When I play, I do all of the other quests i.e Firkraag, Umar, Trademeet before I go to spellhold so when I get back its straight to Bodhi and Suldanessellar(sp). I've always done it this way, it just seems more "realistic" to rush to get Bodhi once you know who your'e after.

This also means you are missing Imoen for a lot of the quests until ToB where its basically just a lot of unbeliveably powerful battles with a slight storyline.

What I'm asking is do most people make a rush for Imoen or take their time and collect some of the lesser magic items before rushing into the underdark and picking up a lot of the good stuff straight off?

I've always done it the way you have. I do everything first, then go to spell hold. The problem for me is trying to roleplay BG2. People would say you rush off after Imoen as soon as you can afford it. I'd agree, but after, you would want to go straight after Bodhi and Irenicus. After all, he is killing elves while you are wandering about.

I vary it from time to time. There are really hard fights in the Underdark (the Demon Knights in particular) that are nightmarish for a low level party. I always try to have a few extra levels before I take them on.

Usually I do some selected quests, like the ones outside Athkatla (including the dragons ;) ). Once done those, Imoen, Underdark, and Bodhi. Then the rest of the quests.

Usually, I do Copper Coronet and the Slave quests, Trademeet, Umar Hills (If I'm playing a Thief character) or Planar Sphere (If its a mage character) and then Firkraag. Once I do that, I get all the items I want and then its onward to Spellhold.

After I return to Athkatla for the second time, I spend months doing every single quest there is in the game :grin: :shake: :grin:

I usually do everything first and then go for her, but this time I did most of the minor incity quests and am leaving the outside ones until I get back. but that's more because I'm impatient to get to the underdark. I can see that particularly the beholder layer down there is going to give me more trouble than usual.

Like many of the others, I also tend to do everything possible before setting off after Imoen.

In a true roleplaying sense, you're not going to want to do minor quests at all.

It really depends on whether or not I'm keeping Imoen or not. If I'm taking her with me, then I tend to go get her quickly before she falls too far behind the others in XPs. If I'm playing an evil party though, I say let her rot. I do everything I can, and then go to Spellhold.

As always, I'm trying to be as realistic as possible without gimping myself beyond being able to finish the game. In case of SoA, this means going for Imoen so soon as possible without turning down requests for immediate help. As a result, I do de'Arnise Hold and some Athkatla quests. When playing for some umpteenth time, I have no qualms using foreknowledge, so I might as well get the 15000 gold pieces in Athkatla without entering the Copper Coronet inn and going to de'Arnise Hold.

Most people seem to do it the way I do it? But from a good aligned roleplaying perspective you can't win, go get her early you get a lot of the powerful stuff early, get her later :( .

I was thinking there might be a way to up the money needed for a rescue to say 50,000 or 40,000 w/Bodhi. You can raise 15,000 in one quest which defeats the argument that its a lot of cash to find. does anyone know if this is possible?

I don't think doing most of the quests in Chapter 2 necessarily conflicts with roleplaying. It is natural to want to save Imoen as soon as possible, but I would think that a good-aligned character will want to also help townspeople, etc. (after all, in some quests you have to free children from slavery, stop killings of people, etc.)

Also, the character might think that confronting Irenicus won't be such an easy task (after all, he captured you once), and want to be prepared when going after him. That might imply increasing his expertise, aquiring powerful items, etc.

On the other hand, I find it much harder to justify tarrying around in Chap 6. You want to get to Irenicus, and you know that if you delay, there might be some nasty consequences (not only for the elves).

However, if you'd like to rescue Imoen early: you don't have to do the Underdark all at once. You can come back after you escape to the surface and do the tough stuff (like the ilithid and beholder caverns, or the demonknights). Only the dark-elves city will be inaccessible.

i dont do every single quest before i go to spellhold, but i do enough to get all my members of my party to level 12+ otherwise spellhold can have small difficulities, but not really, the main thing is the underdark because that can be a killer for low level parties
Reason being: is because you know your strategy you want to kill them with, but you then realise your not high enough level to use a level 7 spell and that really annoys me :mad:

I think roleplaying is incompatible with going through the whole game. Even if you choose a lawful good character, you are a BhaalSpawn, and your primary goal should be to find out what Destiny has prepared for you. From this point, you rush to fight Irenicus and Bodhi more to find out what you are and why are they after you, than even to save Imoen. So, you cannot lose time chasing dragons-literally-or saving the city from conspirators or being the heroes of a trading city. You'll have to forsake almost all side quests.