So, the Shadow Dragon vaporized my priest. Anomen is now toast, living out a blighted existence in the plane of Shadow for the rest of eternity.

On the other hand, the Umar hills are now, so far as my archer can tell, completely clear of anything that's ever going to stomp on Imnesvale.

So, now it's Minsc, Jaheira, Jan, Aerie, and... Nalia? that's right, it's Nalia's keep quest....

I'm a roleplayer, so if a p.c. gets vaporized in the midst of a heroic encounter like a dragon fight, I leave 'em dead, rather than reloading. Otoh, I've just lost my best vampire-control character... and two emotionally immature mage-types in my party is going to get a bit much, rather quickly. (On the other hand, Jan's worth keeping simply for his evil cackle and "your kneecaps are MINE!").

So, while I'm fairly sure that Minsc and Jaheira's tanking abilities are sufficient for this party, I'm now, relatively speaking, crawling in wizardly firepower, and relatively short on the priestly side. Has anyone found Cernd to be worthwhile under such circumstances? Obviously, he's going to be no good with undead...

I would take Viconia over Cernd. She's the best cleric in the game.

Well, as you said yourself, Cernd is a druid, and will therefore have no access to clerical spells and cleric abilities such as Turn Undead. Also, Anomen was a Fighter dualled to cleric, and I personally find his *** in Mace very useful.

Did he get completely obliterated or do you still have his greyed-out portrait in your party? In the latter case, you can bring him back from the dead by menas of a raise dead or resurrection spell.

I would definitely want to keep Anomen in my party, contrary to what most people say (and I used to be one of them!) he is a good addition to most parties, and able to take care of cleric duties a lot better than a multiclassed character like Aerie. Since you are obviously playing a good party, you might, from a roleplaying perspective, have objections to taking Viconia in your party (she's a good cleric though!). In that case, I'd really advice you to step over reluctance and reload. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Good luck!

Sweet Melusine,

I liked Anomen. If he were merely dead, I'd bring him back.Unfortunately, he is now a member of that vast, globe-spanning cabal of omnipotent adventuring spirits, the Obliterati. Got shadow breathed on three times in a row.

Having prior history with Viconia might make it do-able.. though trying to juggle her, Jaheira, and Aerie in teh same party would probably get psychotic very quickly.

If your main character is a male, you'll have a catfight on your hands.LOL Hate to disagree with Melusine, but I've been all throught SoA with 'sir'Anomen, and can't stand him. Definitely agree Viconia is the better cleric, esp. with a strength belt. Little bitty elves need building up!

I never said Anomen was a *better* cleric, just that he is decent enough. I was playing a Cleric myself in that game so obviously I didn't have to rely solely on his cleric powers. The reason why I defended him is the fact that most people dismiss him beforehand because his personality irritates them, and I used to be one of those people. However, having played through SOA and TOB with him (and he *does* improve a lot in TOB), I have had to adjust my opinion of him.
The reason why most people cannot use Viconia instead of him is because she won't fit into their party's alignment makeup, so that leaves them with no other choice, really. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Russ, a threeway catfight, now wouldn't that be *just* the roleplaying challenge for you? ;) [img]tongue.gif[/img]
Anyway, I thought the Shadow Dragon's Breath Weapon was Level Drain, and I thought level Drain didn't totally obliterate you, even when reaching level zero. I must be mistaken then.

Well, you have few choices I think. Either you reload, which is definitely what I wuld do in this case, even if it ruins the roleplying aspect of the fight; or you can continue using Aerie and Jaheira as your only healers, or you can get Viconia and watch the show... ;)

It's up to you in the end. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Actually, Anomen is the better Cleric if you want to compare him to Viconia.

Anomen is a better fighter than Viconia, he can also Grandmaster in his weapons, he has more life, and the number of spells difference is largely neligible( WIS bonuses, Viconia has 18, Anomen has 16). Anomen can eventually reach level 39 in his Cleric class. For the price of 1 level, he has become a far superior Cleric.

His main weakness is his inability to shaddup. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Melusine:
I never said Anomen was a *better* cleric, just that he is decent enough. I was playing a Cleric myself in that game so obviously I didn't have to rely solely on his cleric powers. The reason why I defended him is the fact that most people dismiss him beforehand because his personality irritates them, and I used to be one of those people. However, having played through SOA and TOB with him (and he *does* improve a lot in TOB), I have had to adjust my opinion of him.
The reason why most people cannot use Viconia instead of him is because she won't fit into their party's alignment makeup, so that leaves them with no other choice, really. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Russ, a threeway catfight, now wouldn't that be *just* the roleplaying challenge for you? ;) [img]tongue.gif[/img]
Anyway, I thought the Shadow Dragon's Breath Weapon was Level Drain, and I thought level Drain didn't totally obliterate you, even when reaching level zero. I must be mistaken then.

Well, you have few choices I think. Either you reload, which is definitely what I wuld do in this case, even if it ruins the roleplying aspect of the fight; or you can continue using Aerie and Jaheira as your only healers, or you can get Viconia and watch the show... ;)

It's up to you in the end. [img]smile.gif[/img] <hr></blockquote>

unless he got level drained and the stepped on... lots of anomen shaped chunky bits

no, one very large anomen-shaped dead spot.... I think he was something like level -5 by the time the breath weapon was done with him... it seemed to level drain him x4 several times in a row very rapidly.

Hrm.... Viconia... ugh, the amazing catfight from heck. If you're thinking, m'dear, that this is a healing issue more than an undead issue, then Cernd might indeed be a decent option. Reloading, unfortunately, is not, as I've gone on since then.

Actually, I tended to badly underutilize Anomen as a healer in the first place. But I used the heck out of Holy Smite in those crowded melees. Viconia's version wouldn't be very workable. Viconia or Cernd, what a choice...

Thanks for the feedback. I'll have to run this through the cobwebs up in my noggin and come up with something.