Imoen and BG2. Plot Spoilers
SirBuliwyf
Member Posts: 137
Is it too early to talk about BG2? Probably, but this is on my mind so I figured I'd get it out now.
It always bothered me, how it worked out with Imoen. Why did she suddenly become a mage? There was no suggestion of it happening in BG1. Losing Yoshimo, the only decent single class Theif in the game and gaining a stunted thief-now mage when I didn't want a mage, I already had one. I wanted my thief, coincidently what Imoen originally was and what her personality is suited to.
It was my suspicion that Imoen was made into a mage to facilitate the plot of her being taken to Spellhold. This I think can be tweaked a little while maintaining plot continuity.
Make her a single class thief. Her spellcasting that causes her to be arrested can be attributed to one of two things.
1. She uses a magical trinket, wand or scroll (yes I know it's a little low level for her to have the Thief ability to use any item but it's Imoen, the child of a God, a slight bending of the rules for her character alone wouldn't be inconceivable). This also adds something for the cause of rescuing her, she's no longer a renegade but rather someone wrongfully arrested and that injustice need to be reversed. Something the Lawful players will appreciate at least.
2. As a result of the tests done by Irenicus, her Bhaalspawn powers have started to awaken just like the PCs does and despite being a thief, she can cast one or two lvl 1 spells, Magic Missile or something. This also has the benefit of any magic related dialogue of hers not being made redundant.
End result, Imoen as she should be and the game not lacking a decent single class Thief character in the latter stages and in ToB. Also no stunted Mage in the latter stages too if you want to be a good sibling and take your sis with you.
It's a small change really, just change the last, the rest explains itself anyway.
It always bothered me, how it worked out with Imoen. Why did she suddenly become a mage? There was no suggestion of it happening in BG1. Losing Yoshimo, the only decent single class Theif in the game and gaining a stunted thief-now mage when I didn't want a mage, I already had one. I wanted my thief, coincidently what Imoen originally was and what her personality is suited to.
It was my suspicion that Imoen was made into a mage to facilitate the plot of her being taken to Spellhold. This I think can be tweaked a little while maintaining plot continuity.
Make her a single class thief. Her spellcasting that causes her to be arrested can be attributed to one of two things.
1. She uses a magical trinket, wand or scroll (yes I know it's a little low level for her to have the Thief ability to use any item but it's Imoen, the child of a God, a slight bending of the rules for her character alone wouldn't be inconceivable). This also adds something for the cause of rescuing her, she's no longer a renegade but rather someone wrongfully arrested and that injustice need to be reversed. Something the Lawful players will appreciate at least.
2. As a result of the tests done by Irenicus, her Bhaalspawn powers have started to awaken just like the PCs does and despite being a thief, she can cast one or two lvl 1 spells, Magic Missile or something. This also has the benefit of any magic related dialogue of hers not being made redundant.
End result, Imoen as she should be and the game not lacking a decent single class Thief character in the latter stages and in ToB. Also no stunted Mage in the latter stages too if you want to be a good sibling and take your sis with you.
It's a small change really, just change the last, the rest explains itself anyway.
1
Comments
If Jan isn't good enough for you, I think the pure-thief problem should be resolved with a new NPC.
A new Thief NPC would be interesting though I suspect if there were one, they'd be Evil. Nalia Is good, Imoen is Good. Yoshi and Jan both Neutral. It'd be fitting for there to be an Evil Assassin Thief NPC.
Also, I'd imagine that the lack of a solid thief will be remedied by the inclusion of additional NPCs.
Since this is already an Imoen thread, I'd like to put in my 2 cents worth and say that they need to go in and put a few interactions with Imoen into SOA after rescuing her in. I know they originally planned on having her killed off and thus hadn't worked those out cause of time constraints, but now that we're going back and remaking it, that really should be done. Especially the conversation with Silvanas in the Copper Cornet, for some reason THAT always bothered me most, because Imoen is the hottest female NPC (In my personal opinion) and yet she is the ONLY female npc he won't hit on! Heck since you get her so late in the game, you could even have it that Imoen manages to make him run away, like if you play a female character and try to sleep with him. xD Like have Imoen play along, and then laugh when he runs out the door, knowing that he was all talk.
Yes, if you chose to dual class her right away you'd have to play through Irenicus' dungeon with her as a low level mage but I don't think that'd be a big deal if you really wanted to dual class her. By the time you picked her up again she'd be ramped up to a higher level to match the PC's to the point where she could have the full benefit. All that is if you want to dual class her anyway and given the presence of Nalia in the game that just seems like a silly idea. Better to dual her to a fighter.
Maybe it would be overpowered but it could suit Imoen well. And I am not talking that she becomes a bard, but rather a spellcasting thief kit, which can gain spells above page 6, maybe just one or two slots per each page?
1 thing is certain though. No more thief-mage dual or multis for BG2. 3 is enough. @Dragonfolk2000 Agreed that some more of the diverse kits (monk/barb/sorc) should be introduced as NPCs time constraint permitting.
But my guess is that we'll get a new thief. It would make sense considering that one of the biggest NPC complain about BG2 was not having enough thieves (while having PLENTY of warriors, wizards and priests)
But the option 2 is even better - I always found it weird that my 'sis' didn't have innate powers similar to mine. She could have a 'vampiric touch' or 'acid arrow' or sth similar as her first Bahl power. It could explain why the Cowls snatched her right away, rather than issuing a warning as they do for the party later on - they noticed that the way she cast magic was strange, and wanted to have a closer look.
I'm not sure if it starts in Shadows of Amn or only in Throne of Bhaal, but Imoen eventually does start getting bhaalspawn powers.
The second one was "Well, maybe in ToB, I might have missed it as I didn't play ToB all that much"
The third was to google it. Apparently, ToB has Imoen getting Bhaal powers, but it is buggy and sometimes fails to trigger.
Apparently it works right and plays a bigger part in Ascension mod, but I never installed that, not being a fan of ToB to start with. ...This might have been a mistake on my part, I admit. Hey, do you know if BG2:EE will include Ascension? T'd would be neat.
It was made also by David Gaider if I am not mistaken.
Not sure if this was part of vanilla or the ascension mod (I do know her powers do not show up without it), but I could swear she said something along the lines of "I'm a child of Bhaal? why don't I have your powers?"
Have a read of this if you're interested in that sort of thing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_localization Or, more specifically http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apraxia