Imoen, Nalia or Jan?

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KElsey?! who is this you speak of?!

 

He is a mod sorcerer charecter. Try the Mod Reviews forum on SP for more information on him.

 

Not Jan. He's very annoying. I'd choose Imoen.

 

RP it. It's not that difficult a choice, then.

If you're not into RP'ing, then take whichever you like the most - they can all do the job, albeit slightly differently.

 

So.... To sum up.... All three are AWESOME ! That was really helpful. In a few words...
Imoen is useful and 'conventional' with the game's story
Jan is funny and
Nalia is annoying.

Too bad that if I want to play evil I my PC must be a thief(single/dual/multi class) myself or recruit Jan...

 

I can't have a party without Jan myself. Even if he doesn't fit in the line-up too well, it seems such an empty and humorless place without him.

 

I usually take nalia first, then use jan after finishing de'arnise keep

 

Well, I have just played a game with both Imoen + Nalia ... now that is one awesome magic combo I used Yoshi upto spellhold and replaced him with Immy as my party thief. Nalia was my main spellcaster and in fact she is the best spellcaster in the game after Edwin ... and as I never treat her as a thief in anyway her limited thief skills are no issue.

Next game I am going to take Jan along for the ride, but can't decide whether to take Jan+Edwin or Jan+Imoen ... hmmm, decisions, decisions.

 

Gotta step in here.

Imoen - She's the PC's sister with enough thieving skills (OL 95, FT 80% which can be conveniently boosted with a ring and potion) to get you through the game. She's the game's Mary Sue, thusly forced (imo) upon you due to her familial relation and her 'kidnapping' as part of the main plotline. (I think it would've been a better game if the PC had been taken by the Cowlies. When did Immy get to be the spokesman of the group anyway?!?) I've played with her three times and have decided she's not only annoying with her 'little white lies' about my PC (I never skipped out on lessons, you twit!) and her whining. (The darkness will get you, Immy! )

Nalia - Basically, the game's Peggy Sue. She has the same sum as Imoen (89), just allocated differently, the same hair color (reddish), equal annoyance factor (imo), same gender and same race. Her thieving skills are a bit too poor for me (OL 80%, FT 60% but with said ring and potions you can use her as a thief.) to use her as an actual thief. She's as whiny as anyone ("I can take to the shadows like a noble to wine. And I've studied a bit of magery, too!") and her comments about my PC's allocation of monetary funds ("What are you saving up for? A gold sword?" No, you silly bunt, to rescue my 'sister' so I can advance the plot!) A good mage who can conveniently use a short bow and that's what I do with her.

Jan Jansen - The gnome factor. He's annoying to a lot of gamers, but I really enjoy how he rags on the goodies (Keldorn, Anomen, etc.) His turnip stories are long-winded, yes, but if you want role-play, this is your gnome! His thieving skills get better throughout the game (he has equipment which enhances them plus he's MC.) and that's his major sell factor for me. I take him as my thief and back-up mage. No, he can't cast Necromancy spells and his INT is only 16 (level eight) but wtf do you have a single-class mage/sorcerer for? (You want plenty of ADHW, Skull Traps and Fingers of Death? Check out Tsujatha at Chosen of Mystra.)As for trap setting and backstabbing, this guy isn't built that way imo. His low HP are reason enough for me to keep him in the back ranks. He doesn't whine, he rags on everybody in the party and satisfies my internal nastiness that pops up in-game.

For me, I find Jan Jansen the best thief because a) he's MC, so his skills improve and b) his banters. If you don't like listening to him, then you probably won't want to RPG with me.

I toss a black powder filled skull into the thread and cry, "Jan Jansen, I choose you!"

 

Jan Jansen for me.

They ruined Imoen in BG2 by traumatizing her, and completely changing her personality. Now she's all gloom and doom, and she's just not fun anymore. I take her along for plot reasons, but she keeps bringing me down. She's worse than Xan (at least he was comically depressed).

Nalia is just annoying. I'd rather keep my rep low and get Edwin than listen to her constant whining. Again, at least Edwin is funny, in a disturbed kind of way.

Jan Jansen's turnip stories and his special equipment are what hook me on him. I have him in every party, and I'm still not tired of him. Not to mention that his equipment looks exactly like the kind of stuff I would design for my own character, though mine would probably be slightly more powerful.

Between Jan and Imoen, I'm usually set for arcane magic.

 

@Felinoid: When was Imoen fun???

Plotwise you have to get her on board (I love the banter between her and a certain character that can be recruited in ToB but which will remain unnamed in this section of the forum ) One of the great advantage of an evil party is that you can actually dump her (or take her just to spite Jon).

Jan is a great asset to any party and his banter is plentiful -to the point of turnip indigestion sometimes- (actually it depends on the party, if it is light hearted enough to include a dimwit with a Hamster why not take Jan along?

Nalia... what to say about her? I hope Silverstar won't mind my speaking bluntly. It is not that I dislike her, but she is a bit of a snob and her snivelling gets boring after a while. A romance with her could have been great (I tried a MOD a while ago but it didn't fit in very well with the rest of the game). It has been said before: let's face it she is an Immy look-alike and that's sad (perhaps she should have been turned into a full time thief?).

 

@Caradhras:
In BG1, she's all bubbly and carefree. Sure she might get on your nerves every once in a while, but at least she was happy. Any time something was bringing you down, Imoen would pipe up with one of her nutsy phrases, and leave you shaking her head in wonder.

Having a mage (dualled) with a bow ain't too shabby either. It's not very fun to have your mage uselessy throw daggers or darts at the ground (or worse, just stand there and do nothing) when they run out of spells. Not to mention a mage with hide in shadows. (Hide ... cast, hide ... cast, hide ... etc. ) They took both of those possibilities away from you in BG2.

 

Simple solution: get them all

 

I seriously hope you are talking about numbers only, for there isn't anything else that is even slightly similar. Nalia is a arrogan snob whereas Imoen is the Gecko of Doom.

 

Do you remember back in BG1?

I AM the future Lord of Murder, I don't have to take that $°µ* from such a puny weakling!

 

@Caradhas:
Don't forget, she's a Bhaalspawn too.

 

@Felinoid: yes but she is WEAK! She won't inherit dad's power anyway -Imoen Our Lady of Murder there are many ways to get rid of her, the only reason for an evil PC to keep her is to spite little Jon I.

Perhaps Chickavalier has the solution, get them all and see who gets the highest body count?

 

In combat it makes little difference whether you take Immy or Nalia. Neither of them is going to make much of a combat thief. If that's what you want then Jan is your man. To those of you who find Imoen annoying........she's actually pretty tame in BG2. Is the annoying part that her XP is a little behind when you get her back? If you don't think Nalia is annoying take her into her own keep and pay attention to her "how are we helping the needy trudging around here" comment while you are freeing her keep. That's annoying.

 

@Drew: to be entirely honest I don't like any of them... I barely manage to keep Jan or Nalia for more than two chapters (turnip obsession is a big NO) and if Imoen wasn't stuck in Spellhold I would most certainly get rid of her before getting there.
I never could complete Aerie's romance (does she keep whining that much?) and I HATE Anomen (I would violate the Forum rules if I was to comment on him) and Keldorn is despicable (a zealot, a hypocrite)... Minsc is becoming really boring after a while (what a big nincompoop).
The good thing in this game is that there is a lot of NPCs, so (back on topic) I'd go with Edwin and make a PC thief! It's really sad we can't keep Yoshimo through the entire game...

 

Then just get none