I've heard that this dungeons is hard as hell so to those who finished BG2 please answer
PS:I finished BG1 yesterday and is already one of my favourite games of all time and I'm already out of Irenicus dungeon

it gets harder the deeper you go into the keep.

but i always do the first floor early on, some nice items there. Just watch for the statues when you activate the second floor gate. they can be quite nasty for an underleveled group.

just get your party of six (if you play with full party) do the quests on the promenade and d'arnisse keep then you should beat the firt floor and just try the second floor (save before entering a new floor).

I wouldn't attempt the lower levels until your party is at least level 17.
You need lots of strong magic & +5 weapons.
And careful with disintergrate or you'll miss out on some good gear.

There are harder battles in ToB outside Watcher's Keep. WK can even be done during the SoA part.

Depends on the level of difficulty you want. If you want to do it before Suldanessellar it'll be hard as nails but if you've done all the big quests you'll have a good chance.

It'll be "easier" to do once you have the ability to free roam during ToB, but still hard. :)

This is going back a couple of.. days, but is the most relevant topic I found.

Hadn't thought to play ToB this time, it's not as great as the rest of the series (although it would be fun to finally assemble the pantaloons). I've done just about everything now, and we are around level 17+, close to 3 million xp each (Korgan tipped over and just got the first HLA). Only done Watcher's Keep once, and can't recall if that was in the ToB section or before, but would 3 million xp each be enough to go through? The bottom levels would be tough I assume, but I hope it's doable.

Last time I eventually gave up on Demogorgon because they routinely ripped us to shreds, but I'd like to slay that fecker for once.

I see that some items can be found in there and upgraded, like Flail of Ages +4 (looked at weapons on Mike's RPG site). But that would require Cespenar, in ToB. Would it be possible to install the mod part that enables Cromwell to make the weapons that Cespenar can make, or would that mess things up when I've played so deep into the game? We certainly don't have any +5 weapons (actually, Crom Faeyr), but +4 would at least help.

Melf's Minute Meteors are +5. (I actually find myself using that spell more than any other spell, to be honest.)

I use that one a lot too. A little bummer now, because while using that spell/weapon, the Staff of Magi is unequipped, removing its great bonuses. It's a sweet weapon, though, and fires 5 times per round.

For you that have played the game a lot, is it fine to take on the whole of Watcher's Keep in SoA, or do we need even more XP (without massive abuse of mechanics)?

I normally do the first two floors during SoA. Occasionally I'll do 3 and 4 during chapter 6 after all the other SoA content is complete, but I never do the bottom floors until ToB. Each floor is significantly more difficult than the last, so it's usually fairly obvious when you should come back later. It is quite useful to do during SoA, though, both for immediately usable items like Usuno's Blade or the Golem Book and also for upgrade items. The Gromnir battle is a LOT easier if you've got a stack of items waiting to be upgraded as soon as you start ToB.

Thanks. Sounds like I need to take on the challenge of trying the whole Keep in SoA =)

3M is the XP cap of SoA anyway (right?), so it shouldn't be very different from doing it early in ToB. Reckon we'll level up a few times more descending the Keep as well.

Yes, I know the cap is higher with ToB installed, but I think it was 3M for only SoA, so would be balanced around that point. Considering I have that, and one can do Watcher's Keep early on in ToB, I would think it should be okay to delve into it. We shall see...

I've done practically everything else in SoA beside the run-in. Only thing left is to hand over the Lanthorn and so on. We have a few HLAs now, so after (hopefully) finishing Watcher's Keep, there is a risk of the last part of SoA being too easy. But I'm not sure I will bother with ToB again, so it must be this way.

You might have to get creative, and you'll definitely have to be persistent, but I figure you should be able to muddle all the way through Watcher's Keep.

Not really. The hardest thing about Watcher's Keep is the femme fatale group you fight before the final Watcher's Keep boss. That fight is actually pretty hard.

I have a question. If you play your game from SoA into ToB, will progress you made in SoA be saved or do you have to start over again if you didn't finish Watcher's Keep in SoA?