Dualing Imoen at 7 (as Canon), where to level with minimal traps/reloads?

Dragonspear

I'm making a Dwarven Fighter/Cleric to run the canon party with and my intent is to dual Imoen at level 7 to keep up with the Canon. The problem is that if I do that, I seem to remember roughly starting Baldur's Gate not long after. Are there any particular quests/areas (other than the basilisk map) that I should save that will allow me to get her level up quickly while also minimizing the amount of traps I will encounter?

Heindrich

As I plan out my first full BG EE to BG 2EE RP'ing Single-player playthrough, this is really bothering me too. I want to be as RP-accurate as possible, but at the same time, I prefer to play 'as blind as possible'. I have played a full playthrough of BG EE already, and I am currently involved in 2 BGEE MP games too, so clearly I cannot erase my memory of what I know, but I prefer to make decisions ingame for entirely roleplay choices, and avoiding specific quests, farming xp for Imoen etc, seems hugely metagamey.

I even considered dropping Imoen altogether and getting another thief, which would actually be a bit easier to explain RP-wise and still be consistent for the beginning of BG 2. But I really like Immy, and don't particularly like the other thieves...

Faydark

I recently did this on one of my playthroughs, and the only answer is "it's really hard to level Imoen to 7, then level her back to Mage 8 to get her skills back before you really really need a thief again"

I remember that I still didn't have Mage 8 on Imoen after escaping candlekeep. I got through the catacombs by using my mage/cleric, lots of mirror image + potions to resist fire/elec, wands of fireball + skulltraps to take out enemies etc lots of resting to regen hp and spells.

Then after I escaped, I think I was pretty close to Mage 8 for Imoen, so I did the basilisk area, but still hadn't reached Mage 8, so I went to the lighthouse map (I think?) and did some rest/kill sirens/rest/kill sirens etc until I got bored and very close to Mage 8.

Then I went to Durlag's Tower, and Imoen hit Mage 8 on the way to the entrance (I think there were two doomguards on the way, plus some around the walls with misc skellies).

So it was a bit of a grind and not really something I'll repeat again. It took a fair bit of the fun out of the game.

Corvino

Ankhegs, Sirines on the lighthouse map and Basilisks are the quickest and safest ways to get several thousand XP quickly and (with a bit of preparation) safely for dual classing.

Dragonspear

Saving the Sirine and Ankheg map until after she duals is essential.

@Faydark

[Spoiler]Ya I had to do all of candlekeep without a thief there too. That hurt, I did more resting in that little area than I had done in other chapters combined. I was primarily using Yeslick or my Dwarven Wizard Slayer PC to open most things/trip most. And I had Yeslick running the find traps spell. Still it was a nightmare.[/Spoiler]