Ideal roleplay character?

Remove all ads!

I suppose at the end of the day it would have made more sense to force the PC to be a level 1 monk at the start of the game. There's really no way you could be a fighter, ranger, mage or thief with that kind of upbringing.

But if the game designers did that, the game wouldn't have been half as much fun and people would have lost interest in it years ago.

Sometimes, to make a game better, allowances have to be taken.

 

Why monk? There are no eastern monks in candlekeep, and I have a very hard time imagining the "monks" of candlekeep training charname in the martial arts. They're more like academics and librarians than anything else.

Everyone is on the right track regarding adventurers vs normal people, and I think this raises an interesting question. Are the guards you meet throughout the game lvl 0? I'm sure someone can easily answer this question, based on the game files, but the question of whether they SHOULD be lvl 0 guards or lvl x fighters still remains. I think that BG is placed in an odd position, since you start your character as a pre-adventurer rather than as a member of a group sitting around a table in a bar (typical opening for a pnp game). Normally, the question of who trained you to become an adventurer is not that important, since you start out primed for an adventurer, but in this case there seems to be no reason for charname or imoen to possess any class at all. If this is the correct conclusion, then the question of ideal role play character is made moot, since the story doesn't seem to support charname possessing any class. . .

 

With all the books in Candlekeep, and all of the different people around, I see no reason almost any of the classes couldn't be taught.

Except Barbarian, maybe. That one's a stretch.

 

By monk, I meant monk in the sense of one who sits around all day meditating on the secrets of life. Not one who has been trained to kill with his/her bare hands.

 

More like a cleric then...

 

First, in-game information dictates that:

1. The character has spent his first 20 years in Candlekeep AND the character was an infant when saved by Gorion. ERGO: the character is 20 years after infancy. This would be perfectly all right for a young human, half-elf, halfling or half-orc. A dwarf would be a little boy and an elf much more so. While it is true that elves reach physical maturity way before the "legal" age of +/- 110 (IIRC, Drizzt was 70 before the novels ended, so his Underdark patrols probably started when he was 40). It's not like multiplying human age for a given stage in life, but still 20 is too young for anything more than a kid. Not even adolescent, I would guess.

2. The father was an avatar and the mother was human, elven or half-even. I couldn't really tell which one from the picture and I haven't looked the stats up in IE. Well, in PNP roleplaying, the DM would adjust the mother's race to meet the requirements of the story and therefore it would end up as something able to give birth to a character of the race your charname is.

If we stick to human race for her (I assume that's what IE says):

human & human => human
human & elf => half-elf
human & half-elf => human (maybe half-elf depending on blood shares)
human & halfling => human or halfling

Elf seems impossible. Don't know about gnomes and dwarves - I have never encountered any mix of human with one of those.

Classes:

Cleric - natural

Bard - natural, Blade would necessitate some custom-made background info

Fighter - natural, all kits would require custom-made background info

Wizard - natural (apprenticeship, not academy here)

Sorcerer - they just get born with it, so no problem

Thief - they're everywhere , kits would require special custom-prepared information

Ranger - after all, there must have been one in Candlekeep or somewhere close, plus: you have a forest there, anyway. Unlikely, but possible. Also special custom-made story bits if going for any of the kits

Paladin - now this is interesting. Oghma can't have paladins, but Deneir could. A Deneir sect therefore could have paladins in Candlekeep. Plus, temples to Helm aren't a rarity in the region. Also, Gorion was a harper, and harpers have ties with Mystra who has a whole own paladin order (Knights of Mystic Fire). He was a figure powerful enough to sponsor charname. Being fathered by Gorion also fulfils the nobility / upper class criteria for paladins. Another thing is that divine heritage could allow charname to draw on divine powers much as sorcerers do on the arcane and in this case he wouldn't need any patron deity or paladin order, or anything. Innate healing draw upon holy might for LG characters compliment this idea nicely. I imagine my paladin characters as drawing from their own divine essence shaped by lawful goodness of their character than as traditional paladins of [insert deity]. Inquisitor is probably the most likely here (especially if considering affiliation with Mystra). Cavalier is a viable option, considering the libraries, bards and tales of valorous deeds as well as the circles in which Gorion lived. Vanilla paladin would fit the Deneir or Helm possibility, like training from a retired paladin, let's say. Undead slayer has no backing and would have to have most of the story made up by the player to justify the kit.

 

Well Chev maybe it says that Gorion recued you as a baby, but I dont seem to recall any mention of Candlekeep so he may have not gone to Candlekeep right away, and it didnt say how old he was at the time, but Gorions backround was kept mysterious for these exact reasons it seems, so I suppose you could believe what you want and call it legit.

 

@ casey

Well, there is that one dream sequence in BG1 where you think back to when you were a little boy, and it says something to the affect that Gorion was, "Gray-haired all those years ago. How old must he have been to have aged so little in the time since?" So Gorion was already an old man 20 years ago. He also had many friends and companions from his adventuring days, so it is quite possible he had contacts with people outside of Candlekeep. However, Charname's earliest memories are of Candlekeep, so it suggests that even if Gorion didn't go to Candlekeep with your immediately, it was certainly fairly shortly thereafter.

Now, on a completely different note:

I'm not trying to make fun of this, but all I can think of is Edwin proclaiming, "I am a level 40 farmer! Fear me!"

According to PnP, peasants are level 0, unless something in their backgroud would suggest otherwise. Note, that not ALL NPC's are level 0. Anyone who is a guard would certainly be at least a 1st level fighter, but if they are a guard, chances are they've been trained. Also, a blacksmith has to have knowledge of weapons, so it would make sense that Thunderhammer (blacksmith from BG1) is also a level something fighter.

However, a farmer is a farmer. He's not a first level fighter. He isn't any more capable of effectively wielding a sword as he is in casting a spell. Suggesting that he is a fighter, would also suggest proficiencies in something. What two *'s in hoes, one * in ploughs and one * in shovels? (That's meant as a joke, not as an insult to you.)

I don't know how they are programmed into the game, but based strictly on PnP rules, peasants are considered level 0, with no class specified, because if you're level 0 you don't have a class.

 

@ chev: Your mother is Alianna IIRC- there are dwarf, halfing, elf and human versions of her which show up depending on your PC's race. So your character doesn't have to be one of the larger humanoid races.

According to a D&D site I was just looking at, it seems elves remain children until around 75 years of age; thus an elf PC seems rather unlikely.

 

Hi everyone.

my own character has to be human for the "spent the 20 first years of life in Candlekeep" condition to be plausible. Furthermore, have you noticed that everyone in the Keep treat you like a young person? Remember also when you meet Xzar after Gorion is killed and he calls you "child".

That also brings some ideas. In the ambush where Sarevok kills Gorion, would you have run away abandoned Gorion to his fate if you were of a fighting class? Shame on the paladins, then.

I think the character is supposed to be "weak" in order for that escape scene to be credible. I would personally go for a mage or a bard. Due to the vast amount of knowledge that can be found in Candlekeep and because your foster father was a mage, it is very possible that charname has received a good education.

 

Agreed. Growing up in a monastery like Candlekeep isn't going to present much in the way of opportunities for any kind of combat training. The idea of a chaotic evil dwarven fighter/mage PC coming from a peaceful background isn't a very believable one. The PC is likely to be highly intelligent, well read and probably against violence for the most part.

But as I said before, if your class was forced on you at the start of the game for the sake of realism it wouldn't be half as much fun.

 

Well I don't think Combat would be as one dimensional as it its in the game.

For instance picture a fighter, who has 20+ years of practice from sparring with Watchers in Candlekeep, he is resonably smart but not a genius (probably around the 10-14 int, mark) who has read Dozens of tomes and books about, fighting techniques, styles, and has studied the different possible ways that mr x would respond to situation y, and basically spent most days of the week since they could walk learning how to use a weapon, considering that you can possibly start off with High mastery in a single, weapon by the time this person leaves Candlekeep they would probably be very good when it comes to fights with other humans or humanoid type people (Orcs, Ogres and Elves come to mind), but they wouldent be so great against something like a Demon or anything else that are not a human type creature for obvious reasons.

This may not be the same thing as a real life or death fight, but seeing as you have the blood of Bhaal in your veins, and the dreams/Bhaal induced bloodlust start when you leave candlekeep regardless of alingment, it probably wouldent take too long for the character to psycologicaly strengthen themselves when it comes to taking lives.

 

Great thread!

I'd just like to say (again) that just about every race is cool with me, except for elves. Their long lifespan just doesn't fit the protagonist IMHO.

Almost every class works for me too, except for a few. I can't convince myself to play a Barbarian or Wizard Slayer, but anything else is justifiable in my book.

I'm really trying to roleplay my way through the game, and am going to start a game as a sorcerer, with no really exceptional stats (good stats, but not great). He'll either be human or maybe half-elven, and I'll be sure to bring along Minsc, Imoen, and Jaheira, as they start BGII with me (and were presumably with the protagonist through the first game as well).

Anyway, enough of my own game. I just wanted to add that this game is most fun, IMHO, when you try to really roleplay everything.

 

Avtually your party would have to include Dynaheir and Khalid as well, so no letting them be killed before the end of the game and throwing them out!!

 

Drizzt was something like 25 (maybe 30 ) when he completed training in the drow academy so 20(+ few ) years old Elf would wit in just fine... He would still be young and unexperienced, but after all everyone is calling you "child"....