Nalia and Imoen
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What if I want them to have the same mage level in spellhold? Is it possible? If not, is it possible to get close?
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I don't know if there is a better XP point to pick up Imoen, but this was substantially better than some runs I have had where Imoen was lagging by 2 levels or so - which is a whole spell level behind for a Mage.
The problem is that bringing Nalia makes it almost impossible to get that second version of Imoen. (Warning: I haven't seen the code so I can't say for certain that everything that follows is 100% accurate. This is just highly-informed speculation based on long-time research and a handful of runs I did while deliberately trying to test the mechanic out.)
I'm pretty sure how the game decides which Imoen to give you is it averages the levels of every character in your party, and if it's greater than 13 you get the level 13 version, and if it's less than 13 you get the level 11 version. Which sounds fine in theory, I guess...
... but it counts the inactive class of dual-class characters when determining that average, which is just insane! (It also counts both classes of a multiclass, which doesn't help any.) So for Nalia to have an "average level" of 13, she'd need to be a level 22 mage to offset her 4 levels as a thief. Level 22 mage takes 4.5m XP.
In fact, here's every NPC in BG1 with how much experience they need in their active class to have an "average level" of 13.
4.5m - Nalia
2.7m - Anomen
2.5m - Jahiera
2.25m - Aerie
1.76m - Jan
1.5m - Keldorn / Valygar / Minsc / Dorn
1.25m - Mazzy / Korgan / Wilson
1.125m - Edwin / Neera / Rasaad / Viconia
750k - Cernd
660k - Yoshimo / Haer'Dalis / Hexxat
(I'm not positive Yoshimo's level is counted in the party average when determining which version you get, but I believe it is.)
If you fill out your party with a bunch of people from the bottom of that chart, it's actually possible for Imoen to have more experience than anyone else in the party when she joins. If you recruit mostly from the top of the list and your main character is a low-level dual-class, though, it's possible to get a version of Imoen who is 2+ million XP behind. And as you can see, Nalia is by far the worst offender in this regard.
Now, remember, your PARTY average has to be 13, it's not that each individual NPC has to have an average above 13. You can bring a bunch of rogues along with Nalia to offset her impact. At the most extreme, you could roll a single-class rogue and bring Yoshimo / Haer'Dalis / Hexxat and one of the Cleric/Druid/Mage/Monk cluster along with Nalia. I'm not positive how the game rounds, but that would give you a party average of 12.86 at 1.125m XP and a party average of over 13 at 1.32m XP, getting you an Imoen who was right in that same band.
But, you know... that party would suck pretty hard. Under more reasonable constraints, it's basically impossible to include Nalia and get the level 13 version of Imoen. So if you want them both to be at about the same level, you're going to have to *really* rush Spellhold and leave when you're around 400k XP.
Your best bet is to down a bunch of Potions of Master Thievery, rob Athkatla blind to get the 15k gold, (and grab yourself as much usable gear in the process as you can!), then go straight to Chapter 3. You'll probably get 400k XP just from Chapter 3 and Spellhold.
Not sure if Nalia gets mad at you if you leave for Spellhold before clearing her keep, though, or if her timer gets paused once you're away.
It's certainly possible if you rush Imoen, but that's kind of the problem isn't it? Some people don't want to rush Imoen, and Yoshimo is a much better placeholder for her.
So basically multi and dual class characters are the worst options, but if you use single class characters from the fastest leveling classes that would actually make Imoen have more Experience because her 2nd class is Mage, the most expensive. So Monk, Thief, bard, Cleric single class are the best for skewing the system to work in your favour. If you did want to use a multi class or dual class then neither would work well, but if you went with both classes being at the lower end of the XP tables it will somewhat offset things. So maybe a Cleric/Thief Multi or dual-class, but the dual would need to be done after the 1st class reached the point where the next level requirement is the maximum for the class.
Hope that makes sense lol
The problem is that level 11 as a mage is only 375k XP, which you're going to hit crazy-fast. You're going to get close to that much just from doing Chapter 3 stuff alone. Just from checking Sorcerer's place, you get about 180k quest experience just from paying Gaelen Bayle and completing the three quests, not counting any experience from actually killing all the stuff involved. Getting committed to Spellhold can very easily get you 40k more, (though I believe if you just go straight to Perth, murder him, and use his wardstone you successfully avoid any quest XP).
Nalia's going to have another ~100k experience on hand even if you recruit her at first available opportunity, so we're already probably at north of 300k experience just by doing the bare minimum stuff you have to do to get Imoen back. Pretty much any XP from sidequesting at all is going to remain as a persistent XP advantage for Nalia for the remainder of the saga.
This also means gear is going to be a problem. Like I said, you'll have access to all the gear you can steal, (or all the gear you can buy with ill-gotten gains from your stealing), which means super-powerful stuff like Vhailor's Helm and Robe of Vecna and Defender of Easthaven. There's also solid gear you can get without gaining XP: Limited Wish's Full Plate +1, Belm, etc. And doing something basic like grabbing the Tuigan bow in the Copper Coronet isn't going to be a big deal, either, provided you don't pursue the quest too far.
But in the end you're going to be tackling the Underdark significantly underleveled and slightly under-geared, which won't be a problem for a veteran of the series but should give pause to anyone newer to the franchise.
I guess there's one last option to consider: if your goal is solely that Imoen and Nalia are the same level as each other and you don't care if they're the same level as the rest of your party, you could always talk to Nalia to lock her into her low-level version but don't accept her into your party, then go off and do some Chapter 2 questing to get your desired gear and some extra levels for the rest of your party, (including clearing her own keep if you're worried about the timer), then finally recruiting Nalia just in time to transition to Chapter 3 and head to Spellhold. It'll give you two under-leveled mages instead of one, but they'll be *equally* under-leveled.
Or am I mistaken and is my party doomed?
The biggest potential stumbling blocks after Spellhold all have the advantage of being 100% optional. There are various liches and high-level mages in the underdark who can all be engaged (or not!) at a player's discretion. There's a demon who is immune to all weapons of +3 enchantment or less and I'd wager most players are completely unaware of it because almost nobody actually tries to fight him.
The Mind Flayer Dungeon can be harrowing for the underprepared, and I doubt you'll be able to get Imoen and Nalia high enough level to get enough level 7 spell slots to just spam Mordenk's Swords, (the all-purpose "get out of Mind Flayer Dungeon free" card). But Beholder dungeon is trivial with the Shield of Balduran, and Kuo-Toa dungeon is just plain trivial.
Even if you really, really, really want to do this optional content to get its rewards, where there's a willingness to cheese, there's always a way. Vithal's sweet loot is easy to obtain by dropping a Protection from Magic scroll on him to eliminate his ability to cast spells. (If you use Vhailor's Helm, you don't even have to use up the scroll. Double-cheese!) Even without Mordenk's Swords, Mind Flayer Dungeon is as simple as turning all of your party invisible, having them physically block the hallway, then have an archer with Chaotic Commands stand behind them and shoot the mind flayers to death.
Long story short: you'll be okay.
Is that the Demon Lord the Matron summons? Cause I, like everybody else, never fight him
The mindflayers are the thing I fear most in the underdark, which is why I've tried and tried until I knew at least three different strategies to murder the bloody lot of them. Can't recall them now though, I think one of them involved backstabbing and traps. First time they caught me in their lair, I quit because I was trapped and nothing happened.
When you first reach the underdark you come across a gnomish merchant named Carlig who sells some decent stuff. (The most interesting thing are the Freedom Scrolls, which not only start another quest in the area, but which are by far the cheapest level 9 spells in the game, so if you're buying scrolls to scribe/erase for XP, this is a very cost-efficient point.)
What's not obvious is you can return to him after you get your drow disguises and he'll mistake you for real drow, be super-duper obsequious, and offer a second completely different set of wares with all of his best stuff. Included in his new stock is the sought-after Mordenk's Sword scroll, as well as a super-rare Improved Mantle.
I have however only killed the silver dragon maybe twice total.
(Also, she'd need +1 strength for it to technically be "legal" for her to dual-class out of fighter and into thief or mage, but that's not a huge issue-- going from 14 to 15 strength adds literally no bonus and wouldn't change her character balance in the slightest.) And changing her class can add a lot of replayability, which is good because I think she's actually an interesting character in SoA. (Don't get me started on ToB.)
With that said, I wouldn't say her current class is "ridiculous". Because of Imoen's XP problems, for most Nalia is going to be the second-most-powerful arcane caster in the game, which in turn means the second-most-powerful NPC in the game. With Ring of Danger Sense she can max out her find traps, and between Ring of Lockpicks and Knock she can handle all of the lock duties, making her all the thief you'd ever need as well. (Plus the thief gear selection is pretty useful, especially early on for Tuigan.) Mechanically, it's a really powerful combo.
Story-wise it fits, too. She's a mage who snuck out a lot as a kid and picked up a little bit of thief proficiency points in the process.
I like the option of changing her. I like her how she is. The ridiculous thing here is how BG2 determines what level NPC it gives you by averaging your party's levels instead of by averaging your party's XP totals. (The second ridiculous thing it does is counting inactive dual-class levels in that average.)
I get that they wanted to make extra extra extra sure you wound up taking a mage somewhere, which is an understandable design decision, but my kingdom for a F/T. Shame we can't take Monty's body to a priest and resurrect him.