GameBanshee Forums

fishhead: Anyone you ditch in Spellhold will be left there. They don't make it out (I don't know why, because you liberate the damn place).

geh4th: I've made the same point about three mage/thieves in about four other threads. I hate that they don't have any NPC monks, barbarians, or sorcerors, but have four thieves, three of which are dual thief-mage.

This all boils down to poor development.

Why do people get left in spellhold - because you're supposed to go in with Yoshimo and leave with Imoen.

Why the poor spread of dedicated thieves? You're supposed to take Y 'cos he's great & strong, then pick up Imoen later.

I'm not saying that's what you have to do - and there are certainly ways of getting around it (choose Jan, have a protagonist thief, get to spellhold without Yoshimo) but that seems to be how the designers wanted it played.

[This message has been edited by Gruntboy (edited 01-24-2001).]

I think there was a post before that said Imoen can go back to CC, which make her a better option to drop.

Spoiler!


If I am playing for you, I will still take Yoshimo with you to Spellhold and then kick his sorry ar$e. That way, will teach those NPC not to mess around with the child of Bhaal. HAHAHAHAHA

I would take Imoen because you can make her a higher level than Nalia by the end of the game. Don't forget that you'll need to memorize a bunch of spells for Imoen. The XP gained making her catch up adds up REAL quickly. She is the better thief and you don't need Jan's superior thief skills for the rest of the game. I have had NO problem with traps or locked chests using Imoen. Nalia is a decent mage but her thief skills suck.
However, no one has mentioned that Imoen & Nalia together, assuming you have NO other mages in your party, make a GREAT 1-2 punch. Just make sure you have 2 clerics in your group.

I'm using Jan in this game (my second one, the first one I used Yoshimo and then switched over to Imoen, who is bad). The thing about this game is that I have 3 spell casters this time around. Instead of having thief/mages I have myself-an inquisitor, Minsc, Jaheira, Jan (an excellent thief, and I almost never backstab or set traps anyway), Aerie and Edwin(a). This works out very well seeing as how Jan is an awesome thief (140 find traps with ring of danger sense, 120 pickpockets) and having three mages can really help you out, especially against dragons when there's a call for magic missiles and lower resistance.

Well Imoen and Nalia both suck at thieving without those potions...

Well choosing between Nalia and Imoen, i'd choose Imoen, Why? because although she's on lower lvl, she's still your sis, and she's better thief than nalia, and i don't like nalia whining on everything, "how are we helping the less fortunate trudging here?" She complains on everything even if i would kill 10 red dragons to save a village for free!

Only pure thief is Yoshi and surprise, surprise, he's a traitor whom you have to kill if you take him to spellhold...

So you either have to be thief yourself or hope you don't get alot of stuff requiring thieving skills after killing yoshi.. I LOVED having a home-made swashbuckler
Having 150+ in pick pocket and over 100 on everything else except in the illusion skill, it helped not having to wonder who to take as a thief...
Now i'm going to take Jan along.. i hope he's as fun as everybody has said.

Originally posted by Aegnor:

A buddy of mine is taking Imoen, Nalia, and Aerie into chapter 4. I think he's nuts, but he's got a dwarven barbarian who basically counts as two fighters.

Heh. My first time through the game I completed it with: Imoen, Nalia, Aerie, Jahiera, Minsc, and a Sorcerer (Left Haer'dalis in Spellhold). I have to say it was much easier with Imoen, Keldorn, Anomen, Jahiera, Minsc, and Kensai.

my imoen got to lvl17 mage when i got to CH7. and she lways is a main part of my party. with nalia playing through CH6 and 7, i think she could get at least up 19 i think. but anyway, i don't need lvl9 spell to finish the game. and i like imoen more tha nalia, (personal interest, she is my sister ), and i don't know why, i just can't dump and characters who from BG1, apart from edwin, can't find a reason to dump minsc, jaheria, of coure i definity want imoen stays.

well enough for persona; stuffs, you probably have to think long term, cos i doubt anyone would want to change NPCs when they got to expansion, thus there are more ex points to get in expansion, so, imoen will rock in ToB. so will Nalia. basically they are very much the same for me, so i choose Imoen, cos she is my sister, love her