Question about Dorn and Neera's quests in ToB (spoilers)

dunbar

I've hit a brick wall in both quests (the dragons in Dorn's and the coliseum in Neera's). In both cases I've used the pocket plane to escape before being wiped out but, having since used the pocket plane to travel elsewhere, can I get back to these quests at a later date somehow - or do I just leave them as uncompleted and risk losing both npcs from the party?

FrdNwsm

OK, apparently if you leave any quest unfinished, you will be unable to finish the game. You will be unable to progress to the final confrontation with Melissan, even if you drop them from the party. At least, this is what happened to me with Neera's quest. I broke it by reducing that turkey Szass Tam to something like -200 HP, leaving him incapable of doing anything but bumping into walls trying to escape (It is not possible to actually kill him). This is a well-known problem with her quest, BTW; not sure if others work the same.

I also did an evil party run through, with Dorn, but did his quest successfully, so I don't know if his works the same way. The dragons are hard to take down in combat; if you go that route concentrate everything you have one the first one. With luck you can kill him before the second has a chance to get involved. Summoning fallen Devas and Planetars helps; they're not terribly effective against the dragons but they can take out the knights and such that are with them so they won't pester you.

It is also possible to make an end run around them; you won't get their scales as a prize or the experience for killing them, but it's a lot safer. I approached their area from the southeast; everybody in my group had speed items ... boots of speed, grandmaster armor and the like ... and we cast haste just before they caught sight of us. Haste + paws of the cheetah = 3x move speed. As soon as their little speech was over, we ran like hell for the rear exit, which is to the south ... hence the need to approach from the SE, shortening the distance you need to travel. (They are confined to that one spot and can't squeeze out through the exits.) We continued running at full speed for the portal back, not stopping to fight anybody.

Not exactly courageous, but it worked.

As for Neera's quest, if you have a saved position from just prior to starting it, I suggest you go back and start it again from scratch.

FrdNwsm

There are a number of threads about Neera's quest, in the past. See "can Szass be killed in Neera's quest" back in Jan 2014, and my post "destroy pocket plane?" July 2015, asking about how to resolve the problem.

dunbar

@FrdNwsm Thanks a lot for that reply. Ironically I'd already managed the 'cowardly' option for the dragons and kept that save, but unfortunately I'd also started Neera's quest by then.
Oh well, back to the start then, but it won't take too long to catch up and I'll do some things better this time and avoid Neera's quest like the plague (if I can refuse/put off doing it without her leaving) - or maybe I'll swap her for Edwin, hmm.

FrdNwsm

You should be able to complete Neera's quest, as long as you don't force attack Szass Tam. When the point arises where you do actually have to fight him, and he cries "uncle" after you smack him around for a bit, don't get vindictive and try for a kill. The program does NOT allow you to kill him, and trying to do so just breaks things. Simply let him teleport you back. It contains some good tactical combat (in the quests for the new NPCs that appear in the EE version ... Neera, Hexxat, Dorn and Rasaad ... the enemy forces use the upgraded AI, which gets a lot more challenging.) And there is the loot also, of course. Oh, and don't force attack him when he first appears either. Go with the flow, and let the scenario play out as programmed.

I found the fight at the end of Rasaad's quest in SoA particularly nasty, btw; definitely the equivalent of the Silver Dragons. MyChar was the only one left standing (barely) amongst a literal sea of corpses. Those Dark Moon guys are mean suckers.

FrdNwsm

Also, you are talking about those two quests in ToB, I assume? Did you actually do Dorn's quest in SoA? I turned it down, even though my guy was true neutral and had a cadre of evil NPCs he could recruit for the job. I figured the Radiant Heart would put me on their fecal roster forever if we did it, and Keldorn was just too good to alienate. In ToB, I figured that nobody on the good side would ever hear about it, so it was OK. What they don't know wont hurt me.

dunbar

Yes, Dorn's been in the party since BG1, along with Viconia and (in BG2) Korgan so all their quests have been done (along with Hexxat's) so I'm not really in anybody's good books at the moment - just sort of grudgingly respected (I've managed to keep my rep at 10).

FrdNwsm

Bloody heck!

Your thread made me go back and check through various ToB posts, and apparently there are NPC side quests that I never did, because I didn't know they even existed. I recruited all the evil ones for my evil run-through, so I did all their stuff, but there are some good/neutral characters I never got because ... well, because I had no idea they still had baggage to take care of. I did Neera's, Dorn's and Hexxat's quests but ... not Rasaad's.

Rasaad apparently has a ToB side quest, but I never recruited him because he seemed supefluous in the good party I had. Tarnation! Now I have to go back, load up a late saved position, recruit him from the planar pocket and see what I was missing. I suppose I have to check everybody else also. Valygar, Nalia, Cernd, Haer D'Alis ... darn, a whole bunch of yahoos whom I never bothered to recruit have to be checked out.