Dualing Imoen?

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Imoen backstab problem is easily resolve with a Strength spell cast upon her. I find using her as my main theif to be very effective and why add another Mage since most of the spells in this game tend to be underpowered compared to BG2. With a 18/50 Str. Imoen is very proficent at backstabbing and does very decent damage.

 

The game says Open Locks is for disarming traps, opening small locks, etc. Find Traps is for uh, finding traps. It doesn't matter when or if you dual Imoen, you should put her skill points in Find Traps and Pick Locks. They seem (to me anyway) to be the only thieving skills you need at a high percentage. Potions of master thievery and perception and clothing/armor help with picking pockets and stealth.

I usually left Imoen as a normal thief and filled in the magery by others - either myself or NPCs.

 

I always had two thieves -- one who specialized in find traps and open locks (Monty, Coran) and Imoen. She got REAL good at picking pockets. By the time we hit Baldur's Gate she had her thieving skills back and was able to pick pocket anyone.

 

I actually use Imoen as a pure thief. By level 8 she has achieved roughly 90% in OL & F/RT. After skill point after that goes into Picket Pocket for her.

Here are Imoen skills by level 10.

Picket Pocket 50%+
Open Locks 90%+
F/R Traps 90%+
Stealth 30%+

 

IMO, you should put as many points as possible into Find Traps and Open Locks for Im. Stealth is fairly easy to increase or duplicate (the boots of stealth and invisibility), as well as being a ranger ability, and pick pockets isn't strictly necessary... I also usually play a bard, however, meaning I have it, anyway.

 

@kuemper:
Find traps IS used for disarming traps. Don't believe everything the game or the manual says. It's full of errors.

 

kmonster - You've tested this? By tested, I mean only put points in FT, then successfully disarmed a trap (Naskel mines look like a good place to try this out). I find it strange that it's not both FT and OL, though (logically) you'd think OL would be more beneficial.

 

There are other ways of testing.

In upper Durlag's Tower I had Imoen and Safana in my party. Safana had 100 in pick locks and 70 in find traps while Imoen had <50 in pick locks and 100 in find traps.
Safana could detect the traps but not disarm them, but Imoen succeeded.
After increasing Safana's find traps skill to 80 she could disarm all disarmable traps.

 

I thought Find Traps was Find & Remove Traps according to 2E rules.

 

Ding ding ding ding! We have a winner. Yes, the skill is actually Find/Remove Traps, and it is what the BG series uses to disarm traps. I discovered this when I had Imoen with Open Locks at 90% and Find Traps at 30% in the Ulcaster Dungeon. She was able to spot a trap, but consistently failed to disarm it. Fortunately, she was close to leveling up, so I backtracked a little bit and killed off a couple of spawns to level her up. I put all twenty points into Find Traps, and now she could magically do it. As it turns out, the detection difficulty for the trap was 30, while the removal difficulty was 40, so I only really needed to put ten in.

 

So, when do you dual class her? I've heard 4th level is okay while 5th is the best and evil PCs dual her at 2nd until they get Edwin.

 

I only dual Imoen if I've got another thief in the party and I need more arcane support. I usually dual her as soon as I get her stealth up to 65% (which is 100 with boots) so I can use her spells to weaken enemies before I fight them. Enemies won't go after the source of a spell if it's stealthed.

 

You can dual class Imoen as late as level 7 and still be able to reach level 8 as a Mage if you have TotSC.

 

Felinoid in BG1 you truly only need one mage and I believe they would prefer you to take Edwin. Since the Evil Robe is the only one you don't have to purchase in the whole game. But if you do pick up any other mages you can always buy their magical robes for a nifty price (18k in gold). I have yet to actually find a battle that requires more than a few Magic Missiles cast by Edwin or the occasional Strength spells. I only casted a 3rd level spell once so far and it was dispel magic. Besides that my most commonly used spells are Magic Missile and Cure Light Wounds.

Klorox you are right too. But if you want Imoen to reach level 9 as a mage in BG1 the best bet is to dual her either at level 4 or 5 as a thief and by than you would have good stats in open locks and find remove traps. But I agree with Feliond if I had another thief in my party I dual Imoen right away, if I don't have another thief in my party than I keep her as the main thief. I also find her to be the best thief in the game since you acquire her early on and if you acquire her as a level one thief you than get to distribute all of her thieving skills points.

 

In my games she was my only arcane spellcaster.
I dualed her at level 6 to illusionist so she could still reach the highest level as mage within the XPCap (both in pure BG and TotSC).
Level 6 is the level to dual if you want her to become as strong as possible at the end of the game.

In the BG2 tutorial she was dualed to mage at level 6 and in the game she has thieving skills like a level 6 thief.

You can dual class Imoen as late as level 9 and still be able to reach level 10 as a Mage if you have an XPCap remover (and patience !).

 

I like playing BG series as they were meant to be. The only thing I may add is a weapon mod or so. I don't enjoy adding all these extra quest that turn off or upgrade xp game to level 40. Just give me the pure game and it is more than enough for me.

 

Abdel, it seems (according to your other thread anyway) that you're planning on having some good continuity in your game. What better way to achieve that than to have Imoen dual at level 7?

 

Klorox

I thought her thief level was 8 in BG2?

 

Nah, she kicks off as a level 7/8 thief/mage. Anything higher would have to be beyond the XP cap in order to complete the dual.

 

I usually take her to level 3 and then dual her to conjurer, pumping her traps skill exclusively, relying on bashing and knock spells for locks. That way its not too long before she regains her thief skills/gets to a decent level of magecraft. That way she usually tides me over until I get Coran or Alora whose traps skill is summarily maxed in preparation for Durlag's tower. Backstabbing isnt reliable enough to be useful in BG1 anyway and if I desperately want pick pockets I'll go and grab Garrick for a bit. I use thieves as sort of utility archers in BG1 and pure class mages are a bit weak this early on in their careers, so the above tactics suit me just grand.