Why is everybody always talking about imoen as if she is any good?
She is one of the worst thieves in the game, take coran(fighter/thief) for instance.

Well you're either nuts, delusional or don't have any idea how to play the game...
Not only is she an excellent thief and a great archer too boot, but she's cute too, a feature I could hardly attribute to Coran hehehe... actually I had both in my party and I liked Imoen as a thief 100% better than Coran :p

Well, Imoen is good because of TWO big reasons :

- you get her in the beginning of the game, so YOU can chose her abilities (stealth, find traps,...). Once you get Coran, the game has done this for you, giving him almost a 100% in stealth and open locks, without any find traps-skill

- second, you can dual her to a mage, which makes room for a deadly combo : get Imoen up to level 5, while maxing out her find traps. Then dual her to conjurer (or enchanter, invoker,...), and get Coran. You'll then have stealth, find traps and open locks maxed out, and still got a great archer and a good mage

VOILA, take that :)

Read the poll... ;)

yeah right but if you start over again as a 7th level mage she isn't particular usefull and most of the thiefing skills i can give the npc's goes to pick pocket and open locks anyway. besides give coran a long bow of markmanship and he rocks far more than imoen (dex 20 eh)

Up with Imoen!

Appart from her strength, Imoen is sooo much better than anyone else. When looting stuff with her, I find that the Cloak of the wolf (for that 18 strength) and boots of speed make her invincible. I wouldn't dual class her though because it takes to long to get back up in levels.

I completely agree with aegron Imoen is a completely useless character and in response to whoever posted you could dual class to a mage she wouldn't be able to learn spell easily because her chance to learn would be low. Oh and Coran is emmensely better, and so is Alora in regards to thieving. So hah!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[This message has been edited by The Fat Egg (edited July 22, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by The Fat Egg (edited July 22, 2000).]

Imoen is the best when you don't dual her, just leave her as a thief. She'll be the best thief in the party and with some magic items to help improve some stats awesome indeed.

Yes you're correct on it's a good thing to NOT dual-class her. Which if you didn't get it was the whole point of the reply and to state that Alora is better. I tried this Imoen thing yesterday and you're correct she is a better theif than Coran, however I stand by Alora as the best theif!!!

You mock the best NPC of the game? Not only is she a great thief, able to dual class to a mage extremely well, she also has personality, just listen to her next time you play. Imoen rocks. 'nuff said. :)

Alora rules!!!!!! How can anyone say Imoen is the best NPC??? Anyone who thinks that is just plain wrong!!!!! I have agreed that Imoen is good, but even bards which I hate are better mages!!!! Alora is a better thief, Coran is a better fighter, Edwin is a better magic user!!!! So there!!!!!!! :p

Immoen's alright provided you turn the sound off, leave her hanging around at the back of the party and don't spend too much money on her.

Finally!!!!! Someone agrees with me!!!!

Imoen is the only character I've kept around the whole game both times I've played simply for the fact you can dual class her to a mage. Xan sucks (low constitution), Dynaheir annoys me to death, and I like Minsc so I always end up not being able to have Edwin.

Imoen by no means sucks... :mad:

you get her early in the gameso you can choose her thieving abilities. give her a short bow so she stays out of all the melee and doesn't get killed. Coran is very good, but imoen can duel and coran's stats are almost all chosen by the time you get him

I have to agree with Verajak there.

jarron, you can have Dynaheir, Minsc, And Edwin at the same time, although there is about a 70% chance that every hour you play they'll fight. I don't easily get annoyed, so I just save a lot, and when they get into a fight, I just load my save game. :D

Hey I've a cure for insomnia, first read an "Imoen is bad post", and voila! Sleep is yours!
Incidently 'Egg thats a good way to stop your party losing out on a cool character. Minsc's mad Giant space hamster antics and Edwins evil plotting give a certain flair to a party I think. Althugh I do prefer a general mage myself....

just make imoen to a mage then its all right

She isn't useless at all. When you look at fighting as you do, you might say a Fighter/Thief is better then a pure thief in fighting (doh) That's not any news for me. But when you compare Coran to Imoen at thief skills you might find out that Imoen isn't usefull as a thief, and better then for example Coran is. But I suppose you already got some fighters in the party, let them fight and let your sister do the thief-jobs.

When i first played BG1 i found Imoen an essential ingredient to conquering the game when starting as a beginner. But as time grew on and i started playing other characters after finishing the game, i adjusted to Corran and he is indeed a good thief. So in all respects, i'd say that Imoen is a bloody good NPC for a starting party. But when you finish the game, i'd recommend branching out to other characters to revive the challenge of unfamiliar territory.

I'd still keep my money on Imoen, good archer with cool stats. And being able to decide whether she should be trap finding or not, pickpocketing or not(god forbid it!) is great. And roleplaying, I think dumping your sis would be rather tough and cruel because your foster father just died.

Let her stay pure too, if you want a mage, find a mage, there's plenty of them

[This message has been edited by Lokken (edited September 10, 2001).]

Monty is actually a very formidable thief when you get him leveled up. Halfings get some nice thieving bonuses. Don't overlook him.

Coran's find traps is poor but he is a deadeye with the bow with his 20 dex. Give him the Eagle Bow and bracers of archery and he can hit a sparrow at 200 yards.

A little off topic, but as for the best thief the game offers you, take a look at the generic "thief" .chr file some time. He's a halfling. That character's stats are amazing. He only has 9 strength but look at his thieving skills! He's almost overpowered, really.

Halflings due to their size among other things, get special thief skill boni on a lot of things, and no penalties.

This is why halflings make the best thieves around.

I haven't played BGI in a while (I want to go throught the whole thing again), but I remember that BGI had a dearth of decent magic types and plenty of decent warrior types. I also remember that keeping Imoen as the party's main thief (with a little back-up from Coran who makes a decent fighter type). I also remember it being pretty easy to form a "good" party without sacrificing too may of the better NPCs.

For some time I have wanted to try out an evil party, playing it fully 'in character' as evil:

me/fighter, cleric-mage or cleric-thief
Edwin
Viconia
Kagain
Montaron
Shar Teel or Eldoth

I may never get around to doing this, as it will be several months before I finish BG2/ToB and by then NWN may be out. But anyway playing evil sounds like a fun challenge.

I gotta say Imoen sux!
she is a decent archer but not compared to Kivan, her thieving skills take a while to get good and by then she probably has caused you to reload several times.
And her soundset is so irritating!

i thought imoen added a little more fun to the game with a lighthearted attitude in the crisis which is the story, she is a great thief and archer to boot, never had her killed she just survives whatever the enemy throw at her, besides i take kivan in the party with them and coran bugs the hell out of me... so i kill him

so, give her a nice short bow, the studded leather shadow armour, arrows of biteing gauntlets of archery a wand of magic missiles and watch her cut the enemy down to size

Sparhawk i've just began to play BG again and i'm using a fighter thief and it has to be said that my theiving abilities scores suck. But then they do take a while to get good, just like, GASP!, any thief in the game! OMG! what a shock.

Doh, but a pure thief reaches that good thief-scores much earlier in the game then a fighter/thief. I always one or 2 fighters to fight and 1 thief for the thieving stuff. So where do I need a fighter/thief for that is not a good thief in the first 6 chapters?

Imoen sucks. How can you like her?! This is BG and in BG she sucks. In BG2 she sucks. She sucks! There are soooo many better NPCs that are better than Imoen.

She doesn't suck..... As fighter she does but she is a great thief, the best PURE thief in the game... or do you know a better one???

The only way to get a better thief then Imoen is to have your main character as one IMHO.
I find that dualling her also helps my party out a great deal, and use her a thief/mage, and have someone else filling in for the thieving abilitied i didn't have her concentrate on.

uhh shadow goddess i don't know if you noticed but imoen just pllain rocks bg-ToB
in bg2 she the best non evil mage besides nalia (use em' both any way)bg1 great theving skills pickpoceted every one in beregost with her he he (also if you do it right you can pick pocket sarevock.Sword of chaos no more...