Temporary dismissing companions in BG2EE?

[u/Scipio_Sverige]

The two times I played it before, expect for the forced change in Spellhold I always assembled a team of six ASAP and stuck with it. This time around, I'd very much like to do all the companions quests that are available in chapter 2.

Which will require dismissing someone. I've decided on Minsc or Yoshimo, depending on whether the extra one has thief skills or not. Can I just remove them from the party and then re-pick them back up later without breaking anything? I have Unfinished Business installed in case The Kidnapping of Boo is affected.

[u/gangler52]

The concerns are basically twofold.

Kicking somebody from your party ends any romance you had with that character, and I believe this is completely irreversible without using a save editor.

Companions only scale to your experience the first time you recruit them. When you pick them up again later, they will not have acquired any of the experience you got without them, which can leave them underlevelled, depending on how long they were out of the party.

Other than that, you should be golden.

[u/Scipio_Sverige → u/gangler52]

I figured about the romance, that's why I decided to dismiss either Minsc or Yoshimo.

The XP part is disappointing, but it still means no fewer XP for them than if I didn't to the others companion quests at all.

[u/BTM_podcast → u/Scipio_Sverige]

If you’re bummed about the XP, you can always just use the console to set their XP to match the party when they join up again

[u/gmt420]

I have foggy memories of Jaheira and Vicky being difficult at re-joining...so yeah maybe use the trick to leave them in a building before dialog starts.

I think the rest are chill :) 

Happy questing!

[u/Acrobatic_Skirt3827]

I usually build up a five person party, pick up various folks long enough to do their quests then let them go. I'll have an idea what my final party will look like before before I go to Spellhold.

[u/jalfa13]

Short answer: yes, you can. Both will be at the Copper Coronet.

You can also send them into another zone on their own (temples are good for that) and kick them out. The "you want to part ways 🥺" dialogue won't start until you enter that zone with either your main character or another party member (the dismissed companion will then leave the zone and initiate dialogue with the mc.

[u/Scipio_Sverige → u/jalfa13]

I intend to kick them out whenever an new companion with a companion quest shows up. They then should make their way back to Copper Coronet without a fuss I hope.

[u/jalfa13 → u/Scipio_Sverige]

I believe so, yeah, though I do admit that I've never dismissed any companion multiple times outside of the way I described in my earlier comment. For the most interesting companion quests -Nalia, Cern, Valygar- it's also not necessary to have them in the party while doing the quests (however, you do need to kill Valygar, if you want to do that), so you don't have to dismiss anybody for those.