Who to take: Valygar or Cernd Options

[Mohina]

I started a IA game recently and i'm so far enjoying it. I've never tried IA before, but i have played vanilla BG2 extensively as well as SCS, Ascension and Tactics. I'm following Raven's recommended quest order. However, the time comes to make a tough decision. I'll be off for Spellhold soon and i'm certainly planning to pick up Imoen. Tbh: i can't imagine a game without Imoen, with her being such an integral part of the plot. Besides: i love sorcerers
My party consists of:

protagonist: sorcerer
custom made berserker
custom made multiclass fighter/thief
custom made ranger->cleric
Cernd
Valygar

Obviously, i need to drop someone from my party. The choice is between either Valygar or Cernd. In a vanilla game or Tactics i would prefer to keep Cernd, since he's quite a powerful spellcaster and spellcasters rule late game there. Besides, it never hurts to have an extra healer. However, the consensus on this forum seems to be melee is more useful than spellcasting in endgame IA. I'd appreciate any advice on this from veteran IA players.

Mohina

[Shadan]

Agree with LZJ. If you inted to get Imoen (Nalia is better choice imho since you have sorcerer protagonist), then keep Valygar. Alternatively you could skip Nalia/Imoen at this run and keep Cernd beside Valygar. Game will be a bit harder with only 1 arcane caster, but if you chose carefully, you can do it, and Auramaster can shine for a while. End SoA abd ToB will be harder imho with only 1 arcane caster.