GameBanshee Forums

First off, hi.

Decided to play through the BG saga again; this time from start to finish. I'm focusing on following the storyline as best as I possibly can.

I just entered the first Cloakwood Forest zone and Imoen is on the cusp of hitting level 7 as a thief and I plan on dualling her to a mage. Now, a few points:

A) I do have TotSC installed
B) I've explored every random zone so far aside from that one 'zombie farm' near Baldur's Gate
C) I'm playing as a Paladin with the storyline party (No other thieves in my party)

What I'm interested in knowing is at this point (since I'll probably level somewhere in the mines, so let's say the start of chapter 5): does anyone have a general idea of where in time she'll be caught up on her mage levels?

If you follow the storyline closely she will never regain her thieving abilities.

[QUOTE=kmonster]If you follow the storyline closely she will never regain her thieving abilities.[/QUOTE]

Right then. Well, aside from Flesh Golems & Basilisks, any other decent areas to grind out some XP to get her caught up?

[QUOTE=Vaelan]Right then. Well, aside from Flesh Golems & Basilisks, any other decent areas to grind out some XP to get her caught up?[/QUOTE]
Those are the only XP farms in the game that are worth the effort.

Removing a few players from your party (if any are the ones that don't leave) will help get her leveled up a bit faster.

You can also try to rest in the wyvern cave in cloakwood. You'll also earn much money that way if you sell the wyvern heads at High Hedge. Officer Vai pays even more if she's still in Bereghost.
You'll need quite some ammo for this.

My experience:

I played the entire Saga once, start to finish, and in BG1, I partied with Jaheira, Khalid, Minsc, Dynahier, and of course Imoen. Is this what you refer to as the "storyline party"?

Anyways, I leveled everyone's weapon proficiencies to match how they'd be in BG2, where applicable. I also poured all Imoen's thief points into Open Locks and Find Traps abilities, just as she is setup in BG2.

And when Imoen reached level 7 as a thief, I dualled her over to a mage. In my game, this occurred just before entering Cloakwood, after doing all other areas accessible before Chapter 5.

So, without a thief, I did:
-Cloakwood,
-Cloakwood Mines,
-all Baldur's Gate city quests (without initiating Chaper 6) and
-all Ulgoth's Beard quests, up to Durlat's Tower.

Around the entrance to Durlat's Tower, Imoen gained level 8 as a mage, thereby re-activating her thief abilities.

So, I had Imoen the Mage with thief abilities for:
-the bulk of Durlat's Tower,
-the wrap-up in Ulgoth's Beard, and
-Chapters 6 & 7.

I did NOT have to repeat any "XP farms" over and over again. In fact, all my dudes hit the maximum XP cap of 161,000 before Chapter 6.

My dudes had to double-back to open a handful of un-bashable locked chests, after Imoen's thief abilties were re-actived. A little tedious, and sometimes painful walking into the occasional lightning bolt trap... but otherwise, playing without a thief (in those areas) was no big deal.

I do remember thinking that Durlat's Tower (as well as Chapter 6) would be VERY painful without a thief. If Imoen is not back to having thief abilities when you hit those areas, you'll probably want to consider temporarily switching the Minsc/Dynahier or Jaheira/Khalid pairs with another thief and spellcaster NPC: maybe Yeslick & Alora, or Coran & Xan, or Quayle & Safana, or Skie & Eldoth (watch your Rep!).