Xzar

Smiles everyone, smiles!  This is like some great Fantasy!

Xzar the deranged Necromancer is a recruitable character in Baldur's Gate. He can be found along the road in the first area after the player leaves Candlekeep, along with his partner Montaron. He will ask the player to join them in travelling to Nashkel to investigate the mine crisis, and will be extremely insulted if the 'bad child' won't join their cause. Xzar and Montaron will always join or leave the party together, and can only be separated by death, but they hold no love for each other: Montaron doesn't like Xzar's insanity, and Xzar wishes Montaron would lighten up. If Montaron should die, Xzar will reveal his true feelings for his partner, and cry out "Montaron!  I . . . I never loved you."

Xzar's madness shows itself in a multitude of ways. He can go from cloyingly sweet to shrieking within the span of one sentence, cries for his mommy, complains that there's more to elven infravision than merely taking an elf's eyes, and has a fear of rabbits. Oddly enough, Xzar has an INT of 17 and a WIS of 16, one of the highest INT/WIS scores in the game.

If Xzar is in a party with Khalid and Jaheira, the two Harpers will have a number of angry conversations with Xzar, who detests them as much as they detest him. He complains that none are as insufferably righteous as Harpers, and they will openly accuse him of having Zhentish manners. If Xzar is in the party upon entering the second floor of Sorcerous Sundries in Baldur's Gate, the wizards in the room will not attack, and may, through conversation, reveal that Xzar and Montaron are Zhentarim agents, and that one of the wizards is Xzar's superior.

Xzar has a brief appearance in Baldur's Gate II. He can be found near the Harper Hold in Athkatla after the party brings an injured man to the Hold, and wants to hire the player to rescue Montaron, who is being held somewhere inside. If the player complies, and brings Xzar a bird that purportedly is a transformed Montaron, the bird shapeshifts into a Harper, who kills Xzar. Montaron's true fate is never discovered.