I've always seen and played Imoen as a Swashbuckler/Mage (10/x) and it seem to me that if one of the two NPCs should lose the thief's levels Nalia would be the one...maybe changed to a Illusionist.

Just to share my opinion...

Well, I've always played Imoen as a Thief-kit/Mage as well, but I think it's not a bad idea to change her into something else for a change. I'd welcome the chance to see her as a sorceress rather than same-old same-old.

A little change is always welcome, but everyone knows from BG 1 that she was a thief, and the change of class so abruptly is a little shoocking. I can see a change in another of the Vanilla BG 2 (not the ones who come from BG 1) more easy to accept as a change in Imoen, Jaheira, Minsc... But I must admit that I have changed their classes a few times (Cleric/Ranger Jaheira, Kensai Valygar, Cavalier Anomen...) myself.

And wasn't it shocking to see her degraded to a dual-class thief/mage? If she can't be a thief, let her be a sorcerer IMO! (Justification can always be found. Something could have also happened to her between the end of BG and Irenicus Dungeon. No need to restrict every matter of such nature to Spellhold.)


I agree with this. No one likes to give up things that he or she got used to. On the other hand, it's often just a matter of time to get adapted to a novelty.

Yes I was surprised that she was changed into a Dual class thief/mage, but at least she was still a thief somehow. The class change that is going to be applied is more blunt, as if she was going to be changed into a Cleric or Druid IMHO, but as I've said, I welcome the change as a novelty and will get accostumed to it. What now worries me is the change in her stats, as I've post in the other thread.

I think that if written well in a few banters, the choice to change her into something else isn't that bad of a shock.... but it needs to be justified very well (in those banters).

See other thread for more thoughts. Maybe the threads would need to be combines sometime? (Imoen's Dialogue Lines)

And couldn't it be Nalia the one who changes into a Sorceress from the very first time you met her? I know that in her dialogs she says she has thieving skills, but you could also change them or even (story wise) give her the Knock spell (only to justify her banters). She can be a sorceress and give money to poor people without being also a thief.

This is only rambling but I think that more people would accept easily Nalia's change.

I believe the other thread is supposed to be only about Imoen, so I moved the post of Magnus to here. (I hope you don't mind it, Magnus.)


I think Sikret has already made the decision. (Not trying to discourage you, just saying that Nalia is no longer an option IMO.) Try to watch it from the positive side: imagine it will be the first time you get the game (the original game), and Imoen has never been a Thief/Mage or whatever Just a matter of time to get used to it, as I've said.

@Magnus:

Yes, Nalia was also a choice. As you can see in my initial post in this thread, Nalia was actually my first suggested candidate. But later, Players mostly voted to change Imoen rather than Nalia.

Story-wise, Nalia being a thief is somewhat more necessary for her character sneaking out of the keep to help the poor and such. Nothing in Imoen's story in BG2 necessitates that she should have thieving skills (just a small number of banters with other NPCs which are already changed).

The biggest argument for Imoen's theiving skills in BG2 is that she was a single-classed thief in BG1. I always thought that switching her to a dualed mage in BG2 was a cheesy plot device used to get her hauled off to Spellhold rather than any natural progresson or career inclination. But many players do treat them as completely unrelated games, I suppose.

Well, she started out with an intelligence of 17 in BG1. That's just enough to dual-class her to Mage. Personally, I doubt that her intelligence score was a coincidence.

Yeah, they probably wanted us to dual her to a mage, or have someone with enough lore to actually identify something.

At least it looks like they suggested it, by keeping the option open. IIRC, there's only one other BG1 NPC who can be dual-classed without using tomes to increase their stats (i.e. Shar-Teel to Thief).

Anyhow, that makes Imoen's dual-classing look like more than a simple plot-device to me. But that's just my personal perception of it.

They could have kept her a thief, given her a Wand of Magic Missiles like in BG1 and cast that at Irenicus. Then she'd still be hauled off to Spellhold for disallowed use of magic, mage or no mage .

Besides BG1 didn't really need a mage thus perhaps giving her the high int beacuse of her heritage?