Moving from Shadow of Amn to Throne of Bhaal

[Maedhross]

So, I'm playing BG2 for the first time, now in chapter 5. (And I'm in awe.) I own the enhanced edition. My question is: how will I move to Throne of Bhaal? I've read that ToB adds the watcher's keep, but it's allready on my map in Shadows of Amn. Is the content of the expansion already in the main game, like in BG1? And if so, is the option to start ToB exclusively in the main menu then for people who want to play just that? In short: what's the route to get the most out of the content, not skip anything, and get the maximum of goodness?

No spoilers please!

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Shadows of Amn continues into Throne of Bhaal automatically. Watcher's Keep you can visit as soon as your level is high enough as not to be rejected. Else, return later.

[kaiyl_kariashi]

when you defeat the final boss of SOA it transitions you to Throne of Bhaal.

Watcher's Keep was tacked on to try and give ToB some more content (which otherwise has the bare minimum to finish the saga and is extremely linear) after it was downgraded from BG3: Throne of Bhaal to BG2 Expansion: Throne of Bhaal.

But they also made it available during Shadows of Amn as well. Because the content was intended to be done by someone who has beaten BG2: SoA it can be difficult during SoA if you're not very knowledge of game mechanics or push deep enough into epic levels that the hax abilties they give you can mostly ignore the game mechanics.

The expansion takes place in Tethyr instead of Amn, unlike TotSC for BG1 which was just a mission pack to by time for Neverwinter Nights to come out (which never did).


Which became something of a running Joke apparently, as Neverwinter Nights was ALSO supposed to come out for BG2: Shadows of Amn in order to buy time for BG3: Throne of Bhaal, and then after the plans got scuppered for that happening and Throne of Bhaal being downgraded to an expansion and rushed out the door, they tried to still promise that there would be continuity with Neverwinter Nights (ToB's loading screen famously promising that you could import your BG2 characters into Neverwinter Nights once you'd finished the Baldur's Gate saga) which they still hoped to push out before their license expired, but it just didn't pan out.

And eventually they just gave up and released NWN as a loosely 3rd edition based toolkit to create your own stuff with some very generic OCs to demonstrate the available functionality of the base game and features it's expansions added.

[Washcloth Repairman]

Originally posted by D'amarr from Darshiva:

Shadows of Amn continues into Throne of Bhaal automatically. Watcher's Keep you can visit as soon as your level is high enough as not to be rejected. Else, return later.

This is true but it's nearly impossible to actually finish it in Shadows. Level and gear just isn't high enough to survive the multiple high level dragons and Demigorgon. And forget about doing it before the Underdark.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Well, but it's possible to do some levels, then use the current level exit to return to the base game. No need to finish it on the first visit.