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Exploring Firewine Bridge's dungeons is an experience of ennui, despair, and acute hair loss from the navigational frustration that I won't soon forget. I only ever entered those warrens afterward through the Gullykin secret entrance. Fairly simple: Partake in the "boss" battle (an Ogre Mage, a high-level human mage, and a bunch of goons), grab the loot, then haul tail back out the way you came. After I sent a scout ahead under the influence of a Potion of Absorbtion and let the mage fry himself with his own lightning bolt, I could breathe a lot easier during the fight. 
Gullykin is rather dull, but it's a shire; a lot of hearth and home type dwellings and not much excitement. They're halflings; you can't expect Waterdeep.
Those bounty hunters are a bit tougher than the soloist upstarts who have tried to fell you in the past, because they're a party of four. I always found fighting rival adventurers, bounty hunters, and the like to be the most interesting battles in the game because they hit close to home.
One trick to try to accelerate the pace of your resident wizard's experience point count is to kick everyone out of your party, sans your PC (and the wizard, naturally), then take on XP-high-octane baddies like Sirines, Basilisks, and Ankhegs. This requires more than a little finesse and experience, however, due to the danger involved. Strength in numbers, you know.
When I replay BG there are some areas I simply never bother with. In particular I'm thinking of that goddam annoying Xvart village and the Gnoll Fortress. Both cases; too much hassle for too little payback (and as a requisite Minsc/Dynaheir hater, an easy decision to make). I also include most of Durlag's Tower in this category, due to its unfun, sadistic, and trappy design. There are enough dungeon-crawls in BG without needing to cavort in that one.
Gullykin is rather dull, but it's a shire; a lot of hearth and home type dwellings and not much excitement. They're halflings; you can't expect Waterdeep.
Those bounty hunters are a bit tougher than the soloist upstarts who have tried to fell you in the past, because they're a party of four. I always found fighting rival adventurers, bounty hunters, and the like to be the most interesting battles in the game because they hit close to home.
One trick to try to accelerate the pace of your resident wizard's experience point count is to kick everyone out of your party, sans your PC (and the wizard, naturally), then take on XP-high-octane baddies like Sirines, Basilisks, and Ankhegs. This requires more than a little finesse and experience, however, due to the danger involved. Strength in numbers, you know.
When I replay BG there are some areas I simply never bother with. In particular I'm thinking of that goddam annoying Xvart village and the Gnoll Fortress. Both cases; too much hassle for too little payback (and as a requisite Minsc/Dynaheir hater, an easy decision to make). I also include most of Durlag's Tower in this category, due to its unfun, sadistic, and trappy design. There are enough dungeon-crawls in BG without needing to cavort in that one.
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