New Player Questions after reading docs and forums Options

[dante2377]

To give people background, I've been playing BG2 since it came out and have played with a ton of content mods (NPCs, items, quests, etc) - things like Item Upgrades, The Undying, questpack, etc. But I haven't played with any tactical mods or with much tactics to be honest - Breach/Pierce Magic/True sight and then wail away with overpowered weapons.

I've spent the past couple days reading the FAQ, readme txt files, the stickied threads, and many of the threads on the first 6-7 pages of this forum. After all of that, I have a few questions:

Rather than blowing away my current install (Vanilla+G3+various content mods), I was just going to do a second installation in a different directory (c:\games\IABG2 or something like that). Does anyone know off the top of their head if I'll run into issues (registry issues, other pointers that could messed up, etc) - I've never run the game with different installs.

I usually start BG2 with the official BG1 cap (161k xp) or sometimes uncapped bg1, so ~237k XP. Is IA designed for your character to start with 89k or 161k starting XP? If I start higher than 89k will it throw off the IA experience?

I typically use Dungeon Be Gone and see that it's supported here. I see the note about waiting for the randomization text to finish before zapping off. My question here is - am I going to miss any content (I assume whatever items are randomize will show up in the piles at the exit)? I didn't see anything in the "Tactical Content" file, but thought I should ask. Does DBG give the correct amount of XP for IA (the regular version gives 100k XP to party, I'm not sure if this is changed in IA).

I see people discussing the Bioware NPCs with different classes (Cernd as Auramaster, Minsc as Berzerker, Imoen as Sorcerer, etc) - is this the standard Level1 NPC mod? shadowkeeper? Or does IA change NPC classes as part of the mod?

If I start a multiplayer game for more than 1 character created by me, should I move the save game from mpsave folder to save folder and play it in single-player mode (like I do now in vanilla games)? In either case, should I install that "fix" listed in one of the stickied threads in case the player-created extra character gets Imprisoned?

After reading throught the various threads on party composition, particularly for new IA players, I thought of using this party:

Vagrant (protagonist)
Berzerker
Valygar
Anomen
Nalia
Sorcerer/Imoen

is 1 full-class cleric enough? Should I replace someone with Jaheira?

I am aware to mix up the fighters' individual weapon proficiencies between the 3 physical damage types.

thanks in advance!

[dante2377]

thanks....I'm basically going to follow along the weapon prof's I see in the two "walkthrough" type threads. If I do this

Protagonist: Frostreaver Axe +3 & Flail of Ages +3 (dual wields)
Berserker: Lilarcor (has also a clerical staff +3 for when needed)
Valygar: His own katana + Short Sword of Backstabbing +3 (has also Club +3)
Anomen: Borok's fist +2

and give protagonist Short Swords as well (for piercing), are there enough good short swords to go around or should I find another piercing weapon.

Looking forward to some of the first tough battles tonight after my wife and I get back and she goes to sleep.

thanks all,

Bill

PS - are people interested in me posting my IA newbie progress?