Unmarked house in Docks District is party required area?

[voehringer_nitron]

So, there's this rather non-descript house in the Docks District. It is not marked on the map but it's between the Temple of Oghma and the (also unmarked) Barracks. Unlike the Barracks, this house is party required, aka "You must gather your party before venturing forth." There doesn't seem to be anything all that important that happens here. The only inhabitant is a cat on the first floor. The loot is nothing special, a heavy crossbow, a potion of heroism, a jasper gem, some random stuff.

I can't really see why this unimportant building would be something party required. I know of no quests related to it. Some quest related houses are marked. The derelict house for Jaheira's curse, or Fenecia's house for Cernd's personal quest. Others, like the one in the kidnapping quest, aren't. None is party required. Some unmarked houses lead to ambushes. The one next to the Shadow Thieves guild, or the one in the Bridge District with Dracandros and company.

Unless the answer is something to do with the new party members. I despise Neera, find Dorn to be incredibly boring, and just haven't had a party where I felt Raasad would fit. Plus since Monks are so weak at low levels, I have never used him in part 1. Though I am thinking of using him in the Wild Mage playthrough I just started.

[frdnwsm]

I can't answer your specific inquiry about that particular house, as I don't recall which one that is offhand. There are a couple of houses in the Bridge district that are part of quests ... the limited wish quest, the Tanner's house, Neb the child murderer, the Twisted rune quest, Anomen's knighthood quest etc.There are also several unmarked houses that have bits of loot here and there, but aren't part of anything larger. Then there is the Balthis estate, which was apparently planned to have a role in a side quest, but this was never implemented, and so currently that house has no purpose in the game.

Re the new NPCs that appear in the EE edition: all have side quests in SoA that are worth doing, and these three are the ONLY ones that have side quests of any sort in ToB. Dorn's quest in ToB is particularly epic, while Rasaad's has one of the more interesting combats. Boring or not, Dorn also bcomes a monster in combat, with the right equipment. Neera, while a total bubblebrain, is a specialty mage who becomes fairly useful once you get the Robe of Goodman Hayes, and her side Quest in SoA is pretty extensive and worth doing for both the loot and the experience.

Note that Edwin, as a Thayan wizard, shares your opinion of Neera ... or any WIld Mage ... and refuses to adventure with her. In fact, he will demand that you dismiss her, and will leave the party for good if you refuse. I am not sure if he will tolerate being in the same party as your own wild mage; I have never tried that. Also, you might want to have Neera around so that you can get the Robe of Goodman Hayes for yourself. (You don't need her in order to actually kill Hayes and grab the Robe, but if you don't go to the WIld Mage camp with her, you will never encounter him.)

[red255]

I recall Fallout 4 bribed me with their terrible settlement system with XP and loot rewards. I could go out hunting enemies to kill for leveling up.

or I could plant tomatoes. the same 4 enemies so its not like planting tomatoes was LESS interesting than hunting enemies.

of course Stardew valley was alot cheaper and had better gameplay.

regardless whether or not you like the EE party members Beamdog does bribe you with significant amounts of XP and loot to do their quests.

You can not like them for whatever reasons. I find Raasad to be somewhat unsufferable but he has a short quest that he can leave your party after and gets you a few toys including a gem of true seeing. and a Bearbarian.

[frdnwsm]

The Gem is certainly useful. You liked Wilson? He's OK, but being unable to do much except claw enemies, he isn't the most useful of NPCs. Now, if you could train him to use wands or decent weapons ...

[abbyzero]

Sounds like the Twisted Rune house.

[red255]

Twisted Rune is in Bridge district.

[abbyzero]

Originally posted by red255:

Twisted Rune is in Bridge district.

Opps

[frdnwsm]

The Docks?? Crud on a stick, I was also thinking of the Bridge District! I must be getting senile, I totally misread the OP's question. OK, just ignore the gibberish I posted about the houses as irrelevant, unless you also have questions about the Bridge area.

The stuff about the NPC quests still stands, however.

[voehringer_nitron]

I tried doing Neera's quest on my Fighter/Thief, mostly to kill time for the Jaheira romance. Honestly, I gave up on it. I couldn't even stand the writing on it, it was utterly ridiculous. On that same character I believe my dialogue exchange with Dorn, who was in my party on that character in part 1, led to him attacking me. I did find him useful in combat, but with a character that I found that dull and unintresting, I really didn't care what happened to him. Maybe his quest in SoA/ToB is better. I could give him another shot on one of my evil characters.

Since I haven't used Rasaad in part one yet, I wasn't too intrested in swapping anybody out merely to do his quest here in part 2. Like I said, I'll give him a shot on my Wild Mage, but I just started that and haven't gotten to Beregost yet. And then there's Hexxat, who I frequently forget about or just ignore. Started her quest once. After finishing the bit in the tomb, her real self never reappeared at the Coronet. Didn't really bother me.

[frdnwsm]

Ah! My comments were all related to character quests in SoA and ToB. I totally ignored Dorn in BG1, Neera was somewhat bland, and I don't think I even ran into Rasaad there at all. In fact, I missed out on a number of NPC quests that weren't the newer EE additions. I recall that Minsc went berserk and attacked me when I didn't run off to help him rescue Dyneheir, so I just killed his psychotic butt.

Also, as I mentioned elsewhere, I only did BG1 once. Hmm, now I am almost tempted to do it again, just to do the NPC quests that I missed before.

Nah.

Sorry if I misled you by not making all that clearer.

[Godsarm]

Originally posted by voehringer_nitron:

So, there's this rather non-descript house in the Docks District. It is not marked on the map but it's between the Temple of Oghma and the (also unmarked) Barracks. Unlike the Barracks, this house is party required, aka "You must gather your party before venturing forth." There doesn't seem to be anything all that important that happens here. The only inhabitant is a cat on the first floor. The loot is nothing special, a heavy crossbow, a potion of heroism, a jasper gem, some random stuff.

I can't really see why this unimportant building would be something party required. I know of no quests related to it. Some quest related houses are marked. The derelict house for Jaheira's curse, or Fenecia's house for Cernd's personal quest. Others, like the one in the kidnapping quest, aren't. None is party required. Some unmarked houses lead to ambushes. The one next to the Shadow Thieves guild, or the one in the Bridge District with Dracandros and company.

Unless the answer is something to do with the new party members. I despise Neera, find Dorn to be incredibly boring, and just haven't had a party where I felt Raasad would fit. Plus since Monks are so weak at low levels, I have never used him in part 1. Though I am thinking of using him in the Wild Mage playthrough I just started.

Actually it's part of the Paladin Stronghold Quest, if you're not playing a Paladin then it's not important. As part of the Paladin Quests, the Order of the Most Radiant Heart sets you on I think three challenges. The first one is out to the Umar Hills to save a garrison being attacked by Ettins, Trolls and Ogre Mages, the second (this onw) requires that your Paladin guard a snotty rich kid and deliver her to her Uncle for protection. The catch is that it's random whether her Uncle or someone posing as her uncle actually shows up. The Paladin protagonist is supposed to "Detect Evil" to determine the difference and defend her if the baddies show up. I save before I enter because I want the baddies for the XP (don't remember if they drop any good loot). The third challenge is the quest to recover Carsomyr and kill Firkaag (If you are a Paladin you need to do these in the right order and succeed) to be granted membership in the Radiant Heart.

[voehringer_nitron]

Ah, that would explain it, I've never played as a Paladin. Now that you mention it, I recall the basics of the stronghold, like the evil uncle, but didn't remember it happened there since I've never experienced it firsthand.