I'm playing BG2 for the first time. I'd like to do all the various NPC quests, but it's so annoying as you often have to wait 5, 10, or 15 days before the next part of the quest happens. I don't want to keep an NPC like Jan in my party that long when I don't plan on keeping him permanently anyway. So I tried an experiment with Edwin. I had just picked up the Nether Scroll for him, and it takes 5 days before something happens next. So I kicked him out of the party, waited 5 days, then had him rejoin the party. Lo and behold, the next part of the quest happened even though he hadn't been in my party. Does this work for all NPC quests? For instance, can I have Jan join my party, immediately kick him out, then pick him up several days later when it's time for his quest to start?

You could do this but if I want to speed a quest up I would just rest for a couple of days. Really think about it. It saves the whole process of kicking a character out and then finding them again in another part of the city.

I believe Mazzy is the only one that actually needs to be kept in the party the whole time for her quests to start, as her quest timer resets any time she joins the party. I know for sure Jan, Nalia, Anomen (for his knighthood tests), and Edwin do not need to be in the party for their quest timers.

You can add Aerie to that list, CamDawg. Although I don't know if it's a quest, I left her in the tent once for a while, came back for her, and when I left the tent a messenger came by to tell her that Quayle needed to see her.

Kinda funny. :)

Why wait 5 days, just press pause then sleep sleep sleep sleep :D thats what i do and it beats waiting

Or you could do it an even easier way.

CLUAConsole:AdvanceRealTime(3000)

Some of the quests won't be affected by resting.