Imoen or not?

[fable]

Couple of things to bear in mind:

If you're planning to add-on ToB, then the difference in levels between Imoen (who should be level 9, not 7, when you grab her in Spellhold) and your party will decrease though never quite equalize, because she's going to make 'em faster than the rest of your group--and you have plenty of levels to go.

You can also skip nearly all of the chapter 2 quests, pay off Bodhi or the Shadow Thieves, and to to Spellhold, acquiring Imoen when she's roughly commensurate in experience with your party.

There are devices that will raise the Intelligence of both Imoen and Jan to 18.

In my evil/neutral parties, I've stuck with Jan, while in my good parties, I've taken Imoen. After all, what sort of brother would I be to wave at my sister in passing as I freed her?

[Nifft the Nimble]

quote:

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Originally posted by DreamU:

To Nifft the Nimble: I don't follow why you want to keep your xp down. Is it to be matched with Imoen when you find her?

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Yes, that's exactly right. This was further complicated by the fact that I'm romancing Jaheira, and her quests gave me quite a bit of XP. The other reason I'm trying to avoid XP is so that once we're back, in chapter 6, Imoen can partake in all the fun adventures.

I got Imoen back last night, and she was 200,000 XP behind the rest of the party. Not horrible but not great. Three scroll cases full of shoplifted magic is helping her boost herself quite nicely.

-- Nifft

PS: I noticed that Spellhold's dungeon is much easier in terms of monsters when you're low level.

[Sir Michael]

Imoen should be fairly closely matched with your PC and NPCs in terms of levels when you find her in spellhold (as are all the NPCs in the game). In my first runthrough of the game, my party was about 11-13th level, and she was 11th. In terms of experience differences, something like 200,000 may seem like a lot now, but it will be insignificant later on.

I didn't notice much difference in the difficulty level of Spellhold between when I went in there at low level (the first time) and at higher levels (later on). I did notice a big difference in other areas though...some were easier if I took them at lower levels (like the Shade Lord dungeon), and some were harder when I took them at higher levels (like the final battle). Other areas, like Firkraag's dungeon, always seemed to have the same monsters in them no matter what level you are.