What effect does Charname's alignment have on the game?

revaar

I know you get different bhaalspawn abilities, but does the alignment of Charname have any other effect? Is it possible to run a good aligned party and play a high rep game with say, a cleric of talos?

Eudaemonium

It affects your starting reputation. Other than that (and abilities), I don't think it changes anything. One of my oldest BG runs was a Chaotic Good Charname with an almost-entirely-evil party (Edwin, Viconia, Shar-Teel).

HaHaCharade

Eudaemonium said:

It affects your starting reputation. Other than that (and abilities), I don't think it changes anything. One of my oldest BG runs was a Chaotic Good Charname with an almost-entirely-evil party (Edwin, Viconia, Shar-Teel).

Just curious - Why didn't you just play evil with a high charisma? Start with an 18 and you can still get the +1 Dagger from Fuller, as well as still having enough rep to kill Firebead Elvenhair and a Candlekeep Watcher for Plate Mail if you so choose.

salieri

I believe the abilities are based on rep and not alignment.

Eudaemonium

HaHaCharade said:

Eudaemonium said:

It affects your starting reputation. Other than that (and abilities), I don't think it changes anything. One of my oldest BG runs was a Chaotic Good Charname with an almost-entirely-evil party (Edwin, Viconia, Shar-Teel).

Just curious - Why didn't you just play evil with a high charisma? Start with an 18 and you can still get the +1 Dagger from Fuller, as well as still having enough rep to kill Firebead Elvenhair and a Candlekeep Watcher for Plate Mail if you so choose.

Honestly? Because this was probably my, like second playthrough (I think it was actually the first one I finished) and I didn't know you could do those things XD. I didn't really intend to have an evil party, I just ended up with one because I like the evil characters more.

I will try and do that for my BG:EE playthrough, though. Hopefully I'll get some lucky rolls on creation.

Jaxsbudgie

salieri said:

I believe the abilities are based on rep and not alignment.

I believe it's BG2 that uses your alignment to dish out the varying abilities if you create a new PC from scratch.

Cheesebelly

Agreed with @salieri : Powers are completely based off your reputation when you sleep after advancing to the next chapter. Over 10 = Cure Light Wounds, Neutralize Poison and Draw upon Holy Might. Under 10 = Larloch's minor Drain, Horror and Vampiric Touch.

At 10, I think it should be random, but I am not overly convinced on that.

So yeah, Alignment is just there for roleplayers. If you're Powerplaying, usually having the highest Alignment possible is best (it depends on whether you want a different familiar, or want to acquire some items not available to good characters though)

sandmanCCL

I think it should be based on your alignment rather than your reputation. Because without it, alignment really doesn't mean a damn thing.

It affects mages (familiars, potential robe of the archmagi), and anyone who wants to murder Drizzt to wield Twinkle.

ARKdeEREH

I've noticed some differences in dialogue, from Sarevok for example, in which he refers to my PC as a kindred spirit or something to that effect when I had an evil alignment, but said something about my not being able to understand when I was good-aligned. It's been a while since I've played so I can't remember exactly what he said. I've also noticed other occurences like this throughout the game, mostly in BG2. Reputation didn't seem to make a difference since I actually had a very high reputation that game in spite of having a neutral evil PC.

Also, some kinds of items can only be used by characters of certain alignments. There are several good weapons and armor in BG2 that require the character wielding them to be either good or evil alignment. In BG1 I believe this is also true, but the only item I can remember in BG1 right now where this is the case is one of Drizzt's swords.

PugPug

If you equip a party member with The Equalizer and force them to attack CHARNAME, your alignment matters.