POLL: The BG Canon PC Poll

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I know it's inconsistent with the fact that Alaundo's prophecy had been around for a thousand years or more, assuming Bhaal knew or cared about it prior to the Time of Troubles. But the alternative is still pretty daft.

The 'ritual sacrifice' is certainly in line with Bhaal's preferences, but it's a real flimsy scheme. Why create hundreds of these spawn and let them roam far and wide if they all needed to be killed off at the end anyway? Why create particularly strong spawn, like dragons and giants and such? Hell, why bother with any long-lived race? He could've created thousands of human spawn and let time kill them all off for him, regardless of what mischief they got up to in the interim. Most of all, why on earth would any sensible deity depend on their mortal clergy as a lynchpin in their grand plan for resurrection, putting them in a position where they're likely to falter at the most critical moment? He foresaw his death a thousand years off but didn't see that one coming?

The whole thing is pretty messy really, but the TOB version significantly moreso than the BG version.

Guess I'll go look for a copy of the 2E high-level supplement and a Faiths and Pantheons before I get any more off-topic.

 

Gods tend to have like a 2week forsight into something that might affect them specifically, (and greatly, not just - oh I'm gonna get a kidney stone and such) and since aluando's prof. was made all too public, (as his profecies like many others take hundreds/thousands of years to come true/false), Bhaal might've never known, until he read or felt that he was going to die.

Also, how was Bhaal Killed? Gods tend to be level40 multiclass/dualclass/whatever characters when described in pantheon books.

On the topic of this post, there is another key to being able to choose the answers to the poll. Do you believe in Primordialism? (that behavorial traits are passed on like the physical) or not? Now irl we know it doesn't really work that way, at least not fully, and we also know for a fact that we're not completely products of our environment/institution, (even though it has a great affect on us).


This is how you can develop an evil PC despite Gorions teaching. Gorion may try to teach you to be good, but the fact remains that you are a spawn of bhaal, and thusly inherently evil. Or you're nuetral good, because Gorion was, and he raised you, etc. etc.

 

I usually go for Female, Half-Elf, Lawful Neutral, Cleric and give up taint to become a mortal.

 

Possible proof of canonical humanity! The Alianna (your mother) that shows up in the Pocket Plane is human! (D1GHOST.CRE) But, she's also listed as a fighter (not a cleric), so I'm not sure how much faith we can put in it; it could have just been coded for simplicity.

Anyway, my opinion on the subject has changed a bit since I voted six months ago. My new opinion:

2) Half-elven. Don't remember where, but I heard the canonical age for the PC was 20. The only race's starting age range that fits into is half-elves. Could go human, but I have other reasons for half-elf as well.

3) Fighter/Cleric. Due mostly to canon BG1 party make-up. Minsc, Khalid, and Jaheira can tank. Dynaheir and Imoen (after an assumed dual) can handle arcane. Imoen's got the thief skillz, yo, but only Jaheira's got any divine ability. The fighter part is for toughness. (If he were human, I'd just do a Fighter->Cleric dual.)

4) CG. A rebellious youth, who took that rebellion out into the world, righting wrongs as a hero should and paying no attention to the laws broken on the way. All those deals you have to make with extra-legal organizations shows he doesn't have any problem going around the law to accomplish good. (Could also be NG, but CG seems more likely.)

 

@Fel
If you want to get technical, it's actually 51-49 that the child is female .

Between going with half-elf and human based on age, keep in mind that reaching maturity has little to do with when you actually head out. Half-Orcs reach it at 14 and humans at 15. I would expect half-orcs to head out sooner since they would have more of an urge from a father or mother being orc. PC was sheltered big time and if not for Gorion being forced to make him leave, probably would never leave Candlekeep.

Btw, I love these posts, everyone's got a lot of interesting variation!! I wonder if the thread was re-made if anything would change.

 

RE: Felinoid. I thought Aliana was whatever race the protagonist is, and always has red hair... (?)

 

Yes, it seems D1GHOST may have been discarded in favor of four alternates: D1MOTHDW, D1MOTHEL, D1MOTHHA, and D1MOTHHU. The thing is, they're all human too. The only difference between them is that they have different avatars overlaid on them via a personal effect. So while they look like a dwarf, an elf, a halfling, and a human, they're all still human underneath, and would register as such to any applicable spells, attacks, and such.

Again, it's probably still just coding convenience, but you might take it as intent if you wanted. Especially considering that the first one they created was the human D1GHOST. I'd also like to add that despite this discovery, I still think the canon is a half-elf.

 

Felinoid points out a prime example of coder laziness. Granted it's a tried and true formula for all intents and purposes works. But they took the same thing. Made it 5 times. Then changed only what absolutely needed to be changed. This is clearly not intent this is "I have this it works. I'd rather be doing something else than waste absolutely any more effort than I have to here."

As for Gods. yes they generally are high level. As often as not they are somehow dual or multi class. But they do die. It's just that usually when they die all they do is throw off their avatar form. Pop back up in their realm and they are gods again. Dragon Lance gives the best example of this with Fizban. He's actually an Avatar of Paladine, He's an almost senile rediculously high level mage, and when something kills him for whatever reason he pop's back into godhood to come back later. They kill him what? three or four times in the books?

The Time of Troubles is unique in not only did they all get stuck in mortal avatar forms but if they happened to be killed they didn't return to godhood. Alaundo's prophesies were around for a long time. Any sadistic smart god makes a plan. Specially when a prophesy like that talks about you. For knowledge that the prophesy talks specifically about the time of troubles is all that is needed for him to set his plan in motion.

Slaughtering each other is a damned fine way to bring his essence back into a whole being. Given his portfolio and everything and the nature of Gods. It makes more sense that if all the energy isn't brought together in some way then it would just stay scattered. A Fine Premise for the game we play and fits very well to the Portfolio of the Lord of Murder. just one third of the full portfolio of Death.

And there is an optional rule for starting characters that they don't start at just the base earliest for a race. In Second edition there was actually an often as not used rule of base age + variable die roll

Dwarves: 40+5d6= 45-70
Elves: 100+5d6= 105-130
Gnome: 60+3d12= 63-96
Half-Elf: 15+1d6= 16-21
Halfling:20+3d4= 23- 32
Human:15+1d4= 16-19

Even given a limted age of say lay teens to mid 20's we actually have 3 races that easily make the grade. You give him a bit more forethought given the nature of Alaundo's prophesy and any of the normal races are actually possible. The dragon is always far fetched but it's the one that if anything shows a great deal of fore planning. Even if by the terms of our world it seems very far fetched and illogical.

As a little side note in 2nd Edition. Half-elves only have margionally longer life than humans only getting about 60 extra years maximum. They more just age well rather than mature and grow more slowly than humans.

 

Yeah, IIRC the seat of a deity's power is never any prime material plane, but rather an outer plane, and avatars are just extensions of their will that they can rebuild fairly easily when destroyed. In the Time of Troubles all of the deities with a following in the Forgotten Realms were cut off from their home planes and most or all of their divine power was invested in their avatars, so that the ones without any influence in prime material planes other than the Realms were effectively destroyed with their physical forms. (Though by rights a deity is never permanently destroyed, and Bhaal ought to be floating around comatose in the Astral Plane somewhere.)

Incidentally, wasn't it's explicitly stated at the beginning of BG1 that you were a product of the Time of Troubles and that you're twenty years old? Up until BG2 I'd gotten the impression that Bhaal had sired all his children during the Time of Troubles, but apparently not.

 

Ahh... revived thread...

As a recap, with 84 votes, the consensus is:

The Child of Bhaal is Male (84.5%), Human (64.3%), Chaotic (53.6%) and Good (65.5%). As for class, he uses one with a Fighter THAC0 progression (65.5%) and possibly has some Arcane spellcasting (53.6%)...

 

Ach! The Kensai-Mage munchy is back!