Imoen or Nalia?

Permidion_Stark

At the start of BG2 Imoen gets taken away from you but there is an immediately available like-for-like replacement in Nalia. Personally I regard Nalia as a cut-price, bargain basement, cheap imitation of Imoen but because I generally play a good character I usually end up with her in my party - at least until I can get my little sister back and replace Nalia with someone else.

But what about the rest of you? Imoen? Nalia? Both? Neither?

Jaxsbudgie

Imoen is fine but I like Nalia better. Which is odd because I almost always choose the deadly three - Viconia, Edwin and Korgan. I rarely play good guys, yet Nalia is usually there.
Personally, I think she's one of the best mages, only Edwin rivals her, both have pros and cons which are totally negligible by the time you're at ToB.

Edit:
The way other people look at Nalia - she's a terrible thief, not as good as Imoen.
The way I look at Nalia - she's an awesome early obtainable mage who has extra hit points and can use swords and bows. Cool.

Silverstar

Imoen. I don't like Nalia with her "oh lookit me, I'm all goodie-goodie. Us superior upper-class people should all be helpful towards you lowly peasants" attitude. Her in-dungeon comment "How are we helping the less fortunate trudging around down here?" is nothing short of stupid and rather hilarious when it's inside her own keep.

... Nalia doesn't have a romance? Huh. Figured she did.

Necdilzor

I was really disappointed that she was no longer a 100% thieve and her skills were inadequate at best.

Ward

I would vote but I don't like the way you described any of the choices.

I never unerstood the 'I'm good so I can't use evil NPCs' thing. I'm a good character and I use Viconia. I only played BG2 through once and I chose Nalia for the good mage powers.

Bjjorick

and i romance them both.

odee

Imoen , I don't mind nalia . 'cept that she got air ... like she better thsn is , uh pleaseee

odee

Gawd me spelling

Permidion_Stark

Silverstar said:

... Nalia doesn't have a romance? Huh. Figured she did.

I don't think she does unless you are using mods.

CrazedSlayer

I go to spellhold for Imoen and keep her all through ToB, I use Nalia for her stronghold and dump her out of the party.

Communard

Imoen: Your childhood companion who you spent months saving and a powerful magic user who is also handy with a lockpick

Nalia: A naive rich girl you met when she hired you for a job and whose adventuring skills are inferior in every way to Imoen's

Now, I'm not saying I never take Nalia or that she's a bad character, but she's no Imoen. She's not even close.

Kamigoroshi

Neither. Both of their personalities get on my nerves.

The_New_Romance

I like Nalia. She really hammers home on the bad guys, but so does Imoen, probably. Only I wouldn't know, because she's taken away from me for a third of the game or so You see, it's difficult as Imoen may be a better mage and have better thieving skills (who still don't suffice, anyway), but you can have Nalia around for a long time. And I just love it when she Death Spells a pack of Umber Hulks in one shot, boom like that.

ajwz

Imoen replaces yoshimo for me.
Plus, I always feel guilt when abondoning her under spellhold, where even edwin and korgan object to this treatment.

elminster

Nalia. By the time I get Imoen back she is too low a level to be any use for me. Nalia you can get shortly after you lose Imoen, which makes her more useful. Plus I actually don't mind her, and her quest ads depth to the storyline involving controlling the fighter/monk stronghold.

Dragonfolk2000

If I keep either of them it is only for storyline reasons. I try to cover as many bases as I can with any (if not all) of my premade characters so that I'm not forced to pick NPCs based on what's missing in the party balance.

I always have Imoen in the party as that makes the most sense storyline-wise (even if you ARE evil). I only use her thieving skills in the first dungeon and after that I use her strictly as a mage. If I'm playing a fighter I typically keep Nalia in the party, since ditching her after claiming her home seems like a jerk-move.

Serenity

I played with Nalia once. She doesn't look like much at the beginning, but later one she indeed turns into a pretty amazing mage. Storywise, Imoen is just a good fit. Much of the story at the beginning hinges on her, so to me she just belongs in the group.

As for the thieving. I'm not really into thieves so much in BG2. I rarely use stealth or traps. Just not really my style. I need a thief for disarming traps and that works nicely with the ones available.

Awong124

I get both, simply because there aren't enough good (as in likable, not alignment) npcs to choose from in bg2.

recklessheart

Nalia's a more interesting character. She has flaws in her personality, but I don't see why that makes her objectionable. It's not as though Viconia is the most moralistic person, and she's much more insulting of the protagonist than Nalia :P

But yeah - Nalia's a really good Mage. That isn't my primary motivation for taking her, however. She does have an interesting personality. Furthermore, in ToB (though lacking in dialogue) she becomes much more confident, and jaded, suggesting that at one point she had a conversion-to-neutral-alignment sidequest that was dropped.

And Imoen's quite tedious. She doesn't have the same interesting, intelligent or controversial dialogues with the other NPCs that Nalia has, despite the Bhaalspawn-association thing she is granted mid-SoA. Mostly when she speaks, it's just to complain about how everything is less fun than it was in BG1. And I say that as somebody who has used both of them several times, and had both of them in my party at once in one playthrough.

As @Jaxsbudgie said; Nalia's a Mage that can use some extra weapons, which is how she should be seen, rather than a bad Imoen. Not to mention that she has the Mage paperdoll, which is way cooler than Imoen's, when you see her casting a spell or using a bow.

recklessheart

Oh. And I agree with @Ward; there is a definite bias in how the voter options have been described, which is rather discouraging. :P

Cloutier

Ward said:

I would vote but I don't like the way you described any of the choices.

I never unerstood the 'I'm good so I can't use evil NPCs' thing. I'm a good character and I use Viconia. I only played BG2 through once and I chose Nalia for the good mage powers.

If your rep is too high, they leave. Or they end up picking a fight with Keldorn.

Jaxsbudgie

Cloutier said:

If your rep is too high, they leave. Or they end up picking a fight with Keldorn.

And that's why Keldorn never makes it out alive from the sewers in every single game I play

Kinda like this ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oFcJlcUazA ... he talks, I listen, I hit.

sandmanCCL

Imoen is a perfectly viable thief for opening chests and disarming traps for the entire saga, just so you know. There are only a handful of traps/chests she can't get past with use of Potion of Master Thievery.

The few she can't get past? That's what Knock is for. That's what protection-from-whatever-this-trap-is-gonna-do spells are for.

Garm

I only use Nalia (and even then only esporadically) while Imoen isn't available.

UnseeyingEye

I have a confession... I never used any for any particularly long length of time. Despite my dozens of playthroughs I stuck mostly with the same people. It is something that makes me very sad... and something I will rectify with BG:EE/2!! For some reason I really want Imoen in my party now. Maybe it is because I am no longer 12 years old and understand the deeper meaning it will give to the story if I take my little sister along. So I voted Imoen.

Paheej

Nalia has the most fleshed out related quest in BG2 - the de'Arnise Keep just has [i]everything[/i] you'd want in a quest . . .

1. Damsel in Distress
2. Corrupted Guard who can be saved
3. Epic weapon that you build
4. Enemies that require a specific way to kill (Troll)
5. Multiple paths to get past a few enemies (Umberhulks and Dog Stew)
6. Turns into a stronghold for fighters

I mean after that first quest with Nalia, how can she not be in your party? Additionally the de'Arnise Romance Mod probably the best NPC mod available.

Xzar

No fitting options in the poll for me. My canon character is neutral evil mage, so there is no use for either of these not because you cant romance them, but because they wont fit my party both skills-wise and story-wise.

Sometimes I stick with Imoen because of lack of thieves in BG2, but even when I do, its a burden I have to suffer through.

cloakanddagger

@paheej Yeah there is it's called, don't add that bratty wench to your party to begin with. Nothing I hate more than an average character who COMPLAINS. And as a side note she is also the least attractive to me personally.

The_New_Romance

sandmanCCL said:

Imoen is a perfectly viable thief for opening chests and disarming traps for the entire saga, just so you know. There are only a handful of traps/chests she can't get past with use of Potion of Master Thievery.

The few she can't get past? That's what Knock is for. That's what protection-from-whatever-this-trap-is-gonna-do spells are for.

Is that really the case? I hear lots of "You have to take Jan", and the Knock spell is not quite everbody's favourite (even though I always liked it...).

bifflechips

After playing the Nalia romance by Jason Compton and Kulyok, I have to pick Nalia. Imoen is fine as a character, but at the same time, she isn't particularly memorable to me, though that may have a lot more to do with how the creators treated her in BG and Shadows of Amn, as she was last minute additions to both. But banterpacks and the BG1 NPC project made her more interesting, so that's still good.

jhart1018

Imoen. I take her the whole way. I have nothing against Nalia, and I think I took her with me once, but it really depends on what my main character is. I take Yoshimo and replace him with Imoen. She's got better thief skills than Nalia, too. I only take four others into the battle(s) with Irenicus because I pick up Sarevok right away in ToB. I just can't leave anyone, even little data/pixel people, stranded beneath an asylum or trapped in a pocket plane that will collapse at the end of the game.