What are the benfits of donating at the temples? Those blood sucking priests want an average of 13000 from each of my party and I have not noticed any rewards or devine intervention?

I know the donations have certainly not assisted in locating the Serran Alter, so some earthly direction would be most appreciated!!

Acsension within the guild is the only benefit.
The altar of Serran is in a clearing west & maybe a little north of the Gypsy's abode at Nymph Lake.
If you are in the Brimloch Roon area, it is to the far Northeast of your map.

I take you are meaning the random donations that you can make at any time in the game, and not the donations required for guild level. On my first start of the game I donated money to them at random times and as far as I can see you get nothing for it. On my restart I have not donated nothing, apart from the 500 for the guild level, and have not suffered from being tight...lmao.

Yes, it is after the 500 donation for the priest quest, I have donated each time asked, which is about every time I enter the temple and it now costs 13000+ each!! Have been too scared not to donate!

Those priests have accumulated a condominium each, their own personal shoe factory, bought half of Australia and see my party as a bunch of suckers and rub their hands with glee each time I enter. They are worse than estate agents and bank managers!! (whoops no offence to any real life estate agents, bank managers or priests, it is only in computer land that those professions are leeches! Hhheee)

The donations are just something extra, to 'buy' the goodwill of the gods or something. Sometimes you even appear to get something back, like potions etc. I've survived the game 3 times without donating at all. The donation they ask is dependent on you character's level, so it gets more and more expensive.

Doh! I thought you were talking about the $500.00 donation quest (and wondered how I missed one that would amount to 13,000!) My sincere apologies for such misleading information!
After the 500, I never gave them a cent! I do three favors for them and they want nothing else from me but money? I don't think so! I thought it was bad enough that I was forced to use "cheats" (buying & selling arrows) to train in my skills!
: )
Moni
"I'm not cheap, I'm, FRUGAL!"

Every time you donate, your Presence attribute goes up by 1 point. You can only donate once per level increase. Characters with low Presence scores have "cheap" donations; characters with higher presence scores have much higher donations. Donating is a way of quickly getting a character with low presence to be able to ascend to a higher role (Paladin, Barbarian, etc.) without having to spend "level-up" points on it. After that time, it's not worthwhile.

I think that you can get resistance increases by donating as well, but these are random.

-Sazerac

Donating is fairly pointless. The cost of the donation rises quickly, and you only rarely get a potion in return. So far, I've donated nearly 60,000 gold and only gotten two Max Mana Potions and a Cure Potion (not Cure Poison). Mana potions are easy to find, and you can buy them for only a couple hundred gold at the Wizard's Guild. 60,000 seems a bit high for three potions that I haven't even used yet. =)

now I wonder what the priests did with the money I donated them few times?