New to BG: how quests and chapters work

[LadySky89]

Hi, I'm an oldschool rpg player, but I have to admit it's the first time I have a chance to play D&D. I'm used to complete everything I can on my way through the main story, but in this game there are several npcs willing to join my group, and I noticed quests vanish if I advance of chapter... the result is that people in my group insist to reach the next important location of the story (which will make quests reset), while I'm trying to turn in everything else first...
I'm also afraid that advancing I'll lose everything I leave behind, including quests requiring the npc company. Can someone explain me how to proceed? Do I actually have to choose? I don't even know the map very well yet, so I'm not sure which missions can be done now and which later....

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Quests don't vanish. The journal advances to the next chapter, but you can use the buttons to switch through the individual chapter pages in the journal.

For a bit of atmosphere, some of your companions want you to reach the village Nashkel soon. So, yes, there is a time limit, but it's several days, and you may still explore the "world" on your way to Nashkel. Once you've reached Nashkel, nothing gets reset. And you may return to other areas before deciding whether to follow the latest quest you're offered at Nashkel.

[LadySky89]

Originally posted by D'amarr from Darshiva:

Quests don't vanish. The journal advances to the next chapter, but you can use the buttons to switch through the individual chapter pages in the journal.

For a bit of atmosphere, some of your companions want you to reach the village Nashkel soon. So, yes, there is a time limit, but it's several days, and you may still explore the "world" on your way to Nashkel. Once you've reached Nashkel, nothing gets reset. And you may return to other areas before deciding whether to follow the latest quest you're offered at Nashkel.

Thank you a lot!!! This clears many things to me, now I know exactly what to do. :)

[LadySky89]

Another thing, if you please.
Once you finish the quest related to a npc-companion, can you still invite him in the group later? I'm wondering this, just to be sure I can safely invest on them.

[LadySky89]

Xzar and his companion thief... what about them? I brought them with me until Nashkel, as they requested, but as soon as we arrived to the town their related quest vanished, so I just abandoned them somewhere, because I didn't like them anyway (and I can't keep them, they're evil and my group is good/neutral).

[fauxpas]

As long as you've completed their quest (I personally have them with me while I talk to the mayor but it's been awhile since I looked through the scripts to see exactly where the trigger us set.) they'll be where ever you left them, I personally drop them off at the Dragon.

[fauxpas]

As for the other NPCs as a general rule it's alot safer to make sure they are in the party while you complete their personal quests as the scripts don't always trigger correctly if they aren't but there are usually workarounds and you can always yes Keeper to reset the game states manually.