When to start heart of winter, first playthrough?

B4tich

Hi guys, I am on my first playthrough and have just reached lower dorn's deep, party of 6. I feel like it is time to decide on whether I start HoW now/soon or after I completed the main story. My biggest concern is that I am afraid that if I play HoW now, the rest of the main story will be to easy and vice-versa. It also makes no sense plotwise to start HoW when the main story seems to be reaching its climax. On the other hand, I heard you can get a lot of cool weapons in the expansion, but what is the point in getting them if I do not have the time to use them.

I am in a real dilemma guys, I hate it when the game becomes too easy and I do not want to make a mistake here. If I export my characters at the end of the game will HoW be too easy? I guess I will not have enough gold to buy any cool weapons in HoW if I do that. It feels like the main quest was not meant to be disrupted by HoW and it could destroy the balance of the game, but then again why are we given the option to do that. I just do not know what to do now. I am guessing exporting characters is the recommended option but that seems kinda lame.

I hope you guys can help me without spoiling the story. Thanks

Mathsorcerer

If you just reached Lower Dorn's Deep then now is the perfect time to agree to go with Hjollder. Once you get too far in to Lower Dorn's Deep you won't be able to turn back and go with him.

Isewein

If you are playing with the NPC mod, it is suggested that you do HoW just after Chapter V in terms of dialogue consistency. If not, I think it makes more sense to tackle it after the main campaign - its battles do tend to be more difficult.