Imoen's thief skills BG1 to BG2

BelgarathMTH

Question - If you build Imoen as the thief you mean her to be in BG1:EE, up to level 8, and then export-import your BG1:EE party into BG2:EE, will she still have the thief skills you gave her and intended for her to have in your BG2:EE game?

Or, will BG2:EE reset her thief abilities to their puny, lame, almost useless levels in favor of the BG2 conception of Imoen as weak thief>now mage. I've always hated the BG2 decision to change Imoen into a mage, the unrealistic free 8 levels of mage be damned.

To me, Imoen will always be my Little Orphan Annie, my little sister, my conscience, my guide, and my heart. In my imagination, Imoen is the thief class to the core of her being. That unfortunate wild magic surge that caused her to suddenly *appear* to cast a magic missile in the Amnish Promenade after months of horror and torture at the hands of Irenicus was just a freak accident of nature and a misunderstanding. (*Bhaal* nature, as it later turned out.)

I know I can use Keeper to change Imoen into what I think she should be at the beginning of BG2:EE, but that's kind of a pain. It would at least give me what I might accept if Imoen could arrive in BG2:EE from an imported party while retaining the build I chose for her during BG1:EE.

Does that happen, or am I stuck with Keepering Imoen every time I start BG2:EE?

SharGuidesMyHand

BelgarathMTH said:

Question - If you build Imoen as the thief you mean her to be in BG1:EE, up to level 8, and then export-import your BG1:EE party into BG2:EE, will she still have the thief skills you gave her and intended for her to have in your BG2:EE game?

Or, will BG2:EE reset her thief abilities to their puny, lame, almost useless levels in favor of the BG2 conception of Imoen as weak thief>now mage. I've always hated the BG2 decision to change Imoen into a mage, the unrealistic free 8 levels of mage be damned.

The Imoen that you meet in BG2 is generated by the game, so if you use the export/import trick to import your BG1 Imoen into BG2, you will have two Imoens running around.

BelgarathMTH

@SharGuidesMyHand‌ , I wasn't asking about any "trick", and in fact, I don't know what you mean by that, but, I was just asking about a regular "export party" and then "import".

However, I think you may have just answered my question well enough. Any "export party" is going to erase "my" Imoen in favor of the game's version of Imoen. Sigh. So, off to Keeper I go every time I start a BG2:EE game, apparently. Bummer.

Belanos

BelgarathMTH said:

Any "export party" is going to erase "my" Imoen in favor of the game's version of Imoen. Sigh.

Correct. The only character you can import into BG2 is your own. You might want to be careful about changing her through EEKeeper, you could conceivably break your game. If she doesn't have an magic spells to cast during the cutscene, that whole encounter may not trigger.

Elzarath

Belanos said:

BelgarathMTH said:

Any "export party" is going to erase "my" Imoen in favor of the game's version of Imoen. Sigh.

Correct. The only character you can import into BG2 is your own. You might want to be careful about changing her through EEKeeper, you could conceivably break your game. If she doesn't have an magic spells to cast during the cutscene, that whole encounter may not trigger.

Surely not, what if you have them and they aren't memorised? I think it's one of those pre-generated / built in kind of things so it'll always trigger and the animation will play regardless. I'm positive I've changed her to pure thief and it's still done it.

I think the change is that Imoen in spellhold is different from the start of game Imoen.

SharGuidesMyHand

BelgarathMTH said:

@SharGuidesMyHand‌ , I wasn't asking about any "trick", and in fact, I don't know what you mean by that, but, I was just asking about a regular "export party" and then "import".

As far as I know, in order to import your entire BG1 party into BG2, you need to use EE keeper to change your party members to "exportable," and then begin your BG2 game in multiplayer before switching the saved game to single player.

lunar

You can edit BG2 Imoen's creature files and save them as a pure thief. That way, she will always be a thief in your game. Note that there are many rubbish imoen creature files, they are used in cutscenes and dreamscenes you don't need to edit those, really.

Belanos

Elzarath said:

Surely not, what if you have them and they aren't memorised? I think it's one of those pre-generated / built in kind of things so it'll always trigger and the animation will play regardless. I'm positive I've changed her to pure thief and it's still done it.

You could be right, but personally I wouldn't want to take the chance. It would be extremely frustrating to go through the starting dungeon only to find out you're broken the game. And I don't see the point really. There's nothing wrong with having Imoen be a dual-class Thief/Mage. It doesn't break continuity with the first game at all since it's not indicated how much time was spent between the end of BG1 and the start of BG2. She may have had plenty of time to pick up some Wizard levels between games.

Darkcloud

Belanos said:

Elzarath said:

Surely not, what if you have them and they aren't memorised? I think it's one of those pre-generated / built in kind of things so it'll always trigger and the animation will play regardless. I'm positive I've changed her to pure thief and it's still done it.

You could be right, but personally I wouldn't want to take the chance. It would be extremely frustrating to go through the starting dungeon only to find out you're broken the game. And I don't see the point really. There's nothing wrong with having Imoen be a dual-class Thief/Mage. It doesn't break continuity with the first game at all since it's not indicated how much time was spent between the end of BG1 and the start of BG2. She may have had plenty of time to pick up some Wizard levels between games.

At lost some thief levels? This is the one thing that sucks compared to bgt with the EE.

jackjack

I think the Imoen at the beginning of BG2 is a different creature file than the one you meet in Spellhold, so make sure you edit her after picking her up there. Damn dopplegangers.