-=Watcher's Keep=-

Since I was doing the watcher's keep while in SoA, I decided to post the topic in this section. I have a few things to say about the experiene itself.

I remember the second time I was going through the game and managed to travel a little deeper inside the WK, to those archmage's labs, where I had to help that demon to escape, the annoying part is that after Ive made it and freed him, I got whole party slaughtered in a matter of seconds, my whole party was lvl 16 and still I got owned pretty hard. He was basicly too tough with all his immunities and since I was pretty much newbie at that point I had no choise but to leave WK.

Now on my perhaps 4th ''walkthrough'' it was my turn to own the demon. After the beastie got roasted I went deeper, at this point my leading character was a Mage (Conjurer). And here is the most annoying part in the whole game after my opinion. I dont remember what floor it was, I think it was the 4'th. Anyways, here I came into some sort of maze where I had to find my way out. Oh man were I pissed after walking in circles for 2 hours. After some thinking I managed to advance, only to come into a room, where I met some super-duper-quadroluper mutants who basicly storm against me, feemblind half of my party and the ''best'' part is that the room is totally isolated from casting spells, which means that even if I use haste or anything else before entering the room, it gets dispelled once I enter. Oh holy malossi were I mad again.

After completing that room on easy and with a whole bunch of luck I advanced further to the next level with the retarded mage in the tube. Here things took off, but it got too boring after I saw how ugly that Agurvadal sword was. So I left without entering the last level. So in short, WK wasnt exactly the biggest experience for me at all, since some parts of it are frustrating to the limit and very dull. Man I wish Black Isle would have kept those flame-glowing swords from BG1. If before you could see the flame on the swords now they are only blinking with a spesific color, BG2 has much better graphics of course, but why did they had to do that... ahhh.

Discuss! [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Cerek the Barbaric]

I also entered Watcher's Keep while still in SoA (in fact, I've never played ToB yet). But I waited until my party had completed the first part of Suldenesser before going, so All of my party was over 20th level.

Because of that, the first couple of levels weren't too tough, but Level 3 and beyond was still pretty challenging (I had to cheat and use a walkthrough to find my way through the maze because I also just kept going in circles). My BIGGEST challenge was - of course - Demagorgon.

My PC was Wizard Slayer/Thief. I didn't Dual until I had gotten a couple of the fighter HLA's and I naturally took "Use Any Item" as my first thief HLA.

The rest of the party consisted of Minsc, Imoen, Jaheira (who REALLY kicked some serious butt with her spells and HLA's)and Jan.

The fight with Demagorgon took several reloads to complete. I finally defeated by setting as many traps as my PC could. Since the traps go off before pre-cast spells, I was able to prevent a lot of Demagorgons protections from going up. THAT made it MUCH easier to beat him with the spells from MY group.

Watcher's Keep is very challenging, but it CAN be beaten by an SoA party.

Of course, no doubt it can, though try defeating him without traps. He is prince of demon, we should give him the space to get offensive and defensive. Though oh man is he overpowered. Since you had lvl 20 party it should be a whole different story, what difficulty lvl did you played on?

[Cerek the Barbaric]

Originally posted by TyranyuZ: Of course, no doubt it can, though try defeating him without traps. He is prince of demon, we should give him the space to get offensive and defensive. Though oh man is he overpowered. Since you had lvl 20 party it should be a whole different story, what difficulty lvl did you played on?

Difficulty Level --> Normal. I'm not one of these sadists that like to play on "Insane". LOL. Even though I've had the game for over 2 years, I've only played it all the way through once, and it took me over a year to do that. I have a tendency to get bored or frustrated with particularly difficult encounters and quit playing for a couple of months.

So I don't have nearly enough experience to play on "Difficult" or "Insane" yet.

Same here, difficult is ok for me sometimes, but insane... is insane.

[SixOfSpades]

Anything concerning Watcher's Keep requires ToB, and therefore belongs in the ToB forum.

TyranyuZ, by going to Watcher's Keep so soon, you most likely accidentally screwed yourself out of one of the very best weapons in the entire game.

The Portal Maze is supposed to drive you insane. It's also supposed to kick your ass if you're not ready for it yet. Nobody made you storm the Keep in the first place, in fact Odren probably strongly discouraged you from entering. The key to the Dead Magic/Wild Magic rooms is to know what will and will not function normally.

I agree that the "flaming sword" animation is one that should have been kept (the Basilisk is another one), but you were actually chased out of WK by an ugly sword? That's just funny. [img]smile.gif[/img] Had you caried that sword into ToB, though, you probably would have learned to love its looks.

How dare you! Are you saying that...that...THAT beautiful flame tongue your fighter is wielding in the signature isnt the most gorgeous sword in the whole realm?! ... dissapointing... and yes, I am having hard time liking those neon-blue glowing swords in BG2 ... gargh, theyre so disgusting. And that concerns all weapons, like flail of the ages etc.

[Moondog]

@Sixofspades
I always enter WK early in SoA, so I suppose I'm always missing the fabulous weapon you mentioned; what is it exactly (by all means spoil me!)? What level does a party need to obtain it?

He is talking about angurvadal.

[Firestormalpha]

Moondog, it doesn't matter at which point you enter WK. WK is a ToB element and should be inquired about in the appropriate forum regardless of the time of entry.

Unless of course you are simply contesting his views that you shouldn't rush into WK early in the game. In which case, I'd say go if you wish, it's your game.