Imoen (early game spoilers)

rathlord

Heya guys,

Played BG as a kid and have beaten BG recently, but I've never played through BG2. So, I've just lost Imoen to the cowled wizards, and my question is: how long do I have to wait to get her back? Should I be building a party around having her, hoarding items for her, etc. Or should I be moving on and building a party without her? I'd prefer a no-spoilers answer, just "She'll be back soon" or "she won't be back soon."

Noon

"she won't be back soon." Rushing the story to free her can be challenging, take your time in Athkatla.

Heindrich

You will be bombarded with quests pretty soon... I recommend doing at least 3 of them before rushing off to rescue Imoen. I know the pros can do it much sooner, but I wudn't recommend it on a first playthrough.

Exactly how urgently u choose to rescue Imoen depends on if u intend to keep her in ur party in the long term. If you wanna keep her, u also don't wanna wait too long, or she will fall quite far behind the rest of the party for xp.

meagloth

You want to load up on NPC's. Have a full party, keeping yoshimo will make it easier. Then you shouldn't have a hard time

sarevok57

if you rush off to spellhold right away, and aren't prepared for it ( for example knowing what weapons and items you will be using in the future) its going to be hell, especially if you aren't a veteran, they even changed a couple things that made some parts of chapter 4 and 5 WAY harder than they were in the original, so if you are going to stick around and do some questing first that will be fine, and once you get to spellhold you could just kick a thief type out of your party once you are there and put her back on, but it you wish to do it that way, you will want to find the ring of lock picks, and ring of danger sense before you bring imoen along, if she has those 2 rings, then imoen can be great, if not she is basically just another mage

Heindrich

sarevok57 said:

they even changed a couple things that made some parts of chapter 4 and 5 WAY harder than they were in the original

@sarevok57
They did??? I'd appreciate it if u could PM me a bit more detail on that. I'm in Ch.6 for my BG 2 Vanilla run, so not worried about spoilers from Ch4 and 5, and was considering going for Imoen even earlier for my BG 2 EE playthrough cos it's a bit annoying that Imoen is quite a bit behind the rest of my party for xp and I am constantly outmatched by enemy mages in terms of high level spells.

Illydth

Your best bet is to assume Imoen will be gone for a good portion of the game. Build your party around other NPCs.

That said, most players do use Imoen once she is found and comes back into the party. You should already know what her areas of specialty are (Short Bows and Short Swords) and that she's a Wizard (all of this is available from her character sheet at the beginning of the game), so it doesn't hurt you to keep an extra copy of each spell you pick up and a good set of weapons/armor around for her that will suit her when you get her back.

sarevok57

@Heindrich1988 here they are: [spoiler] the demon battles are brutally hard, there is a pitfiend in the asylum dungeon ( the one you fight when you have the ruby, saphire and some other stone and use it against the portal - the third stone gives you the doomplate+3) but that pitfiend acts like a real pitfiend and uses special abilities and can be a shop wrecker, plus you will need +3 weapons to even hit that guy, and he has awesomely high magic resistance, the second one, is the balor you fight in the underdark, so you can get the light gem from little deep gnome dude, that balor i struggled with a lot, and i've played this game more times than some people have breathed air, that balor once again has a host of spell like abilities, high magic resistance and again can only be hit by +3 or better weapons, oh, and i guess the demon knights in the kuo-toa dungeon are a bit more difficult, they use way more spell like abilities ( like fireball and such - so fire resistance is a must) but after the fire they werent too bad, < the demon knights are found when you place a summoned creature onto demogorgon's statue near the bottom east of the kuo-toa dungeon> [\spoiler]

Time4Tiddy

She will be gone a long time. If this is your first BG2 playthrough, a long, LONG time. Don't worry, with ToB included and no level cap, you'll have plenty of time to level her up and gear her up later.

nano

@sarevok57 Hmm, those are SCS changes, aren't they? They're included in the vanilla game now? Have other demons been updated with spell-like abilities as well?

enneract

Pretend yoshimo is imoen, for purposes of party composition, and you will be fine.

sarevok57

@nano yeah there have been other changes, but i cant spoil that now can i?

nothing else to game ultering although ToB enemies use HLA more often or at least different ones

Merina

This is an old topic and been a recurring question here to.

We have been curious enough to not only read up on rescueing Imoen early but also to give it a try with the goal of making Imoen the party's sole mage.

Big questions: Will she be capable enough so early and in the Underdark? Yes.

Will the party be strong enough for rescueing her? Yes. Some of the monsters in the Asylum are easier ones when entering early. The opposite holds true for the quests when doing them later. More enemies, stronger enemies. No issue, except that even when rescueing Imoen late, one can run into stronger enemies, too.

Will NPCs cause any trouble when not starting a quest the party has learned about? Minsc will be annoyed as always about not travelling to Umar Hills, but won't complain anymore until exiting the Underdark.

Will any quests be missing? No. Not even Mae'Var's for a good party.

Rescueing Imoen early has worked out very well.

Party formation:

Cavalier (female, to allow for romance with Anomen)
Jaheira (to be replaced in ToB)
Minsc
Anomen
Keldorn
Yoshimo -> Nalia -> Imoen

Originally, we had planned with Mazzy instead of Jaheira, but somehow we messed it up, which made it easier to kick her in the butt later on. A lot of melee power in the party as a special wish. Two paladins. Three potential two-handed weapon fighters. Minsc and Keldorn becoming dual-wielders, too. Jaheria being a pita, slow multi-class.

Starting or finishing just a very few quests in a quick run, without picking up all items that could be sold for some additional gold, has been rather flawless. 12495 gold on day 4. More than 27000 gold after de'Arnise quest. A very brief visit of Watcher's Keep for just a few items and more gold to be able to even buy Balduran's shield. A bit of a problem is the flood of quests and NPC-specific events.

When travelling to Windspear Hills, we made the mistake of not talking to Garren. Upon returning to Alkathla Slums, six knights attacked the party. Nasty surprise. Not visiting the slums is not a permanent solution. Even upon exiting the Underdark and talking to Garren, the knights' attack still gets triggered. It doesn't have any harmful consequence though.

Off to Brynnlaw on day 16 after a few delays caused by the NPCs and their own incidents. As a shock moment, because it's easy to miss: Jaheira lost her Amulet of Power after fleeing in fear from Wandering Horrors. Thanks god she dropped it on a bridge near Brynnlaw.

On exit from the Underdark, Minsc immediately demands visiting Imnesvale. Else, something may have interrupted the romance with Anomen. Or a wrong answer. Not sure yet, but the party has left Saradush meanwhile, and he hasn't said much.