EET VS BG1NPC

Download all the mods you want (in this case, the DLC Merger, EET, BG1 Unfinished Business, BG2 Unfinished Business, the Tweaks Anthology). I've provided links for each of them. 1. If there are multiple files, pick the .zip that matches your computer OS (most likely win64-bit). Extract any downloaded zip files.

You can indeed play BGT on the EEs. Note that it requires Siege of Dragonspear (though with the excellent EndlessBG1 you can skip it, if you choose).

Enhanced Edition Trilogy: lets you play through all the campaigns (BG1, Dragonspear, BG2, and Throne of Bhaal...yeah, it got named before Dragonspear came out) as a continuous game.

EET https://github.com/Gibberlings3/EET/releases The install process can be complicated, but this fundamentally changes the game; transforms BG1+SOD+BG2 into one gigantic epic experience where all of your equipment carries over and you can revisit locations. Highly recommended. This explains how to install it. https://rawgit.com/K4thos/EET/master/EET/readme-EET.html If you decide to try EET, you will need the DLC Merger mod, mentioned and linked in that EET readme. If so, DLC Merger must be installed as your first mod.

There is no problem with the true EET mod. https://github.com/Gibberlings3/EET

Big World equivalent is Enhanced Edition Trilogy, which is here : https://github.com/Gibberlings3/EET

Direct EET download link: https://github.com/Gibberlings3/EET/archive/refs/tags/V13.4.zip

Baldur's Gate 2 (You kinda need to play 1 to understand 2, and 1 has mods that add in romances that are then expanded into the second game. The second game does have romances but I'm not a fan of them. Especially the base game, non-Enhanced Version romances. However that site I linked and several others have romance NPC you can download that add dozens of hours to your playthrough.)(I have hundreds of hours in these games just from the mods alone.)

Oh, sorry, I meant the BG1NPC mod, which adds banters, quests, interjections, and romances for all of the original NPCs. I will say that I don't agree with the writers' interpretation of every character, but on the whole it adds a lot of life to BG1, bringing the level of character chatter up to BG2's, so I haven't played without it in a long time.

BG1NPC: banters, romances, and interjections.

If you're expecting the kind of party banter and interjections you got from your listed games, I will suggest the BG1 NPC Project. https://www.gibberlings3.net/mods/npcs/bg1npc/ Otherwise a lot of party members will join and then pretty much never speak up again.

BG1NPC - expands BG1 characters, adding banters, quests, and optional romances.

If the quiet party members are a factor for you, then I suggest https://www.gibberlings3.net/mods/npcs/bg1npc/ which adds a lot of dialogue and romance and quests to the existing characters and a lot of people won't play without it. Some people think your first playthrough should remain pure and vanilla without mods, but I feel that if you're coming from more modern games, there's nothing wrong with modding them to be what you want.

Yeah, that's definitely a deal breaker, but thankfully, you can easily mod their spawn locations. The Gibberlings3's Tweaks Anthology and BG1 NPC Project have a component to move those NPCs to more convenient locations. Unmodded, you can still spawn them with the CreateCreature cheat.

For BGEE, I would consider the BG1 NPC project a must-have.

I love the two original Baldur's Gate games, but there was almost no character development in the first one. They didn't really introduce romances, party banter, and important personal quests til BGII. The plus side is the Baldur's Gate modding community is huge and wrote all those things into BG1. https://www.gibberlings3.net/mods/npcs/bg1npc/

BG1NPC project adds a bunch of quests for existing NPCs, if you haven't played it.