When should I start the totsc expansion of BG?

I'm going over BGI for the first time in years, and I'm pretty sure I've become much better at the whole RPG combat system generally speaking than I was at the time. fe, those mercenaries outside of the cloakwood mine: it was hard enough for me to beat that I still vaguely remember today, but today I had no trouble at all killing either of the fighters or mages on first try...

I'm on core difficulty, might consider raising it if the cloakwood mine is too easy.

Party is:

Fighter/Mage as AC tank and later on a support caster
Ajantis for the two hander damage
Coran and Kivan to shoot everyone
Viconia as cleric
And Xan, though I've changed him into an invoker

I found myself in the same situation earlier this year, wondering when to do TOTSC. iirc, what happened to me is that I wondered this too late. You want to start it before the final fight vs Saravok, or youlll have to start w/ a pre-sarevok save and play the expansion, then come back and fight him again to truly "beat the game".

What is the expansion? it's just a few extra places to go, some new cool items and lore, the great Durlag's Tower dungeon and Werewolf Isle, and some tweaks like xp cap raised n stuff. Read all about it here

I'd recommend it anytime when you're at lvl 4 or above. Just go there and check out if you feel like you're going to make it But beware of Durlag's Tower - this is the hardest new area and you'll need a good thief in there if you don't want to die because of hundreds of traps.

I´d probably recommend doing it after return to Candlekeep.
From roleplaying perspective, it´s probably more fitting doing it earlier, but while it can be a fun challenge doing so, it will also render rest of the game way too easy.

I would definitely wait until after you have done everything short of knocking off Saravok.

Durlag's Tower was a lot of fun.

Relayer said:

Durlag's Tower was a lot of fun.

Click to expand...

Best area in the game imo.

Werewolf Isle was a lot of fun also, especially that little twist towards the end.

I found I really enjoyed playing TotSC just before returning to Candlekeep. Durlag's Tower was great and I have to admit the Werewolf Island was a blast as well.

In may ways I have TotSC slightly more enjoyable than BG's main story line. Great creativity in those three subplots.