[Cerek]

I disagree that being able to add Rings of Protection to armor unbalances the game. To me, it actually conforms the game to the original PnP rules.

I played PnP by 1st Edition rules. Some of our DM's were more strict than others, but the one that taught me the game was probably the most "balanced" as far as the items he allowed players to have.

The standard rule for AC bonus was that each different item would add their bonus to your AC. In other words, you got the benefit from armor, Ring of Protection, Cloak of Protection and Boots of Speed - but did NOT get the bonus from two Rings of Protection.

As for the argument that this "unbalances" the original "Black Isle" rules - poppycock. When I first joined IW, I saw plenty of posts with players bragging about having an AC of -12 to -15, and this was BEFORE "Ease of Use" or any other Weimer Mod came along. They were getting those AC's with the plain vanilla version of BG2 and the standard items found in the original game. How they did it is beyond me, because I've NEVER had an AC better than -10 (which was also the max AC available in PnP rules - regardless of how many different items you may have had).

As for items found outside the game, some are powerful. But the game itself has some items that are JUST as powerful, so that argument kinda falls flat too.

As for the whole discussion of BGTuTu vs BGT, it sounds to me like the best option is just to play BG1 Vanilla. The character classes are strong enough and you avoid ANY transition or concurrent game problems. Yeah, it would be nice to play a barbarian or beserker in BG1, but a straight fighter will serve just as well until you advance to BG2.

Personally, I'm glad to see this thread. I had recently considered installing BGTuTu (just to give it a try), but the discussion here has convinced me to just leave my BG1 game alone.