Does the alignment of the main character have any influence on dialogues in the game?

PaiN_VI

I've been thinking of creating a chaotic neutral character, and I've been testing some dialogues that I usually see in good characters, and I've seen no difference. I thought it was normal, after all a neutral character is not so different from a good one. The problem is that when I created a chaotic evil to test I didn't see any difference either. My question is: is there any noticeable difference in dialogs in different alignments?

Soido

I am unaware if alignment determines the available dialogue options. I think they are the same. But intelligence might do that as the game says that below a certain amount of intelligence the character is considered illiterate. Never had a low Intelligence character so not sure. But charisma definitely determines the success of certain dialogues, influence checks. In the very beginning of Candlekeep there is that married couple in the tavern and asking him about jewery with 18 charisma prompts him to stash his jewery in a chest in the upstairs room. But will require over 18 strength to break the chest or 65 Open Locks skill.

Chronicler

In one of the other Infinity Engine games the illiteracy thing is implemented, but in Baldur's Gate it just means you can't use scrolls, if you would otherwise have the ability to do so.

Alignment is largely just flavor. If you make an evil character, but behave only in good ways, very few characters are going to respond as if you're anything but good.

If the system were perfectly translated from Pen and Paper, your alignment would change to reflect your changing character. Ie if you started out evil but turned into a heroic type, you'd get a heroic alignment to reflect that. Unfortunately due to engine limitations your alignment is mostly static throughout the trilogy, but you can still take your character in any direction you choose. The alignment is ultimately not a straight jacket that dictates your actions, but merely a descriptor meant to briefly sum up the morality of a complex human being.

jsaving

Alignment doesn't affect your dialogue options in BG1. It does affect your starting reputation however, with lawful good considered to be "best" and chaotic evil "worst".

Pingwin

There's one encounter I can think of in BG1 where alignment directly affects how it plays out. Reputation plays a bigger role although if you are evil your reputation is lower at the start of the game, and you may be taking steps to stop it getting too high if you have evil party members, so reputation is sort of a proxy for alignment. There's a couple of encounters where you need high strength to get certain dialogue options too.