When I regained consciousness, I couldn't make sense of my surroundings. I couldn't look around, feel anything. I couldn't feel my own body. The only thing I could perceive, was a menu. At the top of the menu were the words, "Character Generation", in a familiar stylized font. More familiar was the music playing in the background, the menu screen music for the 1998 hit game Baldur's Gate.
Was the menu in front of me? No, rather there was only the menu. I wasn't really present, at least not physically. I seemed to have command over the cursor even though I had no hand to move a mouse. Some "Character Generation" choices were already made.
Gender: Male
Race: Halfling
As a matter of fact, a portrait of a boyish-looking halfling with black, ruffled hair was featured on the right side of the menu. Facing to the right, to show off the pointy ear, I guess.
I struggled hard to remember what happened prior to this point. Sitting in a plane. The screams around me as it crashed. Someone telling me that I was going to be reborn into another world. In consideration of the tragic circumstances of my passing, I was granted some choices in how I was to be reborn.
Huh. That last bit seemed rather important. In spite of the importance of these events, it was difficult to hold on to a lot of the finer details. Maybe being a disembodied consciousness without a brain had something to do with it. Or maybe that was an intentional part of the process to let those who passed away move on to their next life.
Don't we normally get to meet a beautiful and enchanting goddess who explains things before transmigration? What a rip off!
Anyway, I've been given the chance to live again and choose what I want to become, huh? To get such an opportunity in a game is one thing, but for my actual life? Although pretty standard for any isekai, but I had to admit it was a good deal. Fine, I'll take back my rip off comment.
The setting I'm going to live in is Faerun, specifically the events of the Bhaalspawn Saga at Baldur's Gate, huh? Was that my choice or the celestial being's? Or both? I couldn't recall, but knowing myself I'm fairly certain I had some say in the matter since Baldur's Gate was my comfort game. Besides, living as the chosen one from said computer role-playing game opened up huge possibilities. The end of the Bhaalspawn Saga of the original Baldur's Gate trilogy literally had the option of ascending into godhood, after all. Can't get any better than that.
Although, getting to the end though could be tricky. Baldur's Gate is considered difficult for the uninitiated to classic role-playing games, and that is with the availability of loading saved games. I don't recall being offered something as convenient as loading to a preset point whenever I mess up or die. It was highly doubtful I had such an advantage, which meant I was going to be playing Baldur's Gate on Ironman mode. My companions can be raised from the dead with magic, but if I'm the main character, due to plot reasons, I can't be allowed to die. At all.
And yet, I was pretty darn experienced at this old game myself. I remembered where the best stuff was located and how to complete quests with optimal rewards. Furthermore, I knew all the best character generation combos in the game. A human dual-classing from Berserker into Mage was arguably the most powerful due to the raw power, immunities while berserk and flexibility offered by access to magic. An elven fighter/mage multiclass, while not as strong, was still incredibly potent. A half-elven fighter/druid multiclass could temporarily become almost invincible, which mattered a great deal when only I could not ever be allowed to die. For pure classes, the Dwarven or Half-Orc Kensai was the most offensively powerful martial character in the game. Heck, any pure mage or cleric was a powerhouse to be reckoned with. So many OP options available, it would take me hours to decide what to settle on if this was to be the rest of my life.
I considered the choices already keyed-in the menu; male, halfling. I didn't have a mouth, but I felt like laughing at whoever chose that. None of the well-regarded combos used *that* race. Even lame races like gnomes (ew) had decent class options such as fighter/illusionists or the very unique cleric/illusionist which opened up interesting sequencer and contingency spell combinations. Halflings had just Fighter, Cleric, Thief, and Fighter/Thief. Worse, halflings have both a Strength and a Wisdom penalty, so they're terrible options for fighters and clerics. Didn't leave many options left, did it?
This was going to be my new life, and it was going to be filled with an obnoxious number of dangers that nobody should ever be subject to. And knowing the plot of the game, I knew there was no way to avoid said dangers; I would be actively hunted down by pursuers. If I was going to survive, I needed to increase my chances by taking the most powerful and flexible options available. Power was key to survival.
I willed the cursor to move to the 'back' button and clicked so I could re-select my race.
The portrait of the black-haired halfling continued looking to the right. The selected choice was still 'halfling'.
It was then I noticed. Why the hell is the 'back' button greyed out?!?
If I could scream, I would have right then and there. Who the hell thought it was fair to lock me into the halfling race? It's the absolute lamest race in all of Dungeons and Dragons whose only specialty is providing thief skills, only added in to appease Lord of the Ring fans. Halflings are only half the size of regular-sized races. They are like the background characters of the fantasy world.
What is the point of becoming an adventurer if you don't get to look cool?
Playing as a halfling temporarily was bad enough, but actually being one for your whole life? Who decided to play this horrible prank on me? I didn't even get to pick a nicer portrait for my halfling!
…huh, that portrait isn't one I recognise actually. Certainly not part of the default set that originally came with the original game. Maybe my look and race was locked-in due to some metaphysical consideration. For example, the form for my soul to inhabit has already been determined, or something? I really wish I had a goddess to explain it to me now. That way I could give her a piece of my mind. I really wanted to know which blasted goddess was playing this horrible prank on me in the first place.
From the point of view of said blaster goddess, the halfling goddess with long black hair and dark eyes sat over a viewing pool while munching on a stuffed egg-battered toast. She had been watching the player click on the 'back' button in vain and heard his inner thoughts. She stuck out her tongue and pulled down an eyelid. "Who would want to appear in person and listen to your complaints, dummy? Blek."
"Blek?"
Another halfling goddess was standing nearby, bemused by the darker goddess's antics. This goddess was dressed in green and yellow with long flowing brown hair raised her eyebrow, and had a more matron-like countenance. She sat next to her dark counterpart, took the toast out her hands and took a bite before returning it. "Having fun, are we?"
The darker halfling goddess frowned a moment at the bite in her toast, before smiling at her counterpart and winking. "When in an isekai, one must follow certain conventions, after all."
Crap. I need to salvage this somehow. Being a lame-ass race doesn't matter once you become a god, after all. It's perfectly possible to complete the original trilogy with whichever class combination. Much harder than if you were an actual OP race and class combo, but doable. I wasn't trying to complete a solo challenge, after all.
I begrudgingly clicked on the 'class' option to confirm what I remembered. Yeap, just Fighter, Cleric, Thief and Fighter/Thief. This was Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (ADnD), not 5th edition (5E), so those were the only options. No halfling Paladins for me (not that I'd want to make a halfling paladin). Not even a Mage option. And I like playing Mages.
In ADnD, what did halflings offer? A bonus to Dexterity and +1 to ThacO (I'll explain Thac0 later) with slings. SLINGS of all things! Slings gain a bonus to damage from good Strength scores, but hey, guess what? Halflings have a strength penalty. That Strength penalty also meant that the halfling were lousy at backstabs, the one thing that made thieves in ADnD cool and dramatic. If I wanted a backstab specialist, the half-orc with the assassin kit for the thief would have been ideal.
I COULD pick cleric. Halflings are an absolutely terrible choice for a cleric since they have a Wisdom penalty as well. But at least it's a cleric and not a thief. Who cares that halflings make for the worst clerics?
Well, I cared. At the end of the day, role-playing games are team games. Each member of the party has a role to fulfill. Being the one taking up the cleric slot on the team while being a subpar cleric meant I was the weakest link on the team. In a team, the whole team benefits from each member fulfilling their role as well as possible. Picking personal power and glory over efficiency was a stupid move to make when my very life was on the line.
Really, from the way I'm thinking it through I already know what halflings are good at. It's just that I didn't want to admit it.
Halflings are ADnD's premier thief class. Both halflings and elves have a bonus to Dexterity which help thieving skills, yes, but on top of that halflings have a further bonus to thieving skills over an elf. Just the mundane thieving skills, not the awesome backstabs. So it was down to thief or fighter/thief.
There's the other quandary. You needed thieving skills throughout the game, yes, but there was a limit to how much thieving skills a party needed. Whereas for combat, well, ADnD and Baldur's Gate by extension is extremely combat-focused, while the use of thieving skills is something that pops up only occasionally. Past a certain point in the game, higher thief skills were somewhat superfluous, not really contributing more to the team. You need some thieving skills, but you don't need them to keep upgrading them. There wasn't a point.
Fighter/thief it was then. Which meant I would need to carefully pick and choose which thief skills to prioritise.
I certainly took my time, as balancing out a thief skill and weapon selection was a tricky affair. In the end I settled with the following:
Alignment: Neutral Good.
Ability scores
Strength 17
Dexterity 19
Constitution 18
Intelligence 11
Wisdom 7
Charisma 18
Proficiencies:
Quarterstaff ++
Sling +
Two-handed Weapon Style+
Pick Pockets: 35
Open locks: 60
Find Traps: 20
Move Silently: 35
Hide in Shadows: 35
Detect Illusion: 0
Set Traps: 25
All that was left was the name. Names are important. Names follow you around forever. Normally I'd use my typical gamer handle for in-game playthroughs, but somehow I doubted the locals would react well to 'superleet2001' when I met them in person. I wanted something original, yet not too cringe-y or try-hard-ey, if such a word exists. Nothing like that sounded like I wanted to be a "Dark Lord" wannabe, that would be too on the nose. Certainly not belonging to a different setting like Klien or Kim or Fang Yu. Have to keep in mind I'm a halfling in Faerun. But it wasn't as if I had a list of common halfling names in Faerun at hand.
Something innocuous sounding, yet original. Somehow, if those two things could go together. An idea came to me, and I keyed in a name confidently.
"Sonny"
Super original! Nobody would actually be named Sonny I'm sure, and yet since Sonny is a common term of affection it wouldn't be too unusual for someone to be called that. Super innocuous yet original. Perfect for a thief, a thief of legend even!
Before I knew it, I was blinking my eye open in the light. Before me was the back of a mighty medieval fortress, and above was the bright sunlight was tickling my eyes. I kind of forgot how bright this world was.
Said western gothic castle was Candlekeep. Sonny's home, my home. I remembered my beloved foster father, Gorion, had been distant lately, considering some sort of problem. Just moment ago, Gorion gave me some money to prepare for a journey away from home. Very urgent, but he wouldn't say why.
…beloved? Huh, I seem to have inherited not just the memories of my main character, but some of his affection as well. Go figure.
Spoilers, I knew why we had to leave. Although I was just an orphan who didn't know my own parents, someone with means wanted me dead. Heck, there were already assassins hiding in Candlekeep right now. So, I had to be some sort of nobility, some royalty's bastard child caught in political intrigue, right?
Well, that's not completely wrong. But, more spoilers, it's a bit more metaphysical than that.
So yes, we had to leave. I needed to buy provisions and equipment from the inn just behind me. Though I already had my main weapon of choice. A quarterstaff was already in my hand, and I was standing…
Huh? Why was I so close to the ground? Am I lying down? I tried to stand, but quickly found I was already standing up straight.
Oh, right. I'm just really, really short. Wow, transmigration into a body of a totally different height was seriously disorienting. Right behind me were the doors to the Candlekeep Inn, where my foster father Gorion wanted me to buy supplies for our travel. Considering my disorientation however, I had other concerns right now though.
I stepped out of the way of the door and checked my hands. My short, stubby arms ended in proportionally larger hands. Maybe my hands were the same size as the taller folk, which would enable me to use their weapons without issue. Uh, with less issue. My legs were short and stubby too, but my feet were something else entirely. Not only were they bigger, but man that fuzz was something else! The soles of my feet were also so thick. No wonder hobbits, er, halflings didn't wear shoes.
I patted my flat stomach tentatively. Thankfully I didn't appear to have a potbelly that Tolkien originally assigned Hobbits in the Lord of the Rings. Feeling my ears, apparently they were pointed like I saw in the portrait earlier. Wondered what else was different.
Wait. Just hold on one second. My mouth gaped open as a horrible thought occurred to me.
I grabbed my staff and pushed through the doors of the inn.
"Welcome to Candlekeep Inn! My hotel's as clean as an elven arse," Winthrop, the innkeeper said, grinning mischievously, "And hello there little one, rushing about. Don't forget the 10,000 gold piece book entrance fee-"
I slammed a gold coin on the table. "Winthrop, please give me a room right now. I just need to check something quickly," I said quickly, not minding the fact that I didn't recognize my own voice.
Winthrop, the normally good-humoured bald fat guy that he was, frowned at my lack of reaction at his joke. He slid the money back to me. "If ye're not actually staying the night, I won't take ye're money son. Just don't mess up the room or bed. Second room on the left is free."
I slipped the coin back into my pocket and ran up the stairs while shouting back, "Thanks Winthrop!"
Into the first room, slam the door behind me. There's a mirror, great, let's use it. I looked down at myself in the mirror, and gulped in anticipation. I pulled my shirt up, revealing a fuzzy stomach above pants secured by drawstring. I undid the string, and pulled the pants down.
Below in the inn, Winthrop was cleaning glasses when a shrill cry was heard from the rooms above, making him look. Nearby, an elf in robes by the table nearly spilled the wine he had been enjoying.
Winthrop shook his head and got back to cleaning glasses. "Boys these days…"