Rasaad's Quests

abacus

Ok, so I want to do a Cavalier full run, pulling in some of the new NPCs along the way.
My party for BG2 onwards will be:
Cavalier
Keldorn
Anomen
Imoen (Yoshimo temping)
Neera
Rasaad

My problem is party composition in BG1. I'd like to do Rasaad's quests, so it makes sense when I meet up with him in Trademeet, but don't really want to carry him around for the entire game (I've dabbled with Monks in BG1, and even min/maxed found them frustratingly weak).

My question to you kind folks is whether I can pick him up early, get his quests out of the way and then drop him off before the end game.
Is this possible? Or are his quests similar to Dorn's (requiring access to Baldur's Gate to complete).
Without too many spoilers, how tough are his quests? Am I going to need a few miles on the clock first?

My party (with him), would be:
Cavalier
Ajantis
Yeslick (Branwen early doors)
Imoen
Neera
Rasaad

But I'd like to bring in Kivan or Coran for the later chapters, and do not want to drop any of the front 5.

Much obliged for any advice...

element

you need access to baldurs gate in order to complete rasaads quest I believe

by the time your able to access the entirety of his quest it should be reasonably strait forward for your party

victory_rose

During my first EE run I didn't recruit Rasaad until late in the game - I figured I'd finish it before taking on the endgame, and he was distressingly underdeveloped compared to the rest of the crew, but his quest, once I visited the appropriate area in BG with him in the party, started quite on cue and went quickly and smoothly. His underdeveloped status did make the quest a bit challenging, though.

Subsequent runs have all included him, and although he'll never be a tank in BG1, with a sling and one pip in that proficiency, he does surprisingly well. Of course, once he hits level 9 in BG2, he become increasingly awesome.

abacus

victory_rose said:

During my first EE run I didn't recruit Rasaad until late in the game - I figured I'd finish it before taking on the endgame, and he was distressingly underdeveloped compared to the rest of the crew, but his quest, once I visited the appropriate area in BG with him in the party, started quite on cue and went quickly and smoothly. His underdeveloped status did make the quest a bit challenging, though.

Subsequent runs have all included him, and although he'll never be a tank in BG1, with a sling and one pip in that proficiency, he does surprisingly well. Of course, once he hits level 9 in BG2, he become increasingly awesome.

That's what worries me... The necessity to equip a melee character with a ranged weapon just to keep him out of trouble....

nano

I swipe the wolf cloak from the cave to make him a bit better at melee early on. Though it also says something about how bad his melee is that the wolf cloak improves it.

victory_rose

I've never rolled a monk as a charname so I don't know how well a monk with good stats would do in the first game - Rasaad only has 16 DEX and 14 CON and his strength isn't all that good - but given that the monk's fists don't count as +1 weapon until level 9, and you won't get there (without cheating) in the first game, the monk doesn't seem like a very viable character until BG2. Or, you could look at it as a very slow yielding investment.

Rasaad's quest is interesting enough that I believe he's worth having during the first game, and being the way he is, he contributes best by slinging bullets until his level gets higher. Besides, being most comfortable playing female characters, it's refreshing to have someone other than Anomen to romance.