Imoen?

[stcaFylnO]

I'm curious how people are building her. This is what I'm doing currently:

Single class to reach level 10 and be a better thief.

Ignoring Set Traps, because she can't reach level 11 due to XP cap, so they can't do poison yet.

Ignoring Detect Illusion... I can't figure out if this is useful anywhere in first game or not?

Locks, Traps, Pockets: 95 (with potions, she's done everything, unless I overlooked something)

Hide, Silent: Left at base-line and had her use Worn Whispers, Shadow Armor, and invisibility.

She starts with Short Bow and Short Sword, I'd say both are piercing, but I guess that's only true if using piercing arrows.

Single-Weapon Style has felt like a good fit.

I can never decide between a blunt or slashing for her final point (blunt vs. skeleton, slash vs. mustards).

[Tyler Durden]

I always did find traps and disarm, and had her use shortbow/arrows. She does make a nice dual class mage, too. But thieves aren't my thing in these games so I'm sure others' advice are much more valuable for her than mine.

[ÄmJii]

Pickpocket is mostly a wasted skill, you can always buff with potions prior to pickpocket attempt. I usually aim for 100 Locks & Traps, then dual-class into Mage at either 5th or 6th level.

Locks & Traps are like 90% of the reason why you want Thief in party, might as well amp up on usefulness with arcane spells.

[Black Sheep Inc]

Favorite build I've done with her is to get open locks and find traps to 100 then immediately dual class her to mage for the rest of the run

[wendigo211]

When I keep her in the party I often do the cannon 7/8 Thief/Mage with her. It tends to work out to she's a Thief until I get to Coran, and then she's a Mage. Like the others, I get open lock and detect traps up to 100 and then put any remaining points in set traps.

I hope at some point Beamdog fixes her level scaling.

[stcaFylnO]

Are the 100's in Detect Trap and Open Lock recommended for something in particular?

[Black Sheep Inc]

Originally posted by stcaFylnO:

Are the 100's in Detect Trap and Open Lock recommended for something in particular?

Guaranteed success.

[Tyler Durden]

Those super nasty traps in endgame areas.

[Gustuv Wynd]

I ussually dual her to a mage at level 3 and dump her points into pickpocket...yeah, it's mostly worthless, but if I am not using her as a thief any skill would be a waste and having 50 pickpocket before you can even easily get at a potion is nice. Plus then I don't have to wait around very long for her to be able to use a crossbow or short bow again.

Waiting til the max theif level means she won't get her theif abilities back until pretty much the end of the game...making her dual classing nearly pointless since you'd have to biuld up some other thief character as well. Even dualing at level 5 will put you a good ways into the game before you'd be able to use her as a thief again...though you probably could play that long without a theif. Web traps are really the only ones that you can't just walk over with a fighter untill closer to the end of the game...so just level her up to 6 before going to cloak wood. I haven't tried it, but I think it should be possible...easy if you have basilisks and ankegs around yet.

If I am not wanting her around as a mage...she isn't in the party. Her strength is too poor for a usable theif in my opinion. Really annoying to have her open a chest when she is off scounting on her own and she can't even carry the items back to the party, but at the same time it isn't worth it to spend Strength spells on her unless I am trying to back stab with her.

I use a mod so I can have evil memebers in the party regardless of reputation...the reputation mechanic is stupid anyway...evil in D&D basically means greedy most of the time and yet characters leave even though they are getting showered with magic items. I typically take Shar-teel as my thief...or Monteron...the last few games I've gone with ol' Monty, but Shar-teel dualed to a thief at fighter level 3 probably makes for best BG1 theif in the game unless you create one youself. Corran isn't horrible, but not on Shar-teel's or Monteron's level.

[stcaFylnO]

Yikes, I'm beginning to see how tight it is for thieving skills on a dual class T/M. Even at a 6/9, there are only 125 points extra points from leveling up. Since Imoen is human, she only has the base starting points (plus level 1's expenditures), then the usual 25 points for subsequent levels-ups.


Skill Comments from Current Game:
Open Lock (95 functioned in Durlag's wthout buffs)
Find Traps & Disarm (95 was high enough for all of Durlag's Tower, without buffs)
Pickpocket (50 for Algernon's Cloak in early game)
Move Silently (checked per round to maintain stealth, feasible at ~50, no pot. buffs available)
Hide in Shadows (initial check to enter stealth, feasible at ~50, potion buffs available)


Imoen Base at level 1, with additonal points to meet thresholds, and buffs/equipment:
25 + 55 = 80... Open Locks........... Potion of Perception 20% = 96
35 + 45 = 80... Find Traps............. Potion of Perception 20% = 96
25 + 05 = 30... Pick Pockets.......... Potions of Master Thievery & Perception at 40/20% = 50
35 + 15 = 50... Move Silently......... Worn Whispers at 20% = 60
15 + 05 = 20... Hide in Shadows... Worn Whispers & Shadow Armor at 30% = 50

She should meet every required threshold with minimal potion buffs. Higher values possible by stacking more potions, but I'd prefer to avoid that.

I guess it will be tedious taking her armor off to cast, then putting it back on for stealthing.

--------- Additonal Details: Just a brain dump of my thoughts ---------------

After reading the replies, looking at XP tables, thinking more about the Venom +2 dagger, and experimenting with the delayed wind-down on stealth, I came up with the follwoing ideas for next time:

Use wands with stealth's delayed wind-down for preemptive strikes. Quick Save/Load cycles can get her into stealth mode if necessary, tedious, but workable.

1 point in dagger instead of blunt/slash weapons, and 1 point in Two-Weapon Style, since Venom seems to hurt everything. Maybe this will be good for dual throwing daggers... high speed like an MG-34?

I'll level her up as thief to level 6 (20,000 XP), then dual to Mage for level 9 (135,000 XP); this only misses out on 6,000 XP from the 161,000 cap. As GW points out, this will be slow, so I'll just farm XP at ankhegs, wyverns, and/or basaliks to help her speed up.

When not casting hard-core, she can use invisibility spells while detecting traps, and strength spells to haul loot back to someone stronger. Haste souds fun. Knock may be helpful.

It will be nice that she can use mage specific wands and scrolls too.