Dreamteam67: Are you running in vanilla mode, or using the Co8 mod? There isn't much point in playing the game without the Co8 mod imo, since it has eliminated most of the bugs that will otherwise soon have you puling out your hair.

It's been years since I played vanilla, so I can't remember the starting equipment for that. Sill you should be able to pool enough cash to buy some basic equipment in Homlett. But in the Co8 mod your party goes to a "store" right after character creation screen, where each character can pick up a default set of armor and weapons for free, plus buy extra stuff if you want.

Tab works for me, but once again that might be the Co8 mod doing it's job.

Remember that there are conditional flags for many quests, some based on your personal skills, some based on what you do in game. SO just because you talk to Blackjay doesn't necessarily mean he will give you the quest. In Co8 the goblin was moved to a different location.

Dreamteam67: AFAIK the Co8 mod is not bundled in any way with the version from GoG. You will know this, because the Co8 mod runs ONLY from their "Front End" launcher. If you aren't starting the game through the FE-X.exe launcher, then you aren't playing the Co8 mod. You will need to download the mod (current cersion is 8.1 iirc) from the Co8 website and install it following the directions they list there. I would recommend getting the "New Content" version. The changes to the vanilla gameplay are minimal, but instead of ending at the final boss in the Temple, you get to continue your adventures in Verbobonc and level your character(s) all the way up to lvl 20.

If you play the GoG vanilla version without the mod, expect ctd or screenfreeze fairly often in certain parts of the temple. Save your game often. Don't play in "IronMan" mode, and don't use Speed Save. Never put an NPC in the leftmost character slot. The first time I played through, I did in in vanilla so I know it is possible. But you WILL tear your hair out at some points when the game crashes.