[ SPOILERS inside! ] Advice requested on how to proceed near end game

BajeDad

Spoilers below...
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I am a new BG:EE player (but did not want to post spoilers in the new player section). I have done most of the major quests in BG, returned to and escaped from Candlekeep, been to Ulgoth's Beard, retrieved the cloak, accepted the tour of Durlag's Tower (even though I had been there twice before and had made it to Durlag's underground labyrinth level 2). My protagonist has had the dream which confirm's her ancestry and who she must kill. Most of my characters are level 8 or DC/MC level 7/7 or so (Total XP of 90K-100K).

Question #1:

If I recall correctly, when I first picked up stones on Durlag's labyrinth level 2 I could put them back and pick them up agian to open and close doors. But now putting them back triggers fireballs. Is this a bug, or am I putting stones back in the wrong place?

Question #2:

Can I just drop Durlag's tower, at this point, and go back to BG and finish this game? If I can, and I do so, and if we assume that I have already put in approximately100 hours of play time to get to this point (in Durlag's tower); then about how much play time do you think I have left if I just cut to the chase and try to finish the game as quickly as possible?

Question #3: (Spoil me just a little...)

The hardest battles I have fought so far have been underground labyrinth level 1 in Durlag's Tower, and while retrieving the cloak (quest given by a guy in Ulgoth's Beard). Am I going to find anything harder in the BG endgame?

Thank you.

(Edited to put in spoiler formatting. Thank you Elminster!)

elminster

For the record if you want to post spoilers you can put this

[ spoiler ]
followed by whatever text you want to write and ending with this
[ / spoiler ]


Just don't include the spacing I've included. More info on that can be found here

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/161/how-to-format-your-posts/p1

elminster

I'm not really sure about question #1 because I don't like Durlag's tower.

Likewise for question 2 if you've done all the other maps (including exploring the island that balduran ended up on) then there is very little content left for you to do if you are already in chapter 7. You could probably finish it all in 1/2 hour to 45 minutes tops. Probably even less than that if you know where you are going.

For #3 I would say you could very well still encounter more difficult battles than what you've already faced.

FinneousPJ

Durlag's tower is 100 % optional.

Durenas

1: AFAIK once the items have been 'used' (you're talking about pride/avarice/fear/love, right?) you can't get them back or use them again. IDK why you would want to keep them. The idea is to use the right items on the right mob and once they are all given the right things, they will fight you, and once you win that fight the door to the next level will open.

2: You totally can. The ending to BG1 was designed for players to be able to beat it with 81k XP. Durlag's Tower and Ulgoth's Beard are 'expansion content' which doubled the XP cap, and nothing you do in the 'expansion content' affects the main game in any way.

3: Yes... there are more challenging fights ahead.