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Steel Watcher (creature)
Steel Watchers are NPCs mainly found in the city of Baldur's Gate.
“I am a Steel Watcher, citizen. Here to serve the people of Baldur's Gate in the name of Lord Enver Gortash.„
Involvement[edit | edit source]
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 
to party members with the 
background.
Killing a Steel Watcher for the first time grants the inspiration to party members with the 
background and the inspiration to party members with the Urchin background.
If observed defeating a Steel Watcher, the party gains the condition 
for 20 turns; if defeated by stealthful means, this condition is avoided.
Combat[edit | edit source]
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[edit | edit source]
Range: 18 m / 60 ft 
Melee: 1.5 m / 5 ft 
Immunities[edit | edit source]
- TTactician
vulnerability or resistance[1]
Loot[edit | edit source]
Tactics[edit | edit source]
The key distinguishing feature of combat with a Steel Watcher is its ability to 
. When a certain damage threshold is reached, the feature triggers, the watcher gains the 
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+26
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 
once it gains the Detonation Impending! condition. Consequently, it can be useful to boost initiative (e.g. by selecting dexterous party members, picking the 
feat, or using 
Elixirs of Vigilance).
Steel watchers are fully immune to many methods of crowd control including, but not limited to: 
Charmed, Prone, 
,[2] 
, 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: 
,[3] 
,[3] 
,[3][4] 
,[5] 
, [5] 
Karabasan's Gift,[3] 
,[5] and intentionally triggering an .[5] 
, 
,[6] 
, 
, 
, 
,[7] and 
all function as normal. As a rule Steel Watchers can be Blinded, but they are immune to some sources of blindness; e.g. 
and 
due to the above mentioned status group immunities. Somewhat surprisingly, they are not immune to 
.
Self-Detonation Protocol[edit | edit source]
There is no known way to prevent Self-Detonation. If a Steel Watcher reaches 0 HP without the Detonation Impending! condition, it is 
before immediately healing for 1 HP and immediately starting the Self-Detonation Protocol, thereby gaining the Detonation Impending! condition. If the Steel Watcher is 
or 
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:
- [8] - inflicted by
Flashblinders - [8] - inflicted by
, 
, and 
[9]
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. 
, 
, and 
) 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,[10] 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[edit | edit source]
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:
the Steel Watcher via 
, 
, or 
. The watcher then detonates off screen, dealing no damage.- Casting
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 
which should be taken into account, especially if the caster is not also protected by the globe. - Casting
on the Steel Watcher. However, due to the watcher's high dexterity modifier and 
feature, it is likely to pass the saving throw, making this is an unreliable approach.
Conclusion[edit | edit source]
- 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 , the tooltip regarding the explosion is wrong:
- Applying or 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 but not slashing damage caused by
. - This section was written based off tests using custom mode replicating Honour Mode except for the single save file limitation.
Related quests[edit | edit source]
Notes[edit | edit source]
- ↑ E.g.
effectively applies only 
vulnerability in Tactician/Honour mode. This is due to Steel Watchers being innately vulnerable while also having a source of resistance via hidden status STEELWATCHER_HARD. - ↑ While
can be cast on Steel Watchers, even if it fails its checks the condition is immediately removed.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Condition is lost as soon as the Steel Watcher reaches the damage threshold, at which time triggers as normal.
- ↑ Casting Hold Monster on a Steel Watcher which has stacks an additional instance every time it is cast. This can lead to a significantly more powerful detonation under the circumstances noted above as there does not appear to be a limit to the number of Detonation Impending! instances that can be added in this manner.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Prevents traditional reactions, but not despite it being labeled as one in the combat log.
- ↑ While the Reprimand attack does do less damage than the main hand sword attack and does not risk inflicting
, it is advisable to focus on preventing a Steel Watcher from taking an action in the first place, doing damage, or both.
- ↑ is not part of the
Diseased status group, and thus avoids the Watcher's immunity.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 and are both members of the Stunned status group, but called out individually for clarity.
- ↑ it is possible that other sources of are effective, but only the ones explicitly listed above have been tested. It is requested that additional methods verified to work be added. Specifically, the interaction between stun/malfunction and attacks with multiple hits (specifically magic missile) should be investigated.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 This behavior appears to be a bug. It is present as of Patch #8 / Room Temperature Fix #33.
- ↑ It is possible other passives have the same effect; currently none are documented.
Gallery[edit | edit source]
Ingame model
Ranged Steel Watcher
