Kivan

Kivan is a Chaotic Good elven ranger, and potential companion who can be found in the High Hedge area at co-ordinates 3650, 1450. As befits a ranger, he blends in well with the forest environment. You can quite easily walk right past him on the path in that area without noticing him being there.

Players may mistake Kivan's desire to complete his quest with an arbitrary refusal to return to the party if he is removed, so it is possible to find statements like, "Kivan wants to hunt some bandits. If you kick him out of the party, he stays gone for good!" In fact, he will remain near the location where you dismissed him and be available as a companion as long as his quest timer has not run out.

Like all companions with a reason for joining he becomes more and more disgruntled with party membership while his goals are not completed.

Subquests
"Their leader, an ogre named Tazok, took the life of someone very dear to me."
 * Kivan and Tazok

His quest is destroying the Bandit Camp, a task which must be completed to finish the game anyway, but comes along in the game much later than Kivan's availability. Kivan's quest is on a timer; a long timer, but not long enough for many players to complete his quest if recruited early. Even this does not explain all of Kivan's behaviour; there are definitely some buggy things about it.

In your Journal
The companion quest Kivan and Tazok appears not in the Quests section of your Journal, but as a titled entry in the Journal section:
 * Triggered by: Inviting Kivan into your party
 * Entry Title: Kivan and Tazok
 * Entry: "Kivan hunts after an ogre named Tazok. He has told us that Tazok killed someone close to him."

Kivan does not reappear in original Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn.

Equipment and Abilities
Kivan comes equipped with studded leather armor, halberd, longbow, and 20 arrows.

Recruited at level 2, he will have 16 HP of 20 max as per his class, and weapon proficiencies in:
 * Halberd ++
 * Longbow ++
 * Two-Weapon Style ++

He has a Stealth of 41, the special ability Charm Animal (x1), his racial enemy is the ogre.

In-game biography
"Kivan reveals that he hails from the forest of Shilmista, though he has not visited his homeland for quite some time. He has instead been traveling the world driven by the darkest of obsessions: revenge. Kivan and his mate Deheriana were apparently on a romantic sojourn years ago when they were waylaid by a group of Brigands. They were captured and tortured for the amusement of Tazok, the half-ogre that led the attack. Kivan eventually escaped, but Deheriana did not survive the encounter. Kivan is a man of few words, and obviously does not make friends easily. Likely, he will not take much pleasure from life until he has revenged the death of his love."

Trivia

 * There are character files for Kivan in Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and he even has a character portrait (something the BG1 cameos lack), both indicating he may have been meant to be playable. [confirmation required]

Bugs

 * The game does not recognize the Bandit Camp has been completed for the purposes of Kivan's quest, until Officer Vai in the Jovial Juggler in Beregost is approached with no bandit scalps in your inventory. At this point she declares her task in the area done, and returns to Baldur's Gate. The player may prefer to keep Officer Vai in Beregost for a little while, at least long enough to complete Coran's quest to kill wyverns and bring wyvern heads to Vai for 1000 each head.

A trick to bypass the whole quest completion requirement is to kill and resurrect Kivan, or get him petrified by basilisks, then use a Flesh to Stone scroll. The resurrected/unpetrified NPC is an NPC without a quest.

Quotes

 * "Don't bother me"
 * "Yes?"
 * "What do you want?"
 * "As you wish"
 * "My need for revenge gives me strength to go on!"
 * "The city is an example of man's excesses. I wish we would be gone from this miserable place."
 * "Why must we emulate the ways of the Dwarven folk by crawling about these warrens?"
 *  "That was a noble deed"
 * "There is a time for talk. This is not such a time."
 * "My soul aches for my lost Deheriana."
 * "I will fuck here in her ass until she bleeds!"