Hey everybody. I'm playing a game now, and I'm in Chapter 6 still. I'm just finishing up every last quest here in Athkatla and the surrounding areas.

I've never gone farther than this in my games before.

I want to know: Am I better off doing Watcher's Keep now, or should I move on to Chapter 7 and then do it?

I know about the "Big Brother S" NPC, and I do not plan on adding him to my party. I know "when to do Watcher's Keep" can play into this equation, so I thought I'd make a note of it.

After doing every quest in Chapter 6, am I properly prepared for Watcher's Keep? I'd like to add it's goodies to my inventory and have a better shot against Irenicus, but I need to know if I have a decent chance at it. Please advise me.

Go right ahead. You can do at least the first few floors... and you'll find some useful items. Two containers come *immediately* to mind.

some items may be upgradeable by a certain butler, but I think you need to get into the ToB bit for that to be available [img]smile.gif[/img]

Care to spoil me?

Miniscule spoilers...
.
.
.
.
A potion case and ammo belt. Astoundingly useful.

I'm told that NPC interjections don't show up if you play through WK in SoA.

I like to do all Watchers Keep in SOA. The lower levels can be quite hard but you get some good items earlier than you would if you do it in TOB. Beware though if you do Watchers Keep in chapter 6 the rest of SOA will be very easy due to the experience levels of your party.

Irenicus: Curse you Aballister!(The name of my current player character). I will not be defeated by you!
Aballister: Casts Dragons Breath
Irenicus: death
Aballister: "You were saying"?

Alright, I'll give it a go!

I've done every quest in Chapter 6 (at least all that I know of), and I've already got that Dragon's Breath! :D

I'm just waiting for Jaheira's romance to come to a conclusion (I heard it won't progress after chapter 6). I guess I'll peek my head out of the keep every hour or so.

I have also heard that the difficulty of some of the encounters (and thus their XP value) is scaled to the experience of the group. So if you go to WK too soon you may actually miss out on some XP (and maybe loot) that you would have otherwise collected later in the game.

I generally avoid going too deep into the Keep from the SOA side, maybe just one or two levels. Then during TOB I try to finish one level in between each of the major quests in order to keep the game from being too linear.

This is a valid point... I remember that if you're too low a level for a certain encounter you'll miss out on a valuable piece of loot. Perhaps somebody knows the minimum level that triggers this encounter.

Well, I did Watchers Keep in chapter 6 and I got that certain item. I'm not sure what level you have to be to get this item, but everything should be fine! Good luck!

What is this item? I'll let you know if it was there or not.

A weapon whose name begins with F, located on the 1st floor of WK.

Yes, this sword was there when I went to Watchers Keep.

I did have a lot of experience, though. I did every sidequest I could, scribed a whole bunch of scrolls, and went there in chapter 6.

Oh, yeah, the weapon will definitely be there in Chapter 6. It's usually only people who try to do WK in Chapter 2, or early in Chapter 3, who complain about never having found it.