I can't speak to the "rings" mod other people were using, but the one I am familiar with hardly classifies as cheating, unless the intent of the designers was to arbitrarily make it harder to hold a bunch of gems as opposed to a metric buttload of arrows or suits of armor. As for using a mod that lets you wear more than one AC enhancing item at a time, all I can say is that I can find no support for it in 2E RAW, and as a house rule it doesn't make much sense. If the issue is that it is possible to abuse AC enhancements, then the game has no business dropping such items out its bum left right and center. Forgotten Realms might have a lot more of a loot focus than other settings than others, but they could have stood to dial that back instead of arbitrarily limiting how equipment can be used.

Huh. According to the readme for the tweak pack, in 2E pnp while you could wear multiple AC boosting items, you'd only gain the AC benefit of one of them. Other benefits, like improved saves, from the items would still apply, though. To quote the readme:

"P&P Style: In Pen and Paper AD&D, characters are allowed to wear magical armor with Rings/Cloaks/Amulets of Protection, but only the armor class bonus from one item would apply."

As a 3.5/pf player, the idea of different things adding the same type of bonus (armour bonus, shield bonus, etc) not stacking with each other seems perfectly normal :)

Absolutely NOTHING!! Half the fun of BG is figuring stuff out for oneself. I came into BG series almost completely ignorant and there's few better feelings than mastering a game through understanding on ones own. A feature that more modern (mainstream) games are sorely lacking.

BG also doesn't punish *too* hard for making ignorant mistakes. And it is not the sort of trial and error or save/load-pray-the-RNG-gods-favor-you-this-day manner of RPG. The game lets you get creative with the right tactics and figure things out for yourself rather than just guessing what the level designer intended or playing the slots and hoping you get lucky this time. Makes ya feel like a boss when you know this stuff rather than having to be told :)

Almost forgot: if you are playing under vanilla BG, prepare to either metagame like hell when it comes to using special potions and scrolls, or sell them. The game is constantly throwing potions and scrolls that protect against feeblemind, magic, undead, petrification, pollen allergies and god only knows what else. Problem, the game only allows you 3 quick slots that let you use items when paused (2 for Minsc), and trying to access the inventory unpauses the game; I have no idea why it doesn't do that when the party mage is looking at their spell book and spending an eternity trying to decide what spell would be most effective to cast, but whatever.

Since the inventory GUI covers the entirety of the action, the only way you will know if something is moving up to take a bite out of one of the party is when they start taking damage. I would have thought that the rest of the party would speak up and let me know that I should stop rummaging in the pack, which could be simulated by having the GUI only cover a part of the screen, which would also allow the members of the party not peeking in their pack to be reasonably aware of their surroundings.

Bottom line, one slot is taken up by healing potions, one might be taken up by a magic item you use regularly, meaning that in choosing the last 1-2 you are praying that you have quick access to protection against something that you will actually face. If you chose poorly, then you either reload and metagame to have the right item in a quick slot, or you fumble in the inventory while your party is out of your control which usually leads to them getting slaughtered like cattle; if you went the latter route, the odds of you using the right item from your inventory during combat are so low that you'd be better off selling most of them.

You are right.
Right now I play BGT, but I think I will not finish it.
I know where I find everything and what will happen next.
Most battles that were very hard the first time are now "Oops, it´s over already? What a joke."
I have a very good memory regarding facts and complex rules, but sometimes I wish I could
forget everything about a game because the first time was the hardest but also the most rewarding.

The only mod that "breaks" saves is the widescreen mod if you load an old game with a different resolution. AFAIK, most, if not all, of the other mods simply might not apply to saved in-progress games, but none of them will actually break them. You just won't be able to take advantage of the mod without starting a new game -- your saved game will play just like it did before you installed the mod. It is not corrupting your game files, singularly or additively. If it breaks a saved game, then you probably installed it incorrectly, likely in the wrong order because you did not read the instructions, or you installed a known unstable mod (again because you did not read the instructions) or your OS is screwed.

Precisely my point, so why reply to me? You should have replied to taltamir.

I also didn't know for a long while during playing that on each map you can go to each of the 4 sides to "discover" a new location that is next to the map you're on. Always travel from all 4 sides of a map so you find all the locations.

About that fucking Mage in Friendly Arms Inn!