Duel Class Question

Eldrane

Ok so I'm thinking of dual classing Imoen to Mage what level would you advise I do this at?

TJ_Hooker

I think the traditional thing to do is to have her focus on find traps and pick locks, and dual her as soon as you get these as high as you desire (some people max them out, others just get them high enough so that you can take care of most traps/locks and deal with the most difficult ones with potions).

Ulfgar_Torunn

As you have already discovered, Imoen makes an incredible Thief/Mage and should be dualled in a way that maximizes her mage levels while keeping her a viable thief. To do so, I would recommend dualling her at 6th level. She will end the game as a 6th level Thief/9th level Mage, and regaining her thief abilities will be a comparatively short affair (60,000 XP).

If you want to capitalize on her thieving abilities you can wait until 7th level to dual, but understand that it will take considerably longer to regain her thief abilities (90,000 XP), she will not have access to 5th level spells, and you'll have 30,000 'wasted' XP at end game, as opposed to 5,000 XP from the above recommendation.

atcDave

Eldrane said:

Ok so I'm thinking of dual classing Imoen to Mage what level would you advise I do this at?

A big question is how you plan on using her. If you already have a thief in the party, you might want to dual her right away (second level is the soonest allowed) and she can be just a wonderful Mage who happens to use a short bow. If, on the other hand, you really need her to be a thief, I would run her up to sixth or seventh level before dualing (no higher or you won't ever get her abilities back!).

Mykra

I like doing it at level five. My find traps is maxed out, my pick locks is a respectable amount (65 IIRC), backstab modifier has gone up if that matters, and it doesn't take me half the friggin' game to get her thief levels back from the Mage class.

Level six would be the absolute latest I would dual class her.

Archaos

@Eldrane
You want to keep it canon? Then dual her at level 7 after maxing Find Traps/Open Locks. 100 in each is enough. She's not much of a backstabber because she has crappy STR and no Fighter levels.

Scouting can be done with invisibility potions or spells, so don't worry.

I don't think you need more in Find Traps/Open Locks than that, or at least I didn't but you don't want to take chances in Durlag's Tower.

Erg

Archaos said:

You want to keep it canon? Then dual her at level 7 after maxing Find Traps/Open Locks.

Canon is overrated.

Archaos

@Erg
True. But I asked that if he wanted to keep it canon, not that canon is the only right way.

Erg

Archaos said:

@Erg
True. But I asked that if he wanted to keep it canon, not that canon is the only right way.

I would not dual her at level 7 myself just to respect canon, but I can see why other may think differently.

I also agree with you that there is nothing wrong in letting the OP know about the canon option.

Archaos

@Erg
I fully understand that. And that's what I was talking about.

At 5-6 level might be more optimal but I like putting any extra points into Pick Pocket and augment it with potions.

Erg

As others had already pointed out, I also believe it depends on the overall party composition.

If you need her to be both a thief and a mage, the levels from 5 to 7 are all viable. I personally prefer level 6 because she can get the best from her thief levels while still retaining the ability to cast level 5 spells.

If you need her just as a mage (i.e. one or more thieves already in the party) I would dual at level 2.

If there are other arcane casters in your party, you may want to keep her as thief and don't dual her at all.