ia m currently running a 5E pen and paper DnD campaign with the Baldurs Gate 1 Szenario in mind. I have adopted the storyline for my girlfriend as a solo adventure, she is playing a bhaal spawn barbarian as Gorions foster child. Two friends joined for a session to play Jaheira and Khalid and for reasons beyond my control , only one of them decided to keep playing, with both characters. So, now we have the Barbarian, a druid and a fighter being played by one player, both now bhaalspawns as well and soon a Bard is going to join the group as well as another Bhaalspawn. The group is currently level 3 and my girlfriend has adopted Minsk as well (not a Bhaalspawn) because she has only on character and is jealous :D
So anyway, this group of soon 6 characters obviously also has Imoen in the line up played by me as a npc and i am having a bit of a concern. I have played BG1 and 2 and i remember both Imoens and just love the character, but i feel in 5e, there is not really a good way to level her. At first i thought making her an Arcane Trickster would be the obvious choice, but i feel Imoen is more magical then that. AT is a cool class and i love it, but it remains a rogue at heart, just with a few magic tricks. So i thought, she will start learning the arcane after getting Rogue 3 with AT spec. But i am currently really concerned about it. The way i see it, if i start leveling her as a mage now, she will in the end be just a weaker mage. Her rogue talents will basically not be useful at all in a few levels and her magic will always be weaker then normal characters. So maybe have her go 10 Rogue / 10 Sorcerer (i think she is a sorcerer, not a wizard, it fits her divine bloodline and her upbringing as not exactly a bookworm), i am just not sure as she would be a level 13 multiclass mage at level 20, she would be a lot weaker then full mages. Maybe that isn't a concern at all, she is just an npc and one that will be largely absent for a long time when we reach BG2 territory, i just want to have her be somewhat true to the games and not sure how to go about it. To be honest, she was also kinda weak in the games and i remember feeling bad about taking her along instead of other characters. Maybe she needs to be a bit weak.
A secondary concern is that with the current lineup, traps and scouting feel weird as the rogue of the group actually knows every trap and the layout of the dungeon but has to pretend she does not. Should i encourage my bard to be adept at subterfuge? I don't know if a rogue is necessary for these skills or if someone else with thieves tools proficiency and a good sneak and sleight of hand is all that is needed, i am not that experienced with DnD yet. :D
Well, yes, but i like the idea of her transforming. In my first BG1 playthrough, she probably remained a full rogue as well, because i didn't know yet what BG2 would make of her and i didn't feel the need to use her stats for the full potential, that just happens if you start to minmax in later runs :D
Imoen to me was always the little naive and cheerful girl that was brought up by Winthrop to be a "rogue" and then later realized that she had a lot of magical potential and became more of a serious person. Then she is experimented on by Irenicus and that breaks her character. If at this point, she is only a rogue, the only direction i can see this going is for her to become a monster and i don't like that. I think her becoming a sorceress or wizardine makes the most sense and my group could certainly use a bit more magic. I am just not sure how much exactly.
In BG2, assuming she kept rogue during the first episode she would never be a crazy powerful spell caster anyway. Arcane trickster works well as the subclass. You can make sorcerer work too. That actually might be more fun and removes the reliance on a spell book (which doesn't make sense for her character). Keep in mind too that since this is a NPC, you don't have to follow the normal character rules. Give her whatever you want to fit the character story wise. It's ok to make custom NPCs.
The more i think about it, the more i believe that it is completely okay for Imoen to not be perfect. She is valuable as an anchor and motivation for the group, as a tool to give them some direction and hints and as a way to make the world a bit more alive. If i train them to not rely on her, even if she can do some interesting things as a sorceress or wizardine, they will be better off. What i still don't like is the rogue aspect. My girlfriend has already told me, she wants more dungeons. More traps, more puzzles, all the things that make a rogueish character kinda important. How are your experiences with a group that has a very passive rogue character? My Barbarian is eager to always waltz forward, this might change when i put traps into the dungeon. My Druid player is starting to think about the possibilities that wildshape gives them, but is not yet implementing this as the powerful dungeion clearing tool it is. Khalid is more or less just an addon to Jaheria for her. I don't know yet how the bard will play, he might fill a rogueish role, or he might go another route entirely.
So how do i play this, i want to give them traps and hidden doors and that kind of stuff, but i also want them to find them, not a DM NPC. I have no trouble with Imoen disarming the trap, but i want to avoid the players telling Imoen to look for traps, me rolling a die and then tell them that there was a trap in that room.
Don't worry about how powerful she is. She's an NPC. They should be weaker than the player characters so as not to steal the limelight.
When you run the dungeons, that's where an NPC who has all the trap finding skills really becomes problematic. Let one of your players run her in combat or dungeons if you can.
Yes what Xalthu said. The Druid can probably find them just as well as the rogue. She can still be there as a backup, and you can also have the party roll for the NPC in those situations. If they weren't already playing two characters, I'd suggest that one of them just run the NPC sidekick instead of you.
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Hi guys,
ia m currently running a 5E pen and paper DnD campaign with the Baldurs Gate 1 Szenario in mind. I have adopted the storyline for my girlfriend as a solo adventure, she is playing a bhaal spawn barbarian as Gorions foster child. Two friends joined for a session to play Jaheira and Khalid and for reasons beyond my control , only one of them decided to keep playing, with both characters. So, now we have the Barbarian, a druid and a fighter being played by one player, both now bhaalspawns as well and soon a Bard is going to join the group as well as another Bhaalspawn. The group is currently level 3 and my girlfriend has adopted Minsk as well (not a Bhaalspawn) because she has only on character and is jealous :D
So anyway, this group of soon 6 characters obviously also has Imoen in the line up played by me as a npc and i am having a bit of a concern. I have played BG1 and 2 and i remember both Imoens and just love the character, but i feel in 5e, there is not really a good way to level her. At first i thought making her an Arcane Trickster would be the obvious choice, but i feel Imoen is more magical then that. AT is a cool class and i love it, but it remains a rogue at heart, just with a few magic tricks. So i thought, she will start learning the arcane after getting Rogue 3 with AT spec. But i am currently really concerned about it. The way i see it, if i start leveling her as a mage now, she will in the end be just a weaker mage. Her rogue talents will basically not be useful at all in a few levels and her magic will always be weaker then normal characters. So maybe have her go 10 Rogue / 10 Sorcerer (i think she is a sorcerer, not a wizard, it fits her divine bloodline and her upbringing as not exactly a bookworm), i am just not sure as she would be a level 13 multiclass mage at level 20, she would be a lot weaker then full mages. Maybe that isn't a concern at all, she is just an npc and one that will be largely absent for a long time when we reach BG2 territory, i just want to have her be somewhat true to the games and not sure how to go about it. To be honest, she was also kinda weak in the games and i remember feeling bad about taking her along instead of other characters. Maybe she needs to be a bit weak.
A secondary concern is that with the current lineup, traps and scouting feel weird as the rogue of the group actually knows every trap and the layout of the dungeon but has to pretend she does not. Should i encourage my bard to be adept at subterfuge? I don't know if a rogue is necessary for these skills or if someone else with thieves tools proficiency and a good sneak and sleight of hand is all that is needed, i am not that experienced with DnD yet. :D
In my bg1 play throughs, I always just kept her straight rogue. You can always do that. Maybe give her a wand or two for a bit of spell power.
Well, yes, but i like the idea of her transforming. In my first BG1 playthrough, she probably remained a full rogue as well, because i didn't know yet what BG2 would make of her and i didn't feel the need to use her stats for the full potential, that just happens if you start to minmax in later runs :D
Imoen to me was always the little naive and cheerful girl that was brought up by Winthrop to be a "rogue" and then later realized that she had a lot of magical potential and became more of a serious person. Then she is experimented on by Irenicus and that breaks her character. If at this point, she is only a rogue, the only direction i can see this going is for her to become a monster and i don't like that. I think her becoming a sorceress or wizardine makes the most sense and my group could certainly use a bit more magic. I am just not sure how much exactly.
In BG2, assuming she kept rogue during the first episode she would never be a crazy powerful spell caster anyway. Arcane trickster works well as the subclass. You can make sorcerer work too. That actually might be more fun and removes the reliance on a spell book (which doesn't make sense for her character). Keep in mind too that since this is a NPC, you don't have to follow the normal character rules. Give her whatever you want to fit the character story wise. It's ok to make custom NPCs.
The more i think about it, the more i believe that it is completely okay for Imoen to not be perfect. She is valuable as an anchor and motivation for the group, as a tool to give them some direction and hints and as a way to make the world a bit more alive. If i train them to not rely on her, even if she can do some interesting things as a sorceress or wizardine, they will be better off. What i still don't like is the rogue aspect. My girlfriend has already told me, she wants more dungeons. More traps, more puzzles, all the things that make a rogueish character kinda important. How are your experiences with a group that has a very passive rogue character? My Barbarian is eager to always waltz forward, this might change when i put traps into the dungeon. My Druid player is starting to think about the possibilities that wildshape gives them, but is not yet implementing this as the powerful dungeion clearing tool it is. Khalid is more or less just an addon to Jaheria for her. I don't know yet how the bard will play, he might fill a rogueish role, or he might go another route entirely.
So how do i play this, i want to give them traps and hidden doors and that kind of stuff, but i also want them to find them, not a DM NPC. I have no trouble with Imoen disarming the trap, but i want to avoid the players telling Imoen to look for traps, me rolling a die and then tell them that there was a trap in that room.
Don't worry about how powerful she is. She's an NPC. They should be weaker than the player characters so as not to steal the limelight.
When you run the dungeons, that's where an NPC who has all the trap finding skills really becomes problematic. Let one of your players run her in combat or dungeons if you can.
This sounds like a good idea, my new bard player might enjoy controlling her actions for the dungeoneering part.
Anyone with a good perception/investigation can find the traps. They don’t have to be a rogue.
Yes what Xalthu said. The Druid can probably find them just as well as the rogue. She can still be there as a backup, and you can also have the party roll for the NPC in those situations. If they weren't already playing two characters, I'd suggest that one of them just run the NPC sidekick instead of you.