mystral

I liked most of the NPCs in the game. Some of them are much more part of the story than others, but i liked the fact that none of them were actually necessary. The only 3 who didn't spend at least some time in my party were Terra (couldn't find her), Kessa and Blodgett.

Aesdale: Good mage, and has an important role to play if you want the full story of the U series, but way too naive for my liking. You might make him an enchanter instead of a plain mage, since it would fit with his background.

Aleigha: Good fighter, and a nice girl. Lots of banters with the PC, so i'm guessing she might be a future romance option. She died in the swamp, unfortunately.

Althon: Very good fighter, very interesting character. He's also central to the story, and seems to have the most banters of all the NPCs. I quite enjoyed having an evil NPC who had a bit more depth than just objecting to good actions, and wanting power/to kill people. He's actually well-written enough to make me enjoy having my party completely manipulated.     
Almost guaranteed a spot in my party.
However, it seems the only way to recruit him is to get him in Myth Drannor. That makes him unavailable to an evil PC (who would be more likely to leave Vildamyr to rot in Mistmoor.   ), which is a bit strange. You might add an option for an evil or neutral PC to actually serve Althon's purpose willingly rather than be manipulated: perhaps you could tie that option to Catharandamus, or expand on the theft quest in Saltmarsh.

Blodgett: An halfling fighter... Not really my thing, and i didn't have room in my party at the time anyway. His story in the inn at the beginning of the game didn't particularly make me want to hire him anyway. I mean, he just lost his whole party, so how good could he be?  

Blush: Good cleric, nice lady as well. Her seduction of Aesdale is well-done, though a bit short. I wish we didn't get to see the 2 Althon-Blush cutscenes though, so the break up would be a surprise. She never showed up in her shop for me, though.

Buranta: I don't really know what to think about her. On the one hand, she has good voice acting and is quite useful to backstab the mages in Kessa's dungeon. On the other hand, with her 14 dex and assassin kit, she can't work as the only thief in the party, and i don't like having more than 1 thief.
I know that her one banter with the PC left me wanting to know more about her though.  

Candella: She's a good thief, i guess, and probably more suitable than Shadow for a good-aligned party. She might be quite powerful after being dualled to mage as well. But her voice acting is WAY too whiny for me to be able to stand her, sorry. Shadow seems to be a more interesting NPC too.

Chaarna: I really like her. Her crush on a male PC might be a bit overdone (she's a bit too obvious imo), but apart from that, she's powerful and her character change after you get her back is well-done. I liked what i saw of the romance, the option to redeem her or keep her evil is good, though it might be enhanced to allow her to corrupt the PC (in a good parallel to Kessa and Althon). She's a strong contender for the spot of primary mage in any of my parties, since she's more powerful and interesting than Aesdale, even though Aesdale has a bigger part in the story.

Catharandamus: probably my favourite NPC. Good fighter after he regains his fighter levels, good cleric, every banter he had was interesting. I especially liked the way he saw through both Blush and Fala'stra easily, and his criticism of Erebus. I didn't get any quest from him, though, and i wish he could give me an option to betray Rilithar after getting to the vault. Other than that, another very well-done evil NPC.  

Dirbert: I'm a bit ambivalent about Dirbert. He's a good fighter in the beginning, since archers are very powerful at low levels, but apart from his banters with Shadow and Candella, he is rather bland. Plus, Icar dislikes him, so i usually replace him after Saltmarsh.

Erky: I usually like Cleric/Mages (my PC is often one), but I replaced him by Blush. He doesn't seem to be part of the story, and i only saw 2 banters from him, with Shadow (they were interesting though). Plus, after being a prisoner for a year, i figured he might need some rest, and he should go home.

Fala'stra: I'd like her better if she was a thief -> enchanter rather than the other way around. Character-wise, she doesn't have much to say, which makes sense since she's playing at being good. I would like more hints that she's actually evil though (hte only one i got was Catharandamus' banter). She doesn't say anything to justify her betrayal either, which was strange given that she had seduced the PC earlier.

Icar: my other favourite NPC. Great fighter, extremely loyal, i thought from his characteristics that he'd be more Minsc-like, but he's actually very insightful. The fact that unlike most NPCs, he actually likes or dislikes some of the other NPCs very much, makes him more real. The blindness is a very nice touch as well.  

Ilhara: Hmm, i don't usually like paladins all that much, but she's well-done. There are a bit too many NPCs who are only available through Myth Drannor though, so i wouldn't actually take her in my party unless i wanted my PC to romance her.

Meepo: like Ned, a nice addition story-wise, I wish i could feed him to the dragon though.  

Rihn: I usually like bards, even if they're not too useful combat-wise, and here we get one who is actually powerful.  
I wish I could get her in my party without Vildamyr, but i really enjoyed her story, and she's the most interesting good NPC along with Rivian. I especially like how she told Elminster off and dismissed those Harpers.  

Rilithar: I'm rather ambivalent towards him. On the one hand he's a paladin (CG pally ftw), he gives the party a suitable reward   , and i'm sure a good female PC would enjoy romancing him (more than Aesdale that's for sure), but on the other hand he's a paladin, and i really wished i could backstab him the first time i played through Mistmoor, both to please Cath, and to take all the treasure  

Rivian: The other really interesting good NPC, she seems to have the most banters after Althon, her romance is very enjoyable (even though i couldn't actually progress to the romance stage due to a banter bug, her flirts and banters are very good). I wish she used a proper multiclass fighter/mage class instead of "cheating" by being an elven dual class char. Or maybe you could use an actual bladesinger kit (i'm sure i saw one somewhere). She's a bit "holier than thou" with other elven NPCs, which can be a bit annoying, and i'm hoping the PC might be able to cure her of that during the romance. But then again, i guess she has to have a flaw.  

Rurik: very good NPC for the start of the game, but it doesn't feel right to take him away from Saltmarsh, and he's overshadowed by other clerics in terms of power as well.

Paraway: he is part of the story, his own kit, mix of a barbarian and ranger is nice, he has lots of banters at the start of the game, and at first he seems wise and kind of like a big brother to both Dirbert and the PC. However, his superstitions were really annoying to me, and his reaction to Erebus in Mistmoor made me drop him. Good for the start fo the game though. I wish his tracking ability could be useful sometime in the game too.

Shadow: She's probably the best thief, and an interesting NPC. Her banters at the beginning of the game were very realistic, but she seemed to fall silent after the Zhent ambush. Her banters with Icar were good too.

Vildamyr: Good cleric, he's seriously overpowered when you get him (he had about 150k xp, while my PC had perhaps 50k). His romance with Rihn is well-done. He's the obvious choice for a cleric if you're doing a good party. I really prefer Catharandamus though.

Markessa Demuir: i felt sorry for both the clone and the original. I would take the evil Kessa in an evil playthrough anytime, to complete the Icar-Althon duo and to add more depth to Chaarna. The good Markessa is harder to fit into a party, but I'd try to fit her in in a party with Aesdale and Althon. Maybe she could try to redeem Althon, since it was after all the origianl who caused his fall. Anyway, right now both versons come a bit late to have much to say.

Elora Bonesetter: useful when you first get her since you don't have any equipment and she doesn't need any. She replaced Fala'stra in my party after her betrayal, but otherwise, i'm not sure i'd have a spot for her other than as a temporary helper. She comes too late right now to get a good sense of her character, though i did see one banter she had with Catharandamus.

After playing through a second time (to do the swamp and Myth Drannor mostly), i found a few more bugs.

If you get access to the swamp first, you can still go to Piney Bluff by taking the exit to the north of Saltmarsh, and you can still get the quests if you go there after finishing the marsh.

Vildamyr repeats the same banter, about getting to know him better, when he tells the PC he's trying to behave better because he died, endlessly.

The same goes for Rivian's banter about having to leave Evereska because of the sun-elf. It seems to be the reason why i can't get access to her romance.

During the conversation between Althon and Aesdale after the Slaver Fortress, when Althon reveals the truth about Aesdale's family, he asks Markessa (her clone, in that case, who wasn't in my party at the time, but who i was accompanying to Westgate) to tell Aesdale how she lost her eyes. But it stops there because she doesn't say anything.

The spawn times for the night mask thieves near Captain Buril's house are way too fast. As soon as the party gets out of sight of the house, they spawn again. By the way, i wish you would get rid of that completely after you return to Westgate. It makes sense for three thieves to attack a party of six people who don't have any equipment, but it doesn't make sense that supposedly intelligent human thieves who presumably would prefer to live would attack a fully-armed party of adventurers when outnumbered.

I did an install like yours recently (minus Tower of Deception and Check the Bodies, plus BG1 NPC, Grey Clan, Ascension, Longer Road and Planar Sphere) and it worked fine. I'm on Windows XP though, not sure how well it'll work with Linux.

I'd advise against installing both SCS and SCS 2 at the same time though, you need to check the readme, but i think you should only use SCS for the BG1 part and SCS 2 for the BG 2 part.

I'd also advise you to try 2 more mods, BG1 NPC which is really great for breathing new life into BG, and since you're playing a mage, the planar sphere mod would improve your stronghold a lot, add some new spells (although TDD already adds a lot of those) and good (if sometimes a lot overpowered) items for mages.

A note of caution, though. I played through CtB once, and it was really buggy. It was a slightly earlier version, though, so maybe the mod is more stable now.

As for NPCs, Tortured Souls requires 2 NPCs, adds an optional one (and changes Valygar a bit), while Shadows over Soubar requires another NPC. So if you install both, you're not going to have much room in your party.

Lord Mac has a 3 day waiting period before you can leave with him. You must also finish the Mistmoor quest. Only with both options can you travel with him.

If you say you are not ready, nothing changes and you can continue to pester him. If you say you will walk instead, he should leave the area.

Selgaunt bridge is revealed to you by the Saltmarsh Captain. Even if you decline the UK series, she will tell you that you are expected in Selgaunt. The only way to enter the area is by either using Lord Mac or exiting from Mistmoor's bottom left screen (look at your overhead map, I put a maker there).

I actually completed Mistmoor before i first talked to Lord Mac. Maybe that was the problem, if he's waiting for the quest to be completed.

I couldn't talk to the Saltmarsh captain at all. It always said "Captain has nothing to say to you", just like when i was trying to complete Priestess Joy's quest by just handing the letter to the captain. I guess she's offended that i refused to go to the marsh.

I finished my first playthrough (doing Silver Palace, then Haunted House, smuggler ship, Piney Bluff, Mistmoor, then slaver series), and i'll post a list of the minor bugs i found during it. I already posted the important ones before.

1. Not sure if this a bug, but when i got the "escort Icar to Piney Bluff" quest, i never had an option to take Althon along as well. His dialogue never updated, so i couldn't report to him or ask him to join. How can i recruit Althon exactly?

2. You might want to take a look at the random treasure list. I found lots of great potions (magic resistance as an example) on orcs in the Silver Palace, and i also got a +3 spear from one of the hobgobelins in the Sunless Citadel in another playthrough. That's a bit too powerful from weak monsters.

3. Rlithar's protection against evil, granted by his sword, is recast very often, which gets annoying with both the animation and the spamming of the subtitles. I also get informed that he and Vlidamyr are protected against evil every time i load a game, even if they are not on the same map at all.
I'm guessing the same bug is affecting enemies who are supposed to use potions to buff themselves before a fight. They use them as soon as the party gets near, but the never seem to actually drink the potions, since the line "x quaffs a potion" is repeated until x sights you and attacks.

4. Not sure if this is a bug either, but despite the fact that her first romance banters are about getting to know the PC, and never suggest there's anything intimate going on between Fala'stra and the PC, she sleeps with him right after the party first sleeps at an inn, then a second time right after that. You get 3 rests in a row, but i'm not sure if the last 2 should count as "rests".

5. The messenger that Althon sends to Icar the first time you enter the Slaver Fortress map, to tell him to stop Kessa, spawns infinitely until you talk to him. When it happened, i thought it actually was an enemy ambush, and i was scared when i saw the number of enemies i had to fight.

6. When the party first enters Kessa's dungeon, the dialogue with the ogre executionner triggers at once, despite being very far from the group. The he says nothing when the party actually gets close to him.

7. Trying to open the web-like doors (or containers) in the Suderham catacombs only triggers a line normally said by Lord Balthis in Saltmarsh about the mayor being executed.

8. There is a bug with familiars in the Slaver Prison in Suderham. After you have your inventory emptied, the familiar is on the ground, but it's tied to the PC, since it can't get more than a few feet away from him. When i tried to get it to scout ahead, it was instantly teleported back to the PC after a short distance. If i tried to put it in my inventory, a new version was spawned next to the Pc, with the same problems. You could potentially have infinite familiars.
I only had that problem in the first area, the ones after that didn't have that bug.

Sorry for the long post.

Not sure why you think this is a bug. Creatures have the same XP as they have always had. I agree that not everything Bioware did makes sense but this is their settings for these creatures. At some point I may go back and lower the XP amounts on lots of creatures but I consider this a low priority right now. BTW, a Carrion Crawler is a much more difficult creature from say a kobold. Their hold ability can cause you to loose a party member (been there, done that). So they do have more XP because of their special ability. Same with phase spiders since they can jump around the screen attacking different characters.

Actually, it was very noticeable in the marsh, when i had to fight very hard lizardmen who gave about 400 xp, and then a phase spider which seemed much easier, yet gave 1400 xp. It's nothing really important, but it was a bit strange.