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Imoen as a rogue ?

Her stealth seems a way too low to ever works but my main concern is , can she spot/disarme traps ? So far I've not yet escaped the first zone in SoA and she wasn't able to spot a single trap and I've been damaged everytimes.

I would like to use her for role playing reason but will I need to use a save editor prograame to make her worthwhile ?

Comments

  • GallengerGallenger Member Posts: 400
    Traps won't detect instantly - you have to give the rogue a bit of time to look around. Imoen should be more than sufficient to find any trap in the game with a few very rare exceptions where she'll need a potion of perception to help her out.

    Her stealth is very poor however since her thief levels were spent on open locks/find traps.
    GallowglassJuliusBorisovQuartz
  •  TheArtisan TheArtisan Member Posts: 3,277
    I've never had her fail at lock-picking or de-trapping anything in vanilla BG2, and there's a few thief items that boost those stats. She just can't do much combat-related thief stuff like set traps.
    ThacoBellGallowglass
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Imoen's find traps and pick locks are more than good enough to open/disarm everything.
    Gallowglassmarzbarz
  • varlakvarlak Member Posts: 15
    ThacoBell said:

    Imoen's find traps and pick locks are more than good enough to open/disarm everything.

    Yeah thats what I've read on the web but I must be doing something wrong since she couldnt spot a single trap so far :-/
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    @varlak make sure you clicked the find traps button on her bar, its separate from the thieveing skills button. After its clicked, I believe it takes one round to spot traps, so wait about 8-12 seconds and she should spot it.
    JuliusBorisov
  • varlakvarlak Member Posts: 15
    ThacoBell said:

    @varlak make sure you clicked the find traps button on her bar, its separate from the thieveing skills button. After its clicked, I believe it takes one round to spot trap

    oh thats it. When I click it, will she try so spot trap till the next battle or it last for a specific amounth of rounds ?
    ThacoBell
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    varlak said:

    ThacoBell said:

    @varlak make sure you clicked the find traps button on her bar, its separate from the thieveing skills button. After its clicked, I believe it takes one round to spot trap

    oh thats it. When I click it, will she try so spot trap till the next battle or it last for a specific amounth of rounds ?
    She will keep checking every round until you have her take another action. Walking won't intterupt it.
    GallowglassJuliusBorisov
  • GallowglassGallowglass Member Posts: 3,356
    Note that if you walk Imoen (or any other Thief) at full speed, she'll be walking into places which her once-per-round check hasn't yet scanned for traps, because it's not a long-range ability. (I'm not sure of the exact range, but maybe around 15 feet or so.)

    Therefore, when scouting ahead for traps, move her a couple of paces, then another couple of paces, and so on. That way she'll move slowly enough that her Find Traps will detect new traps before she steps on them.

    As soon as she does anything but walk (such as disarming a detected trap or opening a lock), then that'll turn off Find Traps until you re-activate it manually.
    ThacoBellJuliusBorisov
  • varlakvarlak Member Posts: 15
    Thanks everyones, now she can do the thief duty.

    Now I'm woundering about her place in the party. My original plan for my team was

    Me: (zerker13/cleric)
    Minsc (pure zerker)
    Thief
    Druid
    Cleric
    Wizard

    But now that Imoen can take care of the thief job while having high wizard level I'm wondering if I should use her as my wizard or just as a second one.

    Since it is my first shot at BG2 I want to go mainly pure class just to get an idea of the power I could aim on a second play doing multi/dual classing.
    Gallowglass
  • GallowglassGallowglass Member Posts: 3,356
    It's possible to win the game (eventually) with pretty much any party, but of course some parties make it much easier than others.

    BG2:SoA is a more magic-intensive environment than BG1, and BG2:ToB is even more so. Therefore it's highly advantageous to have more than one arcane caster ... not essential, of course, but distinctly easier.

    Since your protagonist is (eventually) a Cleric, I don't think you need both a Druid and another Cleric in your team. On the other hand, although your protagonist will be a fine warrior before dualling, and again for a while after completing his dual, there'll be a significant period (in mid-SoA) when his dual isn't yet completed and another significant period (probably all of ToB) when his warrior levels will be looking unimpressive. He'll still be able to make some impact in melee, but he won't be a melee star during either of those periods, so you'll be relying on Minsc to carry the main burden of melee ... for which Minsc alone is a little lightweight, IMO.

    Accordingly, my recommendation for a balanced party, FWIW, would be to use Imoen as both Thief and second Wizard, drop your additional Cleric (eventually - you might still want him in the earlier stages when your protagonist isn't yet a Cleric), and instead recruit a dedicated front-line warrior. With Minsc and Imoen in the list, I'm guessing you're playing a Good-aligned protagonist, in which case the most obvious candidate to be your additional front-liner would probably be Keldorn (although there are other decent choices).
    Gallenger
  • GallengerGallenger Member Posts: 400
    If you're set on keeping Minsc I assume you're playing somebody in the "good" range on the alignment scale. It'll be better if you just pick up characters that you like without worrying too much about sticking to a certain party construction. Particularly because your character is going to be a gimp for a good chunk of the game dualling at 13. It'll be a fairly long march to level 14 cleric. I would definitely agree with Gallowglass that since you'll be dualling having Minsc alone in the front-line will be insufficient, but you've got lots of options for front-liners in BG2.
  • varlakvarlak Member Posts: 15
    thanks guys this was much helpfull and yes I'm playing as a good character. Neutral good or so. Played original BG1 as paladin 3 times back in the days so I wanted a little change.
    ThacoBell
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    My first full trilogy run was as a paladin. Maybe I need to dust the class off for another run...
  • moparmanmoparman Member Posts: 46
    If you plan on keeping Imoen and don't mind "cheating" get EEKeeper and tweak her stats. Otherwise she's useless in my opinion. There are better thieves and way better mages in the game.
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Thats funny ^
    Gallowglass
  • 7Vikks7Vikks Member Posts: 14
    She shouldn't have been dual-classed as a mage, especially at her level. She came out of Spellhold practically useless as a thief and I already had 2 mages (counting a cleric or druid).
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Except she isn't useless as a thief. There isn't a single trap or lock that she can't open/disarm.
    GallowglassGallengerDJKajuru
  • marzbarzmarzbarz Member Posts: 187
    BG2 always lacked a really good rogue, like sure they can get the job done but they end up all multiclass/duel and never "great" at more than 1-2ish areas. Hex wasnt the best answer to that either imo.
    tbone1
  • tbone1tbone1 Member Posts: 1,985
    marzbarz said:

    BG2 always lacked a really good rogue, like sure they can get the job done but they end up all multiclass/duel and never "great" at more than 1-2ish areas.

    And there were plenty of good thieves in BG1, so a lot of us didn't have thieves to bring over to BG2, which didn't help
    marzbarz
  • NimranNimran Member Posts: 4,875
    Another popular option for party thief is Jan, a gnome illusionist/thief who progresses in both classes.

    Yoshimo is the best thief option, being a bounty hunter thief kit.

    As for mage, Imoen alone would probably be a little rough. I usually make her a secondary mage and give another slot to a full mage character. That's just me, though.
    Aerakar
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Imoen is always my sole mage, I depend more on divine magic and melee in my parties though.
    Nimran
  • DurenasDurenas Member Posts: 508
    The problem with rogues is that at the extremely high level, a pure classed rogue gets very little bang for their buck. The reason why Imoen is so strong is that she combines the basic rogue toolkit of disarm traps/pick locks(to allow you to adventure properly) with the sheer overpoweredness of a mage. If you really really want a rogue, there's Jan, or if you're evil, Hexxat.
    ThacoBellGallowglass
  • marzbarzmarzbarz Member Posts: 187
    I always hated Jan as a rogue, Hex too and by that time Nalia is basically the exact same as Imo but with better spells+Knock so I keep her. Most bg2 traps can be walked through too and are not even close to as terrifying as bg1 traps. ( insta gib lightning bolts/fireballs traps were stressful lol, even poison ones )

    Nalia is also more sassy :)
  • qwerty123456qwerty123456 Member Posts: 67
    edited December 2016
    ThacoBell said:

    Imoen's find traps and pick locks are more than good enough to open/disarm everything.

    That is correct. She obviously was made "convenient" by the developers.

    Note that if you walk Imoen (or any other Thief) at full speed, she'll be walking into places which her once-per-round check hasn't yet scanned for traps, because it's not a long-range ability. (I'm not sure of the exact range, but maybe around 15 feet or so.)

    Therefore, when scouting ahead for traps, move her a couple of paces, then another couple of paces, and so on. That way she'll move slowly enough that her Find Traps will detect new traps before she steps on them.

    And if you get annoyed by this mechanic, you might want to check out this mod.
  • Raven999Raven999 Member Posts: 20
    Imoen is primarily a mage (with a bonus of having excellent trap removal/open locks skills).
    But as was already mentioned by another user above, you'll find Baldur's Gate 2 much more spell-oriented than other RPGs.

    The game can be completed with one arcane spell caster in your party, however, it is highly recommended to have at least two arcane casters in your team.
    Imoen can and will become a seriously powerful ally later on in the game, especially if you equip her with rings and amulets to increase her spells slots. However, you would do well to recruit a specialist mage (like Edwin) to act as your principal caster. Imoen works best as a support mage.


    She'll have less spells slots than Edwin or Neira, but she can potentially be just as lethal as them if you learn how to use her spells correctly.


    Since this is your first time playing BG II, I'd invite you to be patient and spend time familiarising yourself with your mage spells.

    The mages/sorcerers are the most complex class in the game. Their powers go FAR beyond what other classes (like fighters, clerics or thieves) can achieve. A single mage can easily take down a party of high level fighters and priests, if used correctly...and can do so without even taking one hit.

    In most games, mages are just used to fling nasty spells at enemies.
    In BG II mages are the true powerhouses IF you have the patience to learn how their spells work.



    Spells of the 7th level and onwards start to be more complex. Some of the spells (especially the spell protections and protection removal/piercing/breaching spells) can seem pretty redundant at first...but they all do something different and they all have very specific uses.


    Don't be afraid to try things out.
    When your mages reach higher levels, take some time to fool around and try out their spells.
    The mage's potential doesn't come in the form of DPS. It comes in the form of clones, images, simulacrums, triggers, contingencies and sequencers and other crazy stuff.
    The chaos, destruction and havoc you can create with a single mage/sorcerer far surpasses that of any other class + you get to do it in style ; )


    The most important piece of advice though; have fun !

    tbone1Quartz
  • tbone1tbone1 Member Posts: 1,985
    Raven999 said:



    The most important piece of advice though; have fun !

    This, of course, is advice that we all can use from time to time.
    Quartz
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