Favorite Sidepiece: Tales of the Sword Coast vs. Trials of the Luremaster vs. Watcher's Keep

booinyoureyes

So the main storyline is always the meat and potatoes of the IE games, and we all love them. We take them home with us and introduce them to our parents.

Then there are the sidepieces. The questpacks that are fun, but always the bridesmaid. These are the quests that don't become the center of your life, but they do make for a fun weekend romp before you decide to settle down with your true love, tossing them aside in order to fulfill your destiny.

So let's take a moment to celebrate our quest packs. Which one is your favorite?

ThacoBell

Just can't top Durlag's Tower.

semiticgoddess

I never got anywhere in Trials of the Luremaster. I got stuck at the very beginning, in dialogue. I couldn't figure out where I was supposed to go or who I was supposed to talk to unlock the path to the next area or whatever.

Rather than spend any more time trying to figure out the next step, I just exited the game and did something else. No sense in banging your head against the wall when there's so much other content on the Internet. Youtube alone has tens of thousands of years' worth of videos. You could pick out the top 0.1% highest-quality videos and you'd die of old age before you saw them all.

Maybe I'll give Trials of the Luremaster a shot again someday. Maybe not.

As for Durlag's Tower, it has the same problem almost all BG1 dungeons had: it's cramped and tiny and claustrophobic and the traps have a habit of killing you instantly instead of just wounding you. It's a dimly lit, dusty coffin of a dungeon.

Watcher's Keep is beautiful and luminous and massive in scale, and every level is more imposing than the last. Watcher's Keep is a cathedral. This is the difference between Durlag's Tower and Watcher's Keep:

Durlag's Tower:

Watcher's Keep:

Kusel

Tales of the Swordcoast enriched the game it was added to with Durlag's Tower being a bit of a new thing or oddity when it came out - but it grabbed probably every BG1 player there was.
Watcher's Keep felt like a fancy version of DT (great illustration above by @semiticgod) but also felt like added to ToB because it was lacking original contents.
Luremaster doesn't even deserve mentioning along the others, it's pure crap that didn't enhance the sad game it was attached to in any way.

InKal

and somewhat Durlag's Tower has much better story, MUCH better atmosphere, two particular fights which almost tops the WK fights without being high level cheesefests, has absolutely FANTASTIC spoken introduction/tour courtesy of Ike (in fact Lukas Kristjanson I guess) and actually is a proper dungeon, not a couple of flat squares.

lroumen

I love the challenge that wolfwere island gives to the player. Add ice island and durlags tower and you have enough content for the low level party.

InKal

Ahh... Luremaster...Luremaster and CD Projekt. So, Trials of the Luremaster was a bonus, free content added with a game patch. And it was free...but not in Poland!! In Poland it was sold by CDProjekt for 50 or 70 potatoes.

just a blast from the past.

MateoFrozen

Well I'm mostly BG2 player so my pint of view may be narrowed. Ratio would be something like 30:5:1, yes played TotL olny one time (but played IWD many times) . So my vote goes to WK because i probablly experienced all content and can't say the same about TotSC nad TotL, maybe they better byt only maybe. Waiting for final 2.5 for next run in BG1 and IWD to change ratio.

Balrog99

Watcher's Keep for me. It always feels epic with the high-level monsters and great artifacts to find. It was also my training ground for the cool epic-level abilities introduced in TOB. Plus there's a demon prince! After all these years I still haven't beaten Demogorgon. I've tried several times but always got my head handed to me

histamiini

Watcher's Keep easily, such a cool thing to do, especially the first time when you don't know the Imprisoned One yet. And the music outside the Keep is fantastic. It would be even better if they made Demogorgon more powerful, because I thought he was slightly disappointing. I think even the Chromatic Demon is tougher if you fight him head on.

DrakeICN

Trials of the Luremaster. Maybe it is not better than Durlags or Watchers keep, but relative the game content otherwise in IWD, it is like it is the only part with an actual story; a fresh breath. Durlags and Watchers keep is just like any other old place in BGI and BGII, does not feel any different than say Nashkel mines, or the Underdark.

My vote for the WORST addon is in IWD or IWD2 (cant remember which one) with the barbarians and the ice dragons and blah blah blah. I hated that part, incredibly boring. I finished it only because, I dunno, a fling of OCD maybe. I would never replay that segment (then again, I will never replay IWD* again, sooo boring).

*1, not 2. I love IWD2, well, at least the beginning, when the story is solid. The later chapters are pretty meh.

booinyoureyes

Watcher's Keep looks the coolest.
Durlag's Tower was more horrifying than fun. Nice storyline though.
The werewolf Island was great.

I voted for Trials of the Luremaster because I thought the backstory was awesome. Stories of betrayal, cowardice, and karma are always moving. Plus, you gotta love bards.

UnderstandMouseMagic

As @ThacoBell said, can't top Durlag's for story and atmosphere.

WK is good, really good but it doesn't capture the imagination in the same way. Especially as it tends to
become a "resource mine" because you can "nip" down there, do a level or so and just leave with a bunch of goodies.
Had it been restricted to TOB and intergrated better, perhaps you had to go there to advance the story, then it would win.

I like the potential of Werewolf Island a lot as well. Just wish they had expanded it a bit more. They got it all right, the fight, the betrayal and the return.

But they could have done so much more with the societies/setting of the island. Delayed the reveal that the villagers were werewolves, had a larger settlement, a few more personalities ect.