POLL: The BG Canon PC Poll

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Male. Here's my reasoning (some will probably find this sexist). If you look through the ages, ignoring suppression of women etc... women tend to be smarter than men. But the vast majority of great achievers, the einsteins etc are all men. Men tend to extremes. A bhaalspawn counts as extreme to me.

Human- If only because none of the other races fit. The idea of other races being tainted like that just doesn't work for me.

Fighter/mage- the warrior side from being BHAALspawn- the magical side from being generic godchild. I'd also like to say sorcerer- excluding this class is a bit unjustified, solely due to BG1 not using more advanced rules.

Neutral evil- Definitely the 'intelligent evil' type. Out to benefit themselves without undue risk, nor the chaotic slaughter of everyone else.

Remain mortal- Neutral evil would likely distrust the offer and prefer to remain on the ground.

EDIT: there's also the whole 'Abdel' thing. Apparently in some of the literature about the BG series, the protagonist is a human fighter called abdel. I think he is an importable character in all the games, too.

 

Ah yes, the much-despised Abdel (link to a thread on continuity in the BG series). Abdel, from the WoC novelization of the BG series begun by Phil Athans, would be a Neutral-Good Male Human Fighter of limited mental capacity (who btw chooses mortality in the end). From nearly all reports a poorly-characterized, uninspired fantasy architype living in a cartoon version of the BG gameworld, thus drawing the ire of many BG fans. Note however that Abdel pretty much follows the consensus of these boards so far in the five questions of the poll...

 

I bought the SoA book and am glad I'm not alone in being disappointed by Abdel. I thought it might have more to do with the actual game. Silly me.

 

If Sorcerer was an option I'd picked that. The description of the sorcerer describes that the person is a dragon in disguise or some kind of Demi-God (if I'm not mistaken)
He didn't pay attention in class, but was doing not so goody-two-shoes thingies at the time. This would make him (yes, him) evil or chaotic neutral (which I picked)

@Angryguy, even Elves could be corrupted and evil, and thus tainted (Bodhi and Irenicus for example)

 

A summary of results so far (with 35 votes reporting)...

The Child of Bhaal is overwhelmingly Male (91%) and Human (74%), though there was also a strong secondary interest (23%) in Elvish blood (9% Half-Elf, 14% Elf).

The Child of Bhaal tends most strongly to Chaotic (57%), with a secondary tendency to Neutral (40%) and very strongly to Good (66%). The most popular alignment is Chaotic Good (34%), followed by Neutral Good (29%) and Chaotic Neutral (17%).

It's a bit more difficult to determine class; the most popular class is pure-class Mage (31%), followed by pure-class Fighter (26%) and Fighter/Mage (17%). However, to say that a people prefer a Mage Child of Bhaal would ignore the fact that a large majority of votes (60%) give the Child of Bhaal a class with a Fighter THAC0, comparable to the majority (57%) that see the Child of Bhaal as an arcane spell caster. Thus, while it's the third most popular class in specific voting, I would submit that popular will so far holds the Child of Bhaal to be a Fighter/Mage.

Finally, the majority of voters believe the Child of Bhaal remains mortal (69%).

 

You forgot to put Sorcerer in the class field! The description of the sorcerer in the manual states that:
"It is thought that the blood of some powerful creature flows through their veins; perhaps they are the spawn of the gods themeselves"

I had to choose mage instead.

 

I have proof! The PC has to be good, in order for the special abilities to match up between BG1 and BG2. (Cure Light Wounds * 2, Slow Poison * 2, & Draw Upon Holy Might * 2)
Boo-yah!

EDIT: Before I get blasted by people who only import, I'm talking about if you start a new character. If you're neutral or evil, you don't get the same specials.

[ July 11, 2005, 00:53: Message edited by: Felinoid ]

 

1) Male. It would be too embarrassing for Sarevok otherwise, being floored by a woman. He would fight to the last even in the Pocket Plane. Since he doesn't, it is assumed that the protagonist is male.

2) Mother elf, father god; half-elf. Simple, really.

3) I would say 'sorcerer' since it would fit to the descriptions about "powerful blood", but it could be a fighter too (since, obviously, fighters are better in BG1). Sorcerer/fighter maybe?

4) Out of hat: neutral good or chaotic good. The story winds towards good aligment in any case.

5) He would become a god 100% sure and take the ladies with him. Yup.

If that is too difficult to imagine, then think this; *they* say the powers would be locked away forever, but forever would be a long time and such powers would tempt others. It would be much better to take them for yourself than allow them to be stolen -which would happen eventually.

 

I am going to go REALLY old school BG1 and use the load screen pictures as a basis. In those screens the guy who is shown to be leaving with Gorian is

1)male
2)human or half-elf ( also note that half-orcs age very fast and dont live long so that could be an alternative in some peoples eyes though not on the basis of which I am going on)
3)thief, bard, or Ranger (my oppinion based on his rougish look and he is holding a bow)
4)I lean towards Nuetral Good since Gorian always talked about balance like most harpers and the main character seems to lean towards Good.
5)Mortal-most of the time in the game you seem to resist all atempts by immortal bengs to influence you and further you would probably have some relationship with somebody and you probably want to keep it going. As shown in several books of the forgotten realms the gods frowned on Kelemvar's and Mystra's relationship until it broke off.

 

1) Doesn't matter, but I voted Male because I'm a guy and like roleplaying guys.
2) Human, Half-Elf, Halfling
3) I like the idea of a fighter, or fighter/mage. I think it just fits well. I can also see cleric, because you don't know about your heritage at the beginning of the game, and you might feel some pull towards the gods. A Bard fits really well also, as they are powerful, and the protagonist probably picked up a bunch of stories, myths and rumors in Candlekeep.
4) NG or CG. Gorion is good, and he's the most influential person in your young life. I'm pretty sure in Candlekeep someone refers to you being "such a little devil" or something similar, indicating a chaotic alignment IMHO.
5)Mortal -- it just feels right.

[ July 11, 2005, 22:14: Message edited by: Klorox ]

 

@Stu, Wirhe, etc. I didn't include the option to be a sorcerer (along with monk, barbarian, wild mage, or half-orc) because they aren't options in BG1, which I was taking as cannon. But nonetheless, I still don't buy the sorcerer argument, as the PC would have seemed really, really abnormal growing up in candlekeep as a sorcerer, rather than going through a gradual realization of his/her heritage. IMHO, that is...

@Felinoid: actually, IIRC you only definitely get that set of abilities when starting up a new PC in SoA if you're lawful good. Otherwise, you tend to get a mix of good and evil abilities. This is almost a continuity issue between BG1 and SoA: having an evil ability in SoA would assume having a low reputation at certain critical points in BG1, and in BG1 you almost have to go out of your way to be evil. Just finishing the chapter quests and a few sidequests in the standard way (and avoiding killing commoners) will give you a 20 rep no problem. Even if you try to play a neutral guy who asks for money all the time....

 

@Bion:
I thought the same thing, but when I checked it by creating nine human fighters with all the different alignments, the good ones (LG, NG, CG) were all the same, and the evil ones (LE, NE, CE) all matched up with each other, too. It seemed like the only place where Lawfulness and Chaoticness mattered was the neutral ones (LN, TN, CN). Maybe I should check again to be sure.

EDIT: Checked again, and NG & CG have Vampiric Touch instead of Draw Upon Holy Might.

EDIT2: Ha! Rechecked CG again, and it's got six different abilities. The game must not reset the abilities if you create new characters too fast, one after the other. Exploitable bug, perhaps?

So, I guess this means that the PC has to be Lawful Good, or at least starts LG.

[ July 13, 2005, 19:09: Message edited by: Felinoid ]

 

Not necessarily: In BG1, if your reputation is below 10 at the time you have a dream (after finishing a chapter), you will an evil ability (laroch, horror, vamp touch) instead of a good one (clw, slow poison, duhm). So the mix of good an evil abilities would assume that your reputation was fluctuating during the game...

 

I never knew that! I haven't gotten around to playing my evil party yet. Maybe I should check that out...

 

Sarevok. No doubt about it...he had the most in common with Bhaal...even his armor looks the same.

 

You know, the same could apply to a sorcerer; "going through a gradual realization of his heritage." If he could be a mage, then perhaps he realized something during his 101 courses of magery/whatever and decided to use it.

 

Your herigtage doesn't predispose you to any class, it just make you an inconceviably more powerful.

The 'which class' argument in the BGI forum

EDIT: Woot new gem

 

Pseudospawn:

I agree, but I think your background, that is, growing up in a library, takes away some of the options that you're given with regards to class. For instance, I have a big problem with a barbarian who grew up in a library.

 

Could be RP'ed as a retard who didn't have the capacity to become anything other than a barbarian.

 

Exactly, whats to say that while he was in the library he didnt get whacked on the head by one of those hundred year old books and become a minsc-esq warrior.

"Miniature-giant space hamster!?!?" **scoffs**
**pulls a turnip-in-an-overcoat out of his pocket**
"have you ever heard of anything so stupid Frank?"