I am planning my next trip through Baldur's Gate: The Complete Saga. (Vanilla, no EE, no mods.)

For my first time, I played a NG Cleric with Imoen, Khalid & Jaheira, and Minsc & Dynaheir.

For my second time, I want to switch it up, and use some different NPCs. I going to role-play a NE Fighter/Mage half-elf, which will be a nice inverse to my first game.

I want to play "ironman", and try to get through the whole game without anybody gettin' killed. (Without cheese tactics.)

My starting game-plan is to take Imoen and join up with Xzar & Montaron on the road from Candlekeep... but then go north to the Friendly Arm Inn, join up with Jaheira & Khalid, and receive all the FAI quests. I would then proceed south to Beregost, and dump Jaheira & Khalid for Kagain and then Garrick. I would then head back north to complete the FAI quests, before heading to Nashkel and talking to the Mayor.

And I want to do this all without reloading. So, I have two questions:

Question #1: will Khalid & Jaheira fight with Xzar & Montaron, if take all of them together to Beregost?

Question #2: how long is the timer for Xzar & Montaron, before they leave if I have not talked to the Nashkel Mayor?

It is important to me, using self-imposed restrictions which stem from a role-playing point of view, to leave the BG1 NPCs in a state of existence, so as to match their future destinies in BG2.

What you are planning to do is quicker than standard progression (FAI -- South to Ogre - FAI - Beregost - FAI - Nashkel) so the timers shouldn't screw you unless you waste a lot of time.

In my first game it took until Nashkel for the pairs fighting each other, you are going to dismiss a pair after about a quarter of the time so don't worry.

This is down to a random conversation interjection. If Jaheira asks Xzar if 'they' claim to fight evil even though they themselves are "diabolic", Xzar will respond about them being Harpers and they will fight.

It would be very unusual for that interjection to happen during the time between FAI and Beregost. I'd give it good odds that no, they won't fight (in that time). The global timer is set to one day. If you haven't visited by that time they will start complaining, and you have (I believe) one more day before they bugger off.

Only two days? That's really short. I haven't played with Xzar and Montaron in my party for a while but somehow I never felt like them wanting to get to Nashkel was so urgent.

I just checked on some other websites and it was stated you have 14 days which is what I seem to remember.

Thanks kmonster for sharing your experience with these pairs!

I've read countless numbers of old posts from you in the GOG forums for the Bioware Infinity Engine games in recent months (I just finished Planescape Torment for the first time). I can't tell you how valuable your insight has been, reading your old posts; I feel I got the most outta PST by reading your advice, all with spoiler-free explanations.

So kmonster, thanks for all the time you spend in these forums!

Perfect! Thanks Hickory, that is really cool seeing what the scripts are doin'.

I downloaded a map pic of the BG1 Sword Coast which shows how many hours it is to travel from one map area to an adjacent map area. If I plot my course between Xzar/Montaron and Nashkel, and add sleeping at night (a self-imposed rule when I play, because this is just like real life), and add Beregost exploration time... then I should reach the Mayor before Xzar's timer expires.

Knowing that it is 4 days... is a load off my mind. (I think about this shit way too much. Sign of a great game? Sign of OCD? Both?)

And what I said to kmonster in my previous post goes same for you Hickory. Thanks for all the time you've spent on these forums over the years. Cheers!

Hmm. For my Chapters 1-2 game-plan, it seems that the two pairs coming to blows is random, as opposed to timed. Risky, even for the short trip around the Friendly Arm Inn's outer grounds, and the journey to Beregost.

I want to have Khalid & Jaheira for a little while, because the start of BG2 assumes I know them fairly well.

And I also want to have Xzar & Montaron for a little while, because I want to use dudes I ain't never used in my first game.

But I don't want the pairs to punk each other either, as they all have destinies in BG2.

If I leave Khalid & Jaheira at the Friendly Arm, then I'm giving up two fighters with a lot of hit points (relative to level 1 characters) and Jaheira's healing... making the areas outside the Inn walls, as well as the road to Beregost, a rather treacherous endeavor (ironman!).

If I leave Xzar & Montaron at the Friendly Arm, then I don't get the pleasure of experiencing their colorful personalities.

And if I take them all, then they might rumble, which will mess up my BG2 continuity.

Decisions, decisions...

I'd like to add that, if you're planning on doing a neutral/evil party, there's no need to go to FAI for Khalid nad Jaheira. You can go straight to Beregost for Kagain and Garrick (that one might be a bit tricky at this level, considering you're doing ironman) and visit FAI a bit later (which might help with Tarnesh).

You can go to Peldvale pretty quickly as well and get Viconia, if you want her in your party. The same goes for Shar-Teel.

There's a bit of possibilities to choose from, depending on the party that you want to have, or how you want to RP. The quicker you get them, the better you can control their progress.

You can make sure that Jaheira and Khalid are available permanently. Pick them up (with Xzar and Monty if you wish), then visit Nashkel ASAP. Speak to the Mayor (IMPORTANT). Now, you can drop off either pair, but do NOT drop them at the FAI. Dropping them at Nashkel or Beregost is fine, but the FAI ground floor area is scripted to remove Jaheira and Khalid after chapter 1, that's why you mustn't leave them there.

That's a great point Tuthrick. I'll be role-playing a NE Fighter/Mage who might at times masquerade as a good guy to serve my own selfish ambitions (as if I'm destined to be a God of Murder or something). So my Rep score will fluctuate somewhere in the middle, I think. And even though Khalid & Jaheira are Harpers, and she's Neutral because of the Druid class, they are more-or-less The Good Guys. As you pointed out, they might not necessarily fit my NE ways.

But the one thing I didn't realize is what Hickory just pointed out. I never knew that Khalid & Jaheira disappear from the ground floor of the Friendly Arm after Chapter 1. I am so glad he mentioned that, because never meeting them would have broken the BG2 continuity that I'm trying to preserve. (I wish I was not so OCD-ed.) Yeah, my final party will be Imoen (dualled to Mage at Level 8, just like BG2), Kagain, Edwin, Shar-Teel, and Viconia. And I agree that you can mold the characters a bit better, by getting them sooner rather than later. But I'm still not planning on getting the last three until Chapter 3.

I'm not going to do the Minsc/Dynaheir quest until Chapter 3, because it's too risky to do so early in the game with Level 1 characters (ironman!). And I don't want to risk Edwin rumbling with Minsc & Dynaheir, so I'm not going to talk to Edwin until after I've helped Minsc & Dynaheir and then have dismissed them for good.

I thought mightily about making side-treks to get Shar-Teel and Viconia at the very start. But there is a chance at having some nasty random encounters when travelling between the areas that they are located. And perhaps most importantly, my guy would simply not know to do this, and would thus break the role-playing immersion factor that I hold dear.

So, for my last three spots, I'll be temporarily using Xzar & Montaron, with some Garrick and then Branwen... until I reach Edwin, Shar-Teel and Viconia organically. Even though I think Xzar & Montaron are the weakest of the pairs, and I'll have no Priest till I reach Branwen. Must tread lightly, and keep the little blue potions at-the-ready!

Oh man! I'm glad you mentioned this. I was considering skipping the FAI completely. If I did that, Khalid & Jaheira would be gone and I would never meet them, which would've killed my BG2 continuity. I never knew they disappeared, because in my first game I had them with me the whole time.

I will take Imoen, and Xzar & Montaron, and Khalid & Jaheira, to Beregost. Then I will dismiss the Harpers when I get Kagain (and then pickup Garrick). They can chill in Kagain's Shop, safe from any deadly scripts the game might have lurking....

I think that you've created yourself quite a challenge with those self imposed rules. I wish you best of luck in your endeavour.

Some random thoughts:
- Montaron and Xzar are far from the weakest of the paired NPCs in the game. They just need a bit more time (and levels) to shine, plus they are some of the most amusing joinable characters in the game in my opinion.
- You can actually quite easily escape from most random encounters without casualties.
- Potions of invisibility can be a life saver, keep them for dire situations (they make a character invisible instantly, as opposed to the spell).
- Stealth and scouting ahead can prevent you getting cought off guard in some situations. I don't know whether you've used it in the earlier playthroughs. Montaron can be useful at it, since his stealth is quite decent at this stage of the game.
- If you were a 'hoarder' earlier, this run should make you a 'user' (potions and stuff).

Take note, also, of what I said: "Speak to the Mayor (IMPORTANT)." You *must* speak to the mayor of Nashkel, otherwise Jaheira and Khalid will assume you are abandoning them and the quest to investigate the iron crisis. Speak to the mayor, THEN dismiss them.

There's always an "aren't you dead?" line in BG2. You aren't the only one who can resurrect them.

As a side note, for an ironman run PlayItHardcore is ever helpful.