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Hello. I have some general questions I would like to ask. First off deals with weapons. Say for instance a weapon says 1d10 and another says 2d6. Do they equal each other or what? Another question...I have completed Baldurs Gate II only once with a party of 6 but Im considering it now with just 5. Would this be better since each char would get more exp? And the last general question...If I go with only 5 members...would a cleric/thief and sorcerer be better for the party or jan and aerie? I also see all of these mods out there and I wonder if any of them are any good. Since this will be my second time around I'm thinking of upping the difficulty from core to the one above it. I also understand some mods improve the difficulty. Any of you mind recommending me some. Thank you guys so much for the help. Oh one last thing. I understand a patch is out there that fixes GM in weapons and adds more attacks...is this considered cheating or not? Thanks for your time

[QUOTE=chwis]Hello. I have some general questions I would like to ask. First off deals with weapons. Say for instance a weapon says 1d10 and another says 2d6. Do they equal each other or what?[/QUOTE]

2d6 -> YdX

X mean how many time you roll a dice with X face. X is the number after the D.

1d10 means you roll 1 time a 10-faced dice, while 2d6 mean you roll 2 times a 6-faced dice. So 1d10 is 1 to 10 damages and 2d6 is 2 to 12 damages.



[QUOTE=chwis]Another question...I have completed Baldurs Gate II only once with a party of 6 but Im considering it now with just 5. Would this be better since each char would get more exp? And the last general question...If I go with only 5 members...would a cleric/thief and sorcerer be better for the party or jan and aerie?[/QUOTE]

Well, you can go through the entire game with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 characters. A Cleric/Thief and a Sorcerer could be stronger than Jan and Aerie, but one thing is sure : It won't be as fun. NPCs have banters and even romance, while PCs are just characters with stats and equipement. Well, that's my opinion.

[QUOTE=chwis]I also see all of these mods out there and I wonder if any of them are any good. Since this will be my second time around I'm thinking of upping the difficulty from core to the one above it. I also understand some mods improve the difficulty. Any of you mind recommending me some. Thank you guys so much for the help. Oh one last thing. I understand a patch is out there that fixes GM in weapons and adds more attacks...is this considered cheating or not? Thanks for your time[/QUOTE]

For mods, just do a little search on the forum, you'll find plenty of them. There's a few :

Mods
Big Picture, Ascension, Tactics

NPCs Mods
Kelsey, Solaufein, One-Day NPCs, Valen, Tashia

Tweak/Fixes
BaldurDash Fixpack, BG2 Refinements

Appreciate the answers...they helped me greatly.

No problem.

BTW, Welcome to GameBanshee Forums

MY 2 gold worth

[QUOTE=chwis]Hello. I have some general questions I would like to ask. First off deals with weapons. Say for instance a weapon says 1d10 and another says 2d6. Do they equal each other or what? Another question...I have completed Baldurs Gate II only once with a party of 6 but Im considering it now with just 5. Would this be better since each char would get more exp? And the last general question...If I go with only 5 members...would a cleric/thief and sorcerer be better for the party or jan and aerie? I also see all of these mods out there and I wonder if any of them are any good. Since this will be my second time around I'm thinking of upping the difficulty from core to the one above it. I also understand some mods improve the difficulty. Any of you mind recommending me some. Thank you guys so much for the help. Oh one last thing. I understand a patch is out there that fixes GM in weapons and adds more attacks...is this considered cheating or not? Thanks for your time[/QUOTE]

Well, to answer your middle question first, you can use the NPCs you already know and love, but use the excellent game editor Shadowkeeper to adjust theor classes, etc.

As to what the dice are: average roll of a die are as follows
d4 - 2.5
d6 - 3.5
d8 - 4.5
d10 - 5.5
d12 - 6.5
so 2d4>1d8

As for mods, well, the Weimer mods are Here - Tactics, etc. - and there are some very nice npc mods, like Kelsey. Tashia, and Chloe.

Good luck and welcome to Game Banshee!

For mods, just note that Tactics really increases the difficulty - if you're just looking for a small boost, this may be more than you bargained for. I know I ended up uninstalling some of the battles as they were just too difficult. But to each their own ...

Big Picture is one I definitely recommend - I'm just playing through that one now. It actually combines a few other mods, and includes lots of new kits, NPC's, and extra quests. And it also increases the difficulty a bit, but I've found it more reasonable in that regard. It can be a bit difficult to install, but well worth it.

As for the improved Grand-Mastery, I believe that's in the Ease-of-Use mod (and I highly recommended installing at least part of that mod - you can choose the components you want). Personally I don't see it as cheating, as all it does is restore the PnP rules for GM.

And BTW - 2d4 is not quite the same as 1d8 - 2d4 gives an average of 5, while 1d8 is an average of 4.5.

About the number of party members...is it better to have 6 or 5...considering with only 5 they will be higher in lvls.

Higher in levels, yes: but unless you have a mod to remove the experience cap, it won't make much difference in the end. A better distinction is in the game's challenge. With five characters, you have to fight more strategically. If the game seems easy to you, despite having selected a higher difficulty setting, then four or five party members is probably a good idea.

There's also the substantial argument to be made that one of the strengths of BG2 is the party interaction and, therefore, a bigger party maximizes that experience.

You'll get no argument from me, there, although the thread started as a "rollplaying" as opposed to "roleplaying" one. Much of the pleasure for me in BG2 comes from its party interactions and the (apparently) non-linear quests that provide an almost freeform feel to Chapter 2.