Greetings intrepid veterans and newbies alike of Throne of Bhaal,

After one's month rest from BG2, I'm finally getting back into the fray of this epic adventure. My party had managed to get about half way through level 3 of Watcher's keep, before I began to struggle a little with the battle against Kar'Rashur, which is when I took a break from the game.

It took me at least half a dozen reloads to strategise the battle effectively when I came back to it, as did the nasty fight with the Demon Wraith. I was actually fortunate in a battle previous to them both to get a wild surge in one of those crazy rooms which give my characters Shield of the Archon's 10' radius. :D

I thus went on to finish level 3 but are now weighing up my options as to what to do next. I'm considering soldiering on and trying the next level, but are wary that perhaps I'm not quite ready for it. The other option is to go back to Suldenesslar, as I'm up to about the end of chapter 6, having killed bodhi. Perhaps that extra bit of xp will help for the dire fights I'm sure are to come in the rest of Watcher's Keep...

So I'm curious as to how everyone else has completed Watcher's Keep and if they have ever split it up in the 'some now, some later' type of approach.

Cheers,
Cerebrodragon

My party:
Korgan (Level 21)
Minsc (to be replaced hopefully by Sarevok...) (Level 21)
Viconia (Level 23)
Vigamortis (my PC Avenger) (Level 18)
Jan (Level 14/17)
Edwina (Level 18)

Just to test the ground, I'm wandering around the first main floor of level four where I've encountered the mad nutbag in his little machine. Had a couple of nice skirmishes already - a huge group of shadow fiends, some mutated spiders and a pack of very bloodthirsty trolls. Not quite as nasty as the previous level so far, but I'm sure it will be eventually. ;)

If you go inside Suldallasnar you WONT be able to come back out and go back in so just soldier on.

EDD: *IMO* roleplaying wise, you certainly shouldn't go back out of Suldanessellar once you enter it, but the game lets you do that. The real "point of no return" in SoA comes a bit later when your PC initiates conversation with each of your comrades.

[ 04-23-2004, 01:15 PM: Message edited by: teardropmina ]

@Nickzilla
I'm not so worried about not being able to exit from Suldanesslar as not being able to come back and finish Watcher's Keep later to where I'd already got up to. (Level 4)
As long as I can finish off SoA and come back to Watcher's keep when I'm ready, I'll be happy. But for the moment, I'll keep plodding along in Watcher's Keep for as long as I can.

@Teardropmina
Once I actually enter Suldaneslar, I'll be seeing it all the way out to the end. However, I'm not so sure if you can arbitrarily say what should be done from a roleplaying perspective...I'm sure many would see my situation differently, which is one of the reasons I asked for personal feedback on how people have tackled Watcher's Keep.

Spoilerish now for those who haven't played the fourth level of Watcher's Keep.

I've just cleared out the Githyanki area. Suprised that they were falling so easily. Strange that none of them recognised the sword Minsc was using to kill them. ;) Perhaps I never chose the right dialog option with the Captain, because I ended up just killing him....seemed like a waste to be honest.

I've met Saladrex and the Demi-Lich as well, but shall come back to 'parlay' as soon as I clear the Mindflayers section. Thus, its all going well for the moment. [img]smile.gif[/img]

well, I didn't *arbitrarily* say what I said, I was stating my opinion. In my previous post, first I just wanted to point out that you CAN go back out of Suldanessellar; then, I added my thought on the roleplaying bit (guess have to use IMO every time I post).
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why I think roleplaying wise, once enter should not get back out? there's a slaughter going on in Suldanessellar, and we're so close to get to Irenicus...I don't see anything could distract the god-child and his/her comrade from their path. This is my roleplaying stand, nothing arbitary about it.

[ 04-23-2004, 08:35 AM: Message edited by: teardropmina ]

That's fair enough Teardropmina, your argument is quite valid. There will be exceptions of course (a forgotten item or other mis-preperation for example) but there are usually exceptions for most 'maxims'...

I wasn't having a personal attack on your roleplaying viewpoint so no offense intended.
I perhaps took your earlier post a bit literally about 'shouldnt and roleplaying'. ;)

To clarify, I was expressing the view that anyone who arbitrarily states how something should be roleplayed without qualifying what they say as an opinion, is in danger of seeming dogmatic, if you understand me. It is a subjective choice since there are often countless ways of roleplaying a scenario and all kinds of factors involved. Hope that all somehow makes sense now. :D

Meanwhile....I just destroyed the Demi-Lich using an enraged Korgan to negate the evil mass imprisonment it nailed my party with in our first meeting. Are now currently in anti-illithid and anti-umber hulk mode. ;)

Cheers,
Cerebrodragon

well, *roleplaying* the term itself IMPLIES that there are various ways to solve/handle any given situation in the game, and so everytime people state *roleplaying-wise...* they're talking about their roleplaying stands, not how something MUST BE done. It is however indeed "something should be done" in such a way according to one's perspective. There are infinite possibilites, yet once I speak from my perspective, that's one of the possibilities that I construe.

[ 04-23-2004, 01:16 PM: Message edited by: teardropmina ]

You don't *have* to finish Watcher's Keep in SoA... If you finish Suldanessellar, WK will still be waiting for you when you go into ToB.

As for me... Faldorn (Look for The Chronicles of Faldorn) stopped WK right above the Final Seal... She was torn to pieces by the guardians, so I had to back off. I'll probably go back when I have better equipment, though.

From what I understand, the denizens of Watcher's Keep (like most parts of the game) are adjusted in terms of strength and composition based on the party's level. Not that a group straight out of Irenicus' dungeon would be able to get through it, but there may be a big difference in what you face with a level 10-15 party than a level 15-20 party.

In other words, you may get more xp (and possibly better spoils?) if you run through the keep later during TOB.

I've also read on this board (not sure who to quote, sorry) that there may be more party dialog if you go through WK during TOB rather than SOA, so you may be missing out on that too. I don't think I've paid close enough attention to tell whether that's true or not.

Never fear, the keep will still be accessible after you finish off Jon-boy and begin to live out the prophecy, so my advice would be to leave the rest of the keep until later and soldier on towards Suldanessellar...