I'm currently in the main quest where Virgil went to Caladon and I need to help Captain Edward get his ship back. I think it must have crashed 20-30 times in total by now. Not a dealbreaker but it's very annoying when I have crashes right after each other so I barely have time to immerse myself.

try a clean install to a folder in c:\ and not program files. Do unofficial patch then hi res patch. Copy saves over to it and try that out.

I always install all my games to C:\Games so that wouldn't be an issue plus I give them all admin rights.

I followed this order with the patches and stuff:
1. Unofficial patch
2. HQ Map Pack
3. Extra Animations Pack
4. Hi Rez Patch
5. HQ Music Pack

When I had played perhaps a few hours at first I realized I could download the lossless music and do a converter, not just 356 kbps MP3s so I did that last but I doubt that changed anything.

I haven't had a crash in a while now.

I was trying to assassinate Faradan but what was trickier that I thought. Anyone has any good ideas how to kill him undetectably? I had to pass 4 guards with my party, alone I can slip by one but then there are two guarding the door leading to the ventilation that leads directly into his chamber and those guards are quite strong, they kill me in a few hits and I barely touch them. I need my entire party for that but if I do after I've killed the king everyone in Caladon hates me except for the ship Captain who I can't run to anyway, 6 guards block his way.

I just finished the game. Wow, that was an unusual experience. Pity the allied AI had rather weak design (I prefer to completely control them myself) and those numerous issues like the oh-so-annoying way to travel after a while, followers auto-pick up items, waypoint stop working, brutal difficulty in the beginning etc..

The ending had quite the twist(s) and it's impressive how so many different perspectives and outcomes you can have in this game, certainly something I praise highly when it comes to RPGs.