So I seem to have severely underestimated Durlag's tower. I managed to, by the skin of my teeth, make it to the second floor, but I just can't get any further after running into the Dwarven Doom Guard.

I'm really worried if I leave it's going to screw up the whole thing and I won't be able to return to complete it. Is that true or am I just being paranoid?

Everybody tends to on their first try. ;) You haven't screwed anything up at all. Just place any ward stones or other things you want stored into one of the chests in the areas where you either first met Ike or Bayard. They will be safe, and saves you carting them around -- you WILL need certain key items and ward stones again when you re-enter.

Thanks for the reply :).

The funny thing is when I entered I was saying to myself "Ghouls and Skeletons? Really?"

What level would you suggest going back to it? I'm 7-8 now.

You should be able to tackle it at level 7-8 if you have a balanced party. You are going to need a thief with good Find Traps skills (ESSENTIAL -- there are heinous traps!), a tank (you've seen the doomguards!), a healer (a cleric is a boon for all of the undead), a mage to take care of certain situations. Those are, IMHO, the essentials before proceeding.

Best practice for Durlag's Tower is take your time; if you go in all gung-ho you will fail. Use your thief (Imoen is ideal) to scout areas before proceeding -- forewarned is forearmed.

Good luck!

My party consists of Minsc, Dynaheir, Khalid, Me (pure mage), Imoen, and Jaheira

Khalid at -6 ac gets absolutely shredded by the doom guard. Am I doing something wrong or is Khalid bad?

Buffs. Use buffs (it's what your spell casters are there for) and potions. Entangle, Aid, Bless, Chant, Haste etc., and do NOT go into Durlag's Tower with crap weapons and ammo. Most enemies will be totally immune to basic attacks, so +2 wherever possible, but +1 absolute minimum. Separate the enemy wherever you can -- that's what I meant about using scouting techniques... fight on your terms.

My poor mages. They use to be the killing machines, now they just go around buffing people :(. I'll give it a try, drop every buff I can and see if it works out. Guess I finally have a reason to use all those arrows and potions I've been stock piling.

MAN Durlag's Tower good times(and by good times I mean dying A LOT) I scout helps a lot in this place (someone like a high lvl thief) letting the enemies come to you so to can figure out how to fight them without taking too much damages. Tons of loot so you might have to make a second trip (too me three to take everything)

You will need all of that stockpile, but you will find plenty more inside, too. :)

HINT and POSSIBLE SPOILER:

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There is a +2 Scimitar (Rashad's Talon) on the roof of Durlag's Tower for Jaheira. But WATCH OUT! :D AOE spells are all party friendly unless you have the difficulty setting on Core or higher.

My favorite moment so far has been hasting my party, winning the fight but Khalid breaking right at the last minute and then running around the dungeon hasted. Fortunately I had cleared it already.

I should have explored the roof first I guess haha.

Weird. Slow doesn't affect my party but I have the difficulty set to core rules. Maybe my group is just saving versus spell really well.

Don't get me wrong. I didn't mean that all AOE spells are hostile at core rules, because they are not. There are many party friendly AOE spells. I don't ever remember Slow being anything other than party friendly, to be honest.

The Dwarven Doom Guard are super tough and my cheesy tactics is to lure them back to the teleporter (the one that teleports you from the north side of some altar to its south side). You will be able to see and attack them with ranged weapon and magics but they won't be able to lay a finger on you. Cheesy yes but I guess it's also a legitimate tactics.

7-8 should be well enough to crack the whole tower.