*SPOILER* Is it possible to do the majority of Athkatla quest AFTER getting Imoen back?

Fina92

Would love to see what she has to say about all of them for this playthrough

Usually do them all before picking her up, but hey, variety is the spice of life

Heindrich

Yes, I don't see why not. U can go as soon as u got enough gold, and feel confident enough that u can handle the trials to come.

Because I roleplayed a character who cared a lot about Imoen, I only did 3 or 4 major side quests before rushing off to save her, and did the likes of the Windspear Hills, Shadow Dungeon etc after returning from the Underdark.

The problem RP'ing-wise, is that there never really is a good time to do the side quests, cos u got a crisis at all times, before and after the Underdark.

kryptix

The only reasonable time to do it all rp wise is before chapter 3, and you justify it by needing to get gear to break her out of prison and a big fight with irenicus.

After that you need your soul back etc...

Twani

Imoen, sadly, doesn't have interjections on most quests because it was originally thought she would die in the spellhold. The decision to keep her around was a last minute descision by the Baldur's Gate crew, so she barely has interjections in the Underdark/elven city. She doesn't have any at all for the circus, umer hills, trademeet, and so on.

Still, you can definitely save them to do with her in the party. Keeps her closer in XP, if nothing else.

nano

Strangely I didn't feel all that rushed after getting Imoen back. Irenicus has my soul and I'm supposedly dying, but dying by elf standards could take years. I guess Suldanessellar needs saving but a couple weeks seems reasonable to gather my forces. It actually makes more sense to me RP wise to go after Imoen ASAP and do the rest of the side quests afterwards, rather than cramming them all into chapter 2 when you have more than enough gold already. One thing to note though is that all the side quests will be at max level; I hope you enjoy liches in your Shadow Temple.

Bigfish

I tend to look at it as Imoen will have to wait. Whats the difference between 2 weeks and 2 months? Irenicus is going to get what he wants from her by the time I get to her either way. It's not a good solution, but she's on her own until I can get prepared and I've helped the people I know for a fact I can save. Triage on an adventuring level if you will.

Alternatively, rushing to spellhold leaves you in a position of needing to gather allies and equipment for the assault on Bodhi and Irenicus, and being soulless doesn't seem to be having THAT much of an impact on your lifespan.

Heindrich

Bigfish said:

I tend to look at it as Imoen will have to wait. Whats the difference between 2 weeks and 2 months? Irenicus is going to get what he wants from her by the time I get to her either way.

@Bigfish
I'm sorry but that's a horrible attitude if you roleplay it with any realism. With metagame knowledge, and thinking about it from a game mechanic point of view, then yes, how quickly you get there doesn't really matter in terms of the outcome.

But roleplaying-wise... You know first hand that Irenicus is merciless and remorseless. You know first hand that he has no qualms about torturing and killing his captives, and you also saw that he kept dryads as (implied) sex slaves. If Charname knew that a young girl was his captive, and cared about her at all, he/she would try everything possible to rescue her asap.

The only justification for hanging around in Chapter 2 with a Good-aligned party is that as far as you know, Imoen was taken in by the Cowled Wizards, which although distressful and upsetting, means that she should be reasonably safe. Thus if your party is Lawful, you'd try to get Imoen released via formal channels. Playing blind, and unaware that there would be no lawful avenue, I attempted to appease the Cowled Wizards, the Athkatla government, the Temple of Helm and the Order of the Radiant Heart. As each option fell through, if the game didn't push me towards the Vampires/Thieves, I planned on deliberately setting off spells in Athkatla to force a confrontation with the Cowled Wizards.

The moment I got the sequence where I knew Irenicus had taken over Spellhold. I dropped everything and rushed to save her asap.

jackjack

Of course, that changes if you can't stand her.

Bigfish

I didn't mean that as metagame knowledge, I meant it as a very real and really very depressing conclusion that if someone meant for Imoen to be dead, she would be and there is nothing that could be done about it.

Now, Charname can rush off to pay off the shadow thieves or vampires and and try to rescue Imoen, who may or may not be dead, or he can help the people in front of him who most certainly ARE alive and need his help NOW while also preparing for what will certainly be a difficult battle that he will eventually face, either in rescuing or avenging Imoen.

ChildofBhaal599

I actually used the SCS components to increase the price of help during my current playthrough. Normally I would always RP that it was more expensive anyway, but that is the way I get through it. That and I need equipment to kill a powerful wizard like Irenicus, which will also take money and adventuring to acquire. I just can't see me doing anything in chapter 6 if I didn't already do them in ch 2 and 3. I guess I do mess with story a little in order to make my completionism a bit better in the RP of the story, such as pretending I did not get the note leading to Tranzig in BG1, then exploring the wilderness saying that I am looking around for the bandit camp, and loot that will help me in the cause. However if the game explicitly stated that I am dying without my soul along with Imoen then I think it is time for me to go do something about it

Shin

My usual chapter 2-solution is to up the gold required to 80k, ensuring I have to do a fair bit of adventuring before I can leave (and also forcing me to prioritize what I really need to buy).

nano

Bigfish said:

I didn't mean that as metagame knowledge, I meant it as a very real and really very depressing conclusion that if someone meant for Imoen to be dead, she would be and there is nothing that could be done about it.

There's nothing to suggest Imoen is actually dead though. All you know is that she's been captured by the Cowled Wizards and sent to Spellhold. Irenicus clearly needs Imoen alive, or he would have killed her a long time ago. The main argument for waiting is that Spellhold is supposed to be an unassailable fortress so you need all the preparation you can get. Even so, some quests are hard to justify from an RP perspective. Like jumping into the planar prison after Haer-dalis always seemed like a shockingly bad idea

I don't see why you should have to help anyone who asks anyways, in real life I prioritize my own quests as well. Just send Minsc and Jaheira to go help out the others while you take care of your own thing. I pretend that that's what I did but they couldn't get it done so I have to help them out when I come back from Spellhold.