Skip to content

If I choose to abandon Nalia and allow Iomen in the Asylum can I get Nailia back later?

I'm asking because, in the beginning, it forces you to not allow Imoen but once you get to (I don't want to give a spoiler alert) because this game is old enough I don't think I need one, however, I leveled up Nalia and bought her spells that I'm not sure I can get again... so I am wondering if I should 1.) Abandon Nalia or Imonen or I could also start from scratch (like I've done many times ex. I tried to make a Kensai/Thief only to realize halfway through the game that I wouldn't be able to turn him into a Kensai/Thief because of his Lawfull Good alignment (yes you may laugh.)

I don't mind start the game over as I've done this many times... I guess my question is should I keep Nalia as my mage or my Main Character who is a Level 14 Kensai / Level 15 Thief (which renders any other "part" thief irrelevant. So the question is: IS NALIA OR IMOEN the best character to keep?

Comments

  • 20884322088432 Member Posts: 229
    Can someone please help me with this? I could use help soon. :(
  • jsavingjsaving Member Posts: 1,083
    edited April 2019
    If you enter Spellhold with a 5-man party because you know you will be rescuing Imoen, then you don't have to abandon anyone.

    If you choose to enter Spellhold with a 6-man party, then yes, anyone you dismiss in Spellhold is gone forever.

    You can split the difference by temporarily recruiting someone you don't like just before you leave the mainland. They'll provide combat help until you reach Spellhold and then you can leave them behind at your leisure.

    Although the most common tactic people use is to temporarily recruit *spoiler*, knowing he/she would leave the party before any successful rescue (thus freeing a slot for Imoen).

    If you actually want to leave Nalia or Imoen behind and are simply asking which one of them is stronger, the answer is that they are nearly identical. If you don't have a thief in your party, Imoen is slightly better stat-wise because she leveled up a bit more as a thief before dualing to mage. If you do have a thief in your party, then that doesn't matter and you can freely choose whichever character you like most.

    Or you can not make a choice. Imoen is an accomplished adventurer and would surely be given a dialogue option that lets her find an off-screen way to return to the mainland, even though CHARNAME is inexplicably not able to make his way there in the same way.
    2088432gorgonzola
  • 20884322088432 Member Posts: 229
    thanks
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    I belive Imoen DOES find her own way out on her own if you tell her too.
    gorgonzola
  • ANOFANOF Member Posts: 70
    ThacoBell wrote: »
    I belive Imoen DOES find her own way out on her own if you tell her too.

    She shows up in the Copper Coronet.
    ThacoBell
  • gorgonzolagorgonzola Member Posts: 3,864
    Imoen is the only npc that can do it.
    I had filed a request to give that chance to all the npcs, and @JuliusBorisov sponsored me in this so maybe in the future the thing will change.
    On a side note using the back to brinnlaw quest mod is possible to rescue a npc as long as you drop him before the maze, or maybe before the asylum. The mod imo is well written, adds some interesting battle, a couple of useful items, like the ioun stone that works as the boots of speed, and let you have back the point of a stat that you have lost to progress in the plot.
    If i am not wrong it can be installed also not at the beginning of the game, but it has to be installed before you enter the wakeen's promenade the first time after spellhood. More information in the mod's readme.
  • MaurvirMaurvir Member Posts: 1,090
    I haven't tried, but it is my understanding that you can let someone go in Brynnlaw. I'm not sure if you can go to Spellhold, then BACK to Brynnlaw and still do that, though. That is, I don't know when the switch is set that traps your 6th NPC there forever.

    That said, I'm trying out several different NPC companions on this play through and I would side with Imoen if you need an actual, honest to goodness, thief. It is getting absurd having to keep so many knock spells memorized because Nalia can't open squat and I haven't exactly found the vending machine that sells potions of master thievery.
  • jsavingjsaving Member Posts: 1,083
    edited April 2019
    The one issue you do have with Imoen is that she may be way behind the rest of the party in XP by the time you find her.
  • gorgonzolagorgonzola Member Posts: 3,864
    You can surely go to spellhood and then return to brynnlaw, whether you chose to trust saemon or you decide to use the portal, in the latter case you go to brynnlaw then return to the asylum and use the portal.
    The problem is that there is no way to send a npc back from brynnlaw unless you use the quest mod i told about.
    If you go to brynnlaw with a 6 people party, plan to take imoen and don't have a certain thief in the party you have no option in the not modded game to avoid to loose forever a npc.
  • BlomdorBlomdor Member Posts: 26
    edited April 2019
    The NPC awkwardness is one of many ways that the entire hoo-ha at Spellhold sometimes annoys me. I love the dungeon itself, actually, with its riddles and tests, and it's always cool to meet Dradeel and Tiax again after playing through BG1, but some of the other aspects of the whole thing...yeah. Not my favorite episode in the series, honestly...

    More on-topic, though, I second the opinion that mechanically speaking the two ladies are more or less identical in the event that you have anyone else to provide adequate thief skills. Nalia can carry a little more weight in her pack before she's burdened and has the benefits of being available for recruitment very much earlier; Imoen gets some Bhaalspawn benefits (much) later on, in ToB. Neither of those are especially strong reasons to choose one of them over the other, however. I'd say it largely comes down to whose company you prefer overall, and/or roleplaying considerations.

    Personally, I could never bear the thought of actually leaving Nalia to rot in Spellhold, and even if Imoen unlike other NPCs is specially allowed to somehow escape from the prison without your assistance, it still feels incredibly cruel to abandon her after all the torture and everything else she's been put through, right when she's finally found a ray of hope in your sudden appearance. She's a sweetheart really. I usually just leave some room for her when I get there, if I'm roleplaying at all.

    I'll also add that you can bring both of them along if you feel like it. There's nothing wrong with that, IMO. In fact, I imagine it'd be quite strong. I'm running three wizards and a sorcerer in my current game, and it's a blast.
    gorgonzola
  • gorgonzolagorgonzola Member Posts: 3,864
    Blomdor wrote: »
    I'll also add that you can bring both of them along if you feel like it. There's nothing wrong with that, IMO. In fact, I imagine it'd be quite strong. I'm running three wizards and a sorcerer in my current game, and it's a blast.
    About using many wizards in the party i certainly agree as most of my parties are done with all the characters that can cast arcane magic, npcs like imoen, nalia, aerie, neera and jan or sometimes mixes with charname and an helper custom made and the rest npcs.
    to have 3-5 toons casting spells in a coordinated way make most battles really easy, let's take a low level party against a dragon. To lower his MR and ST is a quick work and then there is all the redundancy to be sure that the wanted tactic (feeblemind, blind, turn him to stone, kill him with a save or else kill) gives the needed result in a short time. They can also summon cannon fodder as soon as the previous helpers are killed by the dragon. Usually the battle is won in 2 or 3 rounds, without taking any damage if the toons are hasted and properly positioned.
    I find that at high levels on contrary nalia and imoen are a little too redundant, unless the player choose to not use the robe of vecna and the PI spell, as PI multiply the spells memorized and with improved alacrity pulls off all the spells needed to win a battle. Still there is some use, they can memorize different sets of spells and the robe can be given to the one that has the right spells for the battle, ie one can have a more antimage set of spells and the other focus on damage against multiple mlee enemies, or one can cast spells in the minor battles so the other has all the spellbook fresh when she cast PI.

    As i play mainly bg2 only i don't have problems to modify imoen giving her a different class, using her natural stats modified to fit the class requirements without altering the total score. I had an immy blade and some other imoens, and i rp that they have always been that class trough all the saga, of which i play only the last part.
    Also Nalia is a good candidate for it, if you delay recruiting her she is a wonderful F9->M with the dual completed at the moment you take her with yourself and for a noble young girl is not a RP nonsense to receive a basic martial training in a society where there is plenty of female warriors (jaheira, mazzy and so on).
    After so many runs it gives a different feeling to the 2 npcs, as long as you don't chose a class that clearly collides with their RP sense. Sorcerer can be fine, while a pure berseker fighter or a druid are probably not so.
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    jsaving wrote: »
    The one issue you do have with Imoen is that she may be way behind the rest of the party in XP by the time you find her.

    Its not as bad as it used to be. Imoen catches up pretty well. I think she ended up with a 1 or 2 level difference in ToB.
  • MaurvirMaurvir Member Posts: 1,090
    If I choose to bring Imoen along after Spellhold, I have zero problem taking the average XP of the rest of the party and consoling it in for her. Sure, it's a cheat, but only slightly worse than what the vanilla game does already.
    ThacoBellBlomdorZaxaresgorgonzola
Sign In or Register to comment.