When I played BG1 I created a MP party then saved the game and moved it into the regular save directory. This let me easily play a single player game with my perfect party.

Small problem.

I never dualed Imoen over to mage. I played her as a thief the whole time and liked her that way. I already had two mages in my party and didnt need a third. After Durlags Tower I also wanted to make damn sure I had the best possible trap detection I could have.

Well BG2 screwed that up completly. It wouldnt let me import my Imoen from BG1 and instead gave me this crappy Thief/Mage dual class. Now my party has the follwing

Main character human fighter
Dwarven Fighter
Human Druid
Elf Cleric/Mage
Human Conjuror
and Imoen Thief dual classed to Mage

This sucks because she isnt as good with a bow or as good with theif skills as she used to be.

What other poeple have tried this and what partys did they create? Also what percentage of your old gear do you eventually get back? I am still in the very beginning.

Hi there!
Haven´t tried the MP importing since you´ll miss alot of sidequests that way and well personally I think Minsc is the coolest dude ever..
You´ll find the helm of Balduran in the beginning making your way through Irenicus little lair, it´s the blocked door after the Duergar fight.

I found the helm and the Djinni says he has one of my weapons but that leaves behind dozens of other items I am wondering about.

I plan on playing a second time purely single player. Who knows, maybe Ill start over with a single player first and then go back and play with my party. Don't want to miss anything good the first time around. In BG1 you didnt really miss anything because you didnt have people join.

Yep, well The sword is he sword from the end of BG1, Saervoks 2h sword, its been dulled due to his death though..
I strongly suggest that you start with single player and forget about Imoen for now, she will be more or less as much a part of the story line as you are so she needs to be different otherwise things would crash with the storyline and its a good storyline let me tell you!

I'd definitely recommend playing through singleplayer before you go all out with a multiplayer party. BG2 has a lot more NPC interaction and NPC triggered quests than the original. You'll be missing out on a good quarter of the game or so if you go without NPCs. As for Imoen, if you really don't want her to be a thief/mage, which I dislike as well, you can edit her using Shadowkeeper. Careful when using this program, you can easily increase stats and such which has a tendency to ruin the entire game for you.