Underdark Act 2 Confusion

[PsychoPsyops]

The necromancer told me the relic you receive after completing Shar’s Gauntlet will weaken Ketheric, whom is in Moonrise Towers.

However, players have warned me that completing Shar’s Gauntlet will throw me into Act 3 and make it impossible to fully explore Moonrise.

Without spoiling too much, is the necromancer lying? And would I actually want to kill Ketheric? I’m doing a morally upright playthrough and also want to do mountain pass, if that helps at all.

[RhiTheWitch]

Finishing Shars Gauntlet should be the last thing you do in Act 2 as it will lock you out of everything. But, you don't actually find the Temple of Shar in the Underdark.

[Anima Mundi]

uh? seems to be some confusion.

Gonna try no spoilers:

Finishing the gauntlet of Shar will NOT throw you into Act 3 at all. finishing moonrise will allow you to go, but this is still your choice of when.

What finishing the Gauntlet of Shar does, is basically just block you from going back to Act 1 areas. This means the underdark, the nautiloid region, and the mountain pass / monestry. That's all.
You should still be free to explorer all of Shadowlands. And when its time to jump into Act 3, you will know, and the game will prompt you about it too

[PsychoPsyops]

Originally posted by Anima Mundi:

uh? seems to be some confusion.

Gonna try no spoilers:

Finishing the gauntlet of Shar will NOT throw you into Act 3 at all. finishing moonrise will allow you to go, but this is still your choice of when.

What finishing the Gauntlet of Shar does, is basically just block you from going back to Act 1 areas. This means the underdark, the nautiloid region, and the mountain pass / monestry. That's all.
You should still be free to explorer all of Shadowlands. And when its time to jump into Act 3, you will know, and the game will prompt you about it too

Got it. So, finish Underdark quests > Mountain Pass > Gauntlet > Moonrise.
Awesome, thank you so much.

[Moonbane]

Untrue, finishing Shars gauntlet blocks you out from finishing many quests in Moonrise towers. Like rescuing the first group of prisoners becomes impossible. You must go there before the gauntlet and those in the tower will think you a friend. You can even murder almost all absolutists, just dont go to see Ketheric on top floor. He briefly appears on ground floor.

[IRMcG]

If you do Gauntlet before Moonrise you lock yourself out of a pile of quests and lose important NPCs. Go to Moonrise first and you'll get to do Gauntlet as part of the quests from there and then go back and deal with Ketheric one way or another depending on what you decide to do there.

[Malidictus]

Something to note: Go to Moonrise Towers FIRST, before you finish the Gauntlet of Shar. There are a number of quests, interactions and vendors there, all of which become inaccessible after finishing the Gauntlet. Put it this way - the Gauntlet of Shar kickstarts the Act 2 finale and locks you into it. Wrap up everything you want before then - including activities in Moonrise Towers itself.