Party Advice

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Thanks to the great resources on this board, I've gotten my EasyTutu version going and I'm rocking with my Wild Mage. I'm pretty unimpressed at this point with Wild Magic, but that's okay, I'm sure it will get better.

My question is this...I've decided I want to have the following party based on my previous experience with other NPC and wanting to go through the game with new dynamics.

Kivan,Yeslick, Coran, Imoen (Dual Classed to Mage), Jaheira and me a Wild Mage.

Well, here is my actual question. Is this party a non-starter? It feels a little light on HP's and frankly, never having Dual Classed before, I'm not sure when is the right time with Imoen. (I don't have TotSC installed.) I feel I may not have enough spell casting ability.

If this group is okay, what's a good way to migrate from my current party of Minsc, Kivan, Kagain, Jaheira, Imoen (just a thief). I'm just now started Ch2. Needless to say, I'm going a "Good" route.

Unfortunately, this is only my second time through the game, so I'm afraid I'm not a very *efficient* player.

Thoughts?

 

Trust me, you'll be impressed when you accidentally summon a Pit Fiend that dices your party into bite-sized chunks.

The party composition seems alright, but you're probably going to want to hurry just a little to Cloakwood so Coran and Yeslick don't come in at too low a level compared to the rest of your party when they join. As for when to dump characters you're not keeping, I would say either immediately for not sharing XP, if you can handle a four character party, or not until Cloakwood, for the extra firepower you might need there. Going the six route, I'd say only drop people right when you're getting the new additions (Minsc first, probably).

Dualling Imoen is a big judgement call. The rule of thumb is to figure out the skills you want her to have, and then dual her when she reaches that goal. Don't try to max more than two skills, though (even two's a little iffy).

 

— For me, I shall NEVER, in ANY circumstances, dual-class the poor Imohen.

(By the way, I am tempted since a long time to write a topic about that ! I shall make it very soon).

• Imohen is an EXCELLENT high-level thief, and if dual-classed, never more climbs level as real efficient thief.

If you think that you have the use for more magic spells, take REALLY a other mage, but NOT AMPUTATE Imohen ! Take, for example, that good Dynaheir (but I think as Mage yourself, you ARE sufficient, because I play near-always my PC as a Mage myself, and all is ALWAYS going well !)

— Your next aim ...

... is already a GOOD one, if you except the unuseful Dual-Classing of Imohen.
You will have 2 figthers (at least!), 2 healing-empowered (cleric and druid), 1 FULLY DEVELOPPED thief (Imohen), and then YOU as mage !

... Why do you would be wanting more ?!
Your choice is excellent.

• In fact, my favorite groups for a BG1 party are near of your next try :
I play myself my PC as an Human Mage, and my "little sister" Imohen is played fully as the best thief available in BG (Alora is near-as-good, but too late in the game).

• For first figther I always take the excellent ranger Kivan, and for first cleric, the excellent Branwen (sure, Yeslick is a good choice also, but I prefer powers, personnality, and physical appearance of Branwen : I always shape her fair-haired, and I love her ! )

• For a second fighter-type and a second clerical-type, (I am not fond of taking Coran), I take the couple Khalid-Jaheira (yes, Khalid is 15 in Strength, but I give him the ogre-powers gauntlets for a 18 / 100%).
Sometimes I take the paladin Ajantis in place of Khalid (Ajantis is easy to have, and in the lump a good warrior); for replace Jaheira, Viconia is good, but beware to AI key, Viconia try often to quit a too much good and famous group ; strangely she don't have problems with the paladin (who understand her particular position in the upper world), but Kivan HATES her, (and is very racist to the Drows elves) : if you don't watch these two ... they will be quick to start a silly fight !).

 

Your intended party composition is fine. I believe that Yeslick makes a very capable tank and you should have sufficient high HP characters to reach him.

Dual-classing Imoen really depends on what you are wanting. I see about three ways to do it.

1) Dual her ASAP to have the benefit of an extra mage immediately. It isn't too late to do this, but I wouldn't really advise it as you are left open to traps right until you meet Coran.

2) Do what Fel suggested and dual her when you have maed out in a particular skill (or two). This is efficient as you don't waste skill points with Coran later on in order to cover for inadequacies and don't leave it so late that you almost never regain thief skills.

3) Dual her as soon as you reach Coran. This ensures that you are never left without a thief, thus maintaining a high level of overall party strength. Although you should be trying to reach Coran and Yeslick ASAP, this may feel rather late in the game and will likely take a long while to have the abilities in both classes.

Yes, Imoen can be a very good thief, but there isn't all that much call for having a full thief in BG. I find Coran to be more than sufficient after he has been picked up. Dual-classing does make her a more versatile character.

 

Your wild mage gets enough mage spells, and Coran gets enough thieving skill points during the game.
But having a second mage (for more spells) or a second thief (for better backstabbing and more thief skills) isn't bad either.

You can dualclass Imoen whenever you want, a good compromise might be level5 when she just has gained x3 backstab.
But you can dualclass anytime you want, earlier or later or not at all.

 

Coran is a much better backstabber than Imoen and should be your primary backstabber. If you want to start battles with 2 backstabs then it would make sense to wait until level 5 to dual Imoen. But this means waiting a long time for her to get her thief skills back.

It's very hard to develop Coran into a good trap finder. Even if you get him at level 3/3 he has find traps of 20%, so you need to get him to level 6 for his find traps to be really reliable. And doing that will leave his open locks at 60%, which isn't ideal. Coran is a natural for stealth and open locks. All you need from Imoen's thief side is find traps, hit points, saves and THAC0. This makes level 4 a great time to dual class her.

I don't think you have to hurry too much. The higher level versions of Coran and Yeslick (levels 5/5and 4/5 respectively) are good - they don't make stupid level up choices and both roll pretty well for hit points on level up. As such I'd want to get to Cloakwood with 20,000 to 30,000 experience points.

This many experience points would put Imoen at thief level 5 - just ready to dual class if you want x3 backstab multiplier, but already at mage 3 if you dual at level 4. There are traps in Cloakwood, so you need to optimize your dual class time so that Imoen is available, or bring along a sixth character who will be the thief for trap disarming. By the time you meet Yeslick Imoen ought to have her thief skills and you can ditch this extra Safana character.

The other way out is to hit Cloakwood as soon as you hit level 4 (exp. depends on PC class) to get the higher level Coran and Yeslick. This does mean hurrying to get there. You then dual Imoen when you complete the Cloakwood mines - she will be level 5 or 6. You can then spend a lot of time accumulating experience that doesn't require any serious trap detection, and should have Imoen back by the time you really need trap detection - Candlekeep.

 

If you want Imoen to be a backstabber, I recommend not dual-classing her.

A Thief/Mage only gets one proficiency slot, and since you can't pause to switch weapons, you're in quite a bind after backstabbing.