dualing imoen and picking up the canon party
Kneller
Member Posts: 438
I'm in BG1 with my character and Imoen. I picked up Jah and Khalid and just finished the Nashkel mines. We did the side quests in Beregost, but no real exploring. We are around level 2 to 3 at this point. The plan is to make a beeline for Cloakwood and clear it before Imoen hits level 7. Then, when I dual her, we can explore the rest of the wilderness and then start BG city. The idea being she gets her levels back by the time I need a thief again. Depending on where we're at after Cloakwood, we may do the Ice Island or the top half of DT if Imoen still needs to hit level 7.
As for picking up Minsc and Dynaheir, I'm not sure the best time for this considering the timing of Imoen's Dualing. My top two choices are right now or after the bandit camp. Cloakwood would might be a little tough with just the four of us and picking up a Ranger before heading into a deep forest seems story appropriate.
Has anyone every done this before (dual Imoen, and play without a thief during the downtime). How did you cover it? Thanks!
As for picking up Minsc and Dynaheir, I'm not sure the best time for this considering the timing of Imoen's Dualing. My top two choices are right now or after the bandit camp. Cloakwood would might be a little tough with just the four of us and picking up a Ranger before heading into a deep forest seems story appropriate.
Has anyone every done this before (dual Imoen, and play without a thief during the downtime). How did you cover it? Thanks!
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Comments
You may well therefore be better off dualling Imoen at a lower level (totally fine if you push up find traps and then open locks if you can do that too (the former being absolutely essential, the latter being very very helpful but can be covered with knock spells), this is likely to be the best option for ease of life) or actually rushing the main story so as to complete Candlekeep before dualling and then level Imoen doing side quests before it would be helpful to have completed the dual in the endgame. Whilst it is easy to be distracted in Baldur’s Gate, the main quest can be moved forward very quickly.
If you are planning on doing Durlag’s Tower, it is essential to have a thief at that point.
However, subject to all this, with some care you can manage well without a thief from the end of the Cloakwood Mines until you return to Candlekeep (when being without an active thief would be very bad).
You can fill the gap with Coran or Alora, that’s what I tend to do now. In the EEs you can spend their thief skills as you like much more freely to plug whatever skill gap, I tend to use one temporarily just to pickpocket the usual targets.
Leaving out Minsc and Dynaheir for longer is totally doable and you will overall level faster (much more useful if you do dual Imoen at level 7) but I would want to add them in for the rp experience, especially the first time I used the canon party.
Once she gets her thief abilities back then I head to Durlag's followed immediately by the return to Candlekeep.
lolwut? How do you get past the absolutely asinine number of traps, some of which aren't skippable, without a thief? I suppose you can use potions and just take the hits, but man, that's a rough road to ride compared to having a proper thief clear the place first.
My advice would be . . .
When you want them back, just say it was all a huge misunderstanding and they will return as though nothing happened. Tenya's house is a good choice. It's cozy, comfortable, and of no use other than this.
However if you are not willing to sub characters then I wonder if it would make more sense to roll a FT/FMT/MT/IT for your main. Those are among the strongest PCs and any of them would negate the need to worry about Imoen's downtime.
Pick up Kivan, pick up Jaheira & Khalid, pick up Ajantis and clear Ankhegs. Then get to cloakwood as soon as possible. Having swapped out Kivan for Minsc and Ajantis for Coran.
I usual dual Imoen at lvl 5, which means dual classing after having done all the traps but before the Centeol battle at Cloakwood 2. I then get as far as the Wyvern cave and then go back to rescue Dynaheir, otherwise you run out of time. I drop Dynaheir off in Nashkel and then reform the rest of the party and carry on. I then clear the rest of left side of the map inc Cloakwood and then the right side. Leaving Gullykin / firewine ruins and Ulcaster till last. By this point her thief skills are back so can be used in the dungeons. That leaves only a couple of places that have traps. 2nd floor of cloakwood mine, and the web traps at East of Larswood. Both of which have ways around.
I've just tried the same but dual classing at lvl 6. However I don't like it as you don't get the thief skills back till half way round BG city.
If Imoen was usable in SoD or her stats in the BG 1 end save impacted her stats at the start of BG2, then I'd make an effort to find a solution, but since this doesn't happen I'll stick with lvl 5 dual class from now on
With regards to canon you could do it this way and just carry on with Dynaheir instead of Coran. I just use him for his pp skills and being an awesome archer. What I tend to do though is having completed TOSC I'l drop the entire party and get the EE characters + Safana and Dynaheir, to do the EE quests. before dropping them and going back to my original party for the final battle. This means that both join in SoD with more HP than if you hadn't used them in BG. Also it means that Dynaheir has a full spell book (as much as her stats allow) rather than just the few you get given as a new starter in SoD.
In my current game, where my PC is a C/T, I dualed her at 6, then headed off to Durlag's Tower and Ulgoth's Beard. She was back in business in no time. Also, because my PC is a thief, I made them both specialists. My PC is the trap master, while Imoen focused on hiding in shadows and pickpocket. I presently have Aura in the party for locks, but Imoen can use knock for that.