After an enforced vacation from the game to do massive amounts of Kirkus books and house repair, I have returned to my quest!
(Kinda had to get back to the game before I forgot how to play. Certainly my skills have deteriorated, but I will regain them!)
I did the Nashkell Mines, and found them to be a lead-pipe cinch. Easy peasy.
But Imoen hit Level 6, so it was time to dual class her into a mage. However, once you do that, her thief skills will be frozen for eternity (or at least for the rest of the game--I dunno what happens in the sequel). She has find traps at 100%, which is great. However, at first I thought I had put too much into open locks. She will, after all, have the knock spell to use, and I wanted her to be able to pick pockets too. But I read on a forum that picking pockets isn't all that necessary. True, I have found only one Potion of Master Thievery, but I know there are more to buy in the city of Baldur's Gate. So now she has open locks at 85%, and pick pockets at only 25%.
I was going to wait until she hit level seven, but even with that I could only have got pick pockets up to 50%. I might have gone back to when she was level five and reallocated the points, but that would require even more replay. Worse, she wouldn't get her thief skills back until she hit level eight as a mage, which would take me close to the end of the game.
So I decided to just jump in and dual class her as she is. Open locks 85%, find traps 100%, pick pockets 25%. The stealthy stuff I don't really know how to use anyway.
I'm going to be wandering around the wilderness areas, doing stuff just to get her mage levels up. But also I think I will head back to the Ankheg area with just Imoen, my main character (always "Emerald") and probably Viconia, leaving the others at the Friendly Arms Inn. I'll slay a buncha ankhegs, dividing the experience points between just those three, and that ought to boost Imoen up pretty quickly. I'll try it at first with just Imoen and Emerald, but I think I'm going to need Viconia's command spell, which really helped me last time. I won't be able to sell the ankheg shells, of course. I just need the experience points.
I had another difficulty. When I went to get the reward for my expedition to the Nashkell Mines, I got up to 19 level reputation and Viconia left. Permanently. I went onto some forums to see how to drop a few rep points, but nothing they suggested worked. So I wrote to Heaveron and he agreed that it was just best to kill somebody and drop nine points. I got one back already, but now I'm back at average reputation. I can spend some money in temples to boost it a bit, but I don't want to get it too high. I'm going to run into this problem again, and I really want to keep Viconia.
So I stole some money from a house and killed the guard who tried to arrest me. Big rep drop, but Viconia is content.
I've got Imoen her sling and some bullets, and a quarterstaff. Not plus-one equipment, but no doubt I'll find some of that eventually. I got her a few spells, and we just had a nice sleep so she could memorize: one. She has one spell. No wizard's ring for her. Hope I find another one somewhere.
But I did dual class her the last time I played, and it was really handy having two mages. Plus now I have a real cleric and a druid. So that's four spellcasters. That's gonna help!
I have plenty more reading to do this week, but I really want to try to play just for a short period every day. I don't want to take off this much time from the game again. I have some other games I'd like to get to, but I really do want actually to finish Baldur's Gate for the first time. I came close the first time! This time will be better.
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