Canon Party Imoen Thieving Skills

Dalakaar

Hey all.

Is there a specific allocation for Imoen’s thieving skills when you spec her canon? (Dualing her to mage at 7) My memory is super hazy but I thought you could dual her 7T/8M and still have enough in Pick Locks and Find Traps to manage everything including Durlag’s if you saved the thieving potions and the red strength potion from the carnival.(Or was the potion for a chest with a tome? Can’t remember...) However I am not sure if any of this is true or not cause it’s very IIRC.

jmerry

The level 1 version of Imoen starts with 25 OL and 35 FT. If you go to level 7 before dual-classing, you've got enough points to reach 100 in both, and won't need thieving potions at all. If you go to level 6 before dual-classing, you'll be a little short and have to use thieving potions on occasion. In that case, I recommend going to 100 FT and 85 OL; there's no penalty for failing to pick a lock on the first try, but some traps are set off if you fail to disarm them.

If you avoid Imoen at first meeting and pick her up later after leveling some, you get the level 2 version and a trigger for catch-up experience (assuming EE, of course). She spends some of her points on stealth, so that leaves you a little behind the version recruited at level 1. There's still enough to max out both FT and OL if dual-classing at 7, or to max out FT and pick locks with potions if dual-classing at 6.

The 25 strength potion is the way to get at the strength tome in the Candlekeep catacombs if you don't have a thief at all. If you do have a thief - well, two Master Thievery potions are enough to pick any pickable lock in the game, even if you don't invest in OL at all. The NPC thieves range from 25 (Imoen, Montaron) to 95 in Open Locks when recruited, and a PC with max Dexterity for their chosen race starts with at least 25.

sarevok57

or if you have a mage that has the level 2 mage spell knock, they can use it to open any locked containter/door that a thief would be able to

if memory serves;
90% open lock is all you need in bg1, if you fail just keep trying until it opens ( there is only a couple of containers where you might fail the first time with 90%, but they will eventually open )

for traps, in theory you only really need 95% ( there is only 1 trap that requires 100% but you can get kiel's buckler before it to increase your DEX by 1 to give you that extra 5% or use the level 2 luck spell which gives you a 5% bonus for 3 rounds )

other than the level 2 wardstone trap ( the trap that requires 100% ) and the tome of wisdom trap ( which i have never been able to disarm, but its not that deadly anyway ) 95% will be more than enough to do all of your traps

which can give you some extra points for other skills like pick pocket or stealth, depending on how you want to play your imoen

Pingwin

If you want her to match her BG2 character as closely as possible you'll need to aim for the following thief skills and weapon proficiencies:

MS: 30, HS: 25, OL 100, FT: 95, PP: 35

Dagger, Dart, QS, Short Sword, Short bow

Note that she actually starts BG1 with 35 in Move Silently but only 15 in Hide In Shadows. If I'm going for the canon Imoen, I'll get Find Traps and Open Locks up to 95 and 100 respectively then put 10 points into Pick Pockets and 5 into Hide In Shadows so her Move Silently/Hide In Shadows average score matches the start of BG2.

jmerry

Actually, the two versions of Imoen in BG2 have slightly different thieving skills from each other. The stats Pingwin provided are for the permanent version you pick up in chapter 4, while the chapter 1 version has 95 OL and 35 MS instead.

Dalakaar

Awesome thanks for the excellent replies all, precisely what I was hoping for.