The Great Druid?

[Ayce]

Forgive my ignorance, but I was under the impression that Jaheria or Cernd could assume leadership of the Druid Grove. I've played through my current game getting Jaheira to 14th level just to see her do it. Another friend who played the game told me he had Jaheira become the Great Druid....................

 

Note, I know they don't get the stronghold quests, but I thought from what I've heard, that they do become leader of the grove if they challenge for leadership later on................

 

Or is this only possible if they're already 14th level when they challenge Faldorn?

 

I pose all of these questions because I just got Jaheira to 14th level, went to the druid grove and every time I talk to the challenge master, I only get one response thread that says "there is no one who needs to challenge at this time."

 

Is my game broken? Is there some global flag I could set to fix this? OR Am I just wrong about Jaheira or Cernd being able to take up the challenge against Verthan?

 

If so, I truly hope someone will take up that NPC stronghold mod again..........

[berelinde]

PnP classification of the Great Druid has nothing to do with BG2. You can become a 19th level druid, if you so choose.

[BigRob]

I don't think that the NPCs can challenge for the grove, I believe that's only part of the Druid quests for the PC.

[Elfen Lied]

cernd or jaheira can challenge faldorn during the trademeet quest, but i dont think they can become the leader of the grove. only the PC can either by being a druid or having EOU's multiple strongholds installed

[Kulyok]

Note, I know they don't get the stronghold quests, but I thought from what I've heard, that they do become leader of the grove if they challenge for leadership later on................

 

I thought so on my first BG2 run, too - because of that misleading note during the loading times(to challenge the leadership, a druid must be lvl14, or something like this). It's a blessing Fixpack corrects this note somewhat(and the note about importing BG characters into NWN, as well - I so believed this one!)

 

 

But as I played, it became obvious to me that there was a reason Jaheira or Cernd would not challenge this title, or, indeed, a reason a stronghold was only offered to the PC character - most NPC characters simply wouldn't accept it. And of those who would, they would never ever get an offer. Would Nalia offer Korgan the keep? Would Teos delegate the sphere to Edwin? No and no. So... yeah.

[Ayce]

Just to clarify, I didn't think Jaheira of Cernd could get the stronghold quest per se, but I was under the impression that they could challenge for leadership of the grove.

 

I figured it would be like other NPC quests (Cernd's child, Mazzy's sister) wherein they leave for a day to tend to whatever needs tending to and they will be able to rejoin you afterwards.

 

I also figured they'd say something like "I must tend to healing the damage caused by Faldorn and reorganizing the druids of this grove, this will take some time before I can rejoin you." Then after said time, you would talk to them and they would say "leadership of the grove is going well, do you still need my help?"

 

Like I said, that's what I thought based on the same misleading note Kulyok was referring to and what another friend who had played the game had told me, but as far as I can tell, no go....................

 

I was hoping maybe there was something wrong with my game and some flag didn't get set or some such. Still, this does make for a decent mod idea, or better yet, we should all start chanting for the NPC strongholds mod...........

 

Damn, I waited all this time for Jaheira to get to 14th level all for nothing???

[Ayce]

Then again, referring back to my posts regarding aesthetic gaming vs. pragmatic gaming, who the hell has time to run a stronghold when your very soul has been stolen by a powerful mage? Or when your in hot pursuit of the mage who imprisoned and tortured you? In pressed for time to raise the funds to to rescue your best friend?

 

Sure, strongholds are cool (I actually like the D'Arnise Hold quest, the planar sphere was ho hummm). But is there really a place for them in the story?

[Kulyok]

Sure, strongholds are cool (I actually like the D'Arnise Hold quest, the planar sphere was ho hummm). But is there really a place for them in the story?

 

I'm waiting for de Arnise romance to make some sense of the fighter stronghold. As for the others, I agree completely. When I play, I only claim the mage stronghold, if any: because Teos is the link to he Cowled Wizards, and my character hopes to get to Imoen and Irenicus through him. With the thief stronghold, raising money might be an option, too, come to think of it. But the others - no; I don't think I see a reason to claim them, roleplaying-wise.

[Elfen Lied]

yeh.

 

how does having a cabin in the hills help you rescue imoen? or a room in a temple or a room in the base of the Order of the Radiant Heart?

 

Fighter stronghold and the playhouse generate money, so they are kinda the same as the thief stronghold. and yeh i agree with the mage stronghold thing.

 

 

and yeh De Arnise romance, looking forward to that one too.

[Caedwyr]

Another option that would make a lot of the side-quests more relevant to the storyline, is to allowing the player to play around in Amn after they have defeated Jon in Hell. At the start of ToB it mentions how you stay in Suldenesellar for several months before being urged to head off and continue the ToB parts. Talking to Ellisime and telling her you are ready to seek guidance with the stone heads could be the method of continuing.

[Elfen Lied]

yeh that kinda annoyed me a little.

 

there is a time skip there, while it does say what happened during the skip it would have been nice to have played during the skip.

 

 

but i suppose that is a lot of coding/work for a mod.

[Kulyok]

I don't know about this one. People talk "wouldn't it be cool to have something between SoA and ToB" all the time, but for me even returning to Athkatla in Chapter 6 feels stale; I visit Cromwell and Ribald, and head straight for the graveyard. A strong story and a new set of quests(I don't think new areas matter as much, though) could help, though.

[Guest Guest]

Yeah, but you'd feel differently if you'd rushed to Spellhold and left a bunch of stuff undone. It's really BioWare's fault for the unrelenting "OMFG u must do this NOW!!!11!!1one!" attitude of the later stages of the Main Plot. So if a player is going to complete all the sidequests, they must either A) Not care about saving Imoen, B) Ignore Irenicus's and Yoshimo's voiced expectations that without your soul, you'll be dead in less than 2 weeks, or C) Pretend that after whacking Jon, they'll have the opportunity to go questing all over Amn.

 

Personally, if anyone's going to tackle this "problem" at all, I'd say that B is the weak point, both because it's easier to fix and because that's when most people tend to wrap up all their sidequests anyway. Just tweak the dialogue of Jon, Bodhi, Yoshimo, and Elhan a bit and take away their implications of immediate urgency (until you actually enter Suldenessellar and find out that it's already under attack), and that should be pretty much it.

[SixOfSpades]

That was me, btw.

 

But I must disagree about Jaheira not wanting to take over the Druid Grove. If she's out of favor with the Harpers and CHARNAME doesn't want her around either, she's just the sort of person to assume that the vacancy in the Grove was meant for her to fill. What, you think you could have made a better choice?

[Ayce]

I tend to agree with Caedwyr, a lot of the non-stronghold quests could be tweaked, just slightly, in order to support the main storyline.

 

Example, defeating Anarg and his rogue palidans could be a condition of gaining the Order's aid in the fight against Bohdi (not that a strong, well-equipped party really needs it, but still, it does make good role-playing sense). This could be especially applicable based on the alignment and/or reputation of <charname>.

 

Another example would be the temple quests involving the sculptor and the dawnmaster ring. Same sort of idea as above (of course, you'd have to remove the requirement that <charname> be a cleric to put this into effect).

 

The twisted rune and kangaxx quests could somehow be tied into the cowled wizards or Lavok/Planar Sphere as well.