RPing Charname, what class to choose?

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So every character starts in Candlekeep which is:

-a place of learning
-highly regulated
-where books are more valuable than people

How does this translate into the game?

If we suppose that Charname (the PC) is roughly 20 years old or so and has spent the last 10 years in Candlekeep he must have learned all that he knows there.

That means that Druids and Rangers are out. How can we justify a Ranger growing up in such an environment?
Though perhaps a Fighter PC could dual to Druid after meeting Jaheira?

It is a monastery which is built around a library so Mages, Clerics and Bards make sense.

Paladins and Fighters too because almost anybody anywhere can learn how to handle a sword and a bow, and Candlekeep is a fortress.

Yet Gorion is a mage (who can cast cure light wounds nevertheless) and since Charname is his ward it is more likely that Charname would be a spellcaster.

Last but not least: Thief. Imoen is a thief so we could imagine that Charname and her growing together would have got into scrapes?

I'd like to know what you think about this considerations and how you can justify some of the less evident choices that we are sometimes inclined to make (e.g. Ranger/Cleric).

 

Well, there is a temple in the grounds of Candlekeep, you know; in that sense, having a cleric makes just as much sense as having a fighter.

 

In a such a grand library, you can learn about anything. You could learn about the wonders of the forest, and even sneak out through (less dangerous sections of) the catacombs, to run and play with the wild creatures that you find so fascinating, causing no end of worry to Gorion. This could be a good backstory for any Ranger or Druid. As for Clerics, I'm sure that there are numerous religious books within those great stone walls. Anything that would be frowned upon in Candlekeep would simply indicate a rebellious streak. (Chaotic alignment maybe?)

 

There is actually a bio section which details how you came to acquire your particular class, btw. Perhaps it would be worth checking that out for rangers, etc.

 

Yes I know
My last example was about the Ranger/Cleric MC... it's kinda weird to imagine a Ranger in Candlekeep (not to mention the favourite enemy... If you played through the game you could have some ideas but at the beginning it wouldn't make much sense as it would be very unlikely for Charname to meet these creatures).

Tehtoril is a Cleric (Priest of Mystra) and Ulraunt is a Wizard. Both classes are logical choices.

 

Yes, the racial enemy does present something of a problem, but let's say that during one of your escapades outside the walls, you come upon a grisly scene perpetrated by your now most hated of enemies. Or perhaps one of that type killed your favorite animal companion, and your thirst for vengeance cannot be slaked by the mere death of the one who commited the deed, but will only be satisfied by the death of his entire clan. There's always possibilities.

 

@Felinoid: a bookish druid is an interesting idea, though I don't think Charname could go out of Candlekeep as he would like to (do you remember that a very special book was needed to get back inside?) besides this secluded life was part of Gorion's scheme to insure the PC's safety.
I believe that the catacombs would be out of bounds? humm... not a bad idea though.

 

That's why you need a fellow conspirator on the inside to throw a rope over the wall for you in the dead of the night, when you want to get back in. (Can anyone say Imoen?)

And once again we come back to the rebellious streak putting the gray in Gorion's hair.

 

Actually with regards to the book it is explained that you were allowed to live at Candlekeep because Gorion lived there, it was only after Gorion died that you were required to pay the rent to enter/use the library - thus pre-Gorion's death you could have entered and exited the Keep whenever it was reasonable.

As far as class goes, wizard does seem to fit best but you can justify any class that you want to play if you are imaginative enough.

 

Now why didn't I think of that?

Exactly.

 

I have some problems with Druids though
Unless they start as warriors and dual class after meeting Jaheira.
A fulltime druid or ranger would spent most of his time in the wilderness.

Anyway, imagination rules

thanks for your comments and suggestions!

 

Bards are the perfect class as they have a great affinity for knowledge and Candlekeep would be a great place to grow up.

Rogues, as well, as growing up with Imoen you would practice together.

Fighter as you would be able to learn off the guards.

Mage as you would be brought up by Gorion and could have learnt off him.

And of course, Clerics as you would have learnt and studied from the priests at Candlekeep.

But these only account for your time at Candlekeep. You have to remember that you don't know your real mother or what she was. She could have been a great Druid, so being a Druid would be in your blood.

Also, being at Candlekeep, you would have been visited by hundreds of adventurers over the years and some would bound to have been Rangers, Paladins, Druids, etc, etc .... and after listening to their stories and talking to them you decided to take up that life outside candlekeep and studied the basics from travellers and books.

So, really and truly any class is justifiable

 

RE: Bard: You find out about your mom in ToB. She is definitely not a Druid.

 

And, of course, nothing says that a Druid is necessarily going to be a wilds-loving, civilization-hating hick. In 2nd edition, the specialty priests of Chauntea (the goddess of agriculture) were more or less NG Druids, IIRC, and I know she had several Druids in her priesthood (and not just in the Moonshaes, where they were the vast majority).

 

(tough to answer this question without reference to bg2). Of course, justification could be found for anything, but...

Thieves and thief multiclasses seem to me a very likely choice:
1) Bhaal was an assassin and the lord of murder.
2) Imoen is also a thief...
3) Thieves have lore skills similar to mages (and so the library went to good use).

Bards seem a bit odd to me ("hey, look: the singing lord of murder"). Being a cleric seems a bit odd too, and druids even more so; do we know if there are any other deities worshiped in Candlekeep other than Oghma and Mystra (let alone the other deities you can specify in bg2)? But clerical abilities could also just come naturally to the child of a god. Don't know whether there are any paladins around either. Fighters and Mages seem like neutral choices to me...

As for races: the game seems to suggest that human is the default choice (you are 20 years old, Imoen is sort of a sister, etc)...

 

I think there is one thing you guys are forgetting.
CHARNAME was a complete noob at the time Gorion died. He/she had no idea what to do out in the real world when he left Candlekeep.

As such, practically any class can be justified as book knowledge. Or you could guess that one of the great personalities of that particular class has visited Candlekeep and you had learnt the basics under him. This works for rangers, druids and bards.
For classes like mage/cleric/thief/fighter/paladin/monk the PC could well have recieved training in the keep grounds. Sorcs and barbarians ofcourse are born, so that is not a problem.

But there is another problem here. Race.
The PC is said to be a bit older than Imoen but her peer nonetheless. This is only going to happen for Humans, HalfElfs and HalfOrcs. Pure breed Halflings, Elves and Drawves just take too long to get out of childhood to be realistic.

 

Good points, Shrikant. The PC is level 1 so has hardly learnt anything yet.

PS - I hate the word "CHARNAME". I would never use that word in a conversation so I refuse to use it here (except for this one time).

 

@Shrikant: I always assumed that level 0 is a noob, while level 1 assumes enough training to be grounded in a class. And while all PCs can level, I'm not sure whether NPCs can; most rank and file soldiers (and bandits, etc) tend to be very low level, no matter how long they've trained in their profession. It requires exceptional experience to get to a higher level; no matter how much sparring PCs do at Candlekeep (say as a fighter, developing proficiency points in various weapons), they won't level up until they go out on their own....

(Also, HalfOrcs aren't an option in BG....)

 

For a paladin, you can get a calling anywhere anyhow etc, so you don't even really need any clerics around. For fighters, you generally need some sort of real training, rather than hitting the dummies with a wooden stick on your own, but it's a fortress, as you said, with expert guards, so no problem there.

Thieves are obvious. Clerics are already there, so are mages. Gorion is a harper, so maybe bard makes sense? The only two classes that seem to be out are rangers and druids. The problem with druids is solved from the point you meet Jaheira, but the fact there's no druid in sight in chapter one doesn't mean there couldn't be any in Candlekeep. Or a ranger. Just about any retired ranger could teach you, you would only need to find one.

So much as Imoen probably learnt all her thievery on her own, a ranger could, although not exactly behind the walls of a fortress and I doubt he could make it outside and back without Gorion finally figuring out what's going on.

On the other hand, we can assume that characters set out as level 1 characters with only a view of what they want to be. After all, it's not like a level 1 paladin is much different from a level 1 fighter or ranger. Or even cleric. A thief would stand out a little and definitely a wizard, but pretty much everyone has about the same crappy thac0 and few hit points without many skills to talk about. Charname may well want to be a ranger and progress on that path as he gets XP on the course of his adventures.

 

I guess my view on this is that the DnD rules are calibrated to a level of "fantastic" ability, and so the distinctions in ability that we might see as huge in RL aren't really registered in DnD rules. I might have wrestled a bit in school, done some martial arts, etc., and I might have improved a bit in my skills and it might have seemed to me that some people on the team were much better than others, and that we would have had a huge, insurmountable advantage, say, on the wrestling mat against untrained opponents, but in no way would I think that I "leveled-up." We're all probably level 0 or level 1 in RL, but that's just how I see it...