POLL: The BG Canon PC Poll

Remove all ads!

My thoughts:
1) Male (since the game seems to be designed for that, with 3 possible female romances vs 1 male.

2) Human or half-elf, because of maturity. (Maybe halfling too? Anyone?)

3) The tricky one. I'm thinking of several options I haven't seen (much) here.
Cleric: who's to say that a deity wouldn't use the child of his rival/enemy to turn the prophecy into his/her favor? I would prefer a dual/multiclass in this case though for versatility.
Sorcerer: pro: intuitive magic from undisclosed heritage (note: you do not have to exactly know what that heritage is in order use the powers you get from it.) Con: not consistent with BG1.
Monk: pro: Makes sense, the PC has lived a cloistered life surrounded by books (which do not have to be arcane books). His mentor, being aware of his heritage, could train him in focusing his mind to try and avoid 'nasty things'. Con: again not consistent with BG1 and alignment.

4) I'd say chaotic or neutral good. Good because the happenings in BG1 would hint at that (as would Gorion's and Imoen's influence), and non-lawful because the taint might prove for some inner turmoil. This unfortunately would conflict with my monk idea, as he must be lawful.

5) Also a tricky one. The monk might think he needs to take his place in the grand order of things thus ascend as the prophecy tells. The cleric might either stay mortal and continue to serve his deity, or ascend and ally himself with that deity. The sorcerer might feel that in order to fully understand those intuitive powers of his he must ascend.

All just ideas of course!

 

@ Sjerrie

Based on what you said, he cannot be lawful because of that "inner turmoil", and since he cannot he lawful, he cannot be a monk. Thus, of the two choises, sorcerer is a more valid choise. (Even though I still say sorcerer/warrior would be the most logical one.)

 

But one *could* also bring up the "library" issue in terms of being lawful... the PC would have grown up with dozens of monks (all lawful!) telling him "shush, you're in a library!" I mean, what environment is more lawful than a library, and especially the biggest one on the Sword Coast?

I'm also surprised that there weren't more votes for "Neutral Evil" (or even for Evil), given that Bhaal was evil, and that the Hell trials turn you NE if you make even one of the evil choices...

 

I would have put neutral evil but i play neutral good for most of the game and only switch to gain & wield the Blackrazor.

The alignment question would have been better if it asked for your alignment at certain periods. I fidn it highly unlikely that Gorion would raise or try to protect an evil child of Bhaal. After that sure all the horrible things they see and have doen to them might switch them to evil.

 

The child of Bhaal could be a spoiled brat, self centered, arrogant and only preoccupied with his precious little comfort, hence NE?

Anyway I don't believe he/she would be the Cleric of any deity in particular, the way I see it, the PC's clerical power would be fuelled by the essence of Bhaal himself (somewhat in the way a Sorcerer uses his own blood to focus his arcane power) it makes more sense if you dual class to Cleric but I like to RP it that way, the PC being a natural...

 

Yeah, I probably should have added a question before the last asking about the hell trials...

 

I always envisioned the protagonist as a human male, either of Neutral Good or Chaotic Good alignment. The class was the hardest pick for me; if anything, I would have thought a mix of thief and fighter. I'm a sucker for rangers, but it doesn't mesh, so I'm saying that it'd be a Thief/Fighter dual-class at about level 4. After all, how much fighting experience can you really have when you've always lived in a keep and spent your life causing minor trouble for your foster father?

Honestly, the 3rd Ed. class system would work better in describing the BG protagonist, IMO.

I always had the PC picking mortality and freedom. Plus, whenever I play through it with a PC who has those characteristics, he's always had good reasons to stay: his siblings, and a strong-minded and recently bereaved female PC as a love interest.

EDIT: Pseudospawn, have you been spending too much time with Takara?

 

I agree with NS in everything except class. I can't imagine a child of Bhaal without magic or martial prowess and since I can't see him as a cleric, he would have to be a fighter/mage or fighter/mage/thief.

 

I've been through BG1 and I read something that can give some insights about alignment:

According to the letter (found in the library in Candlekeep) the children of Bhaal are chaotic yet the environment where Charname grew is "civilized" and "lawful".

 

My votes:

Male - Because Bhaal and Sarevok where male too, and i think males are more evil then females, in human conditions.

Human - Because of Sarevok, and because there are just more humans then other races, and i can't remember other races worship Bhaal.

Fighter/Mage- Bhaal was the god of murder, and figters are the best in killing. Also, in Tob, you see Bhaal for a very short time, and it's avatar was a "fighting" type. And because Bhaal is a god, he is capable of magics too.

Chaotic Evil - If you murder, you are evil, so the choice should be easy.

The child of bhaal embraces immortality as an evil god - Bhaal is evil, murder is bad, so why should his child choose otherwise?

 

It's interesting though that most people assume that having god-like powers means being able to cast arcane rather than divine spells; in fact, I would personally argue that the Child of Bhaal would be more likely to have an instinctual understanding of the divine (note the innate spellcasting in BG and SoA). Also, if the Child of Bhaal is an impulsive Chaotic type, how well does this work with the long, long hours of study and practice that mages are supposed to engage in?

Of course, the argument against this: how special would it be to get innate divine spellcasting, if you already had loads of innate divine spellcasting to begin with...

Nonetheless, voters on these boards have overwhelmingly chosen arcane over divine abilities; as of now, after 54 votes:

67% attribute a fighter abilities to the Child of Bhaal (i.e., a class with a fighter THAC0)
54% attribute arcane spellcasting
28% attribute thieving skills (incl ranger stealth and bard pickpocketing)
9% attribute divine spellcasting (incl paladin spellcasting)

The results at 54 votes are remarkably similar to those at 35 votes. The Child of Bhaal is still male (91%), human (72%), chaotic (57%) and good (65%), and still chooses mortality (61%). However, pure-class fighter (26%) has surpassed pure-class mage (22%) as the most popular class, followed by figher/mage (17%) and fighter/thief (13%).

 

I think a huge amount of the "class picks" is a reflection of what that individual voter likes to play, as well as a lot of the other factors.

I mean, sex is determined by chance, 50/50 IRL, but 91% of the voters choose male? Heck, I'm willing to bet that's because Anomen is a crappy romance option.

 

i play it as a male human cg fighter that remains mortal.

 

I'm not 100% sure on this, but iirc, you can choose the wild mage when importing, as it is just implemented as a mage kit. The only requisite is that you import a generalist mage, not a specialist.

 

@krunchyfrogg, you are so right there. It is the main reason I play a male whatever. At least he gets some fairly decent choices.

 

@ Nakia

I choose 'male' simply because I roleplay and I bet I'm not the only one. Perhaps 91% of all players are male?

By the way, isn't it a bit odd that a female would choose the opposite gender to romance other females?

 

@Wirhe, No, I don't think women (in general) have the same hang-up men do. CRPG games are geared to males and we get used to playing males if we like the games. Don't read something into it that isn't there. I do not have "any gender' installed.

I voted male because I think based on the 'Canon' that is what the Developers intended. Being able to be female was thrown in as a 'let's be politically correct' sop.

 

As far as timing goes.....at age 20 humans, half-elves, haflings and half-orcs will have reached maturity. A gnome would still be quite young, but when put to scale he'd be something in the area of 13 or so. Gnomes, then, wouldn't be completely unrealistic as race selections either.

 

Hmm. A bit late, but it only shows how infrequently I come here.

1. Female Candlekeep needs some females, heh, to avoid being (just about) all male. Also makes any Sarevok interaction more interesting

2. I voted half-elf, for reasons of personal preference when playing, but human is probably more likely.

3. Fighter/Mage/Thief. As Jaguar said. Also what I chose for my Charname the first ever time I played, so I'm kinda biased, mebbe.

4. CG. It's always been my default choice. I think if you stick with Chaoitc-anything, you're halfway there. (Sarevok's journal mentions all Bhaalspawns having the mark of Chaos, etc, and good because of Gorion's goodliness).

5. Ascended, and good/neutral. Unless Charname was in a romance, there's little left for him/her, isn't there? Aside from Imoen and some faithful friends, I guess, but still, as a god Charname could do so much more.

 

Even more late (Haven't seen this thread before )

1. Male. This is probably mostly based on my own gender

2. Half-Elf If Bhaal placed his seed in one of all races, how can their be two human bhaalspawns (Imoen). Okay, if she is your twin sister that would be plausible. The game, however, doesn't refer to her as being so anywhere.

3. Mage, under the tutorledge of Gorion this seems like a natural choice.

4. Chaotic Good. The canon party is good, so this fits well. Chaotic because he's a bhaalspawn, and chaos runs through his veins.

5. Good or neutral god. Just seems like a fitting end. He fulfills his destiny as it has ared by Aloundo(sp?).