Is it too early to get these party members?

SpiffyMcBang

My planned party is my PC (Ranger, archer kit), Branwen, Neera, Ajantis, Coran, and either Safana or Kivan depending on if Coran's trap/lock skills are good enough. Right now I have the first three along with Khalid, Jaheira, and Imoen (all of whom I used my first time through, which is why I'm switching them out). From what I've read, some, if not all NPCs join you for a reason and will eventually leave if you don't do what they want to do soon enough.

Everyone is level 3 right now except Imoen, who's 4. I want to get these NPCs earlier rather than later so I can play with their stats more. But with those I don't have- Ajantis, Coran, Safana, Kivan- will I be screwing myself getting them ASAP by not being strong enough to complete their quests before they leave?

phase_nz

My plan in my new playthrough was to get as many of the companions as early as possible to optimize their stats. Dudleyville has a great guide on what level's the companions start on in comparison to the pc's level. As far as npc's quests im unsure I was just going to dump them in the FAI until I was ready to do their associated missions. A way would be to not level up the pc but level up everyone else to make this possible? I don't know still formulating the strategy in my head until the latest patch is out good luck and remember to gather your party before venturing forth.

SharGuidesMyHand

SpiffyMcBang said:

But with those I don't have- Ajantis, Coran, Safana, Kivan- will I be screwing myself getting them ASAP by not being strong enough to complete their quests before they leave?

Ajantis and Kivan don't have associated time-sensitive quests IIRC.

As for Coran, you can only access him after you've achieved a certain point in the game, so practically-speaking, he's not available ASAP (although some super-creative power gamers on this forum would probably disagree with me).

Awong124

Other than Imoen, Kivan and Ajantis are usually the first two NPCs I get. Kivan's the easiest, as you only have to go South one map from where Gorion is killed. It isn't really possible to get Coran early, because you get access to him in Chapter 4. You can get Neera pretty quickly, and Branwen just a little bit after. Safana you can get more or less anytime, but she's a little out of the way, and her quest is tough for low level.

sarevok57

theoretically you can kinda get coran right away, just go straight to the nashkiel mines, then zip on over to the bandit camp, then coran is in the first area of cloakwood, the bandit camp can be difficult with low level characters, but if you have lots of sleep spells ( for the hobgoblins and bandits) and horror spells/ wand of paralysation, then it is doable, I believe one time I got to the bandit camp at level 1 once, it was brutal, but I was able to do it, but also when you get coran on your team you have to rush off to the wyvern cave, kill all the wyverns ( or maybe just one of the big ones) grab a wyvern head and run on over to buddy in the temple east of beregost, Keddath or some jargon I think his name is, and with safana, you have to grab all the goodies in the flesh golem cave to have her stay around permanently or else she will leave, so you either need 2 potions of invisibility and run on over there and grab the goodies, or have some magical weaponry with a potion of absorbtion, and a potion of clarity for the sirines, plus that flesh golem cave has a very useful item in it if you plan on going to the bandit camp at a very low level if you are speed rushing to get coran ( jaheira has a potion of invisibility, noble house in beregost to the north has one upstairs, 45 % lock bashing/open locks, noble house in nashkiel to the upper right of the map has one upstairs, and I think its unlocked, and there is one in the naskiel carnival in the tent in the south of the map with the dude that sales you 2 potions for 50 gp, the bigger chest has it and requires 65 % open lock/bashing) these may be spoilers, but as the tread says spoiler warning

sarevok57

oh and I forgot and spoiler warning ahead, kinda, about the wyverns, in nashkiel mines map as soon as you come to it, you will start at the top, if you go aaaaaaaaaaaaaaall the way to the left at the top, there is a wand of frost inside that tree, I usually use that wand in the wyvern cave to help take out those wyverns at low levels, for speed rushing coran, to help him stay on your team

Jalily

SharGuidesMyHand said:

Ajantis and Kivan don't have associated time-sensitive quests IIRC.

If you have the beta, Kivan will leave if you don't clear the bandit camp (i.e. reach Chaper 4) within a certain time. You have 20 days if you recruit him in Chapter 1, 14 days if you recruit him in Chapter 2, and 7 days if you recruit him in Chapter 3. In the current version, he is still supposed to leave but doesn't unless you talk to him yourself...

sarevok57

Jalily said:

SharGuidesMyHand said:

Ajantis and Kivan don't have associated time-sensitive quests IIRC.

If you have the beta, Kivan will leave if you don't clear the bandit camp (i.e. reach Chaper 4) within a certain time. You have 20 days if you recruit him in Chapter 1, 14 days if you recruit him in Chapter 2, and 7 days if you recruit him in Chapter 3. In the current version, he is still supposed to leave but doesn't unless you talk to him yourself...

npcs with their things to do, people to see, places to go, why is everyone is such a big rush? I think what all these time npcs need is to chill out with some mint chocolate chip ice cream, yum

phase_nz

As far as im aware only the PC has to be low level to get the other companions at low level so there is no reason you cant level everyone else up to make the bandit camp survivable then level your charname up when you have all the party members you want. The lowest level Coran can be at recruitment is level 2 and the characters recruitable in baldurs gate are around level 4 at the lowest.

Tetraploid

I'm trying to do almost exactly the same thing with my current playthrough so I've just run through Nashkel and the Bandit camp at top speed and now I am ready to pick up Coran with my PC at level 3. Bandit camp wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, either, though I did burn through a few potions.

Also, since you wondering about Safana/Kivan...you can probably get away with Coran as your main thief. He'll need a few levels before he can handle all the traps/locks in Durlag's Tower but you probably don't want to do that at low levels anyway, traps or not! So if you'd prefer Kivan over Safana I'd say go for it.

Ajantis has no quest so go get him as soon as you like

SpiffyMcBang

Cool, thanks everyone. Let's see if this archer hit squad is as ridiculous as I think it's going to be. (Though I don't imagine it will be as insane as the half-orc fighter with the natural 19 strength... but that's for another thread. Which I think I'll make now.)

phase_nz

The thief Alora has 19 dex so she would be quite a good archer for a thief she is in baldurs gate but the lowest level you can get her is level 4. I imagine she would be a good addition to youre hit squad.

phase_nz

and vicona also has a 19 dex as well so yeah

Corvino

Alora also has a lucky Rabbit's foot that adds a lot to her thief skills, and natural halfling bonuses. She probably has higher skills than any other thief in the game.

But she also has horrible stats apart from Dex, and all that "Happy happy joy joy" stuff can be irritating.

CutlassJack

I'll confirm you can get Safana as early as you want her. I picked her up at like level 2 in my EE run on the way to mines. Doing her quest isn't that bad while you're there. Especially in my case, since I picked up Viconia first.

With Vikki along, I use her as a stalking horse for the Sirens. Just send her slowly alone, while the rest of my team hangs back with ranged weapons. I let Vikki attract the attention of one siren at a time. When the Siren sees her, it casts improve invis. Let her do that, then pull back out of range for a minute until it wears off. Then I move Vikki back in range and let the siren waste its dire charms on her magic resistance. Once that happens, I can easilly lure the siren into range of the rest of the team and use her like a pincushion. Then I just repeat on all the rest of the sirens.

Once you're in the Cave its easier. Just send Safana or any other thief inside. Leave everyone else outside. Then just remove the traps at the entrance, sneak all the way to the treasure, Grab it and run the heck out the door as fast as you can. No need to fight the golems at all if you're quick enough.

Do the above and you'll have Safana as early as you want her. In fact I reccomend getting her early since she doesn't get max HP per level before you grab her, and she could use the extra points. Its worth grabbing Viconia for the above tactics, even if you dont keep her past that. The sirens Charm spells are a pita otherwise.

As a bonus, the Sirens are worth 2k exp each so that will go a long way towards building up your early party.

elminster

Jalily said:

SharGuidesMyHand said:

Ajantis and Kivan don't have associated time-sensitive quests IIRC.

If you have the beta, Kivan will leave if you don't clear the bandit camp (i.e. reach Chaper 4) within a certain time. You have 20 days if you recruit him in Chapter 1, 14 days if you recruit him in Chapter 2, and 7 days if you recruit him in Chapter 3. In the current version, he is still supposed to leave but doesn't unless you talk to him yourself...

Thanks for pointing out the specifics.

Awong124

Jalily said:

SharGuidesMyHand said:

Ajantis and Kivan don't have associated time-sensitive quests IIRC.

If you have the beta, Kivan will leave if you don't clear the bandit camp (i.e. reach Chaper 4) within a certain time. You have 20 days if you recruit him in Chapter 1, 14 days if you recruit him in Chapter 2, and 7 days if you recruit him in Chapter 3. In the current version, he is still supposed to leave but doesn't unless you talk to him yourself...

That actually sucks in my opinion. To me, time sensitive things don't add anything to the game and just creates annoyances. If you're the type of player that likes to just get main quests over with, it wouldn't concern you. But if you're the type of player that likes to take time to explore and do side quests, then it's very annoying. Implementing these things is a lose-lose situation that I can't see anybody getting any enjoyment from.

nano

@Awong124 I kind of agree, but it's not like they have a choice in the matter. They fix bugs and this one is bugged, and they can't change the original content aside from that. It's like the Chill Touch fix, which made an already unpopular spell much worse; even if the bug improved the game it was still bugged and that's that.

Awong124

I actually meant in general, not just in BG.

nano

Ahhh... but it can work very well in other games. It's just that time limits in BG are not always consistent - you would expect most quests to have some kind of deadline, but only a few do and it's not always clear which ones. And with so many quests going on it's easy to lose track. I think if you're going to include a time limit it should be consistent and central to the challenge and made very obvious.

SharGuidesMyHand

Jalily said:

SharGuidesMyHand said:

Ajantis and Kivan don't have associated time-sensitive quests IIRC.

If you have the beta, Kivan will leave if you don't clear the bandit camp (i.e. reach Chaper 4) within a certain time. You have 20 days if you recruit him in Chapter 1, 14 days if you recruit him in Chapter 2, and 7 days if you recruit him in Chapter 3. In the current version, he is still supposed to leave but doesn't unless you talk to him yourself...

This kinda sucks IMO. I used to love that I could pick up Kivan fairly quickly into the game and then take my time exploring with him.

Was this added just for BG:EE, or had it been intended for the original BG1 but prevented by a bug?

Eudaemonium

Kivan had this weird bug in the original where he would leave if you talked to him (claiming you had not fulfilled his quest), so i would presume the latter.

Jalily

SharGuidesMyHand said:

Was this added just for BG:EE, or had it been intended for the original BG1 but prevented by a bug?

The latter. His deadline was actually extended for BG:EE, as many felt five days was too short.

phase_nz

If you dismiss him is the quest timer stopped until he is recruited again?

Jalily

No, the timer doesn't stop.

Delvarian

Corvino said:

Alora also has a lucky Rabbit's foot that adds a lot to her thief skills, and natural halfling bonuses. She probably has higher skills than any other thief in the game.

But she also has horrible stats apart from Dex, and all that "Happy happy joy joy" stuff can be irritating.

^disagree about the irritating bit.