NPC Fighting/Reset Question

Hello,

Quick question. I was leveling in Ul'dah doing the main quest line (Duty, Honor, Country) part where you do the final battle. The Papashan guy was fighting the main enemy while I was running around slaying adds. Then all of a sudden, he sprints unbelievable fast way over to another part of the map. The enemy follows and their battle (one on one) continues super far away.

How does that work? Glitch, or does he heal himself or something? Am thinking maybe NPC's can't die in these quest battles? Just trying to understand; any help would be appreciated. I've done this same quest twice, and he didn't sprint all the way across the last time.

Sometimes NPCs can be defeated in quest instances. Many even fail the quest if this happens.

As for the case in point, it's possible he chased an enemy far enough for the game to decide he needed to go back to a "home point" of sorts. It's also possible some other event just triggered the quest instance to say he needed to be at a certain point right then and forced him to do so.

If all else fails, simply repeatedly trying main and class quest instances gives you buffs on the third and later runs to make it easier if need be.

That fight is pretty much the same battle for all three cities, it's just the specific types of enemies you have to fight and the npcs that are fighting alongside you (as I started in Gridania my level 15 battle was different, featuring the Wood Wailers and God's Quiver fighting Ixal but the basics were the same). The first part of that fight, is take out the CNJs, THMs and ARCs ASAP, as Papashan and Owyne can take care of the main boss on their own as long as the boss's flunkies are not ganging up on them (the PGLs are more annoying than dangerous though as long as they're kept at a distance, but if they're hitting the npcs, kill them quickly too or at the very least lure them away). Towards the end of the first part of the battle, a gargoyle will spawn but that shouldn't be too difficult to deal with if there aren't any stragglers left.

Then when the Masked Man appears for the second fight, ignore the message that tells you to "Defeat the Masked Man!", only attack the ogre that the Masked Man summons, as the Masked Man actually doesn't attack unless you attack him, which as he has very powerful spells up his sleeve, can be a very bad thing. Once the ogre is nearly dead, a certain npc will then jump in and join in the fight and quickly finish off the ogre for you - without it's pet the Masked Man won't then last long with your ally at your side. ;)

This fight is actually much easier than it appears to be, you just need to follow the correct strategy, and victory is yours (and yes, if a fight fails with an npc still onscreen, the npc will usually reset to a specific place just prior to the duty ending so don't worry about that too much). :)

If you need any further help with this fight, this page has everything you need to know. :)