[Calagari]

This answer helped me make the decision I have been wrestling with also. I am very interested in seeing what HOW is like but was afraid of ruining the rest of the IWD game. Now I will just wait a while longer before going.

Originally posted by Aerich: Depends on party composition. With a ranger, there aren't many ranger-specific items that you'd really want. It's different if, for example, you have a paladin or a mage. That sword is a great help for paladins (their raison d'etre, if you will) and many great high level mage scrolls are found in lower Dorns. I like to complete everything to do except P____ in lower Dorns. However, going to HoW after the Severed Hand, as you did, is a logical breakoff point. Good magical items and spells, and, especially with a small party, characters are going to be a high enough level to get by. However, coming back from HoW/TotL with 18+ level characters is rather overkill for Dorns Deep. That's why I prefer to almost finish IWD first. I find a lot of the later fights in IWD (against giants, e.g.) to be rather easy as it is, and it would be no fun to go into them with pumped-up characters.