Is it possible to all npc quests?
Cvijeta
Member Posts: 417
Including Hexxat's and other evil npc's. I'm neutral good skald.
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However, I wouldn't recommend trying it on a first run, because managing it successfully takes some knowledge and experience of the game. Try it on a later re-play, when you know more about what all the NPC quests are, and who is compatible with whom in the party, and how to manage REP, and so on.
Manifold re-playability is one of the joys of BG!
I can't 100% guarantee with the EE NPCs, but certain party members should not mix, or at least not mix for too long. Edwin can't be reconciled to Neera's quest, as I recall.
I'd find it a very difficult role-play to do this with either a Good or Evil protagonist, but I find it just about credible with a Neutral protagonist.
* Note that I'm making this assertion only about BG2ee. In BG1ee it's almost possible, except that Edwin's quest (to kill Dynaheir) can't be done in the same run as Minsc's quest (to rescue Dynaheir). In SoD, I don't yet know the game well enough to be sure of all the details of all the quests, so I'm not sure how completionist it is possible to be in a single run.
The other problem is that some NPCs quests, or their parts, trigger only at some points of the game, or after a certain time has elapsed. So, even ignoring incompatibilities, planning is needed in recruiting and dismissing NPCs, unless you fiddle with game variables and time counters to speed up or slow down the things as you need, and also that need a lot of knowledge, each time you play with variables and timers you risk to screw up things.
Also changing frequently NPCs bring to under developed ones, as you spread the XP and the added XP from the NPCs quests is not enough to compensate, In the end you will have little over leveled charname and permanent party members but quite under leveled other party members.
(This doesn't include the NPCs added by the Enhanced Edition, though.)
Note that they don't kill each other immediately; they either refuse to join the party while their "nemesis" is in it, or have some verbal fights first, giving you a chance to dismiss one of them before things get heated.
If you don't want to deal with that, simply install the "NPCs Don't Fight" component of the
Tweaks Anthology mod.
with viconia it's pretty much just keldorn.
@gorgonzola what do you mean "trigger only at some points of the game", are some of the npc quest lost forever if I venture too far in main game plot or done too many sidequests?
Seriously, don't try an every-quest run until after you've completed the game a few times and tried out all the NPCs, so that you're familiar with how each NPC quest works.
If you really insist on trying to do everything in your first (or nearly-first) attempt, then your only solution will be to read a really thorough walkthrough and study it in detail, else you'll be bound to screw up ... but doing that would basically spoiler the entire game for you. And SFAIK, there isn't yet any single walkthrough which is fully detailed and accurate about both EE and pre-EE NPC quests all in one place, so you'll have to research multiple walkthroughs. These are invariably long documents.
There's far too much to bear in mind for us to explain it all in this forum - if you haven't read scores of pages of details, you won't know enough. Have patience, do it later when you've learnt the game well enough! It'll be something to look forward to, to keep up your interest in replaying the game.
I plan to do all possible sidequests, then proceed to npc quests before sailing to spellhold, keep Mazzy and Jaheira all the time, swap npcs, rest in inns to waste time, I think it's doable as long as there're no sidequests during which npc triggers have to happen...right?
Okay, in that case I recommend that to do what you want, you might as well use walkthroughs.
There are several decent walkthroughs for pre-EE BG2 including the original NPC quests. Two of the best are by Dan Simpson (text-only, but pretty navigable and thorough) and @Montresor_SP (who is often on this forum) - they'll tell you most of what you need for pre-EE NPCs.
For the EE NPC quests, I don't know of any high-quality walkthrough. Probably the most complete is by Haeravon (again text-only, and not as easily-navigable as Dan Simpson's text), even though he has various errors and omissions, an amateurish writing style, and some bad advice.
Tip: if you're planning on keeping Imoen after rescuing her, then don't do all the quests (NPC and otherwise) before sailing to Spellhold, because that would leave Imoen significantly behind in xp. Instead, leave a lot until after you return to Athkatla. (The max xp Imoen will have at rescue is 1.25Mxp, and if you'd did every possible quest before rescuing her, then the rest of your party would be way above that.) Of course, if you're not planning on keeping Imoen permanently, then this doesn't much matter.
Tip: you will need to know every circumstance in which your REP can go up or down, and plan the timing of your REP gains and losses for the whole campaign before you start. Otherwise, you're likely to get NPCs walking out on you, or refusing to join when you need them to join, and so on. None that necessarily do so. However, if you get the sequencing wrong, then you can end up in a situation where two timed quests demand attention at almost the same time, and you may not be able to get both done before they expire, and then you're shafted.
Is not always possible to recruit an NPC and complete his quest immediately.
So, if you don't want to rest for a full week or do other silly things a knowledge of how each quest works and a certain amount of planning and optimization is needed.
I've yet to see anyone else experience it, but after several insinuations which Viconia makes about Valygar being gay (or, perhaps altogether separately from that), there is a random NPC in I think the Government District who you can speak to, and who propositions Valygar. When he declines the prostitute's offer, Viconia mocks him, and then he attacked her.
It's totally avoidable, but an interesting discovery I've yet to read about elsewhere. I vividly recall it happening in one of my playthroughs.