[Spoiler]what type of character embodies the concept of the game the best?

Matthieu

Weird title but I tried hard to avoid putting the word bhaalspawn in. So now we avoided spoiling that to the 1% of members here who may still ignore the main character is a child of Bhaal, here's the question.

What kind of character embodies the bhaalspawn concept the best.

So here's my take:

First the race. Since Bhaal is a human pantheon god it's quite safe to assume he was human before ascending to godhood. Which means his children must be either humans or half-elf or half-orc. Seems extremely hard to justify a dward, elf, gnome or halfling. I know the game shows others like a giant, a half-dragon (note the half thing there) or even a kobold (Baldur's Gate ending video), but if we are pedantic we are limited in choice.

Then the class, I believe classes that takes power from a greater being do a shit job at making a bhaalspawn. The bhaalspawn is supposed to be powerful by itself, from the divine heritage. So cleric, druids, paladins and rangers are hard to justify. Of course you can still justify it as making the difference with other bhaalspawn in a way.

So was my blackguard to Irenicus "you were so much weaker than Sarevok, how comes you defeated him?" (yeah well I fucking had a demon patron to help me but am not telling you...)

No really, I think classes which take their power spontaneously are the best here. Monks, sorcerers, barbarians, shamans (nope shamans don't take their powers from spirits, it's the opposite relationship, they have a limited control over them).

And of course... there's the assassin kit.

BelgarathMTH

In Throne of Bhaal, there's a chinchilla bhaalspawn. According to in-game lore, Bhaal mated and produced offspring with pretty much anything that moved. So I don't think race is an issue, or even species.

The Bhaal essence eventually expresses itself in becoming The Slayer, so it seems to not manifest until after adolescence, and sometimes not at all. (Witness Imoen, and the weak, frightened Bhaalspawn living in Saradush.) So I also think any character class is feasible independently of the presence of Bhaal essence.

I play my clerics that their god considers it a pleasure to take one of Bhaal's children as a devout worshiper and therefore deny him that bit of soul-power.

deltago

Anything lawful would be out as Bhaalspawms are suppose to sow Chaos in their wake. That takes out Monks and Paladins.

Assassin (God of Murder and all) would be an obvious choice, however, it doesnt match a Candlekeep upbringing (who in Candlekeep would train him?).

A wizard or bard would probably be more ideal since the character being surrounded by vast amounts of knoweldge, leaning more towards bard due to the jack of all trades aspect of the class.

Sorcerer would also work, having the divine essence as the reason as being able to cast spells.

So either a sorcerer or bard.

Since its 20 years after the Times of Trouble, longer to mature races such as dwarves and elves would also not fit well.

So IMO, human bard or sorcerer would fit the best.

Matthieu

I don't know about the chaos and law thing, murder can be sanctioned and professional too so that doesn't shock me. Before Bhaal death and murder was part of Jergal's portfolio and the god is lawful neutral unless I'm wrong. As for the race, yeah the game made it that way, you have weirdo bhaalspawn but that still kind of feel odd and the chinchilla was, am sure, a joke actually.

Elendar

Bhaal was able to shapeshift into whatever form he wanted.. so gnome makes perfect sense.. Anything that isn't a gnome is only barely acceptable. The Jansen clan will conquer all.

Kurona

deltago said:

Anything lawful would be out as Bhaalspawms are suppose to sow Chaos in their wake. That takes out Monks and Paladins.

Bhaal was Lawful Evil and three of the Five are also Lawful.

Anyways in general the games more or less assume you are playing as a good-aligned human fighter. It's not really in-your-face but Charname's dialogue options tend to show a rather limited understanding of magic and, well, subtlety in general.

SoD allows you to show off your class at least, which is a very good thing.

ThacoBell

Bhaal could also very easily have given rise to a select few Bhaalsoawn (Elves, Dwarves and Dragons anyone?) BEFORE the Time of Troubles. Bhaal saw his death during this time so it makes sense that he took measures BEFORE the time period that would kill him. Not sure why everyone claims elf and dragon bhaalspawn as plotholes.

PaulaMigrate

One of the main concepts of the game is that the protagonist may in the end be handle the heritage given to him/her and can become master of the own fate. Freedom of choice is what is expressed in the final scene in ToB.

Bhaal spawned with all races, so race and gender can be anything for the protagonist.

Until protagonist becomes adult, the impact of the essence of Bhaal within has no impact, PC was educated by the monks of Candlekeep and is stepchild of Gorion. But PC is also a strong personality. This means that any alignment would be allowed. You can follow Gorion's example of rebel against it.

Sometimes the game/quests/sub quests appear like written with a protagonist who stays *good* as much as possible and follow Gorion's path. This is not set in stone. You can play it anyway you feel like, it doesn't break the game or role playing.