All companion quests?

[Lohi]

I sort of had the idea during development that we could do all the companion quests, or at least not ignore them all.  Unlike the headache of trying to do this in BG/BG2.  For example, in BG there were potential companions you'd find when the game was nearly over which then became rather pointless, and so POE was going to solve some of this.

 

But so far (I'm still in the main city) things look a bit worrisome in this regard.  Most of the companion quests seem to have a very long duration.  I may or may not have finished one of the quests, but I can't really tell, it just fizzled out (Aloth).  the quest shows as completed but I'm suspicious it may start at any time.  Other than that everything is still active, but I have found 2 extra NPCs I can't use and so park them at the stronghold. 

 

It really feels like I just won't be able to do it.  Either I need an NPC at exactly the right place and right time, or they all get resolved near the end of the game, or something like that.  No one has a quest that you can just go and do easily and then swap in someone else (which you could sort of do in BG2 for a bit). The stronghold system seems like it can solve some of this, but from where I am now it still seems hopeless.

 

What I'm doing is removing Kana right now (which I *hate* to do mid-quest) and swapping some others in, unless I'm at the particular location that Kana's quest indicates he's interested in.  Swapping someone in means I have no gear for them really either.

 

So: are doing all companion quests possible with a "normal" play through (no spoilers, or figuring out dependency graphs, etc)?  If I wait until the end of the game does it become pointless to bring in a companion because nothing will ever happen after that?

[Starwars]

I'm not sure what a normal playthrough means but personally I used all party members on my first playthrough (switched them out every now and then) and completed all of the quest arcs without any problems. They all "flowed" naturally to me so I didn't think there was any need for meta-game knowledge on how to complete them.

Edited May 5, 2015 by Starwars

[eLPuSHeR]

Some quests are very lengthy and boring imho, like Sagani's.

[Gorbag]

Companion quests in PoE are more lenghty than those in BG, but you don't need to have all companions with you all the time to complete them all. Some companion quests, like those for Durance, Grieving Mother and (to some degree) Aloth, require you to spend time with said companion in order to trigger or progress. Others (Eder, Kana, Sagani, Pallegina) require you to go to a specific place with the respective companion and do a certain thing.
Companion quests do not restart once you finished them, but that does not mean that the rest of the game does not affect your companions.

[Lohi]

Finished all the class quests.  Some of them seem very odd, not even like quests.  Many of them just seem to... fizzle.  No resolution, problem isn't solved, tell the character to suck it up and move on. 

 

Anyway, I did shift characters in and out a lot.  There were some places where there was character interaction that I would not have expected, not quest related but along the same lines, and if I had a different group I would have missed it.

[MunoValente]

I've completed all of them both times I've played all the way through.  Most of them have pretty obvious triggers, so you can switch your characters in and out fairly often.

 

I'm still a little unclear on all of Durance', GM's and Aloth's triggers, but the rest are very straightforward I think, mostly to go and explore to place X or talk to some person.