Minsc, Imoen or Jan?

Etabeeta · Post by **Etabeeta** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 9:30 am

Hello Im having trouble deciding on my party. I just got back to Amn from Underdark and now I have Imoen instead of Yoshimo.

My party now consists of:

Me, neutral evil.
Korgan, chaotic evil.
Minsc, chaotic good.
Imoen, neutral good.
Edwin, lawful evil.
Viconia, neutral evil.

But I have been thinking of replacing Minsc with Jan or some other "evil" character because I want to have an evil party. Also I'm not sure of Imoen either.

I feel that I dont need Minsc because he is kind of a fighter and I have Korgan and Me already to take all the damage and deal most of the kills.

Edwin and Viconia is no option to remove. So those I am ready to replace is Imoen and/or Minsc. I need a better thief than Imoen but should I still keep Imoen? She kind of sucks this far and I dont know if she will get better.

What do you think?

BlueSky · Post by **BlueSky** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 9:47 am

After I first tried Jan instead of Imoen, I have tended to replay with Jan almost 90 percent of my games...besides the better dialogue:laugh: ..he's got some interesting weapons. But I do tend to keep Minsc, if only because of Boo.

fable · Post by **fable** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 9:50 am

Personally, I like having Jan in a party. He's more flexible than other thieves, even if he advances slower. (And remember, he can always cast invisibility on himself, so you can save points on having him hide.) His interactions with other party members are priceless, and having a secondary magic user in a party never hurts, either. Imoen has the magic, but she isn't going to advance in thievery.

Etabeeta · Post by **Etabeeta** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 10:26 am

Thanks for the quick reply.

True, Imoen is useless as a thief, +I got some good crossbows for Jan to use

. So I should trade Imoen for Jan.

But Minsc is so god damn good he is messing up my plans all the time. But maybe its worth it, even if he is kind of useless to me he is a great character and it would feel sad to have to ditch him.

I think Ill ditch Imoen instead, I never liked her...

PS. I just noticed that after I got Imoen back from Irenicus she didnt have her belt anymore :O!

Onkel Bob · Post by **Onkel Bob** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 12:20 pm

Imoen is not useless as a thief. She can easily cover the most important jobs of a thief in BG2. The sneaking around and backstabbing and laying traps is fun but not, strictly speaking, necessary. Besides one particular short bow means that, at least to me, short bows are much more useful than crossbows unless the user can specialize.

Etabeeta wrote:PS. I just noticed that after I got Imoen back from Irenicus she didnt have her belt anymore :O!

The belt makes her un-killable in the first dungeon. It's kinda important to the story that she gets out alive.

Jedi_Sauraus · Post by **Jedi_Sauraus** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 8:53 pm

If roleplaying an evil party there's no problem ditching Imoen, In fact the only reason I ever keep her is because I role play good. Her voice set is IMHO even more annoying than Nalia's and I like as many mages as possible (have to look into modded npc arcane casters).

I would reccommend switching Imoen for Jan and possibly Minsc for Cernd.
Cernd is not the powerplaying option, but he is neutral, and does have a few nice druid spells so he should fit nicely into your evil party. You could also go with 5 as it seems you have all the bases covered in terms of Arcane/Devine/Tanking power

Edit: Imoen will get alot better, in fact if you use her properly she has the potential to be the most devasting member of the team (except for Edwin)

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 9:04 pm

Another option would be to recruit Haer Dalis in addition to Jan, since they are both chaotic neutral.

I agree with Bluesky, Jan is great to have around.. especially with Korgan in your party

fable · Post by **fable** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 9:54 pm

Onkel Bob wrote:Imoen is not useless as a thief. She can easily cover the most important jobs of a thief in BG2. The sneaking around and backstabbing and laying traps is fun but not, strictly speaking, necessary. Besides one particular short bow means that, at least to me, short bows are much more useful than crossbows unless the user can specialize.

Imoen is useless as a thief to the person who started this thread, meaning Imoen doesn't match her strategy for party use. What you or I may think is irrelevant in this, since she doesn't find Imoen useful for her own gameplay.

Etabeeta, in ToB Jan can pick up an ability that lets him use every device, weapon, or armor in the game. You may not care to use it depending upon how you wish to play him, but still, it's nice to have the option. And with the addition of potions that temporarily increase his intelligence, you can have Jan learn spells up to and including 9th level.

mr_sir · Post by **mr_sir** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 10:33 pm

Personally I always keep Imoen around because she is linked to your PC by blood. I've never used Jan so can't comment on him, but I like having Minsc around. To be honest I'd probably wait til ToB if you have it and swap Minsc then for (very slight spoiler so highlight)

Spoiler

Sarevok

.

Etabeeta · Post by **Etabeeta** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 7:16 am

Ok I did not highlight because I dont want to spoil it. But this is how I do it, I keep Minsc because I like him but I ditch Imoen for Jan. But I just killed Bodhi and so I freed Imoens soul but she wasnt in my party, does it make a difference?

And speaking of Bodhi, I have read that she was suppose to be really difficult but I took her out with Minsc and Mace of Distruption +2 in like 4-5 hits without having to use 1 singe spell or potion.

fable · Post by **fable** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 7:39 am

Etabeeta wrote:And speaking of Bodhi, I have read that she was suppose to be really difficult but I took her out with Minsc and Mace of Distruption +2 in like 4-5 hits without having to use 1 singe spell or potion.

Yes, the +2 Mace of Disruption is a fine thing; but did you discover it yourself, or read about it, here? Because Bodhi is very difficult, if you don't have the right potion and blunt trauma ready.

Etabeeta · Post by **Etabeeta** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 11:27 am

Nah I discovered it myself. I found the Mace of Distruption +1 the last time I was in her dungeon and I saw that it could kill undead instantly so I thought it was really neat. After that I always used it to kill undead.

And when I went to Cromwell to get the Equalizer he said he could upgrade it if I got him some Illithium, but I had already done the quest and gave it to the artist so I cheated me some more.

What do you mean by right potion and blunt trauma?

fable · Post by **fable** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 12:25 pm

In most cases, a potion or spell is necessary to prevent an attacking character from drained levels, but of course, the mace should take care of that. I just wasn't thinking at the moment.

Jedi_Sauraus · Post by **Jedi_Sauraus** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 4:12 pm

Bodhi in 4 or 5 hits ?? Strange, in my games she always made her save against being um chunked ?? if thats the right word for what happens to the undead who fail their save ??

I had to beat her down the old fashioned way and the only thing MoD +2 was good for was the negative plane protection and slightly higher overall damage vs undead. It took me 2-3 rounds using GWW to beat her + full buffs on the tank that went in (though he was never in any real danger)

mbz · Post by **mbz** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 9:04 pm

dragon wench wrote:Another option would be to recruit Haer Dalis in addition to Jan, since they are both chaotic neutral.

That's a good idea IMO

If you want Druid spell casting (Insect Plague/Nature's Beauty), Jaheira is a better option than Cernd in terms of overall quality in combat. Jaheira is also argueably the best NPC fighter in the game.

VonDondu · Post by **VonDondu** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 12:34 am

Imoen won't leave your party no matter how good or how evil you become, so trying to please her isn't really an issue. The question is, do you want her in your party or not? It's up to you.

If you're thinking about getting rid of Minsc because Korgan and your main character are all the "tanks" you need, then you don't really need to consider any other NPC who would serve mainly as a "tank". For example, Haer'Dalis, Jaheira, and unknighted Anomen (all of whom are Neutral) probably wouldn't interest you, since they are best played as "tanks". Besides, they require a lot of buffing up before they are most effective, and you might not want to go to all that trouble.

If you need something besides another "tank", then you should ask yourself what else you need. You say you want a better Thief than Imoen, but you should also consider the other skills a new NPC might offer. For example, if you replace Minsc with Jan, you'll have a better Thief than Imoen and you won't need to use Imoen's thieving skills anymore, but you can still keep Imoen in your party and make use of her spellcasting ability. That way, you'll have a total of three Mages (Edwin, Imoen, and Jan), which sounds awesome to me. If you want another Cleric/Druid in your party, you could replace Imoen with someone like Cernd, Jaheira, or Anomen and still have two Mages (Edwin and Jan) as well as a great Thief (Jan).

By the way, as far as I know, Jan can use the Staff of the Magi, which is like having an infinite number of invisibility spells, but I wouldn't bother trying to use him as a backstabber.

kmonster · Post by **kmonster** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 7:07 am

Jan is actually the best backstabber in the game. He gets a x5 backstab multiplier and strength doesn't matter since you have the level 2 spell strength.

Etabeeta · Post by **Etabeeta** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 8:47 am

I kind of ditched Jaheira before and she dissapeared to never come back so I guess thats not an option. But Ill stick with my party of me, Korgan, Minsc, Jan, Edwin and Viconia. But later Ill change Minsc for a certain evil character in ToB (I couldnt help but sneak a peek

)

fable · Post by **fable** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 9:04 am

Etabeeta wrote:I kind of ditched Jaheira before and she dissapeared to never come back so I guess thats not an option. But Ill stick with my party of me, Korgan, Minsc, Jan, Edwin and Viconia. But later Ill change Minsc for a certain evil character in ToB (I couldnt help but sneak a peek )

A lot of people do that switching around. And you really should hear the conversations between that certain evil character, and Jan.

Sator · Post by **Sator** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 12:29 pm

A bit off the topic, but yes in an unmodded game, Bodhi can and will be splattered by the MoD +2

My first time trough i sent Viccy in alone and WHAM, she killed her in her very first hit

As i'm playing with Tactics installed now, i guess that she will be much, much harder than that