What can you find in this thread?
Instructions on how to install and play the Legendary mod for DS2.

Will they work universally?
It worked on my old laptop that still uses Windows 8.1, my new Windows 11 laptop and the Windows 10 desktop, but the latter is hypersensitive to any mod being removed or added (for every such change I have to start with a new character for some reason).
If that's a quirk unique to my own machine, I can't say. I've only tested the game and the mod on these 3 computers.
Please read all the questions before attempting to follow the steps.

Questions before the installation:

Q: "What is the Legendary Mod?"
A: "A mod made by fans of DS1 and DS2 that lets you play all the single player content (maps) from DS1 in DS2, along with several other maps.
To be clear, I didn't make it, I'm just sharing a way I've found as to how it can be used with GOG's version of DS2. If you want to thank anyone for the mod itself go to the Dungeon Siege group on Steam and say thanks there."

Q: "Why do I need the saves/Succubus manager?"
A: "Reportedly the Legendary Mod may occasionally make you lose progress without the help of an external program. Either AllSaves or Succubus Manager fix that. Just don't use both at the same time."

Q: *Eyes all the steps.* "Em, nice and all, but can I just do something less complicated than all those steps?"
A: "Sure. Go here (link: https://siegetheday.org/?q=node/1607 ) or to Nexus Mods (link: https://www.nexusmods.com/dungeonsiegeii/mods/4 ) and download the installer and the manual (you'll definitely see it in the first link, scroll down to "Mod Game Manual").
Follow the manual and run the installer.
Change the install path to the one where you installed GOG' version of DS2 (e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Dungeon Siege 2).
You'll need to install AllSaves to avoid save issues. If that works for you, congrats!
I tried it and couldn't see the mouse ingame, hence the Succubus Manager, with it I can see the mouse ingame."

Q: "How's the saves compatibility with the CD/retail version of DS2 (and Broken World expansion) and the Legendary Mod?"
A: "I've yet to test GOG's version of DS2 on its own, but on Steam this happened: the Steam version of the game didn't detect saves from the CD one (with the mod or without it), while the CD version detected the saves from Steam version of DS2 just fine.
As such I suspect there's a version incompatibility at play that's not the mod's fault.
If you want to port saves, do it from the GOG or Steam version to the CD version, the other way around won't work.
If you've used the mod (or plan to later), use a save manager to be on the safe side, either the Succubus Manager or AllSaves.

Q: "Will the mod work on Windows 10?"
A: "I still use Windows 8.1, so I don't know. Try asking at the Steam DS group.
UPADTE
I think I got it.
Copy of post 25:
"Huh, strange.

I accidentally messed up my previous (Steam) setup and had to reinstall the whole thing, but I did see what worked this time.

It worked with the GOG version of the game, so I guess I did something right. :D

So what I did was: download DS1 and DS2 via GOG Galaxy, download the Legendary mod, the AllSaves mod just in case, and the Elys DS2 Succubus Manager from the Nexus and the Broken World Fix from the Pastebin link (link 1: https://www.nexusmods.com/dungeonsiegeii/mods/4
ink 2: https://www.nexusmods.com/dungeonsiegeii/mods/23
link 3: https://www.nexusmods.com/dungeonsiegeii/mods/28
link 4: https://pastebin.com/Gcg9qLLp ).
Then I installed the Legendary mod via the downloaded installer directly to the DS2 folder, manually copied the files from the Broken World Fix to the game folder, placed the Elys Succubus installer into the game folder and directed it to said folder, ran the "Reg Patch DSII" file twice and pressed 1 and 2 each time and I had to download and place "shfolder.dll" (link: https://www.dll-files.com/shfolder.dll.html ) into the game's folder.
After all that was done, I ran the Elys program and had it in windowed mode (full screen might work as well, but I don't have to restart the computer in case the game doesn't load up), left the resolution option on "normal" and clicked the Broken World icon in the Elys program.

I have no idea why it works, but it does and I think I've managed to pinpoint the needed steps now. :D
Might be the installation path didn't go right at first, not sure.

P.S. In case it wasn't obvious, when I say "the game's folder" I mean the one where your original .exe to launch the game without any mods is. Everything you install has to go to this same folder, make sure not to mess up the install path for any of it, or it won't work.
And I'm glad to report I can run the game with the mod in full screen with no issues :D, though lowering my screen's resolution helps make sure the ingame text in cutscenes doesn't feel tiny.

Edit: I think I've found the culprit for the menu being uncooperative when the game refused to move from the character creation screen, it's the Menu Fix optional mod you can install with JSGME mod manager that comes with the Legendary mod."

Q: "Will the mod work on Windows 11?"
A: Yes, though it might depend on your machine if you'll need the AllSaves mod (my Windows 11 laptop was happy with the 2.3 version from the Nexus) or ElysDS2Succubus mod from the Nexus (my previous Windows 8.1 laptop and my Windows 10 desktop both didn't let me see my mouse with the AllSaves mod, so I used an alternative).

OK, what I did was manually install the fixes and the Legendary Mod since the AllSaves program won't let me see my mouse.

Steps:
1. Go here.

2. Look for the DS2 section and use the Pastebin link.

3. There you'll see: "Dungeon Siege II (Broken World) Steam Fix by Killah" and "Dungeon Siege Legendary Edition (Broken World mod)".

4. Download both.

5. Extract "Dungeon Siege II Steam Fix by Killah" in the folder where you installed DS2 (e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Dungeon Siege 2) and copy and paste all the files from the new folder to the main one, overwrite everything it wants to.

6. Right click on the "RegPatch DS II" and run it as the administrator. You'll see several options, press 1 and let the program do its work. Run it again and press 2.

7. Now extract "Dungeon Siege Legendary Edition 1.01 hotfix" to the game's folder and copy-paste everything from the new map to the main one (Leave "Optional" zip alone for now). Let the files be overwritten.

8. Just in case repeat step 6 in full.

9. Go here and download the save manager (under: download:
Package icon Elys_DS2_Succubus_Manager_v10.zip).

10. Extract the "Elys_DS2_Succubus_Manager_v10" zip and run the "Elys_DS2_Succubus_Manager_v10" program.

11. When installing change the installation dictionary to the DS2 folder (e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Dungeon Siege 2).

12. If you want to play without Galaxy, you're done and can play via the "ElysDS2Succubus" launcher (select Broken World), enjoy.

13. If you want to use Galaxy: find DS2 in Galaxy, click on the small button right of the purple "Play" button and go to "Manage Installation" and "Configure".

14. (Launch Parameters -> "Custom executables" need to be ticked/enabled). Scroll all the way down to "File 4" Click to the field beside it and guide it to "ElysDS2Succubus" (it should be in the game's main folder).

15. Want Galaxy to launch that every time? Below "File 4" and "My Label", you'll see "Default executable", click that.

16. Once you click "Play" the manager program will open and you can click on "Dungeon Siege 2 Broken World" to launch the game. Enjoy.

Questions after manual installation:

Q: "But the resolution is small and everything looks bad and tiny! What gives?!"
A: "I can't fix that (the most I can get for the resolution is the default 1024x768) and I'm just happy the mod works. :)
Try asking for help somewhere else, the Dungeon Siege group on Steam might be able to help, I can't, sorry. :(
UPDATE: the best I've been able to come up with has been to lower the screen's resolution to the one I'm using in DS2 before launching the game. Sure it doesn't fill my entire screen, but at least the text no longer looks tiny." :)
There might be mods or some other way to force the game to work with a custom resolution - I've never had any success in the Elys Manager and I can't comment on any others - but go after those at your own risk."

Q: "After the game launches the Manager closes and my playtime isn't logged!"
A: "You can work around that by launching the Manager twice and keeping one open to log your playtime and use the other one to actually launch the game." -> Actually disregard that.
Upon further testing I can confirm that's an issue that previous versions of Galaxy had, but now that multiple executables are supported the playtime is logged normally.
Edit: If you installed the Elys program at a different location, refer back to the initial suggestion under this question to have GOG Galaxy correctly log your playtime - I accidentally put the Elys program to drive C and my game and GOG Galaxy were on drive D and my gameplay time was no longer logged correctly, unless I left the Galaxy launched Elys Manager run in the background and played the game using the same launcher via the launcher's desktop icon."


Copy of the post of what I've learned about transferring characters, items and companions between campaigns with warnings on what you should know if you're going from another campaign to the DS2 original one:

"So I recently finished the Kingdom of Ehb (the original DS1 campaign) and here's what I learned about transferring characters, parties and items when I went to the original DS2 campaign.

+ Your party will transfer to any map you pick exactly as it is and any character you've sent to the inn (be it a companion or a pet) will still be there when you check at any inn, unless you click on the "release" button - this way you can clear up the list if you want.

+ Since I had already paid all the inn fees for more party members in the first campaign I was playing, my party limit was 6 in DS2 too (so it's not bound by that, "only elite or veteran characters can hire 6 party members" limitation that the original DS2 had).
As a big fan of pets and companion dialog in DS2, I love this.
WARNING: Keep 1 slot free for DS2 as you'll start with a temporary companion.

+ Your items - be in your own inventory, equipped, in storage, or in pet inventories - will still be where you had them.

- BUT YOU WILL LOSE ALL YOUR ITEMS EQUIPPED AND HELD IN THE INVENTORY BY YOUR CHARACTER in Act 1 for story reasons - normally DS2 would take your starting gear and return it to you, but here this doesn't work!
AS A WORKAROUND, put all your items into the inventory of a pet before going through the final door to the temple in the DS2 tutorial part of the game.
You'll know you're there when your temporary companion will talk your character into taking a story related item from him - it'll be in your journal, not in the inventory to be equipped.
(Or at least my party was my character, the temporary companion and all pets, I've not tested it with companions from another campaign.)

+ My character's skill and the like were of course untouched and remained, though you will meet a character with a purple star icon towards the end of the Kingdom of Ehb campaign in the desert village with the green race that can refund your skill points (if there are limitations to that I don't know because I didn't need the service).
(Supposedly that's also an option somewhere in the Broken World expansion for DS2, but I've yet to play that.)

+ Fighting monsters scaled to my level (slightly over 40) with pathetic starting gear was something else. XD
If you'd prefer to get past the early parts of DS2 faster, interact with the button at the side of a storage chest (any one of them) and keep clicking it until it says "NONE", as that'll mean the area monster will go to what level they would originally be for that part of the campaign with a fresh character.
(Very useful for a certain quest you get with Tar since that boss can't be harmed with normal weapons.)"

Doesn't this mod break the game's balance? I mean... DS2 didn't expect you to arrive with an amazing, optimized, leveled up party.

Oh and thank you for this guide :)

I'm not sure how exactly porting would work since I've yet to get that far.

You can play the maps in any order you want, the mod won't force you to play the content of DS1 first.

The Legendary Mod has a smaller mod integrated into it, so that enemies scale to your level.
You can switch between different modes with a button on the side of a storage chest ingame.
Level Adjustment is in the name, IIRC. A readme on how it works should be on the same site as the manual for the Legendary Mod. ... Ah, found it.
Link: http://ds2.bplaced.net/getfile.php?redict=107&type=.txt

You're welcome. :)
Since this is the first feedback I have, should I adjust anything or is clear and easy to follow?

Just installed the mod. It plays fine but I none of the all saves programs to allow the mod to recognize previous saves seems to work. The "test" charecter I created to test the mod is the only one it's recognized.
I have followed all the stops, instattle elys and tried all the all saver versions and nothing seems to work.
I uninstalled the mod since I did not want to lose the progress I had made in my vanillas version of DS2 w)which includes the BW expnasion for steam).
has the all saves feasture been tested on the GOG version?
I have lots of disc space so my preference would be to set up a second DS2 Install for the mod, leaving my other install alone.

Thank you very much. :D

I never played DS1 outside of the mod and I don't know anything about a secret level (I've yet to finish the first DS1 campaign via the mod).
This sounds like a question best posed to the people who created the mod.
The Dungeon Siege group on Steam might be of help, but I can't be, sorry. :( I've experienced the same thing with Steam's version of DS2.
In my case the CD/retail version could detect saves from the Steam version, but Steam's version didn't detect saves from the CD installation, regardless if I was using the Legendary Mod or not.
An incompatibility between different versions of the game, it seems.
I suspect GOG's version shares this incompatibility, but I haven't tested it.

I can't answer the rest of your inquiry, but I'll add a warning to the FAQ section of the guide, so thank you for the reminder. :)

I wanted to train my character a bit in the Diablo map included in the mod (now she's on level 7) and I tried starting the Kingdom of Ehb map and everything was ported flawlessly: my chracter, everything she had equiped, her inventory, the pack mule pet and his inventory. :D

The monsters on the map were immidiatelly on level 7 as well, so I'm positive the Level Adjustment mod will properly scale monsters on any map to your level. :D

Speaking of training, my main character is a combat mage. I notice the "share XP" spells only work if you are using say a melee or ranged weapon. I want to buff up some of his other stats, but also don't want to lose out on XP for combat magic.

Is it a good idea to slap my main with a ranged weapon to do the concurrent training, or stick purely to combat magic and let side characters carry the dual-class weight?

I'm just a player, not an expert and I've no experience with the original DS1, so take what I say with a grain of salt, but from what I remember the division should work if you use magic or weapons if the correct effect of a spell applies (I think you can only have up to 4 buffs of whatever kind active at once - I'd need to check on the number, but do check if there's not something else blocking it).
I think the sharing effect is supposed to be 50% each area/class, but I'm not sure.

Also, keep in mind that the higher a class level will get, the slower it will increase.

The difference in having a magic specialization/class will be you'll need to be constantly stocked on mana potions and your magic skills will advance faster if there's no division or divided attention, but you'll be vulnerable if you have no sources of mana.
With ranged being a secondary class you'll have back up if you have no mana available, though you'll need to divide your attention and both will advance slower than being focused on one alone.
Also with Broken World, you'll have access to skills that stem from combining nature magic + melee or ranged + chaos magic (warrior of stone and assassin, IIRC) in DS2 maps.

Nature magic has a skill to harvest mana potions, not sure if chaos magic has it since I've never used it.
My advice would be to check the descriptions of skills and look for it - it's one of the first 2 IIRC and train in nature magic just enough to unlock that skill and throw sufficient points into it, once you unlock that skill you can drop nature magic altogether.
Ah, found it (link to skills table, see the right side "skills" to look through the descriptions https://www.gamebanshee.com/dungeonsiegeii/skills/nature-01.php ): Natural Bond and you'll just need level 1 in Nature magic.
You can invest points in the skill after the first deposited point/unlocking the skill indefinitely, even if you drop nature magic completely after unlocking it.

For health potions, you'll need Survival and level 5 in ranged weapons.

With at least one skill point, you can get potions from special bushes in the game (blue for mana and red for health and they regrow every session, so you can farm them by reloading the game and saving) and the potions' size will depend on how many points in you have in the associated skill.

You can also use a companion to use these skills, just make them walk through the bush and you'll get the potions.

Table for skill point for harvesting potions - link: https://www.gamerstemple.com/games3/000589/000589g147.asp .

I personally like to give my character access to both potion harvesting skills, so I can have whatever party I want without having to worry who will have the corresponding skill or not - I prefer having lots of pets and few companions. :)

P.S. Google is your friend, the net has lots of guides for this stuff.

With the Broken World fix from Steam and the Legendary Mod installed, both the save games and the screenshots (if taken with the Windows key + PrtSc (print screen) key ingame) are in the same location they would be with a CD install.

E.g. C:\Users\Wolfy\Documents\My Games\Dungeon Siege 2 Broken World -> go to "Save" and "SinglePlayer" for save games (each folder is labeled with a character's name) and "Screenshots" respectively.

When looking for the location on your own computer, replace "Wolfy" with whatever username you have set.

I just found out I can display health bars by pressing U ingame, it's a lot easier to spot enemies this way, even in dark places such as caves or mines. :D

Yep especially the smaller monsters, spiders, those little annoying things in the cliffs of fire, and the fish in the swamps.

The Legendary Mod is a lot of fun but be aware there are a number of content.changes in it's version of DS1 that go beyond just adapting it to the DS2 Engine, not all of which I like. You are not really playing the original, but a "reimaginirng: of it.
For intatne in DS1 Ulora, the first New party member you encounter,is a blank sheet;she has level 1 ability in all four of the
classes (Melee,Ranged, Combat and Nature Magic) you can pretty much developoe her any way you like. In the Legendary version, she is a level 4 Combat mage. I don't see the reason for this change;i prefereed being able to build her any way you wanted to.
But overall I like the legendary mod.

I've made two playthroughs on DS2, and each time I reach lord Kalrathia on his deathbed (after defeating the three Dark Wizards) I can't continue. I can speak with him, but the ? doesn't disappear from him, and I can't get new dialogue from the adviser. He keeps telling me to speak to Lord Kalrathia.

I've reinstalled the full game (I have the Deluxe Edition, with both DS2 and DSBW), I've reinstalled Legendary Mod, I've create a new character and made a whole new play-through .... I've hovered around Lord K's deathbed in case there's a delayed trigger response, made him repeat his dialogue half a hundred times in case of a once-in-a-dozen-trigger ..... Nothing.

Also:

A family heirloom pt. II doesn't work properly. I find the dungeon with the demon, but the guy doesn't show up, and in the last playthrough there was only the crystal in the cell, no demon or guy whatsoever.

No Loot of Arhok. Armor shows up, but nothing else.

I've yet to make it that far, so I can't say.
Try asking in another part of the game's subforum or make a dedicated thread about the issue and maybe someone will be able to help - at least you'll get more visibility for the issues and any potential solution that way.