Fastest way to get Imoen back? (Spoilers)

Permidion_Stark

Whenever I play SoA I find I get sidetracked at the start by all the minor quests when I feel that if I was really attempting to role play then my character should be pulling out all the stops to get Imoen back. I mean it doesn't make much sense for me to be wandering round in the Windspear Hills or running errands for various temples before I get round to looking for my little sister. So I was wondering what is the fastest way to get the money together to pay off the thieves or the vampires and get on my way to Spellhold?

Communard

If you pick up all the sellable items and don't buy anything then you can have enough money just by completing the De'arnise Keep quest. Makes sense from an RP perspective too: You need money, there is a massive reward for a job from a noble family...obviously you're going to do it.

spacejaws

Well I do the Haer'Daels quest in the sewers and head into the planar. Usually come out of that with near enough loot to sell and some nifty items for moving forward. If you pick up any characters in Athlanka chances are they will drag you on one of their quests soon enough, trundle along and you'll have the money pretty quickly.

But theater quest then upper levels of de-arnise keep and you'll have yer gold.

MilesBeyond

Either de'Arnise or Trademeet should net you enough cash in one go.

I've always actually thought derping around Athkatla made more sense from an RP perspective, though. Sure, Imoen's been kidnapped, but you saw this mage slaughter everyone who came against him without breaking a sweat - plus he's already effortlessly imprisoned you once. You need more than just gold. You need allies and artifacts.

The one thing I never liked from an RP perspective is that once you rescue her, you're forced to just abandon another party member down in the labyrinth. Good luck finding your way out.

ShadowHunter

Normally I do all quests but youre right about you wanting to free Imoen as soon as possible. So I would first try to get a pretty strong team and then do all their side quests and of course d'Arnise Keep if you don't have enough money then go to the Umar hills or the theatre , I'm pretty sure you should have your money by then

shawne

The problem with rushing to Spellhold is that once you get there, you're plot-locked through to the end of the Underdark, which means you could potentially end up facing Illithids, Beholders and Umber Hulks with an underpowered party. It's better to do as much as possible beforehand - you can even justify this in-character, since there'd be little point in trying to rescue Imoen when you're still no match for Irenicus...

ShadowHunter

The problem with rushing to Spellhold is that once you get there, you're plot-locked through to the end of the Underdark, which means you could potentially end up facing Illithids, Beholders and Umber Hulks with an underpowered party. It's better to do as much as possible beforehand - you can even justify this in-character, since there'd be little point in trying to rescue Imoen when you're still no match for Irenicus...

I totally agree and don't forget the lack of experience ..... Even with a high level and pretty good equipment the illithids are difficult , for example if your cleric doesn't have enough spaces in his spells you can't protect everyone against their powers and that's only one example..........

Communard

Well, you know, you can return to the Underdark, it's not like you *have* to defeat mind flayers and beholders on your first visit. If you want to complete all of the Ust Natha subplots you can go Kuo-Toa hunting, and even that is optional.

ShadowHunter

Yeah but if you want to rescue Imoen as fast as you can just beacause it wouldn't be realistic to walk and do quests while your friend is abducted then it isn't really realistic to go back to Underdark when you got to fight Bodhi and safe Suldennesselar

Chippy

This should be interesting for developers as how many players thought there might be a consequence to taking too long? I didn't on my first playthrough, and based that oppinion on quest givers who gave a time frame that I didn't adhere to. I also held off to gain more power.

Maybe an idea for a future hard mode?.

Rann

Agree with the d'Arnise keep suggestion. I did the same thing first time through and was annoyed at how much I could have done first which would have levelled up my party before the Underdark. This is in fact my only real peeve with BG2 (nowadays I've learned to dawdle in games before moving the plot along, though it feels wrong...)

Cheesebelly

I amassed 20,000 gold by the time I met with Gaelyan once I think... was monk, sold everything, killed even Meccar Pebblecrusher and his team. It IS possible to start it from there but without a proper character, odds are high that you're gonna fail.

I guess I could try that out... minimal party with minimal gear on a rescue attempt of Immy as soon as possible. PC monk, Cernd and Imoen... good enough? XD

Permidion_Stark

Thanks for the replies guys. In the game I'm playing at the moment I did quite a few of the subquests before going in search of Imoen but I am beginning to think I should have done a few more because my party just got slaughtered in one of the first encounters in the Underdark. I really should learn not to twist the handle on strange Drow prisons just to see what will jump out.

ShadowHunter

@Permidion_Stark
Haha , what killed you ? The lich or one of the wizards ?

Moomintroll

Normally after doing the circus tent and then freeing the slaves in the copper coronet I have enough money.

Permidion_Stark

ShadowHunter said:

@Permidion_Stark
Haha , what killed you ? The lich or one of the wizards ?

I guess it was a lich because he threw a time stop at me. His name was something like Abner Dingnut. He seemed to have loads of magical protections that I didn't have the spells to take down.

I haven't played SoA much because I never have a clue what is going on when the high level spells start getting thrown about. This time through I decided to play as a mage because I thought it would help me to understand things but it seems I'm still as clueless as ever.

I think I'll go back to being a paladin. I'm much happier when my character is just whacking stuff with her sword.

shawne

Communard said:

Well, you know, you can return to the Underdark, it's not like you *have* to defeat mind flayers and beholders on your first visit. If you want to complete all of the Ust Natha subplots you can go Kuo-Toa hunting, and even that is optional.

Oh my God, no. By the time I reached the exit I was constantly casting Haste on my characters to get out get out get out already.

Communard

Yeah but if you want to rescue Imoen as fast as you can just beacause it wouldn't be realistic to walk and do quests while your friend is abducted then it isn't really realistic to go back to Underdark when you got to fight Bodhi and safe Suldennesselar

That is one of the problems with BG2, there is no free time like there is in parts of BG1 to just go exploring.

shawne said:

Communard said:

Well, you know, you can return to the Underdark, it's not like you *have* to defeat mind flayers and beholders on your first visit. If you want to complete all of the Ust Natha subplots you can go Kuo-Toa hunting, and even that is optional.

Oh my God, no. By the time I reached the exit I was constantly casting Haste on my characters to get out get out get out already.

Haha, I didn't say it would be *easy* now did I?

ajwz

Pretty much the first major quests I do every game are the circus tent (Im pretty sure most people do this), followed by the thieves guild. I always have enough gold after the thieves guild.

Probably the biggest reason why not to rush for imoen is not distraction, but the fact that the whole spellhold/sahuagin/underdark quest chain gives so much experience in comparison to all the ch2 accessible quests that they become almost not worth doing for the experience rewards, and even if you do do them, they become almost trivially easy when you can cast level 8+ spells, and this is taking into account encounter scaling.

I personally would love it if the developers removed a lot of the quest experience from the spellhold/underdark quest chain and redistributed it to the city quests a bit more.

shawne

There's also the danger that if you take someone like Nalia or Korgan to Spellhold without completing their sidequests, they could end up leaving the party while you're locked out of getting any replacements.