Baldur's Gate Romance Mods (Reviews/Discussion)

I am going to do something to cheer myself up: ramble about how awesome the Baldur's Gate II modding scene is, in a thread actually designed for that purpose!

I'm working on actual structured reviews of romance mods I've played. I'm not giving letter/number grades, because I find them kind of arbitrary and therefore suck at assigning them, but I hope a detailed look at stuff I like/didn't like will be helpful and/or entertaining.

Please don't hesitate to chime in with your own comments or reviews about BG romance mods! I obviously haven't played everything (although not through lack of trying), and I'd love to hear other people's thoughts.

Index of Reviews

Ajantis for BGT/TuTu
Ajantis for BG2
Amber
Angelo
Faren
Gavin for BGT/TuTu
Gavin for BG2
Haer'Dalis
Haldamir
Keldorn
Kelsey
Romantic Encounters
Solaufein
Tashia
Yoshimo

Gavin for Baldur's Gate TuTu/Baldur's Gate Trilogy
a.k.a. a guy I would totally romance IRL



Gavin is the romance I played the first time I actually completed BG1, so it has a special place in my heart.

Gavin Mor is a cleric of Lathander who joins your party because he needs cash. (I like this from a gameplay standpoint; it explains why he'd stay with an evil/low reputation party for a while, even though he doesn't really want to be your friend in that circumstance.) He's clumsy (reflected in his low Dexterity), but friendly and good-hearted, and (with 17 Wisdom) a good cleric.

Eventually, it comes out that

The romance is just all-around sweet and endearing. He has reservations about sex before marriage, which means that sex isn't necessary or the "end goal" of the romance (although it does open up some extra content). There's a little bit of adult content, but nothing very explicit. Some of the flirts are great fun; in particular, I think every mod should have drunk flirts.

Gavin's romance requirements are reasonable based on his character: female, good alignment, no bounty hunters or assassins, and at least 10 Wisdom and 12 Charisma. There's a dialogue option to re-check compatibility if you change your mind about pursuing the romance and edit in the right requirements later, which is very convenient. His acceptance of all races is explained as part of his religious philosophy, not just as a gameplay convenience, which I like, and he has some extra dialogue for halflings and half-orcs.

The mod author (Berelinde) is very good at integrating gameplay conveniences into the mod, in general. Another one is that Gavin gives hints if the next talk has specific requirements to trigger (e.g., if you need to be in a city, he'll say he needs to stop at a store when you get a chance, or something like that). It's nice not to have to check the readme every time you think you might have a conditional talk.

On the downside, some of his "getting to know you" dialogue is structured in a boring way, and there might be a bug affecting which friendship dialogues you get on the romance path, because I've gotten his reveal dialogue twice (the friendship dialogue and then the romance one). I would also like to have seen more involved crossmod romance conflicts. There are a few extra dialogues with Ajantis, Coran, and Xan, but the way the breakup is handled (Gavin gives you a "warning" if you're involved with another guy, then ends the romance if you don't break off that relationship) feels a bit out of place.

Gavin's default portrait is very nice. The mod includes a handful of alternate portraits as well, but I honestly don't like any of them. Of his dialogue, only the soundset is voiced, but the voice acting and recording quality is good, and the theme music for his dialogues is fitting.

Overall, Gavin is a very sweet love story with a character who integrates well into the game as a whole. You can download him at Gibberlings3.net when it's not down; right now, there's a copy at the G3 Emergency Backup Mirror. (Link updated.)

I don't have any mods so to speak, since I've never played this game, but I stumbled on it back during my KotOR obsession and I've always been curious. Would this game run well on Windows 7? I've heard the Infinity Engine can have problems since it wasn't designed to run on the newer operating systems.

I don't have Windows 7, but from what I've read, the #1 thing to do is NOT install the game to "Program Files." Make a new folder on your C drive called "Baldurs Gate" or some such and install there. I'm not sure exactly why, but apparently mods cause problems for Windows 7 if you install the game to the default folder.

If you have more specific questions, you should search for posts/ask at Spellhold Studios or another BG forum.

I never tried Baldur's Gate (because Baldur's Gate isn't very good :p), but I had no problems running Icewind Dale on W7. Pretty sure I went with whatever the default directory was, too.

Hmm. Now I sort of want to dig up my BG2 discs.

DO IIIT. I wasn't a big fan of vanilla Baldur's Gate, but BGT/TuTu with mods makes it feel a lot more like BG2 in tone, except the plot is more in the background so I don't feel like I'm metagaming by ignoring it for a while and doing all the sidequests/mod quests. Not all the mod added dialogue is great (in BG1NPC, for example, I think Imoen gets annoying real fast and Faldorn is quite one-dimensional), but I like the fact that it's there.

Faren
a.k.a. an average guy and realistic-feeling romance



Faren Blacknall is a True Neutral human Fighter/Thief. His install file includes an option to change his proficiencies (Fighter-style or Thief-style), which is nice. When you first get him, he needs a few more Thief levels to be useful, but he can hold his own as a Fighter. His variety of True Neutral feels like sort of a go-with-the-flow kind of thing, which means he fits into various types of parties without problems.

Faren's just kind of a chill dude. Whether you're befriending him or romancing him, he seems like a guy who'd be fun to hang out with IRL. He's average, but not so average that he's boring, particularly once he gets into the details of his somewhat shady past. His involvement in your story (and with you) makes him feel a bit out of place, and I think this plays out nicely in Throne of Bhaal and his epilogues.

You pick Faren up in the Trademeet jail, where he's being held after a bar brawl. You probably have more than enough money to pay his bail right away, but if you don't I think you can find him in the tavern later on. His romance doesn't have any race, gender, or class restrictions, so it starts up right away unless you ask him to back off.

Sex isn't the goal of the romance, and neither is marriage. Faren will ask you to have sex before the romance is committed, as just a casual thing; sleeping with him doesn't lead to commitment, and you can end the romance afterwards with no hard feelings. IRL I have a hard time blurring my friend/romance lines like that, but it works well for this character.

Getting the committed romance requires you to pass a check based on Faren's "Like" variable, which goes up and down depending on your responses and actions. If you're human, he has fewer reservations about your compatibility, which makes sense. The dialogue after the romance commits has some pretty cute "how do I do this relationship thing?" moments.

There's a good selection of Faren-initiated and player-initiated flirts, which are short and sometimes cute, but overall nothing exciting. The Readme warns about explicit content in some of the flirts, but I don't recall seeing anything above PG-13.

Faren's dialogues have some nice little details (which you might not appreciate unless you replay it or read the code files), such as stat checks (e.g., Wisdom to see if you can figure out a puzzle and Constitution to see how well you can handle alcohol) and keeping track of whether you've kissed yet or not, which affects certain flirts and early romance dialogues. I really love Faren's romance talk in the Underdark; it's nice for someone to recognize just how weird it is that you look like Drow.

The voice acting includes a soundset and voicing for the first few lines of each dialogue (i.e., the same as vanilla NPCs). The voice acting itself is well-done for the most part, but the sound quality isn't great.

The biggest thing to recommend Faren, if you're installing multiple romance mods, is his extensive crossmod content, featuring banters and (where applicable) romance conflicts for 21 NPCs and Romantic Encounters. In fact, I think he's the most fun love interest if you're playing Romantic Encounters, because he responds to you sleeping around in his usual chill way (including sometimes being interested, if the romance isn't committed, and not getting too upset if it is), but you're not in great danger of losing his romance. Overall, the crossmod content (as well as some great banters with vanilla NPCs) makes Faren feel integrated into the game, and can help a party of modded love interests feel more integrated together.

And other things! Finch is amazing. She's only available for TuTu, but you can use the patch in the BiG World Fixpack to convert the mod for BGT games. I've played a bit with Nephele and really enjoyed her character. I think she hits the right balance of sometimes being annoying/pushy as a character without annoying me as a player.

Wait, really? I've been using W7 since 2009 and only ever use default installation directories, which are in x86 something like 95% of the time (that's also where my Steam directory is). In fact, yeah, every game I have installed that isn't NWN1 is currently in x86. Had no idea that could cause issues.

Angelo
a.k.a. a romance for lovers of Japan and older men



I played Angelo's romance the first time I finished Baldur's Gate II. I enjoyed it at the time, but I like it less now that I've played other romances.

Angelo Dosan was Sarevok's henchman and sentenced you to death in Baldur's Gate. Like every other important character you killed in BG1, he's back for more. However, he says he's reformed and wants to join up with you.

You learn a lot more about Angelo as a character if you romance him, but the mod still has a good level of content if you don't. His backstory is that he was born to a prostitute in Kara-Tur ("not-Japan"), was part of the mafia, went off to find his father, joined the army... well, he tells more interestingly than I did. He has two quests which build on his backstory, featuring some difficult fights and a fitting reward.

The romance only starts if you specifically pursue it by flirting with him. (There are no racial restrictions, which is nice, but you do need to be a woman with least 12 Charisma.) He takes a while to warm up to the idea of a romance with a former enemy who's 30 years younger than him, but he'll accept it as long as you don't come on too strong.

I like the way the romance starts, and I like the idea of romancing someone like Angelo, but the way this mod handles it doesn't fully convince me. There's a lot of talk about the age difference, for instance, but I don't think you really get an answer for why the romance works despite that except "because love." Maybe that works for some people, but it falls short for me.

Angelo's romance lacks replay value because of the way the dialogue is structured. A lot of your responses in dialogue have no affect on the conversation. Many good mods use the "looping branch" technique, where each response you can give leads to a different line of reaction dialogue from the NPC, but then the dialogue converges into the same linear conversation path. Angelo doesn't. It's all right the first time, but if you play more than once it really breaks the illusion of having a conversation and just makes you feel like you're talking to a wall.

Angelo's voicing, done by the mod's author (Sister Vigilante), includes a soundset and more dialogue than average for a voiced mod. The voice acting is sometimes a bit too monotone, but generally okay. Ever since I realized that Sister Vigilante also voices the Xan for BG2 mod, however, Xan sounds exactly like Angelo to me, which is unfortunate.

I like having Angelo in my party. He has nice banters (particularly with the BG1 crowd and Yoshimo) and entertaining player-initiated dialogue (particularly his tales of his first love); he has some crossmod content in the Crossmod Banter Pack; and I like his backstory and character development. His romance just didn't do it for me. He's available at Gibberlings 3 (right now, from their backup mirror). (Link updated.)

Gavin for Baldur's Gate II
a.k.a. I hope you were looking for a kinky sex mod, because that's what you've got



Gavin in BG2 is more mature, jaded, and desperate than he was in BG1. His romance requirements are lowered (you only need 8 Wisdom and Charisma, and he'll even romance an evil PC and try to convert her) and his hangups about sex have all but disappeared. I see how this character development works, but I wish he'd talked it out a bit more with the PC.

The plot about Gavin's family problems, which started in BG1, is concluded here.

Gavin's romance in BG2 suffers from the way the mod uses the same sequence of dialogues for everyone -- continued romance, new romance, and friendship -- just with different response choices and conversation paths. The track that's most interesting -- and makes the most sense, character development-wise -- is if you knew Gavin in BG1 and start a new romance in BG2. If you're not romancing him, some of the conversations just dead-end into nothing, and if you're continuing a romance, some of them just lead to random sex rather than actual romantic development.

The adult content is way more explicit than in BG1, and there's a lot more of it. There's different sex scenes for resting outdoors and resting at inns, with multiple paths through them. They can get a bit weird, but they're optional. There's also a scene where you can

The sex isn't badly written, and I like some of the little touches, like not just mentioning contraceptives but actually having you go out and buy some from an herbalist. I just think the focus on the sex might have gotten in the way of better developing other stuff in the mod. (On the other hand, the amount of sex makes the fact that the optional naked sketching sessions are 100% unerotic absolutely hilarious, and I kind of love it. The subversion of the common bathing flirt is also pretty entertaining.)

There's extensive crossmod content with Romantic Encounters, basically consisting of Gavin getting progressively more and more upset at you sleeping with other people. Eventually, he'll agree to be your fuckbuddy if you can't be/don't want to be faithful. His character is pretty much cemented as a pushover here (particularly since he'll take you back again at the start of TOB) and you as exactly like his ex (except he actually loves you for some reason), which kind of makes me sad, actually.

The Throne of Bhaal version is an open beta, so it still has a few bugs. In particular, if you start a new game in TOB, you'll have to input the relationship variable manually, and at least one of the RE crossmod variables doesn't set properly. This isn't too hard to fix if you know how to set variables in the cheat console. There's also some inconsistency with regards to Lanie's age, which I'm not sure is a retcon or just a mistake.

The TOB section is pretty good because it's more focused. The romance paths converge, and you lose all the cheating drama. Some of the epilogues are bittersweet in a good way. If you're male and knew Gavin in BG1, he'll romance Imoen in TOB. I almost never play male characters, so I haven't seen this in-game.

If you played and enjoyed Gavin's romance in BG1... let it rest and start a new romance with him in BG2. (Or don't.) The Shadows of Amn portion of the mod is available at the G3 backup mirror (again), but the TOB portion was on the forums, which are down. If this review has somehow made you want to play it NOW RIGHT NOW, PM me and I'll send you a copy. (Link updated.)

Kelsey
a.k.a. I guess a lot of people find him romantic?



Kelsey was one of the first NPC mods for BG2, and introduced some good things (such as flirts) which have influenced NPC mods since.

I've never finished the romance, because I just don't like him. I like his backstory and how his Sorcerer class is a big part of his character, but I can't get over how much of a Nice Guy he is. His conflicts with Anomen also make him come across as a Marty Stu/author mouthpiece. The first time I tried to play Kelsey's romance, I ended up feeling so bad for Anomen that I romanced him instead.

On the bright side, it led to the fanfic Second Choices, Second Chances, which almost singlehandedly convinced me that a PC/Anomen romance wasn't so bad afterall.

I guess this isn't much of a review, but Kelsey's pretty popular so I wanted to say something about him.

I like this thread. Thanks for all these reviews! :3

I went with stringing along both Xan and Gavin in BG1, then settled on Xan after flipping a coin, but your Gavin review is making me seriously reconsider going back to BG1 for him... I also got a weird bug, maybe, when I turned down Gavin, where it then fired all of his friendship convos and many of them were repeats of his love track, if I'm remembering right. It was weird.
I don't know why, when I got the BG2 I just lost all interest in Xan. I don't think it was the writing; maybe I just wasn't feeling it.

I came back to BG2 when I cam across the Adrian mod. I really liked him, but then I realized I was on the friendship path when I went looking at NearInfinity. Whoops. That coupled with getting my ass repeatedly handed to me in the current area made me apathy-quit.

Now I'm trying to actually finish the game with the Haer'Dalis mod, but I reinstalled the mod when the TOB portion came out, and I'm not sure if doing that messed up my current save games. I'm hesitant to check because if it did, I would probably apathy-quit again. ;_;

Thanks for all these reviews again, there are just so many mods that it's a bit daunting to go through them only to find that it's not for you, or that they're.... not good. XD

You're welcome! I actually helped beta test Adrian and loved him more than I thought I would. His romance requirements are super picky, which makes sense for him as a character but is really annoying as a player if you're not constantly checking your variables. There was a good deal of crossmod content that got cut to add to the Crossmod Banter Pack, so I might wait until that's updated to do a full review.

If the Haer'Dalis mod wasn't the last thing in your install order (i.e., if WeiDU had to uninstall and then reinstall multiple mods in order to update it), there's a very good chance your installation is borked and you'll need to start a new install, not just a new game. WeiDU is unfortunately fussy like that. =/ But Haer'Dalis for TOB is OH MY GOD SO AMAZING, I need to stop gushing so I can express myself in proper specifics. It has a lot more content than I've come to expect for a romance in TOB, but I think it's just right. Even if you have to start over, it's worth it.

(That or just read through all the dialogue files multiple times in Near Infinity not that I do that.)

I literally threw up my hands. Why. Just why.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

SIGH maybe I'll try Adrian again... or go all the way back to BG1 for Gavin. Or just buck up and go through Haer'dalis again after a break. #firstworldproblems
Yea, it would have been great if there was a way to check your status with Adrian in game. Oh well.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I also tried the Edwin romance mod when going for Adrian. Just to see what it was like, because seeing that it existed made me go "lolwat".
It was.... weird. I'm not sure in a good way or a bad way. I didn't see much of it, but I felt that it might have made him a bit... friendlier? Maybe? Does that make sense....? I also felt that there weren't a lot of dialogue options with him, and the "witty" ones were a bit too long-winded.

I haven't played the whole Edwin romance, but my general feeling was that it played up the humor a bit too much. I mean, yes, Edwin's comic ineffectualness is part of his character, but it works best in small doses. Kind of like when modders overdo it with Minsc.

What made me throw up my hands and quit was the lich fight, though. That was some serious powergamy bullshit. Possibly even worse than Solaufein's encounters.

EDIT: I should say, though, that the Edwin romance did have some nice little details that I liked and haven't seen in other mods, such as requiring you to be out of sight of other party members before initiating any of the more "risque" flirts (I think it was just kissing though, lol).

I don't know if I can handle this pressure.

Ajantis for BGT/TuTu
a.k.a. I always fall for the awkward guys



The Ajantis romance is available as part of the BG1NPC Project, which adds dialogue and romances to the original Baldur's Gate characters via BGT or TuTu. The author (jastey) also made a stand-alone Ajantis expansion/romance for vanilla Baldur's Gate, but I can't find a working download link at the moment. Link updated.

Ajantis is about what you'd expect a young Paladin to be like. He's uptight and occasionally a bit Lawful Stupid, but he tries to do the right thing and respects a PC who does the same. The romance is available to a Good-aligned Human, Elf, Half-Elf, or Halfling of at least 11 reputation (and requires at least 15 reputation to continue past an obvious point). (It also works for a Lawful Neutral or True Neutral PC, although this isn't documented in the readme, but I think it's harder to roleplay in that case.)

BG1NPC adds a lot of general content for Ajantis even if you're not romancing him, including friendship talks and some amusing banters (particularly with Safana). He's from a noble family in Waterdeep, and his story ties in with BG2, since he's Keldorn's squire.

His romance is awkward and proper in a way that I found very cute and endearing. He calls you "My Lady" all the time, starts off being very indirect about his feelings, and is practically scandalized by things like holding hands. (I'm exaggerating on that last one, but only just.)

He opens up and communicates much better afterwards, which is what ultimately makes the early awkwardness cute instead of frustrating. You can choose to have sex (it's optional and non-explicit), and I like what the way he talks about it beforehand shows about his character.

The first time I finished the romance, I played with a Chaotic Good Wild Mage who enjoyed teasing Ajantis and sort of yes-dear'd the more Lawful things he said. The player-initiated flirts are definitely geared towards a PC who's trying to tease Ajantis and make him come out of his shell, including pretending to drop things so he can pick them up and distracting him (with kisses, hand-holding, etc.) from his Sacred Duty of Always Paying Close Attention to Your Surroundings. If you're roleplaying a less chaotic or more mature PC, you might want to avoid flirts.

The main downside is the choice of music (the Minas Tirith theme from Lord of the Rings), which is too recognizable for my taste and feels more epic than romantic. The music installer is separate, though, so you can choose to ignore it. Also, the romance conflict with Xan is quite dull, although the conflict with Coran makes up for it by being hilariously awesome.

The turning point of the Ajantis romance is when you find out about your heritage, and the game ends on an uncertain note. The same author wrote an Ajantis romance for Baldur's Gate 2 as well, which I'll get to. It's unfinished and has been for a while, but it does provide a conclusion to your story.

If you like awkward guys and sappy romances that make you squee embarrassingly while your husband raises his eyebrows at you from across the room maybe that's too specific of a condition, you'll probably enjoy Ajantis. (If you're looking for a better portrait, I'm a fan of the one in PaintBG.)

I have to admit that I enjoyed the Edwin romance, if only because it's about the only way to get a romance partner in BG2 who is close to my 'type' (snarky, scheming, and preferably a wizard). It does have a tendency to get a bit long-winded, though, and is a bit too obviously adapted from the author's fanfic in places.

Haldamir (SoA only)
a.k.a. "Haldamir, is there any chance you and I could--" "No."



This isn't actually a romance mod. But it should be.

Haldamir is a True Neutral Elven Fighter from Cormanthor who was transported to Athkatla due to a wild magic accident. He's brusque and not terribly talkative, partly because he's uncomfortable in Amn and partly because that's just his character. The writing (by berelinde, the same modder who wrote Gavin) is excellent, and manages to convey his personality efficiently through terse dialogues. The voice acting is minimal, but very well-done.

There's a series of friendship dialogues in which Haldamir reveals a bit of his backstory. He's very Elven, which I like; a lot of times Elves just come across as pointy-eared humans. The Crossmod Banter Pack includes an interesting romance conflict with Gavin if the PC is an Elven female, which is even more reason to install Haldamir if you're romancing Gavin.

The extent of the non-romance with Haldamir is a bit of crossmod with Romantic Encounters: if you're an Elven female and sleep with a Drow in the Underdark, Haldamir will offer to "comfort" you to relieve the trauma. (There's a Charisma check, but it shouldn't be hard to pass if you're not minmaxing.)

The author's word on Haldamir is that TOB is partly written and "as for whether there will be an actual romance... dunno." Here's my hope that there will be something romantic -- or at least some awkward flirtation -- between Haldamir and an Elven PC, because he's one of my favorite mod characters.

Ajantis for BG2 (SoA only)
a.k.a. my feeeeels a committed romance that works



In vanilla Baldur's Gate II, Ajantis has a brief cameo in which you accidentally kill him and oh well. I almost always install Ajantis for BG2, even if I don't intend to keep him in my party, because saving him from death makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. (However, the reason why he's still alive makes a lot more sense if you're romancing him.)

Ajantis has matured a bit since BG1 -- he's less uptight, and has a better humor about his awkwardness (this is especially apparent in the flirts) -- but he still has a few moments of Lawful Stupidity. I recommend taking Keldorn in the party not only for their history together, but to see the contrast between an older, more mature Paladin and a young, inexperienced one. (Keldorn is an all-around awesome character, anyway.)

There are two romance paths: a continuation of the Ajantis BG1 romance and a new romance path. I haven't played the new romance, but from what I can tell it's very slow (not a quality judgment, just a fact) and doesn't commit until near the end of Shadows of Amn. That kind of structure can work well (hi there, Haer'Dalis), but it just makes me wish that the Throne of Bhaal portion of the mod was finished. The new romance is available to Half-Orcs, which is nice, because Half-Orcs don't get enough love.

On the continued romance path, your search for Ajantis should lead you to the Order of the Radiant Heart, where you learn that Ajantis has been worried sick about you since you disappeared, and was knighted during your absence. You receive a series of letters that he wrote to you, which are emotional and a little bit heartbreaking.

And then you track him down and accidentally kill him, which is even more so.

Needing to rescue him from trouble you caused is a great twist in the relationship dynamics, since Ajantis is so driven to protect you (he's even scripted to defend you in combat, which is a nice touch).

Even if you're not romancing him, Ajantis has some well-written banters (I particularly enjoyed his conversations with Valygar) and a series of friendtalks. The Crossmod Banter Pack includes banters with Kulyok's Coran and Xan, in case you want to have a BG1 reunion party.

If you are romancing Ajantis, I recommend recruiting Anomen, because the romance conflict is great. Anomen's dialogue is altered to acknowledge that he's heard of you and you're Ajantis' fiancee, but he still has a painfully obvious crush on you that he's not sure how to handle.

Overall, Ajantis is a great example of how to structure a committed romance that feels realistic and comfortable without being boring. The details of the wedding planning are well-done (you can get as squee-ish about picking out rings as you want or don't want to), and I like the separation of normal lovetalks and at-rest talks/optional sexual encounters. (The installer gives you the option of having "adult" content or not, but as far as I can tell it's the difference between PG-13 and just barely R.) There's also an event in the Underdark, which... let's just say it's completely unexpected and leave it at that.

Romantic Encounters
a.k.a. sometimes you just feel like having some fun

I've mentioned RE a few times, so here goes. Romantic Encounters is a mix of mini-romances, sexual interludes, and straight-up porn. If the latter bothers you, the components with adult content are clearly marked and easy to skip on install.

The encounters for ladies are generally better than the encounters for men, which seem to have less plot and more smut as a general rule. Ladies also get the most extensive component of the mod: a romance with Valygar, which is non-sexual and sort of bittersweet, but excellently written.

The mod has its ups and downs, of course, and you won't enjoy it if you aren't occasionally a fan of juvenile humor. I also dislike how many romances have racial restrictions (although at least Halfling is usually included). On the whole, however, I think it's worth installing, and seeking out romance mods that will respond to the fact that you can now sleep with everyone in Faerûn.

No, but it uses "Folder Virtualization" to maintain compatibility with poorly written software (like games). If a non-elevated program attempts to write there, it is redirected to the Virtual Store folder in the user's profile. The program doesn't know the difference.

You should always install in Program Files because it ensures the integrity of your program.

Amber (SoA only)
a.k.a. a player 2 romance; pretty cool



I never finished playing this mod due to unrelated problems with that particular install. It's on my back burner in case I can ever rope someone into playing a multiplayer BG2 game with me, since Amber is (as far as I know) the only BG romance mod to include a separate romance path for Player 2.

Amber is a Tiefling Fighter/Thief who's locked up in the Athkatla prison because people think she's a dangerous demon. Your first task is to rescue her by... going to the government building and getting shuffled around between various annoyed public servants filling out prison release forms in triplicate and getting them stamped. This is what sold me on the mod, to be honest. It's pretty original, and goes on just long enough to swing from tedious to hilarious without falling back again.

The character herself has reasonable stats for an NPC mod, a nice portrait (based on one from Icewind Dale II), and some original music (a huge plus in my book; I hate when mods use recognizable themes). Her English voice acting is unfortunately really monotone, but there's a German soundset included that isn't bad.

I can't judge the rest of the mod (including the two romance tracks and several quests) because I haven't played it. However, what I have seen looks pretty neat. Consider this a tentative "try it out yourself and yell at me if it turns out the rest of the mod actually sucks."

Solaufein
a.k.a. you got your romance in my tactics mod...



Let me tell you a secret: despite how much I play it, I'm actually not very good at Baldur's Gate II. I always forget what items I have and what spells I can use and that I should cast all my buffs before a battle because yeah, I'm actually going to need them.

Solaufein's tactical encounters are allegedly not as impossibly hard if you, unlike me, know what you're doing. I say "allegedly" because the author (Weimer's) description of the mod's difficulty includes the following paragraph:

That particular encounter is skippable, but the others aren't. I mention this before any discussion of the romance because if you're not a person who enjoys such craziness, you should probably give the mod a pass.

Solaufein, in vanilla BG2, is a Drow in Ust Natha who's secretly a worshipper of the Chaotic Good goddess Eilistraee. If you spare his life, this mod makes him recruitable as a party member when you're on your way out of the Underdark. This means you don't get him till quite late in the game, but I tend to shuffle my party around a lot anyway so I didn't find that aspect annoying or unbalancing. He's a Fighter/Mage with ridiculous stats and some overpowered equipment that you'll gain later, although considering the encounters in this mod it's probably necessary. His alignment is Chaotic Good unless you're Evil, in which case he's Chaotic Neutral. As far as I can tell, this is just a gameplay convenience so he won't leave a low-reputation party, and doesn't actually affect his character.

Solaufein's modded character is a poetic philosopher type, which I find hard to reconcile with the character we see in Ust Natha, but on its own isn't bad. Over the course of the romance, he'll ask you questions about life and morality, and your answers help shape his outlook and certain events in the mod. The dialogue is too linear with too few options for my taste (frequently you only have two choices, "agree" and "be a ginormous dick"), but Solaufein was the first romance mod and this structure is in line with the original game romances, so I'll let it pass. If you like flirts, there's a separate Solaufein Flirt Pack mod, although I've never played it and read it can be buggy.

The romance is available to all PCs, regardless of race, alignment, or gender. It's just written vaguely enough to accommodate everyone, as opposed to actually acknowledging race or gender, but it's still cool. He'll also romance you even if you're already in a relationship, although you can install romance conflicts with the NPC Flirt Pack, and numerous mod romances will notice Solaufein and react accordingly. Speaking of other mod romances: the Bodhi kidnapping doesn't seem to work properly if you're multiromancing with another mod character. Considering the difficulty of that battle, it's probably for the best.

Part of Weimer's stated goal for the Solaufein romance was "a minor rebellion against the Bioware 'romance = therapy' and 'no one has a backbone' notions," and I think he succeeded there, but I still don't find the romance terribly interesting. But if you're looking for a mod that's stylistically more like the original romances, and don't mind some ridiculous fights, it might be worth trying out.

Weimer always was king of enemy combat cheese.

Yoshimo Romance
a.k.a. in case Yoshimo's story isn't sad enough for you



Everyone probably has Yoshimo in their party at one point or another, so why not romance him? Because it's depressing as hell, that's why. (Seriously, I cried over this mod.) It's an unusual romance that I enjoyed playing, but really, you should know what you're getting into.

You can romance Yoshimo with a female Human, Elven, Half-Elven, or Tiefling PC (apparently people use Shadowkeeper to change their race to Tiefling? I don't know why you'd do that) with Charisma of 13 or higher. That's too restrictive for my taste, but there's always the Ring of Human Influence/cheating.

Yoshimo flirts with you at first, but when you get closer, he starts to pull away. The dialogue of the lovetalks flows nicely; the writer (Lava Del'Vortel) captures Yoshimo's voice well, and maintains the underlying bittersweet feel of the romance. There's a bit of gratuitous Japanese, but not so much that it gets annoying or out of place. Some player-initiated dialogue is included, but it's unfortunately nothing interesting. It's mostly useful as a quick check to see if the romance is still active.

Sometimes the dialogue implies that you're outdoors, particularly in a wilderness area, but the area check isn't specific enough and you'll get the talk indoors in a city. I played a beta version a while ago, but I glanced at the files of the newest release and it doesn't look like the problem was fixed. It may have been intentional (to make sure you get all the dialogues even if you don't hang out outdoors for a while), but it breaks my immersion. On the bright side, the newest version does include this lovely alternate portrait.

In conclusion:

I have to admit that while I've started playing BG2 several times in the last few years, I never got as far as rescuing Imoen. I even bought BG1 in the hope that starting at the beginning would help (with both learning the 2ed rule set and with role playing immersion) but I never finished that one either. I think I got stuck unable to enter a building because an NPC kept trying to enter it but couldn't, blocking the way.

I'm fascinated by the game though, it's always hailed as the "best RPG ever", at least in the (what is now known as) Bioware style RPGs. But I find the game stupidly hard (even on easy) and I absolutely despise having to spend several minutes casting buffs every single battle which is dull and boring busy work.

And now of course I'm tempted to install again, reading about all these romance mods. Because face it, Anomen is rather meh. The few times I looked at those types of mods they seemed rather smutty, juvenile and Mary Sue-ish, and I have very little interest in that sort of thing, but from your reviews there do seem to be a few interesting ones out there.

Did you ever look at the mod that adds pre-made BG2 style NPCs with dialogue and everything to Icewind Dale 2? I remember being interested in it when it was being worked on, since I'm far more familiar with the 3ed rule set. However, I also vaguely remember one of the love interests being a male Aasimar eunuch (that made me snort my tea out of my nose, ouch) which sounded so incredibly sad and silly that I couldn't be bothered. I should look up what happened to that mod really...

Before you rely on my taste in mods, remember how much I like Romantic Encounters. Just saying.

The Icewind Dale 2 NPC Project. I've played through part of it with different party combinations (I keep wanting to finish Icewind Dale 2 and getting terribly bored halfway through), but I found most of the Evil characters really off-putting and half of the Good characters annoying. I've seen most of the Jaemal romance (the eunuch you're talking about) and, uh, mixed feelings. I think a lot of it is very sweet, although I dislike how your response choices push you into a passive role. But then the romance culminates with

And then I tried the Diriel romance. FML.

On a different topic:

You might want to look at AI script mods. I know there's a mage auto-buffing script included in the Solaufein mod, but there's got to be a stand-alone one somewhere as well.

Actually, I should do that as well. Pretty much the only buffs I remember to use on a regular basis are Stoneskin and Haste. I can get through Shadows of Amn all right, but I'm ashamed to say I've never finished Throne of Bhaal without cheating at least a little.

Hahaha! Your spoiler just made my day! I figured as much, oh, I can't stop laughing!

I'm the same with Icewind Dale 2, I never got past the second half. The game does start dragging a bit and I was hoping some well-written companions, rather then the silent ones you make yourself, would help with that. It does sound like this mod isn't going to be the answer to my problem :D Thank you!

Edit: I'll have to look for that auto-buff mod the next time I attempt the BG games then, it would alleviate the tedium of combat a lot!

Edit: ugh and rather then edit, I quoted myself >.<

That'd be the Mass Effect series.

I don't have anything that will run Mass Effect, so I can't agree or disagree with you on that.

I don't know if I'd call BG2 the "best RPG ever" (even if I went with "best RPG I ever played" that would be Planescape: Torment), but it's probably my favorite game because it's relatively easy to mod and has such an active modding community, so people are always adding new content. Even when I've played it too many times, there's always something to look forward to, and I like that.