Question: Any one try Imoen as almost a pure mage?

Except for a brief attempt at the EE Version, I had not played BG for some time. With the "Conservative Guide to Mods" (thanks again), and a failing memory, the game feels fresh. So much so, that I might finish it. But I had never tried Imoen as a Thief/Mage.
In previous games, I kept Imoen and kept here a pure thief. And Imoen was a killing Machine. Shadow Armour, Speed Light Crossbow, Boots of Avoidance. And, toward the end, good at back stabbing.
Two things about Mage/Thief Imoen in BG1. Don't need a second Mage in the game. BG 2, two mages are good/ (if I remember correctly). But BG1, not so much. (Take Durlag's Tower. One warrior is needed to do in Kirinhale. Actually, unless you have Charm Protection, one warrior is better. Dire Charm's major failing for the bad guys is that once Charmed, your character is safe if he/she is alone. So a good warrior with magic block is all you need.) Most things in BG 1 can be done with fireballs and hammers (excepting the very end).
Now Imoen Mage/Thief is good. She needs expensive potions sometimes. But she also has some useful spells (knock etc), that frees up the main mage for more hitting power. But half mage/half thief feels like a waste of a good character. So, I was thinking. Would going with Imoen as almost a pure mage work (Early Dueling)? Any one try it? Since I would need a pure thief, this would be a non-canon party.

She'd be a decent mage, but if you want to go a non-canon party, and don't mind mixing alignments, Edwin is far better due to his amulet. But yeah, she'd be fine. As you noted though, it would mean you'd need another dedicated Rogue (although you need a replacement for Imoen after dualling her anyway until she gets her thief skills back again). I prefer her as a more balanced Thief/Mage in BG1 though.

The trouble with mages in BG1 is that early on they are useless. Imoen works as a mage in BG2 because there they shine. I much prefer her in the role intended. Having said that, I once created a game where I placed Eldoth in Coast Way and Skie in the Friendly Arm inn and picked them both up at the beginning of the game. The whole purpose of that was to do just what you propose: make Imoen a mage ASAP. With Skie as my pure thief it worked really well, and once Imoen had some spells and wands she worked great, and I had a lot of fun. Go for it.

Ooh, that sounds fun. One of my latest runs I took Eldoth (and Skie) for the first time ever. I liked having him and Skie, but it would have been cool to be able to get the two of them earlier.

*edit* Hickory, how involved is it to set the NPC starting locations to somewhere different than the default? I like this idea more the more I think about it.

Switching Imoen to pure mage is a waste, you can dual her to conjurer or illusionist instead to get more spells.

As long as you don't take more than 6 thief levels before dualing to mage she can still reach the maximum of 9 mage levels within the XP cap and cast as well as pure class mages, making her superior to the other mages in the game.

The combination of Imoen as specialist mage with a multiclass thief is superior to Imoen as pure class thief with another mage.

The problem with dualling Imoen at level 6 is that you pretty much need a thief for traps and locks, so you'd need to take on a thief NPC and cope with Imoen being useless for quite a while.

Also I disagree that Imoen as a mage/thief is superior to Imoen as a thief. She is the best thief in the game, and in BG mages aren't that strong. And I say that as someone who really likes mages and frequently have 2 in my party even in BG.

The only time I've dualled Imoen as a mage is when I played with a PC thief and still wanted to use her.

You could create a mod to do it, but since it was just a one-off for me I simply created a new game, saved and re-placed their characters in the saved game. The easiest way to do this is with Guillaume Masserey's 'I.E. Save Game Editor' (see attachment). You'll need Microsoft's mfc71.dll and msvcr71.dll in the same folder as the editor. It can also be done with Near Infinity if you prefer.

Excellent. Thanks for the info, Hickory. Much appreciated.

Thanks for the input. Probably finish the game I'm in and see what Imoen Thief/Mage can do in the finals. I may try the Friendly Arm pick-up just to see how it works. Besides, if I have Imoen as mage, then I can try a bigger mixture of personalities. (Then again if I finish it, I'll also want to get to BGII. David Warner does such an amazing job. I can still hear him talk about having to torment my character to bring out my true nature. Very Creepy. )

In my one completion of BG1, I dualled Imoen to mage when she hit level 7 as a thief. I totally did this, for no other reason, because that matches how she is in BG2. This is my OCD with personal preference of story/character consistency. (Of course, I had my Cleric with the default party assumed in BG2: Khalid, Jaheira, Dynaheir, Minsc and Boo.)

This means I spent most of the middle-third of the game without a thief. I thought I'd have a headache not having a thief for a while, but most of the middle of the game is wilderness, so I didn't miss having a thief nearly as much as I thought I would.

For the areas that I figured a thief would be important, I used the opportunity to switch my party around a bit, to use some of the other local thief characters that I came across. It's been a while, but I remember that Safana and Coran added a fresh vibe to the game with their brief stints in my party.

I thought I'd have a headache with my default characters being shorted some Experience Points while being temporarily switched out of the party for these areas, but they all had max XP way, way before the end of the game. I got save games saved at the beginning of each Chapter, and at the beginning of Chapter 6 (after doing everything in the city and expansion areas), we was all maxed out at 161k XP.

(I woulda experimented with more characters if I'd know I'd hit the cap so early.)

And not only did I go a stretch of the game without a thief, but during that stretch Imoen was a weak mage, levels behind Dynaheir (not to mention mages are weak anyways in BG1). But the nice thing about Imoen-dualled-to-mage is that fact that she can use wands. And I had a lot of wands, certainly more than just Dynaheir could use. My Imoen was more a wand-user than spell-caster (at least till later levels).

If I remember correctly and not confusing this with another game, the price that merchants would buy a wand for, would help indicate if the wand was low on charges, and if you sold the wand to a merchant and bought it back, it'd be recharged. Unless I'm remembering doing this in a different game, but I do remember that I was never lacking for gold, so this was for me a viable option.

So if you use and maintain your wands, I think Imoen works great as a pure mage. Even with another mage already in the party. It's the Wand Fireworks Light Show!

But, I also think she works great as just a thief, and I think she works great as both thief and mage.

And this is why I dig Imoen. Her ability scores paint her picture and match her character, and yet still allow her to grow in one of three directions.

She really is a utility infielder. "Hey-a, what-cha want?"

During one play-through I dualed Imoen to a mage at level 2, and ultimately felt like she gave up far more than she gained by doing so. She had a lower THAC0, fewer hit points, fewer weapon proficiencies, worse backstab multiplier and substantially lower thief skills. And I can't really say that she gain anything by doing that, other than getting to use magic earlier. But as has been pointed out, low level mages tend to drag the party down -- so there's really no point in rushing to dual class her.

With the 161,000 XP cap in BG1, you can level Imoen to 6 as a thief, then dual to a mage, and still have enough XP under the cap to hit level 9 as a mage (the same level as a pure mage could achieve). Going 7/8 is also viable if you bring another thief along or are very selective in adventuring in areas which don't require a thief for a good chunk of time.

Coran is far superior to her, sufficient thieving skills and far more combat power (extra attack per round and bonuses to hit and damage).

In any case pay attention to how you time the period that you won't have thief skills. On my first playthrough ever, I didn't even have a thief and the Candlekeep catacombs were so much fun, lightning bolts jumped from wall to wall and fried my party:)

Coran is a cheat character, just like Kagain -- illegal stats and 3 points in bow. On top of that he's squishy compared to Imoen with only 12 CON. But that's not the most important factor. The most important factor is that you can assign ALL of Imoen's thieving points yourself, with Coran you cannot. As far as legitimate characters go, Imoen is by far the best.

Coran may be a far better warrior (since he's a multiclass he'd better be), but he is a worse thief since you can't allocate his thieving skills yourself and he gets half the xp in thief as pure class thieves like Imoen or Safana. Plus you get him pretty late in the game unless you rush, and even if you do so, your party has to be strong enough to kill the wyverns shortly or he'll leave.

Since you do need a thief for the Nashkel Mines and the bandit camp among other things, Coran really just serves as a good archer if you want one, not as a party thief unless you install a mod to make him more easily accessible.