :)

[kamalktk]

There's also a mod that says it fixes some OC bugs, but some things in the list sound like personal taste issues rather than bugs,

I will personally vouch for the fact that people who try to use that pack show up regularly in the official forums because it broke everything.