I finally have a working version of ToB. (And then a Wild Surge ate my IronWorks account.) We're now in Chapter 6. I still have to go out to the Windspear Hills, the Limited Wish quest, and Kangaxx. My party members (Keldorn, Anomen, Minsc, Jaheira, Imoen, and Aizawa the Wild Mage) are close to hitting the SoA experience cap ('cept Immy), and will probably pass it once we've done those three quests.

When should we do Watcher's Keep? I went there sometime in Chapter 3, when my party was around levels 10-12, but that was just to pick up a few potions and the Potion Case. Should I do it before Bodhi, after Bodhi, in ToB, when? Also, am I stuck inside once I'm in there, like Durlag's Tower from TotSC?

1-In ToB for roleplaying reasons.
2-you decide whan to do it
3-You are not stucked in it

All right...let me clarify.

When is the best time to do Watcher's Keep so that my party won't get their bacon handed to them? [img]tongue.gif[/img]

I'd say in the middle of ToB, right before you fight Abazigal and Sendai, helps make the game a bit longer considering there's not that much to it. But if you have the Tactics Mod with all of the improved bosses, I'd say do it before you go to Suldenessular so you stand a really good chance against Irenicus, but make sure you're prepared so you don't get killed in the early going.

Generally, the rule is that the longer you wait, the more levels you'll have. The more levels you have, the more/tougher the enemies in Watcher's Keep will be. The tougher the enemies are, the more EXP you get for killing them.

There's also the fact that there are certain conversation triggers in the Keep that can start interparty banters. If you're doing the Keep in SoA, these banters will not trigger (unless BaldurDash has already handled that).

Doing WK in ToB also allows you to let ToB's sole new recruitable NPC have a slice of that EXP as well, although this is only relevant if you decide to take him/her along.

Generally I tend to do Watcher's Keep right after fighting Yaga-Shura. You tend to breeze through the early levels & get challenged by the later levels. Plus, it gives you a good break in the ToB storyline, gives you a good chance vs. the Tactics additions (The Ritual, Poison encounter), & gives you access to a store right when you need one (w/o backtracking).

It also seems to "fit" well with all the upgradeable items you find - you can warp to the Pocket Plane & construct many of the items (& rest!) as you're going through the Keep. The XP you get also makes a big difference at this point (as in, if you'd done it before, the encounters to that point were probably easy - if you don't do it now, the next few encounters may be *really* tough).

It just seems to fit all around right after Yaga-Shura, IMO.

- Imrahil

I tend to do it after beating the marching mountains (or whatever they're called) but before going after Yaga Shura. That's a little bit cheesy though, as I'm basically going in for 2 items that can be upgraded at that point...