Minsc and Coran

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I am going to have both Minsc and Coran in my party. But there are some things I must be sure of first.

Minsc demands that I rescue Dynaheir, or else he will leave. The questions are then:
- How long can I go without trying to rescue her, before he leaves the party?
- If he goes, can I get him back later?

Coran is in the Cloackwood forest and is on a quest to kill some beasts. The questions are:
- How long can I go without doing his quest, before he leaves me?
- If he goes can I get him back?

This is very tricky. If I am to bring Coran with me, I must rush through the early game to get him on a low level. That means going straight to Nashkel and then Bandit Camp and then Coran. Along the way I must pick up Minsc. I just can´t wait taking him because then I will get him on a higher level and then his HP will be lower then if I had had the control over it. This may seem a little weird but he is to be my tank. So he is the one who shall soak up the damage, so he needs those extra HP.
So when we have gotten Coran we must first take care of Minsc´s quest, since his time is running out. So we travel to the Gnoll Stronghold, rescue Dynaheir (kills/leave her there by the way) and then we have Minsc for ever. But now we must hurry back to the Cloackwood Forrest and fight our way through to the beasts, and then we have Coran for ever also.
But will I make all this in time?

 

Well, I don't know about the time, but you can't leave Dynaheir in the Gnoll stronghold with Minsc in party, unless you manually kill her.

 

In my first time through BG I left rescuing Dynaheir for quite some time, eventually Minsc attacked me, I think that it might depend on your charisma somehow
To get straight to the point I dont think that you will be able to do Naskel mines, Bandit camp, coran and get back to the Gnoll stronghold before minsc turns on you.

[ February 26, 2004, 14:54: Message edited by: Defspeal ]

 

Both leave if you do not complete their tasks within 10 game days, and no, you can't get either of them back once they are gone.

That having been said, I think it will be extremely difficult to get done with everything in 10 days. For Minsc alone, after you pick him up, you'll have to the map south of Naskel (12 hours travel time), west to the next map (16 hours) west to the Gnoll fortress (24 hours) and then back again. So just to complete Dynaheir's quest, you're looking at 4 days and 8 hours, just in travel time. Assuming you rest at least once a day when your characters get tired, you'll also have to rest 4 times, which adds another 32 hours, bringing the total to 5 days and 16 hours. We still haven't included any time for walking within the area either. Then, you have to head all the way to the northern part of the map for the Cloakwood forests. That has to be at least a couple of days travel time, and each separate area of the Cloakwood forest has 16 hours of travel time between it. Suffice it to say, I don't think you can do both in under 10 days.

My recommendation: Pick up Minsc early in the game, and go and do the Dynaheir quest immediately. There isn't THAT much in the way of experience points in those areas, and chances are, your characters won't be more than about 3rd level at that point. Then do the Naskel Mines and the Bandit Camp, and most of your characters will STILL only be about 4th level when you get to Coran. Getting Minsc early is much more critical than getting Coran early, as you plan to tank with Minsc, but Coran (unless you have a very unusual style of play) will be equipped with a bow.

 

Or, if you like, you can install the Firewalker mod. That mod sets all NPCs to lvl. 1, regardless of when you pick'em up

 

On my first game through exactly the same question troubled me

Like Aldeth recommended, get Minsc early in the game. Depending on (a) how early you get him and (b) whether you play a single or multi-class PC, he will be
- Level 1 / 11 HP (large swords **, spiked weapons *, axes *),
- Level 2 / 19 HP (large swords **, spiked weapons *, axes *) or
- Level 4 / 33 HP (large swords **, small swords *, bows **).

Most likely you will get him at level 2. If you play a multi-class PC, for instance, you can't get him at level 1.

Then go right to the Gnoll Fortress and rescue Dynaheir. I am not quite sure at which level you will get her and I don't have all the information like above. However, what I have got in my records:
- Level 1 / 6 HP (missile weapons *)
- Level 4 / 21 HP (missile weapons *)

So you'll probably get her somewhere in between. If you then go directly to cloakwood by completing chapter 3 and not much more, you will get Coran at his minimum level, which is
- Level 3,3 / 27 HP (large swords **, bows ***)

This should also give you the opportunity not only to use him as a freaking expert archer but to build up his thief skills according to your needs as well. That gave me all the thief skills I'd needed even after dual-classing Imoen.

EDIT - I completely forgot: After getting Coran head to Cloakwood map 3 or 4, kill a Wyvern or 2 and go with the Wyvern head(s) right back to Keldath Ormlyr in the Beregost Temple. Sometimes you'll get attacked by Wyverns between the cloakwood maps as well. Then you can take the heads right back.

[ February 27, 2004, 03:17: Message edited by: TheAngulion ]

 

I agree. Just kill off Dynaheir because she cannot memorize many spells and has a sucky constitution and dexterity. She's better off dead, even though I kept her.

 

Mages aren't suppose to have high constitution, and I think they made the Gauntlets of Dexterity just for Dynaheir.

 

aces, personally id rather have a mage with good con and low wisdom/charisma/strength because i want my mage to live long and prosper, and to not die from the stray hit of a kobold commando..........ive had this happen so many times when i tried to use dynaheir, it was the main reason i quit trying to use her, she just can't take a single hit without dying or almost dying.

 

Those Boots of Advoidance that give +5 missle protection are great to keep archers from interupting mage spells.

Put these on her with the Gauntlets of Dexterity and the Robe of the Good ArchMagi and she is serviceable.

But I do agree with you that she is the worst mage in BG1.

 

Am I the only one who finds it even remotely amusing that the poster who recommends that you kill Dynaheir goes by the name of Edwin?

Back on topic: basically what Aldeth and Angulion said, except that just for fun, I think you should take Edwin with you (along with Minsc) when you go get Dynaheir, just to spice things up a little...not really advice, but it is fun to do...

 

but why, only if you choose to kill dynahier does this get interesting, because then minsc attacks you with dynahier, if i remember correctly, and if you choose to take dynahier in then edwin just storms off.

 

Actually, Dynahier's constitution is quite high - it's 16. That's basically as high as a mage needs, as they don't get a bonus for a constitution of 17 or 18.

 

I wonder...

Yeah, that's right!
16 is all you need for a non-fighter.