Jan vs. Imoen for ToB

Remove all ads!

I have come back to this idea many times. How do people feel about Iomen v. Jan, specifically for ToB?

Obviously Iomen gets the L10 abilities right away, whereas multi-class Jan will have to wait.

But, as I had talked about in another thread, I have been missing those traps of Yoshi.

For those who have finished ToB, without spoilers, do you feel not having Iomen really steals a lot of the story?

I'm leaning toward swapping the kooky thief back in for Iomen (although at L3 of Watchers Keep he's missed out on a lot of XP already that went to Iomen).

Any suggestions? Pros/Cons I may not be considering? Etc.

Thanks,


Devlish

 

Partial bump and partial follow-up question:

(I used Iomen throughout SoA so am not familiar with Jan)

Does ToB have any restrictions on intelligence and the top level of spells you can cast? I.e. Jan has a 17 Int, so can he cast 9th level spells (at the appropriate level), or is there some intelligence restriction? I seem to remember a thread a long while back about a restriction on mage spell casting based on intelligence?


Devlish

 

oddly, even with a 17 int Imoen can cast level 9's.. even the non-quest type of level nines..

so, contrary to 1st or 2nd ed rules, 17 int is ok for level 9's.. not sure about less than 17

 

I think you get the slots in lvl 9 spells, but can't read lvl 9 spells if got less then 18 in int. But if you drink a potion of genius or something similar to read them, I think you will be able to cast them. Not sure if this is BG glitch or 2nd ed rules.

 

Oddly enough despite what it said in the manual the multi classers such as jan and jaheira and so on gain high level abilities as soon as they exceed the SoA exp cap. Not sure if this is a bug. But if this is so then jan wouldn't be lacking where high level abilities are concerned.

Even if this wasn't the case imoen would stop gaining high level abilities eventually as she can only pic the 10th level spells once while jan can keep selecting thief abilities.

Imoen will be a better mage than jan can ever be but i find her kinda useless in a fight.

Anyways, i prefer imoen because thieving skills aren't needed that much and she has some of the funniest conversations with viconia, sarevok, and keldorn.

 

Actually, Imoen can read and write 9th level spell scrolls, and without boosting her intelligence even. She already has about 6 9th level spells in my game, most learned from scrolls. So I guess the whole "Edwin is the best beacause he's the only mage with 18 intelligence" thing is kind of overrated in ToB wouldn't you say?

 

You couldn't with the xp cap in SoA, but has anyone gotten Jan to high enough levels to confirm that he gets 8th and 9th level spells with his 16 Int?


Devlish

 

I read that you get high level abilities at level 20 (25 for rogues and 15 for druids) and no sooner.
Have they changed this? If so it must have been a last minute change.

(Note: I do not have ToB)

 

bumping!

I would really like to know the answer to the question posted by devilish.
do jan get spells from level 8 and 9?

bongo

 

Edwin is still bar none the best spellcaster, not only for his intelligence, but mainly because of his amulet. Check out the number of spells he is able to cast, and it far exceeds what a specialist mage of his level should be able to cast. As for the restrictions of being a conjurer, the only worthwhile spell you miss out on is true sight, which just about anyone else can cast.

 

About the first question, you should take thyem both, Jan for his thieving abilities and Imoen for her mage abilities. I had them both in BG2 and it was a pretty good team.

 

I finally got Jan's mage level to 16 and he got his level 8 spells so he should get level 9's when you get him high enough but you can't get him past level 20 so he'll only get one 10th level spell.

 

Are there level 10 spells in ToB?? ToB isn't out yet in my country, but I tought there are only 9 level mage spells in ToB

 

I say use neither. Mages are relatively weak at high levels compared to fighters. If you must keep Imoen, but first whip our your copy of ShadowKeeper and make her a true thief again, believe me she is a lot more useful and fun then. Even if you don't, her thief skills are more than adequete, and she is a far better mage than Jan.

 

Jan has Int 16, just like Aerie. And the Avariel can get up to those level 9 spells in ToB. Good girl. So I think Jan can as well.

 

@Earl Grey

You get HLA's at your first level that tops the 3,000,000XP total. If multi-classed, 1,500,000 per class.

Jan gets HLA in the thieving catagories.And since he's an Illusionist,not a mage, he gets extra spells that make up for his lower level vs. Imoen. Although, I've always had a soft spot for Immy, and she is much nicer to look at than that Charlie Manson look alike.

 

Good grief!
Why do you resurrect a topic from over two years ago and, might I add, from a time when ToB actually wasn't even released in Europe.
On top of that I don't see why Dendri brought it back.
Trimm probably just missed that the topic was outdated.

 

I most certainly did.I glimpsed at the July and thought it was a couple of months old. Sorry.

 

High level fighters are more powerful than high level mages? Are you friggin' NUTS?!

 

You really can't say any one class is far superior to any other class in ToB. You need a variety of different classes for ToB because it will give you more combat options which leads to being more powerful than a group of pure tanks or mages or whatever else.
As for Imoen vs Jan I go for Imoen every time. She's got the essential thieving down and gets the high level spells much earlier. Although as pointed out before you can always go with both. I've never found only one mage to be adequate.