Let's Read and also Play Baldur's Gate: Bhaal must be stopped!

[The Glyphstone]

I'm fully expecting the villain to threaten/attempt to rape her later on. It's the Grand Slam of female disempowerment tropes that the author has yet to hit.

[Wardog]

My thoughts while reading that:

The spider was brown with irregular blotches of black and white spattered across its spherical body and eight armored legs.

Oh! Giant spider battle time!

It was about as big around as Jaheira’s thumb — not the biggest spider in

Wait, what?

She let out an embarrassingly impish yelp as the thing dropped on her shoulder. She jumped, and that served only to startle the spider, which proceeded toward the closest dark shelter it could find — Jaheira’s modest but well-rounded cleavage.

*facepalm*


Edited to add:
That's a very detailed description given for the spider, that would be difficult to actually notice at the time. I'm imagining two scenarios:

Abdel: Hey, Jaheira. A riddle: "What's as big as your thumb, has a black and white spherical body, and eight armoured legs?"
Jaheira: I don't know.
Abdel: Neither do I, but there's one on your shoulder.

Alternativly, Abdel just spent a long time watching the spider while it was sitting in Jaheira's cleavage

[Spore]

Personally, I want to know what kind of armor or clothes she, as an adventuring druid, is wearing that has cleavage. I get it, female armor tropes, but come on. She's a druid. I'm not sure theyre even allowed to have cleavage underneath their clothes, let alone showing through it.

Uhm, maybe something ritualistic to display her fertility and femininity - something that only qualifies them for a male only profession? I couldn't be more wrong. Ironically according to my - limited - research celts were pretty accepting towards female druids as they served as astronomers, rulers and wise women.

But I would be really intrigued by this as well. For story telling purposes most characters in D&D have light or medium armor that can be convincingly worn all the time. So Jaheira should wear Leather or Chainmail at maximum (I don't think the game makes the distinction of metal armor). Considering Leather is only to protect you from small stabs and glancing blows she might as well just have a cleavage.

It's the (late) nineties...

I'm fully expecting the villain to threaten/attempt to rape her later on. It's the Grand Slam of female disempowerment tropes that the author has yet to hit.

I don't think so. I feel Jaheira is methodically stripped of her agency to serve as arm-candy for Abdel while simultaneously allowing the author to point at her and say: 'See? She is a powerful woman. She effectively divorced her husband and still dragged him along."

If I remember 90s TV shows and movies of the same quality (that all deal with female leads) it is entirely plausible. They make strong female leads that are still victim to their emotions and don't fall in love with the Prince Charming character at first but do so after a while. It is weird that I used Prince Charming and Abdel in relation to each other but he is as smart as I would except a romance novel lover to be.

[Keltest]

Uhm, maybe something ritualistic to display her fertility and femininity - something that only qualifies them for a male only profession? I couldn't be more wrong. Ironically according to my - limited - research celts were pretty accepting towards female druids as they served as astronomers, rulers and wise women.

But I would be really intrigued by this as well. For story telling purposes most characters in D&D have light or medium armor that can be convincingly worn all the time. So Jaheira should wear Leather or Chainmail at maximum (I don't think the game makes the distinction of metal armor). Considering Leather is only to protect you from small stabs and glancing blows she might as well just have a cleavage.

It's the (late) nineties...



I don't think so. I feel Jaheira is methodically stripped of her agency to serve as arm-candy for Abdel while simultaneously allowing the author to point at her and say: 'See? She is a powerful woman. She effectively divorced her husband and still dragged him along."

If I remember 90s TV shows and movies of the same quality (that all deal with female leads) it is entirely plausible. They make strong female leads that are still victim to their emotions and don't fall in love with the Prince Charming character at first but do so after a while. It is weird that I used Prince Charming and Abdel in relation to each other but he is as smart as I would except a romance novel lover to be.

The game doesn't make a distinction between metal and non-metal armor, exactly, but metal armors all have druid as a restricted class. Notably, the Ankheg Armor, which is better than plate mail, does not have that restriction as it is made from carapace, not metal.

Not that it matters, because Jahira is multiclass and can therefore use metal armor just fine. its just metal weapons she cant use.

[Spore]

If she were a proper druid she could cast healing spells. I feel druidic is just her belief system rather than her “class“ in the book.

[Keltest]

If she were a proper druid she could cast healing spells. I feel druidic is just her belief system rather than her “class“ in the book.

Well unless she's actually a wizard who happens to worship a nature goddess, I don't think she can be of a magic using class who cant heal, at least not in 2e rulesets. Paladins and rangers who are high enough level to cast spells get Cure Light Wounds as 1st level spells.

[ZeltArruin]

Well unless she's actually a wizard who happens to worship a nature goddess, I don't think she can be of a magic using class who cant heal, at least not in 2e rulesets. Paladins and rangers who are high enough level to cast spells get Cure Light Wounds as 1st level spells.

Rangers did not get the healing sphere in adnd 2e, which made me mad when I hit level 8 way back in the day in a pnp game. BG gives them all the druid spells.

[Spore]

*sigh* You don't understand what I meant, right? Being a Druid isn't about her class or magic in the book. She simply believes in Mielikki and Druidism. She is actually just a Fighter.

Spoiler: Minor question about the English language

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Would there be a difference between saying Druid and druid in the English language? My idea was 'druid' as being short for 'person following or practicing the druidic beliefs' and 'Druid' as in an actual priest of the druidic belief or the title of the class?

[Brance_a_Lot]

I was at my parents house this weekend and I actually found the Baldur's Gate book, so there's actually at least one person(my dad) who bought and read it!

I thought about grabbing it to read along, but I thought better

[CozJa]

I was at my parents house this weekend and I actually found the Baldur's Gate book, so there's actually at least one person(my dad) who bought and read it!

I thought about grabbing it to read along, but I thought better

You did good! That's a path Khay must walk alone!

[Keltest]

*sigh* You don't understand what I meant, right? Being a Druid isn't about her class or magic in the book. She simply believes in Mielikki and Druidism. She is actually just a Fighter.

Spoiler: Minor question about the English language

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Would there be a difference between saying Druid and druid in the English language? My idea was 'druid' as being short for 'person following or practicing the druidic beliefs' and 'Druid' as in an actual priest of the druidic belief or the title of the class?

She cast a spell though, didn't she?

Yes, she definitely cast a spell to get through those ridiculous flowers back at the Nashkel mines. Her class in Baldur's Gate is Fighter/Druid (she's a half-elf), which can make a somewhat convincing fake ranger, so I could understand if that's what he was going for instead of full druid caster.

[Kish]

*sigh* You don't understand what I meant, right? Being a Druid isn't about her class or magic in the book. She simply believes in Mielikki and Druidism. She is actually just a Fighter.

She has magic. She just doesn't have healing magic.

(If she specifically worships Mielikki rather than Sylvanus that's also a change from the game.)

I don't understand why you would want to defend Athans' decision to take out most of the magic when writing the novel adaptation, but specifically for "Jaheira is a fighter," the argument is dead on arrival. She still casts spells. She just doesn't cast useful spells.

[Keltest]

*sigh* You don't understand what I meant, right? Being a Druid isn't about her class or magic in the book. She simply believes in Mielikki and Druidism. She is actually just a Fighter.

Spoiler: Minor question about the English language

Show

Would there be a difference between saying Druid and druid in the English language? My idea was 'druid' as being short for 'person following or practicing the druidic beliefs' and 'Druid' as in an actual priest of the druidic belief or the title of the class?

In the Forgotten Realms, they would be the same thing. The druidic rituals and beliefs are what enables their spellcasting. If you were a ranger, you would have your own similar rituals and beliefs, and you probably hang out with druids and all worship the same deity, but you are not a druid because your rituals and behavior are different.

If youre just a random hunter who is neither a druid or a ranger, then you do no rituals at all except maybe some quick and dirty prayers to your favorite nature goddess for letting you live off the land in the way you do.

So no, you cannot be a follower of the druid order's specific religion without also being a druid in the class sense. Rangers are the half-brothers of druids (clerics are on the other side of the family) but are not themselves druids.

[Spore]

That's rather weird. But I have not healed people on my (Pathfinder) druid simply because the injuries were from stupidity and not actual combat. My character believed in the circle of life and survival of the fittest. But I don't think her belief in that is as strong as her sense of duty as a Harper.

[Khay]

For what it's worth, the issue of Jaheira not using healing magic is... well, it's not explained, but it is acknowledged as kind-of-weird in the second novel.

Spoiler: Sequel spoiler

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Abdel moved to embrace [Jaheira], but she pushed him away.
She closed her eyes and said, "In the name of Our Lady of the Forest, by the will of the Supreme Ranger, by the touch of the daughter to Silvanus."
Abdel felt a cool nettling pass over him, and when he touched his own chest, the pain from the cuts had gone away—the cuts themselves had healed.
"I didn't know you could do that," he whispered, shocked.
"I haven't been calling on Mielikki enough," Jaheira admitted, blushing, "or listening carefully enough to her call."

So yes, the canonical explanation is that Mielikki isn't a particularly helpful deity and/or that Jaheira isn't very good at being a druid.

You did good! That's a path Khay must walk alone!

♪ I walk a lonely road / The only one that I have ever known... ♫

---

Chapter 16 isn't all that bad, all things said and done. At the very least, it syncs up very well with the game, which is a rare treat.

Spoiler: The novel

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Last time, spider limbo. Today, spider hell proper.

The giant spider looked up and screamed. The sound was echoed by a shrill, mindless shriek from Jaheira.

Abdel almost screams himself, but is interrupted as ettercaps charge the group. Abdel and Xan draw their swords. Our hero suffers a few scratches and bites, but avoids getting poisoned. Jaheira, in the meantime, is paralysed first with fear, then spider silk.

Jaheira called, “Khalid,” and Abdel winced at both the name she chose as her possible savior and the woman’s most dire predicament. She was wrapped tightly in what looked like a net made from thick, strong strands of spider silk. Two of the hulking humanoid spider things were dragging her harshly through prickly underbrush and nest after nest of tiny crawling spiders.

This is what I mean when I say Jaheira never really does anything. She was allowed to participate in that bar brawl a few chapters back, but as soon as we need some high drama, it's scream-and-get-captured time.

Abdel tries to give chase, but trips over thick adhesive rope. He kills the ettercap responsible, just in time to see a giant humanoid spider bearing down on him.

“Torm save me,” Abdel called and sliced his sword back to his left, then right. (...) “Hold still,” the spider said, and Abdel flinched at the sound of its voice. (...) “Hold still, human, and let Kriiya drain you. Let Kriiya drain you dry.”

Oh hey, it's the quote from the inside cover! This should be interesting. I bet this is going to be an important-

Abdel fed the thing his sword, and the blade went into the spider’s mouth over a foot before meeting resistance. Blood and poison gushed from the dying thing’s mouth, and it convulsed so hard that Abdel nearly lost his grip on his sword. Its legs curled up under it with a loud crinkling sound that masked Jaheira’s scream enough so that Abdel only thought she screamed, “Daddy!” but couldn’t be sure.

Nope! Sworded to death in the next paragraph. I think this is the written equivalent of a movie trailer prominently featuring a celebrity who only gets a cameo appearance in the actual movie. I like that theory, because it implies Kriiya is a celebrity. If I focus hard enough on that diversion, I can probably shut out the part where Jaheira screams for her daddy. (I thought it was the spider on my first read, but pay attention to the pronouns. Kriiya could be a feminine name, but the narrative uses "it/its" for the spider, so the only one in this scene to whom the "she" could apply is Jaheira.)

Abdel finally has a moment to catch his breath, and looks around for Xan. Xan is described as an impressive swordman, much weaker but also much less sloppy than Abdel.

The elf’s sword was a bright blur in front of him, and to Abdel the blade resembled some kind of magical shield more than a sword, but there was no magic about it, the elf was good.

I genuinely have no idea if this is a nod to the game's moonblade or not, because Xan's moonblade actually does act as a magic shield. (In addition to being a +3 weapon, it grants an AC bonus and 50% fire resistance.) Xan's fancy swordwork takes down three ettercaps, but then the elf looks over to Abdel and loses his focus for a second.

The huge spider jumped on Xan’s back. It just came out of nowhere, and Abdel grunted in surprise along with the elf, who was pushed roughly forward and to his knees. Xan made eye contact with Abdel and looked confused. Abdel pulled at the web on his ankle and the skin started to tear. The sellsword screamed as he continued to pull away, leaving his skin behind.
The spider on Xan’s back opened its sideways jaws around the elf’s neck, and Xan, still looking at Abdel, realized what was about to happen.
“Xan!” Abdel screamed, still pulling himself off the web. “No!”
The spider’s jaws came together, and the elf’s head came off with a loud, crackling pop.

And that's the end of the line for Xan. ... no, really. Xan's death is even more unceremonious than Khalid's. Goodbye, poor elf. You were the best character in this book.

Abdel kills the spider, just a little bit too late, then looks around for Jaheira.

“She’s in there,” Korak said. Abdel looked up with a start. He’d forgotten about the ghoul. “They dragged the lady into there.” Korak pointed, and Abdel made to charge him. The ghoul ran away, and Abdel, panting, soaked in blood and venom, burning and bleeding and shaking, let him go. He turned in the direction the ghoul had pointed, to the center of the hellish clearing. It was a building.

Yes, you already said that last chap- you know what, nevermind.

What he saw there made him take two steps back. His knees shook, then gave out on him. He knelt on the uneven floor of the ghastly chamber and heaved once, then again, before he noticed that even the floor of the place was made from the desiccated husks of dead humans.

I'll say this much: Athans can think up some screwed-up stuff when he wants to. This mostly shows in the fighting scenes (which are full of gushing blood and spilling entrails), but sometimes he uses that talent in scene-setting as well. Consider this description of the spider queen:

Suspended in the center of the open space was a thing that once must have been a woman, maybe a human woman. It was tremendously, unnaturally fat, bloated and purple. Fold after fold of pale flesh dripped off the massive form[.] (...) . Abdel realized the spiders and their humanoid cousins were using this woman to breed, using her like a nursery, like an incubator, and Abdel retched again. (...) Sections of the woman’s pale, bloated flesh had been stripped away, eaten by her thousand crawling charges. Her face was a bruised, purple, venom-soaked mockery of the human form. One roll of flab actually fell across her forehead, blocking one eye. They were keeping her alive in here, alive but immobile, paralyzing her maybe with their poisons just to use her as a breeding ground.

Ew.

The woman (whose name turns out to be Centeol) tells Abdel to use fire for the webs, then asks for a favour.

“What have you done?” Abdel asked her. “What could you possibly have done to deserve this?”
“I fell in love,” she said sadly, “and that was enough.”
Abdel felt himself sob. It might have been the first time in his life he’d ever done that.
“Do I have to beg?” Centeol asked.
“What?”
“Kill me,” she said.
(...)
Abdel held his sword in both hands, reached up as high as he could, and pierced the cursed woman’s flesh with a single powerful stroke. Centeol grunted and died as her bloated abdomen ripped open. A torrent of blood, spent venom, spiders of a thousand species, and unborn ettercaps poured over Abdel.[/quote]

Once again: Ew.

Abdel walks out of the building with Jaheira in tow, dragging her to the nearest stream. He spends a few hours on a mixture of burning the webs away and crying, then Jaheira wakes up and cries as well, then they hold each other and cry together.

He lay down next to her, letting the water wash them both clean. She cried for a long time, and he held her there and cried too. After a time, they climbed out of the water, and Abdel tried not to look at her as he started to wash his clothes. She left her own filthy garments where they lay and just stood there, staring at his back, knowing, like he did, that they would never be apart again.

Ouch.

Spoiler: The game

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Last time, spider limbo. Today, spider hell proper.

... actually, you know what, let's just cast a few buffs first. That building doesn't look like a nice place at all.


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There. That's better.


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The building doesn't look much nicer on the inside. Centeol here (who has a unique sprite) initiates dialogue as soon as you enter.


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There's no way to avoid combat. If you insult her or ask about the Iron Throne, she turns hostile immediately. If you ask her about herself, well, she also turns hostile, but not before name-dropping a "Jon Icarus." Hmm.


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This is quite a fight. Centeol herself doesn't participate, but the chamber is full of spiders and ettercaps. This includes a few of the absurdly dangerous Sword Spiders, who have an AC of 3, a THAC0 of 12 and four attacks per round. We open combat with a bunch of save-or-suck spells from our spellcasters.


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Horror hits two of the sword spiders, and Entangle also roots two of them in place. (They're immune to Web, but Entangle works fine.) Note that the scared entangled spider still took off half of Khalid's health.


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The dodgy pathfinding works in our favour for a change as two spiders get trapped behind an ettercap. We use this opportunity to get a few arrows and healing potions in.


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The sword spiders are the real problem here. If you can kill them without taking any casulties, you basically survived the encounter.


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This leaves just Centeol. She's got the red circle around her bottom parts, but she's not actually attacking. Let's see if she makes more sense under the effect of Algernon's Cloak.


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... oh.


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We... grant her wish. Poor Chelak's body can be found in the mound of dirt behind her, as well as the sword Tiber was talking about. We take him back to his brother.


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This whole quest is kind of sad. This is what I was referring to when I said that resurrection magic is probably just a gameplay abstraction - the sword would certainly pay for a Raise Dead spell and then some.


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See? It's a nice sword. +2 weapons are hard to come by, and Free Action is a very useful effect.


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That about does it for this part of the Cloakwood. I don't want to run too far ahead of the book, but there's one more thing I want to show off:


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Specifically, the horrifying random encounters.


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Seriously, screw the Cloakwood.

Spoiler: Comparison and commentary

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I feel like I've talked about Jaheira's treatment enough for now. There's plenty of it yet to come, so we'll take it easy, gesture vaguely in the direction of the words "female disempowerment tropes" and move on to Centeol.

The spider lady's inclusion in the novel is... interesting. Athans mostly sticks to the critical path - no sidequests, no companions that aren't literally thrown at you, nothing. Even with the main quest, the author tends to streamline things. If something that shows up in the game also shows up in the novel, then it's important. (Apart from Korak. I still don't get it.)

Back in the day, you often saw message board speculation on whether this "Jon Icarus" is the same person as "Jon Irenicus" from the sequel. The journal entry triggered by Centeol's charm dialogue does confirm that this is meant to be a sequel hook, so I'm pretty sure the answer is "yes." Remember that I'm playing an old and unmodded version of Baldur's Gate - this was always in the game, not added by a later patch or Tales of the Sword Coast. (The Enhanced Edition indeed changed the name of the archmage to "Jon Irenicus," which feels revisionist, but I can see where they're coming from.)

Also, here's a fun fact: Centeol has non-generic stats to go with her unique sprite. They can't possibly matter and there's no in-game way to discover them, but here they are: STR 15, DEX 3, CON 15, INT 16, WIS 9 and CHA 3. Yeah, I can see that.

Remember that Athans was working off a preliminary script which didn't include eleventh-hour changes like the existence of Imoen. Centeol must've been in that version of the script, possibly alongside a hint that she should be included. The backstory also has to have existed, as Centeol makes a vague reference to love having gotten her into this situation. This leaves us with two possibilities: Either the bit about "Jon Icarus" and "Lady Tanova" wasn't in the script yet; or it was and Athans managed to miss the one bit of information that actually went on to be important. Centeol won't be referenced in SoA and Tanova... well, there's a vampire named Tanova, but that could be a coincidence. Still, there was no way for Athans to know any of this, and the scene kinda works on its own, so that's nice.

The writing surrounding the Centeol situation is pretty decent all around, which makes me think Athans would be much more at home writing low fantasy/horror fiction. Some Conan ripoff, perhaps. The loving attention to body horror detail is a sight to behold, and Athans is genuinely good at writing gorey combat scenes. They don't really show up in my posts because they're not all that interesting for the purposes of a Let's Read, but if you're looking for gushing blood and smoking poison and spilling entrails, you could do much worse than Athans.

Oh, and Xan dies. Unlike Khalid, Xan had a real presence in the party and actually added to the narrative; but also unlike Khalid, Xan's death is quick and won't weigh on the remaining party for long. His death is a little less shocking than Khalid's was, as he wasn't the first core party member to die. But on the other hand, killing off a second core party member cements the message that Anyone Can Die (except Abdel, obviously.) For all his many writing sins, Athans is actually quite good at avoiding character shields. Of course, this also means the party dwindles quickly. Abdel, as a character, just isn't particularly deep or interesting by himself. That's fair enough, but he really needs other characters to interact with. The burden now rests entirely on Jaheira. Whether that works or not... well, we'll see in the coming chapters.

[Spore]

I come closer and closer to trying to read the novel - in a German version since I want my effort to add something. I have read worse books and enjoyed myself. And while there are some books that suffer while being translated there are some examples were foreign editors save an abysmal script to being almost readable.

As for Centeol, Jon and Tanova, here's my theory:

Writers of BG 2 saw the NPC names and put them into the game. Not as an official character but rather a nod towards what has transpired. Tanova having spells - different than other vampires could be intentional to direct some attention at her. Also Jon was called Irenicus for being 'the Shattered One', aka exiled from elvenhood and severed from their Tree of Life. Maybe he was known as Icarus? Maybe his Elven name just translates terribly into common?

Honestly my opinion of Athans was improved aftert that bit. He can write just not under these circumstances. And after I have tried writing small passages for my P&P game on hiatus I have regained a bit of consciousness on how hard it is to write enjoyable prose. Discussing on forums and formulating your opinion in online threads is a vastly different challenge than setting a tone, adapting a writing style and developing characters. I'd go as far and say that Athans probably didn't like his novel very much. But he doesn't care because pausing for the perfect novel hampers his output. It's his words, not mine.

Q: What inspires you to write and how do you go about the process?
A: Phil: I just love telling stories. It’s really as simple as that. What keeps me going is the fact that no matter the peaks and valleys you experience in your career (this book sold very well, that one didn’t) there’s always another story in you, another fresh chance to find new readers and connect with people out there in the wide world.

The process is a much more complex question, but I’ll offer this advice: Try not to have one.

Yeah that sounds like the chaotic neutral of storytelling: http://www.thebolthole.org/blog/2011...philip-athans/

This interview is interesting for our purposes for two things.
- Athans has no process of writing. He churns them out and if they suck they stuck. Maybe a necessary adaption for the current age? So much gets produced and consumed that you'll need a constant flow going or you get drowned out of the market.
- He thinks the Forgotten Realms are often very complex and intimidating for newer audiences which I can completely agree. These people should read FR novels first and then delve into the games. Welp, they might be in for a ride with BG then...

The ultimate irony is still that he wrote a book to teach you how to write fantasy novels - and he is credited for one of the worst known video game books ever.

[Kish]

Bioware reuses names to a degree that's just short of ridiculous: the villain of BG2 has a name that's very close to one that shows up in BG1, in the Cloakwood Mine you fight the wizard Hareishan and in BG2 you fight the vampire Hareishan, and Jon Icarus' wife shares the name of another vampire from BG2. If one wants to try and make the repeated names make sense, I can't wait to read their explanation for the connection between Keldorn the paladin and Kelborn the Mandalorian, and Trask the templar and Trask Ulgo, the Republic soldier.

[Khay]

Or Habib Khalid Achmed Allafif, for that matter.

[CozJa]

Bioware reuses names to a degree that's just short of ridiculous: the villain of BG2 has a name that's very close to one that shows up BG1, in the Cloakwood Mine you fight the wizard Hareishan and in BG2 you fight the vampire Hareishan, and Jon Icarus' wife shares the name of another vampire from BG2. If one wants to try and make the repeated names make sense, I can't wait to read their explanation for the connection between Keldorn the paladin and Kelborn the Mandalorian, and Trask the templar and Trask Ulgo, the Republic soldier.

Don't be so harsh with them: at least the templar was Thrask Probably they are linked by a thread of... ehm... diying?

While Keldorn and Kelborn are linked by... well... being not so young and appearing in the sequel?

[Spore]

Honestly I have reused names as well. My first thief in online gaming was called Gaelan for crying out loud. And it is quite easy to construct fantasy names from syllables. Some names have a harmonic ring to it, some help portraying a character. Other would just ruin it.

Imagine if the villain in Legend of Zelda would've been named Tingle and the hero of the games would be Darunia.

[ZeltArruin]

I love reusing names and characters when I'm dming or writing my own character's back stories, sort of big-small world, I guess.

Also Xan's death just leaves me in awe.

[Wardog]

Realistically, names would be "reused".

In the real world, any given culture will have a pool of names (or name elements) that are drawn on. Plus, people are often named after other people (e.g. family members or famous people).

It's the standard fantasy trope of creating unique names by randomly mashing together letters or syllables that is unrealistic.

[Keltest]

Realistically, names would be "reused".

In the real world, any given culture will have a pool of names (or name elements) that are drawn on. Plus, people are often named after other people (e.g. family members or famous people).

It's the standard fantasy trope of creating unique names by randomly mashing together letters or syllables that is unrealistic.

I don't think its a trope, exactly, so much as a necessity to help make sure the audience can tell who is who. After a while you run out of "sara" and "james" type names, so you start to reach a bit.

Fun fact, I once saw the name of one of my Everquest characters (Kelthar) get named dropped in an R. A. Salvatore book as some random sailor. Ive never had any contact with the guy in my life, and that was the first time I had read the book, which was published well before I made the character, so we both independently came up with the same nonsense name.

[Spore]

A quick note regarding the resurrection thing that bugs you so much. Just because resurrection is available doesn't mean it still isn't a gigantic boon from a deity to any and all that request it. Rules aside I feel a resurrection is a MAJOR plot point and will understandably require a LOT of divine essence. Other world that has resurrection but not during major storylines is the Warcraft universe. Warcraft 3 has it made the right way imho. The Altar of Kings revives heroes that have a strong spirit that lingers after their death. But you cannot revive a nameless footman there. And low-mid level D&D heroes are in the transit phase between skilled peasant and known hero. And with deities still recovering from the Time of Sorrows maybe priests would just outright refuse to bring an idiot back to life who threw himself into a gelatinous cube.

You have to understand that the canon CHARNAME is a known and charming hero for ending the Iron Crisis and would get help from the local churches much much quicker than Abdel who is a nobody hunting some bandits in a spider infested hellhole and about as charismatic as the hole he pulled Korak out of.

Which in turn makes the Jaheira <-> Abdel chemistry that much more unbelievable. Abdel might be muscular and at times he even might be properly dressed and cleaned up. But his personality is that of stagnant water and his dialogue is about as smooth as the floor after he breaks yet another bottle of spirits while bashing a drunkard's head in.

[Keltest]

A quick note regarding the resurrection thing that bugs you so much. Just because resurrection is available doesn't mean it still isn't a gigantic boon from a deity to any and all that request it. Rules aside I feel a resurrection is a MAJOR plot point and will understandably require a LOT of divine essence. Other world that has resurrection but not during major storylines is the Warcraft universe. Warcraft 3 has it made the right way imho. The Altar of Kings revives heroes that have a strong spirit that lingers after their death. But you cannot revive a nameless footman there. And low-mid level D&D heroes are in the transit phase between skilled peasant and known hero. And with deities still recovering from the Time of Sorrows maybe priests would just outright refuse to bring an idiot back to life who threw himself into a gelatinous cube.

You have to understand that the canon CHARNAME is a known and charming hero for ending the Iron Crisis and would get help from the local churches much much quicker than Abdel who is a nobody hunting some bandits in a spider infested hellhole and about as charismatic as the hole he pulled Korak out of.

Which in turn makes the Jaheira <-> Abdel chemistry that much more unbelievable. Abdel might be muscular and at times he even might be properly dressed and cleaned up. But his personality is that of stagnant water and his dialogue is about as smooth as the floor after he breaks yet another bottle of spirits while bashing a drunkard's head in.

The resurrection thing is strictly a gameplay mechanic. In the original game, you literally cannot get any of your party clerics high enough level to be able to cast Raise Dead. Clerics of that power are extremely rare, and it also costs 5000 GP of diamonds to cast the spell by D&D rules. The only reason it even exists in the game is because there is otherwise no mechanic for replacing a character who wasn't gibbed, and 2e is extremely lethal.

[Khay]

Yeah, Raise Dead being readily available is clearly a gameplay thing. There are a few people who could reasonably be expected to be capable of casting Raise Dead, but it's a short list - probably just Tethtoril and the various high priests like Kelddath Ormlyr and Jalantha Mistmyr. It shouldn't be available at every single random temple, and the cost definitely shouldn't start at 100 GP. It's also notable that "plot deaths" cannot be undone. There are a few quests that involve you being too late to save the person in question, and you can only recover their dead body and/or deliver a memento of some kind to their surviving family. There's never an option to drag the corpse to a temple.

To clarify: My complaint isn't that Athans doesn't use Raise Dead in the plot. My complaint is that there was no reason for him to introduce it as an option. It really just causes trouble. Had Athans simply not mentioned it, I wouldn't be complaining (about this specific issue.) Yeah, you can justify not raising people by pointing out that Raise Dead really should be hard to come by, or by making sure the bodies end up destroyed, or something like that, but why spend that much time and effort on fixing a plot hole that didn't need to exist in the first place?

[Hagashager]

Many a party-wipe has been had at the hands of Tarnesh. Imoen plugging him with an arrow, or Xzar putting a spell into him, to disrupt mirror image and again to nullify horror are the only methods I ever found remotely reliable at surviving that mess.

You guy are all sissies, My superior intellect allowed me to do a solo-character playthrough of BG 1 as a mage.
I just triggered his AI and ran away before he could pop off fear. The Guards took care of him for me.

That's how men get it done.

this might be me giving the author more credit than he deserves, but reading your fourth post now, I think it's worth noting that Abdel, canonically, has average intelligence and below-average wisdom, and is Chaotic Neutral. You could argue the author deliberately made Abdel kind of dense because he literally isn't that wise, (introspection is a sign of maturity, which itself, is an extension of wisdom.) and has about as much critical thinking skills as an average commoner who's not really had a real opportunity to exercise his cognitive abilities beyond what he knows as his career. Add to it the fact that his alignment literally does not hold moral good or bad in any elevated regard, and one could, with a bit of mental gymnastics, justify Abdel not being much a magnetic personality.

Still doesn't excuse this being a poorly written piece of crap.

[Kish]

He is? The Abdel in BG1's "if you want to start with Tales of the Sword Coast" mission pack save is Neutral Good.

[Khay]

Abdel is, indeed, meant to be Chaotic Neutral. Dragon Magazine #262 ran an extended ad a special on the novel, including a profile on some of the characters. Abdel is indeed meant to be CN with mental stats on the bad side of average. I think WIS should probably be 7 as well, if we're going to justify his behavior, but hey.

Spoiler

Show

The problem with pinning down Abdel's alignment is that he just doesn't do much. Most of the time, the plot just drags him somewhere and he goes along with it. He decides to avenge Gorion's death, but that's something every alignment would be willing to do. He gets angry when his friends die, but... same thing. He expresses a highly cynical view regarding war on the Sword Coast, which could be read as TN ("Wars happen and that sucks, but you have to look out for #1") or even NE ("I don't care who suffers, it's a good business opportunity"). That's... kind of it?

(I'll be saving the commentary - and the other profiles - for when we're done with this book. They say a lot about how the characters are supposed to be. It'll be interesting to compare that with what we actually see in the novels / the games.)

[Spore]

With a face like that I can now see how Jaheira cannot resist him. The sassy "help I am tortured but commanded to smile" grin, that manly Neanderthal forehead, the luscious mane (which romance novel hero hasn't got one these days?) and the fact that he specializes in "murderous frenzy". Watch out ladies, the battlefield isn't the only place where Abdel wants to see blood.