Larian Studios Forums Divinity II The Dragon Knight Saga / Flames of Vengeance (English) Divinity II - The Dragon Knight Saga Fjords to Aleroth - Transition sooner or later?

I've only owned DKS for several weeks on my 360; as such I apologize in advance for my impending ignorance of things which may or may not already be common knowledge.

A good while ago I stumbled across a post which I can't seem to find again, even after hours of searching.

I can't be 100% sure, but if memory serves, I think this post mentioned that one should transition from Orobas Fjords to Aleroth as soon as possible in order to gain access to more merchants. (In order to check them for gear each time you level up.)

I have already gathered all the components for "on the road again" and I am just waiting to turn the quest in. I'm probably about 50% or 60% done in Fjords at this point, have not even touched any flying fortresses yet, and am trying to hold onto as many quests as I can (to get the XP later after killing as many mobs as I can reach to avoid diminishing XP return.)

I created an alternate save file where I went to Aleroth, but only found two merchants. I haven't gone past the Ministry in that save file because I was concerned about sacrificing the possible XP bonus from prolonging the fight by allowing Zandalor to get attacked. I was hoping to reach the skeleton that sells Divine Charms so I could check his stock at each level up.

My concern is I don't want to sabotage myself by gaining too many levels before reaching said skele merchant and miss opportunities to spawn divine charms. However, while I'm looking to gain access to as many merchants as possible as soon as possible I do not wish to compromise my total possible XP gain.

1- So, would it be worthwhile to go to Aleroth now and make my way to the Skeleton Merchant for Divine charms? Or is this something that is best ignored for a while? (and just get to him whenever?)

2- Or, is it worth going to Aleroth to gain access to the two merchants before the Ministry and waiting to complete the Ministry after wrapping up in Orobas Fjords first?

3- Would going to Aleroth damage my XP gain (by gaining XP as I progress through Aleroth) or hinder the completion of any quests I have yet to finish (or even start) back in Orobas Fjords?

I'm currently level 26.75, if that matters. I'm also using Lancet Jades guide from GameFaqs. (trying to minimize missing things.)




Edit: I've done more searching and only found that some players prefer to go to Aleroth sooner and some prefer to go later. With enemies being level 28 at the Ministry and the minimum recommended level for completing the Ministry being about level 26... Oh well. I guess the thing to do here is just pop in a USB drive and make an alternate save file to get to the undead divine charm merchant and see if I want to continue from there or go back and wrap up the Fjords first.

Again, apologies if this question has been asked to death... skipping to Aleroth before wrapping up the Fjords just gave me an uneasy feeling, like I could risk hurting my potential XP gain or hinder the completion of certain quests back in the Fjords. For the life of me I wish I could find the post that discussed this question in detail. *facepalm* I suppose I should have bookmarked it... I just assumed I'd be able to find it again easily.