Doesn't 'Murder in Baldur's Gate' set up a perfect premise for a BG3 starring the Bhaalspawn?

Tome

Spoilers for Murder in Baldur's Gate. Bhaalspawn referred to as 'he' for the sake of brevity.


Bhaal is reborn. The Bhaalspawn awakens in the ruins, his last memory being striking the final blow on Viekang before giving way to the Ravager. His divine spark has been torn from him and with it his abilities. His once great reputation lies in tatters after the people witnessed his transformation without fully comprehending the events that spurred it. His way forward, impossible though it may seem, is clear: defeat Bhaal. If he is good, his motives are obvious. If he's evil, it can be a revenge thing or simply a desire to reclaim his divine spark.


The only retcon needed is the fact the Bhaalspawn survived at all, but seeing as he's essentially a level 1 noob again it's hardly a change that will shake the Realms.

Malicron

An interesting thought. One problem though; what if you kept Imoen alive? Murder in Baldur's Gate is based on the premiss that only CHARNAME and teleporting guy (something starting with a V, can't be bothered to look it up) are the last two Bhaalspawn alive. I for one would be VERY upset if the novels' "everyone but CHARNAME dies" ending was made cannon in a game.

Tome

I agree that would be upsetting, but was it not implied Imoen had far less of Bhaal's soul than CHARNAME? Perhaps not enough to grant her agelessness. Furthermore, sadly it's very likely that as a powerful mage she was killed by the Spellplague anyway.

Malicron

Tome said:

I agree that would be upsetting, but was it not implied Imoen had far less of Bhaal's soul than CHARNAME? Perhaps not enough to grant her agelessness. Furthermore, sadly it's very likely that as a powerful mage she was killed by the Spellplague anyway.

Maybe, maybe not. I started a thread along those lines a while back, and have given it some thought since then. It seems once you reached epic levels, you gained some measure of protection from the Spellplague. Elminster, who flat out stated CHARNAME and crew were more powerful than him in ToB, and he wasn't killed by the plague, just badly weakened. It's possible the same happened to the epic level companion and CHARNAME; weakend, but not killed/driven insane outright. As such, they could still be alive. Wishful thinking, I know, but it's better than nothing.

Tome

But wasn't Elminster essential protected by his Plot Shield +Infinity? I don't think using the most iconic mage in the Realms is a fair yardstick for how dangerous the spellplague was to even the strongest of mages.

Edit: Elminster only survived thanks to the sacrifice of the Simbul, an epic level sorceress. The Simbul herself was temporarily driven mad by the Spellplague, so 2 epic level arcane casters we know of were essentially defeated by it.

scriver

@Malicron -
..."Made canon in a game"? The games are not any kind of canon except unto their own. The books, even though they don't exist, are canon already.

As for the topic itself. I think we should just leave the Bhaalspawn Saga behind us. It's been told to completion. There's no need for possible new games to drag it on just to have some pretend-connection to the old BG games.

Malicron

scriver said:

..."Made canon in a game"? The games are not any kind of canon except unto their own. The books, even though they don't exist, are canon already.

That's rather my point. While we can ignore the books, I for one would have a harder time ignoring any changes that would be made in a hypothetical BG3. That's just me though.

And I'll admit that using Elminster as an example is probably unfair. Like I said, wishful thinking on my part, as it really bothers me that the timeline more or less necessitates everyone in the Baldur's Gate games dying horribly in the Spellplague, and will take whatever loophole I can get.

Silverstar

I think BG3 is a perfect premise for a completely new protagonist...

badbromance

Silverstar said:

I think BG3 is a perfect premise for a completely new protagonist...

BG3: Noober Stikes Back?

artificial_sunlight

These treats keep popping up: http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/20465/murder-in-baldur-s-gate/p3
Murder in Baldur’s gate (PnP) is a perfect start for BG3. http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Product.aspx?x=dnd/products/dndacc/45370000
I don't understand what you guys don't like about this ending for Charname. IF you want BG 3 this is the only way (I think). You can't become a God because off lore (PnP books). A LG paladin god of Murder, yeah right :S.

So you choose to stay mortal and give up your heritage. You think its all over, your power is fading, but though you live extremely long. (BG3 lets you inport your tob charname, you can walk around for 2 minutes). Viekang also knows this and finds you. He walks up to you you have a dialog and you get a scene like the Sarevok-Gorion fight (player loses control) the fight is scripted but uses the skills of you old-charnames class, when both the Bhaalspawn are near dead, a roll of the dice chooses a winner. It turns into the slayer but it is still near dead.

Before this al you created a character/party and played the prologue. After the prologue you withness the fight and have to kill the slayer (about as hard as Tarnesh/Illasera, so you will die a lot the first time )

The rest of the game follows MiBG

You can actualy read/play the first encouter with free material from WotC and its very well written.

Torin

scriver said:

@Malicron -
..."Made canon in a game"? The games are not any kind of canon except unto their own. The books, even though they don't exist, are canon already.

As for the topic itself. I think we should just leave the Bhaalspawn Saga behind us. It's been told to completion. There's no need for possible new games to drag it on just to have some pretend-connection to the old BG games.

I agree, we don't need more Bhaalspawn characters but it would be interesting to tell the story of what happens to what is left behind the Bhaalspawn conflicts. We know that more then one big organization was at least keeping an eye on you.
It would be cool if depending on your class/alignment your character would start as part of one of those just after conclusion of Bhaalspawn story and live in the void left.

Like if you are good but non Lawful and CN you would be part of Harpers, if you are neutral or Lawful neutral or Lawful good you could be working for Lords Alliance from Waterdeep and if you are Evil you would be part of Zhentarim. Each side with their own agendas and goals, using your character to accomplish them.

Kaltzor

I like to think regarding the Spellplague, if CHARNAME became a god, he/she helped the mage party members out to not be killed or go insane...

Chippy

CHARNAME to me is what I expect Elminster is to Ed Greenwood, or Drizzt to R.A. Salvatore. So I'm gonna be pretty annoyed if BG3 comes along and the "canon" has shot dead my alter ego - if I created this character in a time where RPG's where about creating characters, then I should have the option of continuing that character unto death. And beyond. I will accept any excuse.
...Or not, because if they canon my character to death I'll likeky just continue playing BGEE/2 and hand wave in dismissal whatever form BG3 takes.