So I entered ToB after beating Irenicus, and I beat the first paltry Bhaalspawn (sorry sis) in the Grove of the Ancients.

I was then of course sent to the Pocket Plane where I met the Solar and Sarveok and did all the dialogue with them. The shimmering barrier off to the left dissipates, and I enter that room to battle the respawning elves and Paladins (yeah I'm evil). All pretty standard stuff, right? Well, after beating them all down, the room doesn't change like it's supposed to, and I'm stuck in there behind that shimmering barrier that magically reappeared during my battle.

WTH happened? This is my first EE playthrough, but I have beaten the classic BG2 multiple times with no such issue. Anyone have any ideas on how to get around this? I searched online and found nothing. Also I emailed GOG support and was given a link to a walkthrough.... uhhhh, thanks. lol

If I can't get all the way through, I'll ask for a refund (I'm within 30 days). However, I do think it's worth keeping if not broken by bugs. And so far, there have only been a few things I found buggy (i.e. no orphan girl in the graveyard for the Paladin to adopt).

It's possible that the game didn't register all of the deaths (they are counted). This does sometimes happen if many monsters are killed too quickly (AOE spells, etc.) There should come a point when the area script tags all of the challenges for an area are done, and then trigger the barrier to open. Try entering the following into the console (I have no idea if it will work, since I can't be sure this is the issue):

C:SetGlobal("BeginChallenge1","GLOBAL",9)

Thanks Hickory. I got a response from a Beamdog rep, and when I went to grab a couple of save games for him, I fought the battle again, and this time I killed them all, including Duke Eltan, who wasn't appearing before. I think he was the final trigger I'd been missing, and I had simply forgotten he appears when you're an evil character. I was the able to leave the room.

So, crisis averted. For now.

Excellent. Thanks for reporting back.