Imoen

Template:D&D character Imoen is one of the main characters of the Baldur's Gate series of Dungeons and Dragons computer role-playing games. She always stays by the protagonist, unless removed by the player. She is voiced by Melissa Disney

For those not familiar with this, Baldur's Gate is a location in the Forgotten Realms fantasy setting. This setting has been used and expanded via a series of books of the same name, as well as being incorporated into the Role Playing Game (pen and paper) Dungeon's and Dragons. The Baldur's Gate series utilizes the setting as well as the rules of Dungeons and Dragons.

Story-line

Baldur's Gate

In the first game she is shown as one cheerful young girl in her late teens, an initiate thief and childhood friend of the protagonist, living in Candlekeep. After the brutal attack, which claimed the life of the protagonists foster father Gorion, she joins the bewildered and scared protagonist, through his adventures in the Sword Coast. Imoen is goodhearted, kind and compassionate and always wants to help other people.

Baldur's Gate II

Imoen arrives in the nick of time to rescue the protagonist from his/her cell and to join them again. She has dual-classed into Thief-Mage, but has lost much of her cheer due to the tortures imposed on her and on the protagonist by the mysterious mage Irenicus.

After passing through the dungeon, they witness the significant magical power of Irenicus against the Shadow Thieves and the Cowled Wizards. Enraged by her torment at the hands of her captor, Imoen attacks Irenicus, but he mocks the attack. Irenicus, however, agrees to give himself up, but to her horror he demands of the wizards to take her as well.

The two prisoners are teleported to a magical prison named Spellhold, where Irenicus quickly proceeds to overrun the entire place, killing all of the wizards with ease and taking control of the premises. Meanwhile, the protagonist must find a way to the prison island and after he arrives there, Irenicus finishes his torturing of the protagonist; in doing so, he steals the main character's soul.

It is revealed that Imoen is also a child of Bhaal and thus the protagonist's half-sister. Irenicus's sister and accomplice, a vampiress by the name of Bodhi, accomplishes the same feat. After taking Imoen's soul, both she and her sibling are soulless, and as a result dying. Effectively, Imoen and the protagonist have swapped fates with Irenicus and Bodhi, who as exiled elves are preordained to slow death. After the killing of Bodhi, Imoen's soul is returned.

Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal

Imoen has grown to be a highly powerful mage herself, though is significantly less self-confident and constantly questions herself. Nevertheless, if chosen, she will battle along with her siblings - the protagonist and the revived Sarevok - in an epic conclusion against the remaining and most powerful children of Bhaal.

Ascension

In the semi-official mod developed by David Gaider for Throne of Bhaal Imoen starts exhibiting some Bhaalspawn characteristics. She is able to cast some healing spells and has some bonuses on her stats, especially her strength (a respectable 5 point bonus) and +1 on dexterity, that significantly boosts her physical firepower as she also becomes an efficient backstabber. At the climax of the game, she turns into the Slayer like the main character and only with his encouragement, she would be able to control the inner beast.

Powers

In the original game, she is the best of all thieves with perfect attributes (Dexterity 18, Constitution 16) and the option to dualclass her to mage (Intelligence 17) or to some of the mage specialties. In the second game she is the third best thief, as she constitutes a stalled but sufficient thief for finding traps, scouting and opening locks (the bounty hunter Yoshimo is better, however he turns out to be a traitor mid-game; Jan Jansen, a multi-class mage-thief, is also better because he advances in thief skills). With the Ascension add-on her thieving skills are further boosted.

Imoen loses at least one high level's worth of experience points by being (forcibly) absent from the main character's party for much of Baldur's Gate II. There are rumors that she is limited in the maximum spell level she can cast, and that she would get more spells than normal. The first rumor is not true, because the game has not implemented this limitation, and the second one is based on some errors in her original character files which are fixed when she levels up.

Character

As a Child of Bhaal, Imoen is an essential part of the storyline of the game, but the player is never forced to include her in the party. Being raised with the protagonist, she is the only character in both games who stays in the party no matter the party's reputation. Imoen is a very amiable character. She is very passionate and gentle toward other people's feelings and loves the protagonist deeply.

Her epilogue reveals that centuries after her saga, she travels with Elminster and Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun, going so far as to steal the Black Staff of the latter. She also founds an influential thieves' guild.

Reception

Dakota Grabowski of GameZone listed Imoen as one of the top BioWare created teammates, commenting "As the first character to join the squad in Baldur's Gate I, Imoen essentially becomes troubled by torture in Baldur's Gate II, creating a dilemma that players will want to protect this vulnerable rogue from all danger. Her romance was even more difficult, but the rewards are just after putting in all the work. Her sweet and sugary demeanor only aided in her appeal rating skyrocketing to unparalleled levels."

Additional reading

• Baldur's Gate Manual
• http://www.planetbaldursgate.com/
• http://www.gamebanshee.com/baldursgateii/

External links

• Melissa Disney at IMDb