Import NPCs' and PC's Stat increases made during BG1 into BG2
I have become aware that in BG1 there are various ways to permanently increase stats. I am also aware that Imoen starts BG2 as a Thief-Mage whose Int (17) is too low to deal with mage spells of the highest level. Therefore, I have a suggestion that will, I hope, be useful without unbalancing BG2: allow all permanent stat increases in BG to be carried over to BG2. This would, of course, only apply to NPCs appearing in BG2 and to the PC, but it is my hope that this might be acceptable for 2 reasons.
Firstly, it rewards players who have found and used stat increase methods in BG1, in the same way that completing many quests in BG1 rewards players with PCs of higher level.
Secondly, it allows Imoen greater strength as a wizard in act 1 of BG2 and allows her to continue to be of great use even in BG2's later stages, but only if players have decided in BG1 to increase her intelligence.
Firstly, it rewards players who have found and used stat increase methods in BG1, in the same way that completing many quests in BG1 rewards players with PCs of higher level.
Secondly, it allows Imoen greater strength as a wizard in act 1 of BG2 and allows her to continue to be of great use even in BG2's later stages, but only if players have decided in BG1 to increase her intelligence.
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I intend to use Shadowkeeper or NI to edit these in when BG2:EE comes out, such as Edwin having 19 INT.
In fact, BG2 Imoen is already a terribly effective character. From my experience, there's no trap or lock she can't avoid (and that's all you really need from a Thief, unless backstabbing or setting traps are absolutely essential to your strategies).
As a spellcaster, she does great. I've had several games where she was the only Mage (the other arcane caster being my Bard who couldn't go over 6th level) and I didn't have a very hard time.
With that said, it would be nice if there was a way of having more consistency between BG1 and BG2 based on how you played the first part. Knowing which character had increased stats could be one of them.
Moving from BG to BG2, Jaheira gets three points of DEX. Edwin picks up a point of STR and WIS. Minsc gets a point each of STR DEX and CON. Viconia gets three points of WIS. If you really want consistent NPCs, you're not going to get these--there's no way to get BG Jaheira to 17 DEX, and you'd have to burn all three tomes of WIS on Viconia just to get her to where she'd be in BG2 anyway.
A lot of these are suboptimal, sure--Edwin's STR and WIS bumps are worthless--but there's a fairly good case that the tomes are, in a fashion, already accounted for in BG2.
edit: TJ_Hooker's correct, Minsc gets a DEX bump, not STR.
The upgraded NPCs in BG2 get a total of 10 ability points between their stats. 4 go to WIS, and none go to INT or CHA.
I imagine they didn't really take tomes into account. Instead they just revised the stats for the NPCs who were coming back.
But of course, CamDawg's right in saying that to keep it really consistent, you'd have to give up the upgraded stats for returning NPCs.
It's a matter of opinion, really. I wouldn't mind having the BG2 NPCs with their original lower stats if it meant greater customization on the bigger picture. I could have Imoen with 19 DEX from the get go, for example. Or Minsc with 19 STR!
Of course, for the redundancy-minded, we can just continue to import CHARNAME and double down on all tomes and get 25/25/25/25/25/25 stats. Is that cheddar or jack cheese? Omnomnom.
You're welcome.
No, not at all serious
However, starting with 3e, characters would get a +1 to a stat every four levels, and 4e took it up to eleven by adding an additional +1 to ALL stats every 10 levels or so.
The BG/BG2 NPCs have all a specific set status points that they gain when the game pass from BG to BG2, that need just to be registered, and don't come to me saying that's lame to have both the bonus of transiction between BG/BG2 and a register of used tomes, cos no matter how better jaheira or viconia get if they have both bonus systems, they will not even be near the status of some another guy that join us in ToB... just to make a point.
Also, @kamuizin, the stat increase tomes aren't just self help books. They are magical.
As others have mentioned, while the later editions (3e and above) embraced stats point additions at regular points, 2e seems to envision stats as much more static baring magical enhancement