Planescape: Torment
Availability
Modding
There exist a good number of mods available for those wishing to get the most out of a playthrough, and most are suitable for first-time players as well as veterans. On offer are assorted bug fixes, higher resolutions, restored content originally left out of the game by the developers due to lack of time, and tweaks to some of the more annoying aspects of the game (such as making HP gain per level constant instead of leaving it to the luck of the dice or however long you were willing to sit there loading your save over and over again). There is an excellent guide to install order for those who wish to go the full mile. [1] This guide has been mirrored by GOG, should the original ever go down. [2]
Slowdowns/Stuttering
If you have poor performance on new systems you should try DDraw Fix. If this fix result in cursor trails you should try opening up setup-pst-drawfix.tp2 in a text editor and delete these two lines:
PATCH_IF( offset != (0 - 1) ) BEGIN WRITE_BYTE ( offset + 26 ) 0x02 END
ELSE BEGIN PATCH_WARN "Cursor Trail Fix Failed: patch location not found" END
Then re-install the patch.
Spell Effects on a Modern System
If, while playing the game, magical effects cause your system to substantially drop FPS and cause a massive amount of artifacting, the simplest solution is to switch off hardware acceleration for the duration of your playing time. This can be done through the control panel on most Windows operating systems.
If the option is greyed out, there is a solution. Download the DirectX SDK, at http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=10568, and manually switch it off (it is under DirectDraw). Remember to switch it back on after you are done playing! This should fix the spell effects, though it may introduce another, lesser, problem with the mouse cursor leaving a visible trail on the menu. Out of the two possible graphical errors, this one is greatly preferable, since you can at least play the game without worrying about your game locking up.
Characters are walking backwards!
Simply go into the video options, accessible ingame, and toggle Software Mirroring.