Do you want your main character to start with some unique powers or not?

[harhar!]

I'd actually like the main char to be completely predefined like in PS:T. Just for the fact that people should react differently on different genders, bodysizes, races, whatever and it would probably be too much effort to put that all in. So of course the PC can have unique storyrelevant powers.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

I wouldn't mind a regular, ordinary adventurer who hasn't been chosen to save the world or is in the possession of magics that are not the norm.

[Muzrub333]

I don't want to start out special at all. I want to be just a normal schmo, who stubbles, or is pulled, into something extraordinary. The adventure, and how I deal with its various pitfalls, should dictate to a degree who/what I become. Let me stumble upon ancient secrets that perhaps unlock latent powers, that all of us posses, but only a few have ever unlocked. Have the accumulation of souls unlock knowledge or power that manifests itself in unique, and (hopefully) frightening ways.

 

I want to be an everyman, who evolves into a superman.

[Labadal]

I don't mind if we get some unique abilities down the line, but I'd like to start as a regular adventurer.

[Amentep]

I like the ideas of backgrounds ala Arcanum where your stats or abilities may be shifted based on who you were before the game started and is recognized in the game.

 

I'm not that crazy about having innate special abilities because I'm a special birth ala Bhaal Powers like in BG series.

 

But that's just me.

[Wirdjos]

I wouldn't mind a little power push in the beginning and have it build along with the story. I actually have the opposite problem as the one a lot of people who have already posted seem to have, I need some special trait to explain to me why I'm beating group after group of trained soldiers or what not. You'd think I would have caught a stray blade or something after ten or twenty tough battles. But I think Obsidian has already pointed out a mechanic to act as a compromise, the awakened souls. You could have 'the event' (don't think about the event) 'awaken' a bit of your soul/past lives thus granting you a power boost. The game could then give you further opportunities to increase your awakeness as part of the story. This would not be a route closed to normal people, just not an easy or often followed one. Thus you would be playing an average guy or gal that was forced into this weird circumstance and became stronger due to it.