From what I've seen and read, the game sounds like a mixed bag where the positives in the end outweigh the negatives. Buggy on release and a bit dated now, but with lots of fixes and mods to bring it into a much more positive state than where it was left officially. So my big question is which mods/fixes are pretty much essential? I'd like to leave it vanilla for the most part and go through the official campaigns, but don't want to frustrate myself either. Thanks for any input.

There are no essential mods or fixes.
I use a lot of cosmetic mods, but no fixes, and I've been through the official campaigns many times.

I use this
[url=]https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn2/other/patch/nwn2-fixes[/url]

You might want to try a mod which makes the UI look better in 1080p: https://www.nexusmods.com/neverwinter2/mods/81. It's not necessary as the original UI is still fine in this resolution, but it's still worth checking out.

IMO, the worst are camera and performance issues. Camera issues can't be fixed, not even with mods, you'll just have to live with them, but if you have performance issues, this might help.

All in all, I think it's worth having despite its issues.

I only use a few mods

The new Elanee head from the Facelift Pack nexusmods /neverwinter2/mods/212?tab=description

"Tchos' HD UI panels and dialogue compilation and expansion" for a better UI nexusmods /neverwinter2/mods/81?tab=description

Companion and Monster AI 2.2 neverwintervault org/project/nwn2/script/companion-and-monster-ai-22

Deserks NWN2 Portraits nexusmods /neverwinter2/mods/94

Sorceress Robe Replacer www.nexusmods /neverwinter2/mods/235

and Neeshka reskin nexusmods /neverwinter2/mods/946

Just some minor tweaks to the core game. It works grate and the game is very fun so far.