I decided to get cernd up to 14th level so that he might challenge for leadership, but in order to do so we needed some xp. Fast. So, whose door do i go knocking on but Firkraag's, to this end. I decided that if i couldn't get it right on the first crack, i wouldn't bother the evil sunuvagun again. Well, i did it. I defeated the vermin. However, a small problem now faces me. Chiquita Southpaw died in the process. I'm not talking resurrection material here, she imploded, basically. Not only was she was the only potential romance i had left in this game, but what's worse is that she also represented the last cleric left alive who would join my group. To the best of my knowledge, every available cleric in SOA has met with an untimely demise, of the forever variety, through their dealings with moi. Anomen and i got into an argument, which i won. Viconia got smoked by a fireball, Jaheira's time ran out on her... and now Aerie. I still have Cernd, but he's a druid, and if memory serves, they have a little trouble raising dead until later levels, if at all. They want nothing to do with the undead. Keldorn is a paladin, by trade, but he's also an inquisitor paladin, which pretty much means he doesn't want anything to do with undead either. Fortunately, i've taken care of the bodhi situation but i'm thinking that i still may need a cleric that can handle the rampant undead problem in Ahm. Am i going to be alright with that weirdo cernd? Is there anyone else out there who i can dual class? Do i have to resort to (dum da dum-dum..) cheezy cheating? Any advice?

Well, given the apparent life expectancy of the average priest around you, they probably won't be lining up to join... ;)

In cases like this, you would probably be best off to re-load the last save before the battle with Firkragg. If you beat him once, you can beat him again. And no, this isn't "cheating". If you continue at this rate, by the time you get to the final chapters most of your party will be gone, and you'll have no replacements.

She died. Raise the dead (blown up or not). That's actually one thing that bothers me -- given the relliance on the NPCs in the game, having them blow up like that, to point of little bits of Aerie all over the place, and un-raisable, just doesn't seem 'fair'. So my advice is to re-load, and re-do the fight (without any litte Aerie bits).

Having never ran out of ALL of one class of NPC's, I've never tried....but isn't resurrection supposed to allow you to bring back the destroyed ones?

You may resurrect whose corpse is intact. For example, a backstabbed Minsc can be resurrected. You can even carry him to the nect temple! His portrait is "only" grayed out. After a dragon's punch - there's not much left to resurrect. The portrait is gone and blood is all over the place. Two possibilities then: (whisper) Reloading (I never said that!) or playing forth without that character. If your main PC dies, resurrectable or not, the game ends. Two possibilities: New Game or reload.

Druids may not raise dead or resurrect. ONLY Jaheira is allowed to, via "Harpers' Call" (a really sucking version of raise dead - with stat drain and stuff).

first of all, to get the Grove, the protagonist has to be a druid, and min level 14.

As for clerics, there's Anomen and Viconia. Are you sure you wasted both of these?

There is a Rod of Ressurrection on Makreth (wizard in the sewers) if I'm not mistaken, and another rod later in the game (spellhold or some merchant after spellhold?)

Riblad has a Rod of Ressurection for sale right from the start ;)
And yup the other Rod is on Mekrath, on the saving Haer'Dalis quest.
That is 20 ressurections right there.

Ummmmmmmmmmmm...........

Shouldn't the question be CAN Cernd challange for the grove leadership? I thought this was a stronghold quest, only do-able if your main character is a Druid!

I suppose that is a fair question. Never having Allanon syndrome, i never have decided that druids were the way to go for me, so i don't really know if cernd can or can't challenge. However, i have decided on a solution to this other problem (and yes, i'm quite sure anomen is lost forever, disintigrate tends to do that. As for jaheira, i tried resurrecting her withered remains but the rats of amn got to her before i did. You see, i thought i could depend on a game glitch and buy her some time by ditching her from my party while i searched for that prick that cursed her. I even had her in bear form so that her stats would be bolstered. Don't do this. They die. Once they're out of your party and they die, they're gone for good. :( ). Since i have valygar, minsc and cernd in my party, i've decided to try their hand at clerical scrolls. It works. Minsc, being the imbecile that he is, needs to be pumped full of potion of genius just to equip a scroll, however that's worst case scenario. Valygar, being slightly more intelligent than his moron counterpart, can at least equip the scrolls and use them too, while Cernd has no trouble at all. I won't turn undead, cast false dawn or bolt of glory anymore, but at the very least i'll raise the dead corpses that seem to define my adventuring thus far. Since i've wasted all the charges on two rods of rez, mostly on Chitika Southpaw, i'll need every scroll i can find. I'll keep you posted if Cernd can challenge for leadership. I'm off to fight a sleeping draco-lich now. Since when do those things sleep anyway? It's undead!! Just as well, i'm planning on showing it absolutely no mercy.

Priests don't last long with you Julius. You change your NPC-s like socks :D
Cernd can't challenge for the great druid title, only the protagonist can do that.

[This message has been edited by TIN_MAN (edited September 07, 2001).]

Cernd CAN challenge for the leadership of the grove, as can Jaheira(I think). I don't know what happens if your PC is a druid, though. Never played one of those.

it's not the same. The druid grove is a stronghold quest, and only your PC can challenge for the leadership and run the place. The NPC's just let complete a quest

Man, your clerics last about as long as drummers in Spinal Tap.

Try playing *without* a cleric. Pain in the ass for level drains, I know, but there are plenty of temples you can go to...and druids can cast restoration from the scroll. And never underestimate the beauty of the Protection from Undead scroll.

And if you don't want to worry about resurrecting your people, *stop getting them killed.*

What a good idea, Gonzago.

Might I inform you, Julius, that it is *highly* stupid to walk off and save after a fight where a nice, useful (and endangered species) cleric gets blown up, and then walk away. Even if it is a dragon fight, you can do much better than that!! Have your tanks engage the dragon to keep it away from your spellcasters, if you're having that much trouble.

The cleric NPC's are Viconia, Cernd, Jaheira, Aerie, and Anomen. If you've gotten them all blown up.... tough luck. Because you're going to find it *very* tough without a cleric. That's what you get for blowing up NPC's without even offering them a memorial service.... :D

Move your game from the save folder to the mpsave folder in the Baldur's Gate directory, and import yourself a new cleric character, or you're going to have a great deal of trouble when facing hordes of vampires.

Julius, not reloading after the Firkraag fight is gutsy, very respectable (Chiquita Southpaw... haha... admit it, you laughed when she died, I laughed just reading about it..)

Cernd could still be effective as a healer if you have him memorize tons of healing spells (druids are as good as clerics in that respect...) as far as the undead go, he can memorize "negative plane protection" so when you're going into the vampire hive, have a bunch of those ready.

Also don't forget that if you use limited wish, and ask for protection from the undead, your whole party will be granted with negative plane protection for a short while.

When I came across the druid grove I had the choice of letting Cernd or Jahiera challenge for leadership. I chose Jahiera and got her to summon fire elementals to win, but she was only level 12 at the time?

That's just to complete a quest.

You have to get PC at level 14 to challenge the leadership of the grove for abtaining your own stronghold.

Well, Thaxll'ssillyia is dead, and i've found out why it could sleep. It's not undead, it's a shadow dragon. My blunder i suppose. As a result, anihillating the beast was quick, albeit treachorous. That thing is meaner than a pack of rabid dogs. Good thing for mountain bears. Chitika Southpaw wasn't missed much in this particular battle, although i did have to turn into a mirror imaged slayer in order to complete the task. A thought. Anomen tries to pick jaheira up at the bar, while jaheira was busy trying to pick me up not weeks after we found her husband dead (good riddance). Viconia was no better than a fould mouthed hooker while aerie is as desperate as they come for a shag. Meanwhile cernd is fathering illegitimate babies all across the realms.... all this makes me wonder if the programmers were improperly touched by a priest in their young lives to have all these sexually repressed priest class npc's running about.

*laughs* Good one, Julius!

However, Cernd's son wasn't really illegitimate. He belonged to Cernd and his ex-wife. I think Cernd gets a surprising amount of flak for having gotten divorced, really. We all know divorced people in real life who aren't total jerks. Cernd wasn't even really a deadbeat dad--his ex-wife hid the baby from him, and he did go back to take care of him as soon as he learned. I think Keldorn was more of a deadbeat dad than Cernd.

Dead-beat dads huh? Well you can't say the NPC's are realistic in that they model types of people we see all around the world today...

Anyone know a Jan Jansen? Or a Jaheira?

Isn't everyone a little Jan inside?

Sorry - turnip reflex

Agreed. In all fairness to cernd, he did what he had to do, which takes courage. Nevertheless, the way the game treats him makes him seem worse than he is, which fits into my theory of subconciously repressed programer angst against priests (SRPAAP, a well known theory). They should have an option to create NPC's. Simple as that. Can still have lots of NPC quests, but they don't have to be from within the party. That's unnerving. It's like travelling with a closet full of other people's skeletons. Realistic in a sense, now that i think about it... travelling with friends can be like that. Imagine this though.... the only character who doesn't seem to have any outside plans other than your own well being, while his loyalty to you is unquestionable, is the looniest character of the bunch, ol' minsc. Ya gotta love that minsc (even though i killed the simp in BG1. He simply couldn't wait to get to the gnoll stronghold. *sigh* at least he learned his lesson in bg2)