BG:EE portraits and tomes question

Glorfindel

If all the NPCs don't transfer into BG2 then is it best to use all the tomes for your PC?

Will we be able to use alternate portraits with BG:EE?

Dee

It depends, but generally yes. Since your CharName is the only one who carries the tome benefits into BG2 and beyond, that's the character that will benefit from them the most. That said, if there's a character in your party that would benefit from a tome or two, they might get more out of it than your PC, depending on what the ability is (if your PC is a wizard, you don't really need a huge Strength score, for example), so it might be worthwhile to give it to your party member.

As for portraits...yes. You'll still be able to use custom portraits, although the dimensions for them have changed a bit to accommodate the new resolution for the game's UI.

Shin

Depends on how particular you are. First, there's the possibility that stat changes made in BG:EE will carry over to BG2:EE, it hasn't been announced yet how much will be imported between the games. Second, even if it doesn't carry over by default, you can easily just edit things, e.g. change Minsc's strength to 19 in BG2 if you made it 19 with a tome in BG.

As for alternate portraits, yes.

Glorfindel

Aosaw said:

It depends, but generally yes. Since your CharName is the only one who carries the tome benefits into BG2 and beyond, that's the character that will benefit from them the most. That said, if there's a character in your party that would benefit from a tome or two, they might get more out of it than your PC, depending on what the ability is (if your PC is a wizard, you don't really need a huge Strength score, for example), so it might be worthwhile to give it to your party member.

As for portraits...yes. You'll still be able to use custom portraits, although the dimensions for them have changed a bit to accommodate the new resolution for the game's UI.

How many tomes are available in BG with no cheats?

Is there a good site with a database of alternate portraits?

Wolk

8 iirc, one for each stat except wisdom where you get 3

Wolk

i saw this site once on the forum for portraits, wasn't so bad

http://drakonis.org/

Glorfindel

Can you use alternate portraits for just your PC or NPCs too? How do you go about loading them? Thanks for your help everyone. That is a good site.

Shin

For NPCs you have to rename the pictures and put them in your override folder.

BelgarathMTH

Or use the Shadowkeeper utility. It makes changing stuff much easier.

Pantalion

More strength is always nice even for Mages, so they can carry more stuff, and for melee classes, so they can hit more stuff.
Dex is a god stat that helps you live longer, good for everyone generally.
Con is good to add to if you have < 15 or 17 regardless of class (17 > 18 means you can equip a neat item which gives you a con penalty, 15 > 16 gives you the maximum non-fighter 2 HP/level, retroactively netting you more HP.)
Int is largely irrelevant to Fighters, but not bad for anyone else (even thieves enjoy Lore bonuses, free identify).
Wis is also largely irrelevant to Fighters, but again, other classes get benefits, (again, mostly the spellcasters, but Wis boosts Lore too).
Cha is almost entirely irrelevant to everyone, so may as well give it to CHARNAME.

So, everything except Int and Wis is worth giving to CHARNAME, and even then, if they are multiclasses or have any interest in dual classing, they'll appreciate them too one way or another.

Glorfindel

Shin said:

For NPCs you have to rename the pictures and put them in your override folder.

What's the override folder?

Glorfindel

belgarathmth said:

Or use the Shadowkeeper utility. It makes changing stuff much easier.

Will we be able to use that with BG:EE or just original BG?

Tanthalas

@Glorfindel

The override folder should be inside the BGEE folder after you install the game. If there isn't one, you can just create a folder named Override to dump stuff there.

Basically, whatever is in the Override folder takes precedence when the game is looking up stuff. So if you create a picture with the same name as, for example, Minsc's portrait file, and put that in your override folder, the game will use that portrait and not the one present in the game.

Glorfindel

Tanthalas said:

@Glorfindel

The override folder should be inside the BGEE folder after you install the game. If there isn't one, you can just create a folder named Override to dump stuff there.

Basically, whatever is in the Override folder takes precedence when the game is looking up stuff. So if you create a picture with the same name as, for example, Minsc's portrait file, and put that in your override folder, the game will use that portrait and not the one present in the game.

Awesome. Thanks.

Abel

If you multiplay the game you'll be able to import all your characters and benefit from the improvements of tomes.