I just finished that quest last night, WGD. I'm level 7, so it was a tough fight with the monster standing over his weapon. I was able to give him the parts, since I basically save before every conversation and play it out to the best result….
I have several weapons I can't use but armor is really scarce outside. I think it's hokey that enemies never drop armor. If I headshot a guy, wouldn't the rest of his armor be fine? Same with body blows, should the gloves and head be fine if I aim at the torso, etc.
There are several quests that break if you do them out of order. Doing the quest for Eldur will break if you talk to the boss man at the wrong time. Korin will die every time if you follow him back to Goliet instead of fast traveling, etc. Korin walks by the troll at small camp and gets killed in one hit after he purposely attacks it. Idiot! This game is buggier than Skyrim (@joxer bait).
I must be playing backwards. I picked up Falk first, then Duras, and Ray will be my third most likely. I was a little surprised that you can only use one companion at a time. Since everyone outside is in groups of four or five, I expected to be able to have two or three companions at one time. Makes the camp basically useless, especially as it doesn't have a workbench or anything else going for it.