New Anvilite with ?'s, long read, sorry Options

[Hideous the W...]

Hi all, love the mod so far but I've only just begun. Here's what I've got

Protag - Necromancer lvl 12
Kensai lvl 11 with Joril's Dagger & Lilacor and 1 * in staves for crushing (+3 martial staff) and piercing (+2 staff spear)
Wizard Slayer>Thief lvl 9/11 +3 long sword & Sword of Balduran (+3 club)
Nalia lvl 12 I'm going to drop her for Imoen later on
Ranger>Cleric lvl 8/11 with FoA
Vagrant lvl 10 with Frostreaver and Mencar's hammer

I'm wondering where to head to next. I think my options are:

Trademeet - Troll mound, Ogre's Tower or Trademeet Tomb
Windspear Hills - I haven't touched anything yet except giving Dryads back
Watcher's Keep - but I have Kitthlix so I'm worried about the Spider Queen encounter I've read about
Unseeing Eye quest - I have no spell shield for Beholders and that's been my only defense in the past
Rakshasa - in the Temple sewers
Planar Sphere
Planar Prison
Temple Sewers party with Gaius
and probably some I've forgotten.

I just did the Slaver ship and found that to be very fun, however if one wanted to they could just wait for Assassins to keep spawning and restock their healing potions.
The only thing I'm bummed about is that I have an issue that was posted in this thread - http://forums.blackwyrmlair.net/index.php?showtopic=3190
I've tried all the lower settings and restarts and defrag but I still get the walk 3 steps and pause choppiness. I believe, but I will eventually go back and test it, that the choppiness only started once I entered the Copper Corronet. Up until that I was fine but now it persists.

I think I'm gonna go down to the bridge in the Unseeing Eye quest and see if I can handle those Beholders and then clear some of first level of Firkraggs' joint. But after that I dunno.

Thanks in advance.

[Hideous the W...]

I was going to mention that I started with a clean install and only had the recommended Ease of Use components installed, Dungeon be gone, the dual wield fix from Rogue Rebalancing, then IA and The Four. I tried to follow everything to a tee. However, I either overlooked it, or maybe this is new info but I noticed a thread where aVenger mentions his mod is not compatible. Could that be the cause of stuttering and or future problems with only that dual wield component installed?

But anyway, Shaitan mentioned the gem bag thing so I loaded up my save and dropped all 3 of my gem bags. Still had the stutter though, damn. Then I dropped my scroll cases and potion cases and voila, no stuttering. Hip hip hooray! Must have been the Copper Coronet when I bought my first scroll case. Thanks a million.

In game related news I went on ahead and went down to the Unseeing Eye bridge and noticed:

SPOILER!

There were no Beholders behind it, only 3 gauths. I was wondering if that had been part of the Tactics mod I was used to playing or if there are different creature spawns based on my difficulty slider(with Tactics I could go through the entire game on Insane with usually 2 or 3 reloads, but IA is a different story so I'm doing Core.) I was surprised to find a group of nasty spiders guarding that +2 hammer. After trying a few times to take out the weaker spiders first I finally had to concentrate all my efforts on the Ghost spider while the Whisper Spider actually following my thief away while she was attempting to HiS. That was a blessing since I was faster than the Whisper. Good fun.

[aVENGER]

However, I either overlooked it, or maybe this is new info but I noticed a thread where aVenger mentions his mod is not compatible. Could that be the cause of stuttering and or future problems with only that dual wield component installed?

I don't think so, since that component merely alters a single 2DA file and does nothing else besides that. In any case, it would be a good idea to post the contents of your WeiDU.log.

[Hideous the W...]

I don't think so, since that component merely alters a single 2DA file and does nothing else besides that. In any case, it would be a good idea to post the contents of your WeiDU.log.

Here it is but I went back and uninstalled the dual wielding component just prior to reading this, if that makes any difference.

// Log of Currently Installed WeiDU Mods
// The top of the file is the 'oldest' mod
// ~TP2_File~ #language_number #component_number // [Subcomponent Name -> ] Component Name
// Recently Uninstalled: ~RR/SETUP-RR.TP2~ #0 #0 // Proper dual-wielding implementation for Thieves and Bards
~SETUP-EASE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Infinite Weapon, Potion and Ring/Amulet Stacking
~SETUP-EASE.TP2~ #0 #3 // True Grand Mastery (extra half-attack, etc.) (Baldurdash)
~SETUP-EASE.TP2~ #0 #4 // Shut Up "You Must Gather Your Party Before Venturing Forth"
~SETUP-EASE.TP2~ #0 #5 // Faster Chapter 1&2 Cut-Scenes and Dreams (Karzak, Blucher) (SEE WARNINGS)
~SETUP-EASE.TP2~ #0 #9 // Un-Nerfed THAC0 Table, Saving Throws, Grand-Mastery, and Arcane, Divine Spell Progression (Blucher)
~SETUP-EASE.TP2~ #0 #10 // XP Cap Remover
~SETUP-EASE.TP2~ #0 #15 // Bonus Merchants (Baldurdash)
~SETUP-EASE.TP2~ #0 #20 // Female Edwina
~SETUP-DUNGEONBEGONE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Dungeon Be Gone V1.6
~SETUP-IMPROVEDANVIL.TP2~ #0 #0 // Improved Anvil for SOA & TOB
~SETUP-THEFOUR.TP2~ #0 #0 // The Four