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View Full Version : how would you roleplay a Bhaalspawn?



Entessa
2022-06-19, 02:53 AM
I would like to play a Bhaalspawn in my DnD sessions, but I'm afraid my skills are not honed enough to do that. My doubts are the following:

1) How much of an impact should my divine heritage have on my roleplay? What I mean is, I would like additional options to roleplay, not fewer. I feel like a Bhaalspawn would probably have an impulse to murder and stuff of this sort, but I'm not sure exactly how to make it work, especially in a group session.

2) How would you roleplay the difficulty of being a Bhaalspawn? Wouldn't a godchild feel the impulse of killing differently?

3) Should I avoid being a bhaalspawn ?

Saintheart
2022-06-19, 03:12 AM
Yes to question 3, play Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 for answers to all other questions.

GloatingSwine
2022-06-19, 04:13 AM
I would like to play a Bhaalspawn in my DnD sessions, but I'm afraid my skills are not honed enough to do that. My doubts are the following:

3) Should I avoid being a bhaalspawn ?

Probably. It's a bit too "main character" an origin for a single PC at a group roleplaying table, and you could get basically 100% of the roleplay outcomes from eg. having a couple of levels in Warlock and a Fiend patron.

Millstone85
2022-06-19, 04:19 AM
Going by BG1, BG2 and their extensions, being a Bhaalspawn means having a lot of dreams with disturbing symbolism. These sometimes involve the faces of friends and foes alike being worn by various aspects of yourself that you are not sure to correctly recognize: your soul, your instinct to rule and kill, your other instinct to die and fuel Bhaal's resurrection, maybe other things?

If you travel to the Abyss, then you will meet demons who claim to have been summoned or even created by you in order to help you learn something about yourself.

Also, don't count on any cleric resurrecting you. Bhaalspawn disintegrate when they die. Well, with one spoilery exception.

Warder
2022-06-19, 05:09 AM
I don't think you should avoid playing a Bhaalspawn at all. As shown in BG1&2, most of them were not particularily powerful or "main charactery" at all, but rather ended up as prey for the more powerful ones. It wouldn't be that difficult to strike a balance that makes your place in your group work well.

A bunch of good points have been brought up already, about dreams and lack of resurrection, though the Heroes of Baldur's Gate adventure makes that lack of resurrection only kick in after a day when your soul has reached the Throne of Bhaal, and compensates by dying at 4 saving throws rather than three - 5th edition rules, of course. I'd like to think a Bhaalspawn doesn't go through their life constantly assailed by murderous impulses, but rather functions pretty normally most of the time and the influence of Bhaal sneaks in unexpectedly. Maybe when your enemy has surrendered and is on the ground helpless before you, or at seemingly trivial and entirely random inconveniences like when your neighbor borrowed your hedge clippers without asking. Neither CHARNAME or Imoen felt Bhaal's influence before leaving Candlekeep and had mostly normal childhoods.

I think the main thing is that you possess a tiny sliver of divinity, and you're going to be hunted for it. Other Bhaalspawn want it for themselves. Cultists of Bhaal want to bring their master back. Followers of other religions want to prevent that from happening. This is something that could easily take over an adventure, so make sure to work it out with your DM so that it's impactful, but not overbearing. And good luck, it sounds like a very fun thing to play.

Entessa
2022-06-19, 08:24 AM
Thanks for the informations to all of you.


A bunch of good points have been brought up already, about dreams and lack of resurrection, though the Heroes of Baldur's Gate adventure makes that lack of resurrection only kick in after a day when your soul has reached the Throne of Bhaal, and compensates by dying at 4 saving throws rather than three - 5th edition rules, of course.

do you know if they can be easily read on the .net? My DM had the same idea of the posters above, that one death meant total death for my character. But if heroes of baldur's gate changed the things, it would make the character work a bit better on these sessions.

Edit: found it, pag 106-107.

Warder
2022-06-19, 08:48 AM
Thanks for the informations to all of you.



do you know if they can be easily read on the .net? My DM had the same idea of the posters above, that one death meant total death for my character. But if heroes of baldur's gate changed the things, it would make the character work a bit better on these sessions.

Afraid not, it's a paid campaign on the DMsguild. It includes a number of epic backgrounds of which Child of Bhaal is one, and it has what I wrote plus some other stuff. Like, for example, every epic background has some goals built into them - for Bhaalspawn, one is to get your hands on some research Sarevok left behind which will let you reduce the sway Bhaal has over you, and another is to kill another Bhaalspawn which will then let you turn into the Slayer, since the divine essence of just one Bhaalspawn isn't enough for that.

Millstone85
2022-06-19, 04:38 PM
I think the main thing is that you possess a tiny sliver of divinity, and you're going to be hunted for it. Other Bhaalspawn want it for themselves. Cultists of Bhaal want to bring their master back.
another is to kill another Bhaalspawn which will then let you turn into the Slayer, since the divine essence of just one Bhaalspawn isn't enough for that.I am just now realising that Throne of Bhaal feels like the devs wanted to go full Highlander but were told not to be too obvious.

I mean, Charname ends up hunting the last handful of Bhaalspawn who just killed the other hundreds of Bhaalspawn. Then s/he arrives at the god's throne as the last-ish Bhaalspawn.

It is just that the throne itself has been receiving all that quickening.

OldTrees1
2022-06-19, 05:28 PM
I am just now realising that Throne of Bhaal feels like the devs wanted to go full Highlander but were told not to be too obvious.

I mean, Charname ends up hunting the last handful of Bhaalspawn who just killed the other hundreds of Bhaalspawn. Then s/he arrives at the god's throne as the last-ish Bhaalspawn.

It is just that the throne itself has been receiving all that quickening.

This happens long before Throne of Bhaal. Baldur's Gate started the avalanche that ended in Throne of Bhaal.

Also, the whole Highlander idea seems an obvious outcome of the Times of Troubles. If the gods are going to be vulnerable, some will be murdered. The god of murder can foresee their own murder. So they use their go-to solution (murder) to survive being murdered. (canonically Bhaal succeeded a century after the end of Throne of Bhaal with the murder of the last Bhaalspawn)

J-H
2022-06-19, 09:59 PM
A Baldur's Gate II campaign is the next one I'm planning to run. Here are my thoughts:

As a Bhaalspawn, you have a small divine fragment in your soul, oriented towards murder. Your character has:
-Occasional dreams about blood, bones, rivers of blood, death, killing, and other similar morbid topics
-One or more supernatural talents or abilities
-Some portion of his or her spirit takes pleasure in death or murder. Maybe your character stops for a moment or two to stare at the bodies of whoever you just killed - just long enough to be weird.
-Your character doesn't particularly care about honor in battle. Murder, after all, is often done when nobody is looking.
-Impulses, desires, and thoughts of killing or murder - ranging from "I look forward to killing bandits" to "Nobody will know if I killed this guy who just surrendered" to "That shopkeeper would look better with a smile carved across his neck." You could handle this through RP or through dice rolls modified by your character's values, or whatever. There should be choices made regularly to follow one path or another.
-You can ignore the desires, channel them to productive ends (I think there was a fictional show named Dexter about a serial killer who did this), or try to deny them entirely. Your character may develop habits, tics, mantras, or similar to help remember to choose to redirect these urges.

Millstone85
2022-06-20, 04:49 AM
canonically Bhaal succeeded a century after the end of Throne of Bhaal with the murder of the last BhaalspawnA canon with the same level of writing as the infamous "Somehow, Palpatine returned". :smallannoyed:


Your character doesn't particularly care about honor in battle. Murder, after all, is often done when nobody is looking.Alternatively, you could play on what the Dead Three originally got from Jergal according to an in-game book (https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/History_of_the_Dead_Three).

Jergal was the god of strife, death and the dead, a portfolio he ended up distributing between Bane, Bhaal and Myrkul.

Bhaal styled himself the god of murder because his mortal self was that dedicated an assassin, but really his larger role in the divine comedy is that of the grim reaper.

I headcanon hard that the ending in which a non-evil Charname ascends to godhood has them become known as the god of death and probably pals with Kelemvor (who took the dead from Myrkul).

Or the god of dusk for any Charname I picture as remaining a devoted Lathanderite even in godhood, because that's when the followers of the Morninglord hold funerals.

Tawmis
2022-06-20, 03:22 PM
I would like to play a Bhaalspawn in my DnD sessions, but I'm afraid my skills are not honed enough to do that. My doubts are the following:
1) How much of an impact should my divine heritage have on my roleplay? What I mean is, I would like additional options to roleplay, not fewer. I feel like a Bhaalspawn would probably have an impulse to murder and stuff of this sort, but I'm not sure exactly how to make it work, especially in a group session.
2) How would you roleplay the difficulty of being a Bhaalspawn? Wouldn't a godchild feel the impulse of killing differently?
3) Should I avoid being a bhaalspawn ?

I'd discuss it with your DM AND THE PLAYERS. Being someone who enjoys murder may impact the other players enjoyability of the game if you're always like, "Well, that's what my character would do" as everyone is gazing at the beggar you murdered for no good reason.

LibraryOgre
2022-06-21, 01:05 PM
Think of it like playing an Immortal, from Highlander.

For the most part, you live your early life as a normal person, and as prey to the more powerful of your kind. Then, at some point, you get awakened, start having freaky dreams and getting magical abilities, and enter The Game, where more powerful Bhaalspawn are even more eager for your Quickening. There's no real impact on your play... you can be a Paladin and a Bhaalspawn, after all, or my standard NG Blade Bard.1

However, one way it is NOT like Highlander is you're not more resistant to damage or death. The opposite, in fact, since you blow away when you die, for the most part.

1 I determined that she DID become the goddess of murder... but of those murdered, and those left behind, not of murdering, itself.

Entessa
2022-06-21, 03:24 PM
Thanks to each one of you.

Socksy
2022-07-04, 05:01 PM
I would like to play a Bhaalspawn in my DnD sessions, but I'm afraid my skills are not honed enough to do that. My doubts are the following:

1) How much of an impact should my divine heritage have on my roleplay? What I mean is, I would like additional options to roleplay, not fewer. I feel like a Bhaalspawn would probably have an impulse to murder and stuff of this sort, but I'm not sure exactly how to make it work, especially in a group session.

2) How would you roleplay the difficulty of being a Bhaalspawn? Wouldn't a godchild feel the impulse of killing differently?

3) Should I avoid being a bhaalspawn ?

If everyone else has some special element to them too, and all those special things get about the same amount of roleplay and screentime, then be a Bhaalspawn. Just remember they aren't all as cool as Charname.

If you're playing AD&D you can probably port Baldur's Gate mechanics over quite easily. In 3.x you'll have to speak with your GM to find something that fits, and in 5e a Warlock dip isn't too bad for most builds.

Trask
2022-07-15, 06:44 PM
I would like to play a Bhaalspawn in my DnD sessions, but I'm afraid my skills are not honed enough to do that. My doubts are the following:

1) How much of an impact should my divine heritage have on my roleplay? What I mean is, I would like additional options to roleplay, not fewer. I feel like a Bhaalspawn would probably have an impulse to murder and stuff of this sort, but I'm not sure exactly how to make it work, especially in a group session.

2) How would you roleplay the difficulty of being a Bhaalspawn? Wouldn't a godchild feel the impulse of killing differently?

3) Should I avoid being a bhaalspawn ?

I am currently playing a Bhaalspawn in a 20th level D&D 5e game (kind of a hombrewed "epic levels" thing). Short background: The night of the character's conception to the King and Queen of one of the island kingdoms in the Sea of Swords, there was said a prophesy that the child would be an Aasimar gifted by Lathander. During this time Bhaal was creating the Bhaalspawn and out of sheer malice for Lathander afflicted unborn child. When it was born, it was an Aasimar, but a fallen one.

So this has affected my roleplay quite a bit in ways I think make sense for a character of this type.

(1) Any serious character development will probably require at least a little bit of solo time with the DM (and a DM whose willing of course). But even in a group setting you can express your character's dark nature in the way they treat NPCs and react to situations around them. My Bhaalspawn character practically lusts for battle whenever possible and treats the "small people" that get in their way with callous disregard at best.

(2) Impulse to murder definitely should exist, but its really up to you how much you play it up. Canonicaly Bhaalspawn don't have to be murder machines although I made that a strong impulse for my character, balanced by a personal moral code. I've decided the portray Bhaalspawn's nature as an almost physical need, like a real addiction to violence.

(3) Its your character, do as you please; within reason and DM purview