Difficulty with Rogues in BG2

Nic_Mercy

Imoen begins as a Thief in BG1... and dual classes to mage in BG2. I imagine this will be set in stone since this is a fairly true to the original remake of the games and Imoen being a mage is a vital element to advancing the story after the intro dungeon.

My question is... Does anyone know or care to speculate if she'll retain her thief skills at the levels you've chosen during BG1 or will they be completely overwritten upon crossing over into BG2? What about spells? If you did dual class her in BG1 will she retain any spells she learned or will those too be overwritten? I know this is more speculative than anything since bg2:ee isn't out yet but I am curious what other folks have to say about the subject.

I've always modified Imoen in the old bg2 to be a multiclass thief/mage (despite being human) because her skills as a thief always fell short as bg2 progressed and there was little you could do about it barring a few items that did nothing for her mage side and potions that ate up inventory/cost gold/etc. Yoshimo can't be... relied upon... as the party's primary rogue otherwise I'd keep him and leave Imoen as she is. Nalia's worse than Imoen at roguery, Jan is annoying and I don't usually play a rogue as my main character though I am considering so now.

Does anyone else have difficulty deciding which rogue to have in your party in BG2 if you it isn't your main character?

shawne

Well, my first playthrough used BGT, which kept Imoen, Viconia, Jaheira, Minsc and Edwin consistent throughout both games - so Imoen remained a pure Thief. Not quite sure what'll happen with BG2:EE, though there's always the possibility of new thieves being added in addition to Jan and Nalia...

Nic_Mercy

shawne said:

Well, my first playthrough used BGT, which kept Imoen, Viconia, Jaheira, Minsc and Edwin consistent throughout both games - so Imoen remained a pure Thief. Not quite sure what'll happen with BG2:EE, though there's always the possibility of new thieves being added in addition to Jan and Nalia...

Forgive me, I've never played the BG games through BGT. Just the traditional BG1 2 and TOB and played them together via Tutu.

How exactly does the event after Irenicus's dungeon play out in BGT if Imoen is not a mage?

shawne

She still throws out Magic Missiles, but I've always taken that as her Bhaalspawn powers momentarily manifesting.

bbear

Imoen will lose her spells. Frankly my Imoen scribed some scrolls in Irenicus' dungeon and when I got her back after spellhold, she lost her earlier scribed spells. So if you dual her in bg1, dont count on her to remember those spells.

The only thieves that can legit access HLA are jan and sarevork. But dualing sarevork into a thief just seems so wrong! I like Jan, especially when he tried to steal Boo from Minsc.

Mungri

Jan is awesome, yet sadly the only thief that can gain thief HLAS IN BG2. I dont get why they had loads of thieves in BG1, then so few in BG2.

Nic_Mercy

Well then I don't feel so bad making Imoen into a multi-classed thief/mage when bg2:ee comes out :P

Mungri

Well why even bother with doing that when you can have Jan instead? If you simply edit Imoen to give her back her legal number of thief points for level 7, you easily have enough points for 100 open locks, 100 find traps, and enough left over to dump into stealth or set traps.

You effectively gimp Imoen even more because she cannot level as a mage fast enough then.

Jaxsbudgie

There's been talk that an evil Thief NPC will be added to BG2:EE, methinks female ... possibly Assassin?

Nic_Mercy

Mungri said:

Well why even bother with doing that when you can have Jan instead? If you simply edit Imoen to give her back her legal number of thief points for level 7, you easily have enough points for 100 open locks, 100 find traps, and enough left over to dump into stealth or set traps.

You effectively gimp Imoen even more because she cannot level as a mage fast enough then.

See I don't look at it as gimping her but rather making her more useful and versatile. Sure she won't level as a mage as fast as she would otherwise, but she'll have better combat abilities and rogue abilities and I don't have to use a character I dislike (Jan)