@Gotural, love your eye for detail. I had never taken that image into consideration. Human male (rather than female I'd say) makes a lot of sense, though it's difficult to tell for sure. We would have to know the degree of inclination of the slope and the distance from Gorion, so I understand @MacHurto's point.
I don't really have a 'head-canon', but I quite like the idea of a Paladin, or other human good fighter. Certain classes and races don't seem too likely to me, like monks, barbs, or elves (the PC would be like a toddler). Mostly I just think it goes well with the comparison made between you and Sarevok towards the end of the story, where you both really could have switched places if things had turned out differently.
Cleric/Shadowdancer would actually make a whole lot of sense to me. Imagine how much you would want to be able to disappear in such a cramped living space as Candlekeep if you were a Baalspawn. And your only real companion, Imoen, has also been interested in Thief skills.
The Cleric part would come from Gorion [Monk]. Someone needs to make a Priest of Oghma mod if one is not already out there. Perhaps bonus to saving throws against Charm, Horror, Hold Person and a penalty to morale in wilderness settings....something very different from the woodsy NPCs [Druids and Rangers].
Vanilla Paladin or Cavalier also makes sense. I also like the idea of some sort of modded Bard who cannot use 2 weapon-style but can put 3 pips into a weapon with restrictions on his ability to learn other weapons. However I don't really see a flashy character such as most Swashbucklers being my canon.
Keeping a low profile, being basically OP as much as possible and getting the job done as efficiently as possible with appropriate touches of "Shock and Awe" would be my style. This is not a fight I began and I damned sure want to end it as quickly and definitively as I can. Then get on with the task of getting rich which will probably be my fate once I overcome this powerful Nemesis.
Charname seems to me to be someone who can hold his own in battle but is not qualified to be any party's principal or secondary Warrior. He should definitely have some magical aspect ~even if it is no more than Wands of Sleep and Magic Missile or Wand of the Heavens for Paladin.
A playthrough in which a stealthy duo of Charname and Imoen assisted from time to time by a larger party take care of the Iron Throne could also happen. In that version I could see Charname as a Sorceror.
I don't personally see him however as a High-Level Godlike Mage. Just not enough broader experience of Faerun in my head-canon. In 20-30 years maybe so
Keeping a low profile, being basically OP as much as possible and getting the job done as efficiently as possible with appropriate touches of "Shock and Awe" would be my style. This is not a fight I began and I damned sure want to end it as quickly and definitively as I can. Then get on with the task of getting rich which will probably be my fate once I overcome this powerful Nemesis.
That's a very nice basis for a interesting Role-played run. A TN character who isn't in it to save the Realms, or to become stinking rich, or a Demi-God. Just out there to get things over with in the most efficient manner.
I don't personally see him however as a High-Level Godlike Mage. Just not enough broader experience of Faerun in my head-canon. In 20-30 years maybe so
It's true that Charname's growth is very accelerated compared to other heroes, in any class, but it's most noticeable if you play a Mage because they normally takes decades, or centuries or more to become of force to be reckoned with.
@MacHurto - well, your companions gain their rapid development only through their close association with your protagonist, so you can imagine that some of the consequences of the protagonist's divine heritage also affect those around him/her.
NG Female Straight up Fighter Human. It's my classic go-to in Pen and Paper and now, BG. I have also played NG Female Mage (both human and half-elf. I tend not to play Rogues, as I start out with Imoen in my party. Personally, I like playing slashy stabby death and "Imma firin my arrows pew! Pew1" types of characters.
With the canon party, i.e. Jaheira and Khalid, Minsc and Dynaheir, and Imoen (dualled to Mage after 7 levels of Thief), the talent most glaringly missing is that you've got no Cleric - yes, you've got some divine casting from Jaheira as a half-Druid, but that's running rather light on divine casting power (and Druids miss some key divine spells), so (IMO) more divine casting is the additional skill which the canon party most needs. Therefore I reckon the canonical protagonist must be some sort of Cleric (or a multi-class including Cleric, or a dual-class into Cleric).
This is how I've always felt as well.
Also, throw in the fact that the protagonist grew up in a secluded library fortress, surrounded by holy books, and was taught by monks, and it makes sense that he or she would become a good or neutral-aligned cleric.
@thespace, thanks for taking your time to share your well-argued concept of charname. I agree with on plain Rangers and armor (I might go as far as to reluctantly don them in Ankheg armor before a foreseen battle, because it's light, but I never have them wear plate or full plate.) I like the portraits, the great yet not min/maxed stats and the reasoning behind your head-canon.
I rather like a Paladin being the canon character.
Basically, in BG1, the holy and noble warrior going against his tainted soul and fighting his polar opposite, a Chaotic Evil butcher that is also your brother. It's the whole, light vs dark theme.
From an RP perspective, I feel the same way.
Being a paladin also coincides with the fact that the protagonist seems to have had a strict, sheltered upbringing under Gorion, and he and the other monks probably instilled a lot of discipline and sense of honor into the protagonist.
I've always had issues with a twenty-year-old unproven rookie, who's been brought up in Candlekeep amidst scholars and lazy guards, being a Paladin. I always imagined them to be squires first, who need to prove themselves before they can be accepted into paladinhood. However I just checked the Complete Paladin's Handbook (2E), and it says "that there are no established career paths or mandatory instructional techniques." It mentions the following paths toward paladinhood: supportive mentor, inherited title, government sponsorship, religious patronage, and divine intervention. The latter two could indeed work for Charname (the other paths would require some additional story content made up by the player imo). He/she could be a Paladin of Oghma (though I don't know whether those existed in 2nd Ed.) or be "chosen" by a deity:
"he gods may choose a mortal to become a paladin for reasons of their own. Alternately, a qualified mortal may petition the gods for paladin status. A suitable candidate must meet all of the physical and mental requirements for paladinhood, and must also demonstrate unshakable faith. Neither age nor social status is critical, though younger candidates of underprivileged classes are generally preferred. The gods will guide the candidate through a long series of quests and training exercises to ensure that he develops the necessary skills. On occasion, the gods may grant paladin powers to the candidate directly, foregoing training of any kind."
Well by that stroke than a Ranger charname doesn't make sense either - where is he/she getting all that woodcraft from being stuck in a library all the time??
@terzaerian, at the beginning of the game there is no such thing as "all that woodcraft" because Charname is a lvl 1 character with literally 0 XP. My point was that I mistakenly believed, in all my ignorance vis-a-vis Paladins, that Paladinhood was a status, a title that had to be earned before an Order or a senior Paladin. Little did I know that acceptance into the profession isn't necessarily subject to any formalities, as the paths to paladinhood I mentioned in my previous post show.
Either way, for a Ranger it is imaginable as @thespace mentioned that Kivan, Minsc and Jaheira help him/her become a proper Ranger. I have more difficulty imagining Ajantis performing same role for a Paladin Charname, since Ajantis still has to prove himself first, according to his biography:
"... Recently, Ajantis has asked for the honor of becoming a full-fledged member of the order. To accomplish this he has traveled to the Sword Coast, in order to help curtail the increased humanoid activity in the region. If he succeeds in his quest, the order will vote on his eligibility for membership. He seems utterly devoted to his mission."
Well, my CHARNAME is the same as it has always been for any customizeable character I can make in an RPG, along with every profile I make and forum I join on the Internet: Nøkkenbuer, or Nokkenbuer when special characters are not allowed.
It's a moniker I've been using for nearly a decade, and quite exclusively too. You can actually Google search the name and receive approx. 10,000 results, all of which should be by me or relating to my post(s) or profile(s) in some way. Believe it or not, the name was actually formed when I was a kid and first tried out RuneScape back when it was still popular. It was just a random name I generated for roleplaying reasons, but for some reasons it stuck. Later on, after seeing that I began using that name for everything I did, I even retroactively made up an etymology for the term, which surprisingly fit in with aspects of my personality.
Call me unoriginal, but I use the same CHARNAME for every first character I make. Only during my second and beyond characters, playthroughs, or accounts do I use a different name.
Comments
In the original game you can even see Gorion leading a tough looking Human in the loading screen when leaving Candlekeep.
Confession: I haven't played the original BG1 so I haven't been able to see that loading screen. I regret not playing the original BG1, of course.
So, your remark is very insightful. This is perhaps why Abdel Adrian, the protagonist in the novelizations of BG, was a fighter.
Gorion and his ward.
It's in very low definition, but I couldn't find better, sorry !
And while I think the novels aren't necessary good (like everyone I guess :P) I think the character was quite fitting.
He is lightly equipped because at the start of the game, you don't have much money and Gorion ask you to travel by night to hide.
I'm not here to say this is a proof of whatever, this is just an element that caused me to think the canon Charname is a Human Fighter, nothing more
(For those curious, the image I'm talking about always showed a male human, whether you were a male Halfling, female half-orc, or a genderless gnome)
The Cleric part would come from Gorion [Monk]. Someone needs to make a Priest of Oghma mod if one is not already out there. Perhaps bonus to saving throws against Charm, Horror, Hold Person and a penalty to morale in wilderness settings....something very different from the woodsy NPCs [Druids and Rangers].
Vanilla Paladin or Cavalier also makes sense. I also like the idea of some sort of modded Bard who cannot use 2 weapon-style but can put 3 pips into a weapon with restrictions on his ability to learn other weapons. However I don't really see a flashy character such as most Swashbucklers being my canon.
Keeping a low profile, being basically OP as much as possible and getting the job done as efficiently as possible with appropriate touches of "Shock and Awe" would be my style. This is not a fight I began and I damned sure want to end it as quickly and definitively as I can. Then get on with the task of getting rich which will probably be my fate once I overcome this powerful Nemesis.
Charname seems to me to be someone who can hold his own in battle but is not qualified to be any party's principal or secondary Warrior. He should definitely have some magical aspect ~even if it is no more than Wands of Sleep and Magic Missile or Wand of the Heavens for Paladin.
A playthrough in which a stealthy duo of Charname and Imoen assisted from time to time by a larger party take care of the Iron Throne could also happen. In that version I could see Charname as a Sorceror.
I don't personally see him however as a High-Level Godlike Mage. Just not enough broader experience of Faerun in my head-canon. In 20-30 years maybe so
But what about Nalia? Or Aerie? Or Jan-Jansen? You need some suspension of disbelief in these games :-)
Also, throw in the fact that the protagonist grew up in a secluded library fortress, surrounded by holy books, and was taught by monks, and it makes sense that he or she would become a good or neutral-aligned cleric.
But I think the question still remains, why would the protagonist have gone through BG1 without a cleric unless he or she were a cleric him/herself?
I like the portraits, the great yet not min/maxed stats and the reasoning behind your head-canon.
Being a paladin also coincides with the fact that the protagonist seems to have had a strict, sheltered upbringing under Gorion, and he and the other monks probably instilled a lot of discipline and sense of honor into the protagonist.
I've always had issues with a twenty-year-old unproven rookie, who's been brought up in Candlekeep amidst scholars and lazy guards, being a Paladin.
I always imagined them to be squires first, who need to prove themselves before they can be accepted into paladinhood. However I just checked the Complete Paladin's Handbook (2E), and it says "that there are no established career paths or mandatory instructional techniques." It mentions the following paths toward paladinhood: supportive mentor, inherited title, government sponsorship, religious patronage, and divine intervention. The latter two could indeed work for Charname (the other paths would require some additional story content made up by the player imo). He/she could be a Paladin of Oghma (though I don't know whether those existed in 2nd Ed.) or be "chosen" by a deity:
"he gods may choose a mortal to become a paladin for reasons of their own. Alternately, a qualified mortal may petition the gods for paladin status. A suitable candidate must meet all of the physical and mental requirements for paladinhood, and must also demonstrate unshakable faith. Neither age nor social status is critical, though younger candidates of underprivileged classes are generally preferred. The gods will guide the candidate through a long series of quests and training exercises to ensure that he develops the necessary skills. On occasion, the gods may grant paladin powers to the candidate directly, foregoing training of any kind."
Either way, for a Ranger it is imaginable as @thespace mentioned that Kivan, Minsc and Jaheira help him/her become a proper Ranger. I have more difficulty imagining Ajantis performing same role for a Paladin Charname, since Ajantis still has to prove himself first, according to his biography:
"... Recently, Ajantis has asked for the honor of becoming a full-fledged member of the order. To accomplish this he has traveled to the Sword Coast, in order to help curtail the increased humanoid activity in the region. If he succeeds in his quest, the order will vote on his eligibility for membership. He seems utterly devoted to his mission."
It's a moniker I've been using for nearly a decade, and quite exclusively too. You can actually Google search the name and receive approx. 10,000 results, all of which should be by me or relating to my post(s) or profile(s) in some way. Believe it or not, the name was actually formed when I was a kid and first tried out RuneScape back when it was still popular. It was just a random name I generated for roleplaying reasons, but for some reasons it stuck. Later on, after seeing that I began using that name for everything I did, I even retroactively made up an etymology for the term, which surprisingly fit in with aspects of my personality.
Call me unoriginal, but I use the same CHARNAME for every first character I make. Only during my second and beyond characters, playthroughs, or accounts do I use a different name.