Can new areas be played without the corresponding npc?

BelgarathMTH

Hi, I was curious about something - I have a run going with Neera and Rasaad, but I was missing some of the old npc's in my party, and also getting some ideas about other Charname builds I want to try.

I've also read that you cannot activate their quests until you get your party to Baldur's Gate. That's pretty late in the game.

I hate to leave off on my new-npc run, if that means that I will never see any of the new areas. Does not running with any of the new npc's mean that you will also never see the new areas?

Thanks.

Deucetipher

Don't get rid of rasaad. He's pretty seriously bugged, and if you boot him you probably won't be able to get him back. You can do Neera's quest pretty early on, actually.

I'd like to know as well, since rasaad is bugged in my game.

Flauschig

Cheat teleport to (closed) areas?

FrozenCells

You need the NPCs to receive them, I don't know if you need them to actually do them though one you have the locations on the map. Having done Rasaad's just now, I wouldn't worry about if if I were you. It says on his page that it adds "up to four hours of additional gameplay". Took me 20 minutes while taking it slowly. I feel quite massively mislead.