Imoen or Coran?

[Poncherello]

In my party I need a thief/archier.

I need it in order to open chests, disable traps and shot enemies with arrows. Now I have found Coran, but I have already Imoen in my party.

Who should I keep in my party? Coran is more powerful as archer but has a too low value for disabling traps.

[Korhal]

Imoen is a main thief, but can be dual-classed to mage later, which is quite useful ... way later in the game.
Coran, with his anti-rule 20 Dex is, as a fighter anyway, a much better addition in regards to combat and although he is leveling a bit slower on the thiefside, because he is a multiclass character which means, he shares the gained xp equally between his two classes, he will provide you with an overall better character.
Personally, I only use him for his small quest and keep Imoen, as I really like her due to BGII, but from a pure "max my party"-standpoint, she has nothing combatwise in comparission towards Coran even if she becomes a mage down the line.

But why not keep both? :) Whats the rest of your party? Coran is an overall very useful character and although he needs some time, before he can disable traps reliably, you just can do some other stuff, while raising his skill up. Just avoid the obviously deadly tombs in the beginning. For everything else, you can bring him already and make him ready as a kickin, if Imoen goes the mage way.

[Poncherello]

The rest of my party is: khalid, jaheera, minsc and dynaheir.
My character is a paladin chevalier

[Wicket W. Warrick]

With a main chavalier, probably having good archers would be the best strategy.
Coran is more powerful in combat than Imoen but you already have a lot of fighters, and with a main chavalier you could use both Minsc and khalid as arcers (or in melee as well) giving best (long)bows to them. Furthermore Imoen uses shortbows. On the opposite you miss some mage expecially for the second part of game, and dual classing Imoen could be a good option (but you will need some thief to replace her while regaining levels). Also if you don't want to dual her, as a thief she would be useful (for example hiding in shadows or backstabbing with buffs). If you don't plan to change your party I would take Imoen.

And considering the story ... playing without Imoen ... I would never do that.

[AlexMBrennan]

with his anti-rule 20 Dex

I never understood that argument in a world where you can't go more than 5 minutes without finding a magical tome that permanently increases your stats...

[Gustuv Wynd]

Originally posted by AlexMBrennan:

with his anti-rule 20 Dex

I never understood that argument in a world where you can't go more than 5 minutes without finding a magical tome that permanently increases your stats...

Those books were supposed to be incredibly rare...with no known way to create more of them and they took 100 years to recharge their magic after use. Though exceptional specimens were always tossed in to make things challenging even though anything above racial stats was supposed to be god-like according to the lore. I doubt it was ever treated as such, though.

Heh, a better question is how stats are supposed to not change with experience. Though they fixed that in D&D 3.0.

[Korhal]

Originally posted by AlexMBrennan:

with his anti-rule 20 Dex

I never understood that argument in a world where you can't go more than 5 minutes without finding a magical tome that permanently increases your stats...

I personally dont mind neither Coran nor Kagain and never change their stats to the rules even with CDTweaks. I just mentioned it, as its a fairly often cited part, why many people think Coran is (and yes he is) the best archer in the game.

On the other hand, I dont think, I would compare a main thief with shortbows and a single point in weapon proficency towards a multiclassed char, who can put in more points towards an overall better weapon (longbow) anyway. Both seem to fit different roles, but I also always change Imoen down the line, as a pure thief never really hit me.

With his setup, and those two-lined-up-pairs, its difficult to say, but personally, Id rather have Imoen in this setup, as she profides what the party lacks, while another fighter barely would do any difference in the situations, (s)he is needed.

[Lost my sanity]

Coran can be given a bow, Imoen can't use from the bandit camp. Making him the better ranged character. Then you can always level up the thief skill however you want, recommended getting find traps to 100 though.

[Phoenix VII]

Coran is the better archer, but given your party, Khalid (especially if you can add two more stars to Longbows) and/or Minsc should suffice as archers. If you have to choose between a thief that can't disable traps and a thief that can, I'd keep the thief that can.

[Steffan]

I do have them both in the group. By the way, a cleric/druid with detect traps is better than the thief in finding (but not disarming) traps.

[Wicket W. Warrick]

Originally posted by steffan8:

I By the way, a cleric/druid with detect traps is better than the thief in finding (but not disarming) traps.

That makes the cleric/druid (and the spell) unuseful... :P

[Steffan]

Originally posted by stef.corsi:

Originally posted by steffan8:

I By the way, a cleric/druid with detect traps is better than the thief in finding (but not disarming) traps.

That makes the cleric/druid (and the spell) unuseful... :P

In my experience the spell can not fail. I think there is still some chance for the thief not to detect a trap. And also clerics have other uses. :)

[Wicket W. Warrick]

Originally posted by steffan8:

Originally posted by stef.corsi:

That makes the cleric/druid (and the spell) unuseful... :P

In my experience the spell can not fail. I think there is still some chance for the thief not to detect a trap. And also clerics have other uses. :)

Of course, I was refering only to detecting trap.
It doesn't fail, but it doesn't disarm the trap, so it's unuseful. A thief will always detect the trap, at least it would take more round.

[malkavius77]

Coran by far. Imoen is probably the most annoying character in BG1 and she keeps calling me a queer every 2 seconds ffs!

[Voroff]

Originally posted by malkavius77:

Coran by far. Imoen is probably the most annoying character in BG1 and she keeps calling me a queer every 2 seconds ffs!

My good Sir, you are wrong. Imoen is the most annoying of BG2.
She's only second place in BG1 after Skye.