Neera was the only NPC that was in my party for most of the game. I figured out that if you've logged enough hours on each part, you can pick up Rasaad and Hexxent (probably Neera too) and immediately go into their quests, then ditch them when they're done (until the next portion of the game). That way I was able to play all the new areas. I did this with a lot of the original NPC's too. Basically had one spot that I rotated through NPC's. For the Beamdog NPC's, I found the new areas in BG1 to be pretty meh, but I thought they did a much better job with the quests and areas in SoA and ToB.

I love the open world part of BG1. That's really what sold me on the game years ago when it came out. I just kind of wandered around exploring. Felt a lot like the old Ultimas to me. I also prefer the brighter color pallet and well less gritty version of the world. Again, reminds me of Ultima. Ohh and I'm terrible at tactics, so the higher level battles of BG2 don't hold as much for me. I fully recognize that the story is significantly deeper, better written and just better overall, but I prefer the overall feel of the first game. Would love a total conversion or something that replicated that.

Just a few weeks back. Yes I saw the bug release note about the supposedly improved pathfinding, but I didn't see any difference. The issue always shows up in Durlag's Tower when characters take the long way around -- right through the traps -- when the path is temporarily blocked. I'm always having to pause and click again to reset the path.

I plan on finishing with the canon party, but maybe I'll do what you did and pick up the new NPCs just long enough to check out their quests. I never liked the idea of Beamdog adding new NPCs tbh, and the feedback about them seems mixed at best.

I agree. BG2 is better in some ways, but I missed the freedom of BG1, and I feel the pacing is better in the first game. You get too many quests heaped upon you at once in BG2.

I'm surprised you installed the Ascension mod. Doesn't that make the high-level battles even harder?

like most stuff, that feedback was when they first came out I think. And they were pretty meh in BG1. Different for the sake of being different, and the new areas where very shallow. The banter is a lot better in BG2 as well as the quests (at least for the three NPC's I did).

In some ways, not one of my brighter moves! That said, I wanted the experience of a less linear ToB and some of the changes in dialogue. And since I added a ton of mods, my characters were pretty much ridiculously over powered by the end anyway, just the way I like it!