The real story on Kivan

jjstraka34

There seems to be some conflicting information about when, were and how Kivan will leave the party if you don't get to the bandit camp. On the current play I picked him up right around 9 days and just left him off in the pit in the Gnoll Stronghold on day 26.

I've seen people say he leaves if the quest isn't completed in 5 days (which is insane and almost impossible just on travel time alone, never mind resting). I've heard it may be 20 days, or 10, or possibly never if you don't force talk to him during the trip etc. etc. In the 15 days I spent with the quiet archer however, he never said a word about anything. He seems like a hard character to plan around, and while I wanted to keep him in my party longer, I'm also not inclined to kill of Dynaheir right now either. And even if I put him back in the party, there are only 4 days til the magic number of 20 (where apparently he just walks off out of the blue) and being as I'm headed to the mines, I don't really want the unpredictability and the micro-managing of every travel and rest time, and I'd never make it to Chapter 4 in that amount of time anyway.

So what are your Kivan stories, and what is the REAL scoop with him??

elminster

As I understand it

Kivan will leave if you don't clear the bandit camp (i.e. reach Chaper 4) within a certain time (after recruiting him). 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.

jjstraka34

That is what I got for a very good guide on Steam as well. Seems like a good strategy would be to leave him until you are just ready to leave the Chapter so you get the full amount of time to do things. It seems short regardless, but these little bits of annoying insignificant BS are sorta what makes this game stand out and give it flavor.

That said, nearly every NPC besides Imoen that you meet on the first few maps has a timer tied to them (Xzar and Montaron, Khalid and Jaheira and Kivan) all force you to make a rush towards a goal, which in a way certainly discourages a new player from exploring a whole lot, but it's possible it was implemented to keep novices on track in such non-linear situation that you find yourself in.

elminster

Thanks for the compliment on the guide. I wrote it

Yea Kivan can get kind of tricky if you really want to explore everywhere. Especially if you are doing a lot of resting. Still, if nothing else the timers probably give a degree of character to the NPC's in the game (who don't otherwise normally say much). You are also probably right that Jaheira/Khalid and Montaron/Xzar's timers were intended to get new players moving towards Nashkel to continue along the main plot line. Without them you wouldn't have anyone directing you towards Nashkel (at least as the game currently stands).

jjstraka34

Ha, well now that is interesting. What I like most about your npc guides is that you don't just dismiss half of them as "worthless, don't even bother picking up" like almost every single other one I've ever read. You went out of your way to find pros and cons for each one, really captures the spirit of the game, alot like Volothamp's great site does. I would have never thought to possibly dual-class Dynaheir until reading that this morning (though I am confused because I didn't think specialty mages COULD be dual-classed, even with the tomes). Anyway, that guide is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand and enjoy the game but still doesn't want things spoiled. Cheers.

elminster

Yea that is a main reason why I wrote it. Like yourself I saw I number of guides out there that basically said something like "Garrick/Xan/Eldoth/Khalid/Faldorn suck and you should never use them." Also with BGEE 1.2 coming out I thought it would be a good time to write up something that challenged some of the existing views of characters (and made mention of the new NPC's). So I was trying to avoid putting too much personal bias into the characters and trying to find something good about each character. In some cases a character (like Xan or Skie) might not be the best mathematical choice (from like a powergaming standpoint) but Xan is a fun character to have around and if you have Skie, Garrick, and Eldoth in a group (along with others like Shar-Teel or Xan) you may get some funny/touching dialogue out of it.

Anyways, getting back to the topic at hand I did look over Kivan's files again just to be sure. As far as I can see the numbers I gave you are correct.

Loremaster

@elminster Can you provide a link to the guide?

jjstraka34

Loremaster said:

@elminster Can you provide a link to the guide?

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=183524786

He also has one for BG2 and a spell guide for each game as well.

elminster

Loremaster said:

@elminster Can you provide a link to the guide?

BGEE NPC Guide

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=183524786


BGEE Spell/Abilities Guide

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=205238783


BG2EE NPC Guide

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=195278341


BG2EE Spell/Abilities Guide

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=237917858

To not derail this thread any further if you have any questions there are two threads I have setup one for each of the NPC Guides

BGEE

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/23248/npc-guide-to-bgee/p1


BG2EE

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/26371/npc-guide-to-bg2ee/p1

Loremaster

Thanks.