Started up a bg2 game after going home and finding it hidden in a stash of old disks. Anyways, I seen to have this weird bug where half the people in faerun wont talk to me because they are busy. I usually have to leave the area and come back a few times before they talk. Hell, the first game I started the stupid sewage golem wouldnt talk to me so I had to restart. Anyways, running uner windows XP if that makes a difference, with TOB installed.

Cornbread

It makes a very big difference: there is a bug with WinXP and Win2k so creatures and NPCs often behave just like that, they won't talk.
The patch Xen posted link to will solve it.

Always install the latest patch for any game you play.

For BG2 you should also install unofficial <a href=http://www.baldurdash.org/ToB/Fixes/TOBfixes.html>Baldurdash</a> patch, it fixes many bugs not covered with official one.

Is it okay for me to be running the game with no patches at all? Does it really affect game play a lot with out the patches?

<span style="color: lightblue">Yes, they make a difference. Install them.

Yes. Massively. The baldurdash fixpack especialy is considered an essential part of the game.

What kind of stuff does the fixpack change? I've only been playing with the official patch and nothing has ever gone wrong for me. I'm a little apprehensive installing a fix patch when there's nothing to fix...

Visit the BaldurDash site (link in the FAQ sticky thread) and read up on each of the numerous little patches that make up the BaldurDash Fixpackes. You might just be amazed at what you're missing....