Well, the xp cap is 161kxp, and it's easy to reach the cap with a full party of six before the end of the game, so that's almost 1Mxp. With the additional xp which goes to waste because you've already hit the cap, there must be well over 1Mxp in total.
I always keep Imoen a thief all the way through BG1 to avoid exactly the problems you're describing. Then, I head canon it that Irenicus' torture caused her to lose some thief levels in some way, and her hidden Bhaal nature started manifesting in magical ability. The beginning of BG2 is also an excellent time to dual class your main character with story-based support.
Or, now that there's SoD, I just imagine that Imoen's thief skills got rusty while she was studying magic (dropping a level or two of thieving in exchange for her mage levels), and she never got as good at thieving again because she chose to focus on magic from then on.
I haven't had time to play SoD properly yet, does the story still make sense if you dual classed her in BG1 or is the assumption that she is starting from scratch with magic?
SoD is an expansion pack for BGEE made by beamdog it "fills the gap" between BG1 and BG2, or in other words, it's about what CHARNAME does between bg1-bg2. And yes Hudzy, there is a scene where Imoen is learning like basic magical training, so she's portrayed as a bit of a noobie lol.
I've done a lot of experimentation on dualling Imoen with a 6 man party with no additional thief. The main stopping points are, if you do it too early you may not get your thief levels back in time for the cloakwood portion (say like thief 3) and you'd want to have a sorcerer with knock for locks because she'd have to put the majority of her 2 levels of points into find trap. You can wait until AFTER cloakwood, and just do finewine/ulcaster and some wilderness zones without a rogue (there are ways around some of the worst traps they've got in those places) and then you won't need your rogue again until Durlag's. So that would put Imoen at level 5-6 thief maybe. It's definitely possible.
There's enough in the overworld to get her levels back if you dual at 7 if you're strictly CHARNAME and Imoen for that part; I was running story mode to see how much of an issue using only Backbiter would be on a 20 CON Half-orc barbarian* (which backfired since Story Mode adds regen and damage reduction, but it was still fun to murder basically everything)...
Long story short, it's entirely possible to hit the level cap before entering the Bandit Camp if you're unafraid to meta.
*Made a beeline for Backbiter, then went for the Book of Constitution Bonus. Wouldn't have worked doing it the other way.
I don't really want to meta. I want the character choices to be organic to the plot of the game. I mean, if a meta choice fits into the plot, sure, but dropping the party to level for the sake of leveling isn't kosher for me.
Now, with this run, I'm stuck with the full six. I'd like to make it work, but if I can't, I'll restart and hold off on Minsc and Dyn, I guess. I can't think of a better option.
I haven't had time to play SoD properly yet, does the story still make sense if you dual classed her in BG1 or is the assumption that she is starting from scratch with magic?
No, not at all.
I never play with Imoen but read lots of threads and posts about dualing her, it seems to be a popular thing to do, and the way SOD handles things must be making people grind their teeth.
I imagine the way SoD handles it is precisely because so many people fiddled with Imoen's dual-class capability, but the second game made it canon and a particular level lol. Although, Safana is present in SoD as well - and she too could be dual classed with the INT tome - which is not addressed in SoD I don't think. I wonder if it would change her about in SoD if you did since she would exist as she was at the end of BG1 for the start of SoD methinks.
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Or, now that there's SoD, I just imagine that Imoen's thief skills got rusty while she was studying magic (dropping a level or two of thieving in exchange for her mage levels), and she never got as good at thieving again because she chose to focus on magic from then on.
I've done a lot of experimentation on dualling Imoen with a 6 man party with no additional thief. The main stopping points are, if you do it too early you may not get your thief levels back in time for the cloakwood portion (say like thief 3) and you'd want to have a sorcerer with knock for locks because she'd have to put the majority of her 2 levels of points into find trap. You can wait until AFTER cloakwood, and just do finewine/ulcaster and some wilderness zones without a rogue (there are ways around some of the worst traps they've got in those places) and then you won't need your rogue again until Durlag's. So that would put Imoen at level 5-6 thief maybe. It's definitely possible.
Long story short, it's entirely possible to hit the level cap before entering the Bandit Camp if you're unafraid to meta.
*Made a beeline for Backbiter, then went for the Book of Constitution Bonus. Wouldn't have worked doing it the other way.
Now, with this run, I'm stuck with the full six. I'd like to make it work, but if I can't, I'll restart and hold off on Minsc and Dyn, I guess. I can't think of a better option.
If you are that rigid and unwilling to bend to reality, there is nothing that we can suggest that you would be satisfied with.
I never play with Imoen but read lots of threads and posts about dualing her, it seems to be a popular thing to do, and the way SOD handles things must be making people grind their teeth.