Steel Watcher (creature)

Steel Watchers are NPCs mainly found in the city of Baldur's Gate.

This page is for the Steel Watcher creature. For the race, see Steel Watcher.

“

I am a Steel Watcher, citizen. Here to serve the people of Baldur's Gate in the name of Lord Enver Gortash.

„

— Steel Watcher

Involvement

Steel Watchers can be found throughout the streets and inside some of the buildings of the Lower City in Act Three. They were invented by  Enver Gortash to aid in his attempt to control the city. Steel Watchers are characterized by their imposing size and ability to self-destruct.

Successfully evading arrest from a Steel Watcher grants the inspiration ⁠Not so Infallible After All to party members with the  Charlatan background.

Killing a Steel Watcher for the first time grants the inspiration ⁠Kicking the Rust Bucket to party members with the  Soldier background and the ⁠Down with the Steel Oppressors! inspiration to party members with the Urchin background.

If observed defeating a Steel Watcher, the party gains the condition  Pursuit Protocol for 20 turns; if defeated by stealthful means, this condition is avoided.

Combat

Each Steel Watcher wields a  Watcher Greatsword or a  Watcher Crossbow. The weapon does not drop when the Steel Watcher dies, but it can be disarmed to drop the one it carries.

Attacks and abilities

 Debilitating Shot ()   –   Watcher Crossbow

Damage: 9~36

3d10 + 6⁠Piercing

Fire a hefty ballista bolt that may  Pin Down the target.

 Range: 18 m / 60 ft

 Main Hand Attack ()   –   Watcher Greatsword

Damage: 7~40

3d12 + 4⁠Slashing

Strike with a colossal blade to knock a target  Prone and  Maim them.

 Range: 3 m / 10 ft

 Reposition Malefactor ()

Damage: 3~24

3d8⁠Bludgeoning

Pull a miscreant towards you for more thorough correction.

 DEX Save

 Range: 14 m / 47 ft

 Reprimand ()

Damage: 7~28

3d8 + 4⁠Bludgeoning

A pacifying strike that knocks the target  Prone.

 STR Save

 Melee: 1.5 m / 5 ft

 Seeker Matrix ()

Become able to see  Invisible creatures, and possibly reveal them to others.

 DEX Save

 Range: Self

 Self-Detonate

Damage: 30~74

4d12 + 26⁠Fire

Explode in a burst of raging hellfire - eliminate all nearby wrongdoers.

 DEX Save

 Range: Self

Immunities

•  Bleeding
•  Burning
•  Charmed conditions, such as  Charmed and  Dominated
•  Drunk
•  Exhausted
•  Frightened conditions, such as  Frightened and  Phantasmal Killer
•  Melting
•  Poisoned conditions, such as  Poisoned and  Nauseous
•  Polymorphed
•  Roiling Hellfire
•  Surprised
•  Unconscious conditions, such as  Sleeping and  Prone
• ^Tactician Effects that cause ⁠Lightning vulnerability

Loot

•  Enriched Infernal Iron
•  Infernal Iron

Tactics

The key distinguishing feature of combat with a Steel Watcher is its ability to  Self-Detonate. When a certain damage threshold is reached, the  Self-Detonation Protocol feature triggers, the watcher gains the  Detonation Impending! condition, and a red circle appears on the ground centered on it, indicating the blast radius. At the start of its next turn, or on death if it is killed before then, it detonates, dealing 4d12+26⁠⁠Fire damage to everything within  AoE: 5 m / 17 ft (Radius). This characteristic is particularly dangerous to allies who are not Attached Followers, as the AI does not necessarily move them to safety, and sometimes even moves an ally who was at a safe distance into the blast radius of a watcher that is already primed to explode. If the damage threshold is reached by a character who is ahead of a Steel Watcher in the turn order, characters behind the Steel Watcher do not have the opportunity to move before it detonates. Those who are ahead in the turn order can safely move out of the way, as the Steel Watcher stops making  Opportunity Attacks once it gains the Detonation Impending! condition. Consequently, it can be useful to boost initiative (e.g. by selecting dexterous party members, picking the  Alert feat, or using  Elixirs of Vigilance).

Steel watchers are fully immune to many methods of crowd control including, but not limited to:  Charmed,  Prone,  Petrified,  Polymorph,  Frightened,  Unconscious,  Poisoned, and most forms of  Diseased. Additionally, several conditions which can be applied to Steel Watchers do not function as expected. These include, but are not limited to:  Freezing,  Command: Halt,  Hold Monster,  Arms of Hadar,  Staggered,  Karabasan's Gift,  Shocking Grasp, and intentionally triggering an  Opportunity Attack.  Command: Approach,  Command: Drop,  Command: Flee,  Feeble,  Ensnaring Strike,  Eyebite: Sickened, and  Confusion all function as normal. As a rule Steel Watchers can be  Blinded, but they are immune to some sources of blindness; e.g.  Stricken with Malice and  Stricken With Blinding Sickness due to the above mentioned status group immunities. Somewhat surprisingly, they are not immune to  Septic.

Self-Detonation Protocol

There is no known way to prevent Self-Detonation. If a Steel Watcher reaches 0 HP without the Detonation Impending! condition, it is  Downed before immediately healing for 1 HP and immediately starting the Self-Detonation Protocol, thereby gaining the Detonation Impending! condition. If the Steel Watcher is  Malfunctioning or  Stunned when it reaches 0 HP, it gains two instances of Detonation Impending! after healing. If a Steel Watcher with multiple instances of Detonation Impending! is allowed to Self-Detonate on its turn, it detonates once. If killed before its turn, it detonates as often as it has instances of Detonation Impending!.

There are two known status conditions that prevent a Steel Watcher from triggering its Self-Detonation Protocol when taking damage beyond the threshold that would otherwise trigger it:

•  Malfunctioning - inflicted by  Flashblinders
•  Stunned - inflicted by  Stunning Strike (Unarmed),  Stunning Strike (Melee), and  Soulbreaker

While these techniques do not prevent detonation, delaying it until it is convenient can be quite useful, in addition to the fact that both conditions effectively skip the Steel Watcher's turn. They also do not need to be perpetually maintained. A Steel Watcher does not trigger Self-Detonation Protocol on its own, even at extremely low health, provided it does not take additional damage before a condition that inhibits the Protocol is reapplied.

Persistent area attacks (e.g.  Blade Barrier,  Insect Plague, and  Wall of Fire) do not trigger the Self-Detonation Protocol when dealing damage on a Watcher's turn even if it does not have any of the impairing conditions described above, unless they reduce it to 0 HP. Should this occur, the Watcher's behavior is determined by whether or not it has one of the Self-Detonation Protocol inhibiting conditions described above. If it does, then the watcher recovers and gains two instances of Detonation Impending!. If the watcher is subject to multiple area attacks, any of those attacks, which are resolved after the watcher recovers, deal no damage. If the watcher does not have a Self-Detonation Protocol inhibiting condition, one area effect can impose Detonation Impending!, and another can trigger immediate detonation in the same turn. If a watcher starts its turn with multiple instances of Detonation Impending! area attacks which deal damage on its turn cause multiple detonations. Attacks of opportunity against a Steel Watcher and area attack damage dealt on the caster's turn trigger the Self-Detonation Protocol, if they take the watcher below the damage cap, or it is already below it.

Self-Detonation Damage

Eventually the Steel Watcher detonates. If it is not practical to move all party members and allies out of the blast radius, the damage can be nullified in any of the following ways:

•  Banishing the Steel Watcher via  Banishment,  Banishing Smite, or  Arcane Shot: Banishing Arrow. The watcher then detonates off screen, dealing no damage.
• Casting  Globe of Invulnerability over all affected allies. It does not matter whether or not the Steel Watcher is also inside the globe. Any party member can create one using a  Scroll of Globe of Invulnerability, as there is no DC involved. However, it does require  Concentration which should be taken into account, especially if the caster is not also protected by the globe.
• Casting  Otiluke's Resilient Sphere on the Steel Watcher. However, due to the watcher's high dexterity modifier and  Agile Chassis feature, it is likely to pass the saving throw, making this is an unreliable approach.

Conclusion

• While these techniques may well work for  Hellfire Watchers or the  Steel Watcher Titan they have been verified only for ordinary Steel Watchers.
• As noted in  Self-Detonate, the tooltip regarding the explosion is wrong:
  • Fire resistance is effective.
  • There is no dex saving throw to halve damage. Characters with  Evasion halve damage, all others take full damage (subject to resistance).
  • These two properties can stack for quarter damage.
• Applying  Stunned or  Malfunctioning to a watcher with the Detonation Impending! condition has no effect.
• Damage caused by explosions also interact with the Self-Detonation Protocol in unusual ways warranting additional exploration.
• Watchers appear to be resistant to slashing damage caused by  Blade Barrier but not slashing damage caused by  Cloud of Daggers.
• This section was written based off tests using custom mode replicating Honour Mode except for the single save file limitation.

Related quests

• ⁠Disable the Steel Watch
• ⁠Get Gortash's Netherstone

Gallery

• 
  Ingame model
• 
  Ranged Steel Watcher

External links

• ⁠Steel watcher on the Forgotten Realms Wiki