10 replies to this topic

[Nal'shu]

Hello and welcome to The Surgeon NPC! The atoning brother of Davaeorn makes a return appearance in Amn, and might just travel alongside your Bhaalspawn.

What are his game statistics?

He is a male human of lawful neutral alignment, and his class is a mage dual classed to cleric, with a faith in Ilmater. He walks around in wizard robes.

His BG1 stats are: 12 strength, 17 dexterity, 16 constitution, 16 intelligence, 11 wisdom, and 8 charisma. I find this makes him a bit useless at his current profession, so I suggest altering these a bit. He was never meant to join the party in BG1 anyway.

BG2 stats: 12 strength, 11 dexterity, 16 constitution, 16 intelligence, 17 wisdom, and 8 charisma. It makes him useful, but not too much. I am not a powergamer.

What is his name?

He is always referred to as The Surgeon. You may discover his true name under certain circumstances.

Will he be romanceable? Is there a friendship?

There will not be a romance. He has other priorities at present. There will however be extensive dialogue with NPC's and the PC.

Will you include quests?

Yes, he will have at least one quest in SoA, possibly two. In ToB, I can only say "maybe".

How about crossmod content?

I would be willing to participate.

What is he like?

He is a middle-aged man that feels guilty of sin, because he could not kill his brother and thus prevent his brother causing grief, suffering and death to many. It led him to give up the path of a wizard, and seeking out Ilmater's blessing. He now travels along the Sword Coast, healing and assisting anyone he comes across. He hopes that by doing this, he will atone for his sin. His sin weighs heavily on him, it exhausts him, and he may not always be the most pleasant conversationalist, but he is driven in what he does. He follows Ilmater's will, and despite doing good deeds, he remains lawful neutral.

Edited by Nal'shu, 13 December 2010 - 12:35 AM.

[Miloch]

I like this idea, though it would also be cool to make him joinable in BG1.

His BG1 stats are: 12 strength, 17 dexterity, 16 constitution, 16 intelligence, 11 wisdom, and 8 charisma. I find this makes him a bit useless at his current profession, so I suggest altering these a bit. He was never meant to join the party in BG1 anyway.

BG2 stats: 12 strength, 11 dexterity, 8 constitution, 15 intelligence, 16 wisdom, and 9 charisma. It makes him useful, but not too much. I am not a powergamer.

He needs a 17 wisdom to be able to dual to a cleric. Also, why nerf *both* his dexterity and constitution? Those are great scores for a mage without being too overpowered (in any case, that's what the unmodded game gave him). I think it'd almost be cool to leave him a wizard but give him some kit that lets him focus on healing (maybe like Geomantic Sorcerer, though that suits a druidic sort of character a bit better). A necromancer who duals to cleric could work too, as "necromancy" (despite its connexion with the dead) has to do with healing also. But he'd need the wisdom just to be a necromancer (requires a 16). Oddly, he could be something like an invoker dualed to thief without even modifying his stats at all, but I suppose that doesn't really suit his character.

[Nal'shu]

Very well, I suppose some changes are in order. I am a bit reluctant to change his class, however. In my vision of him, he should be a mage dualled to cleric (of Ilmater). A kit is a possibility, but a lot of complicated work for a *cough* newbie like myself. I am not saying no to it, just not now. A necromancer dualled to cleric is possible, but I am unsure. I agree that a mage/thief does not fit in with his character, and that would simply be changing class to fit the stats he was given. I would rather tweak his stats.

I was unaware that the game requires 17 wisdom for a dualclass to cleric. I am willing to rectify that. But I should not downgrade both his dexterity and constitution? Which one should be downgraded then? I am thinking constitution. I do not quite agree with 16 dexterity, 16 constitution, 16 intelligence AND 17 wisdom (nor 11 wisdom for that matter), with only an average strength and below average charisma. And even after the constitution tweak, I would prefer to lower dexterity and intelligence by 1 point each. But to each their own. Some say Bioware's standards are the default ones, others prefer to make powergamer characters with 18 everything, and again others prefer somewhat "weaker" characters that are still useful.

[yarpen]

It's going to be nice to see him facing the true evil of Irenicus, Bodhi, Dragons, Demons, Liches and Demiliches, Beholders and stuff. Maybe then he'll finally say "screw this" and start to live again.

[vilkacis]

A few notes on stats:

• Average stat totals for BG2 characters is 82.5 (83.2 in ToB).
• The lowest stat total is Minsc with 73. (The highest is Keldorn with 89, beaten only by Mr. ToB with 95).
• All characters have at least one stat that is average (10) or worse. (You have this covered.)

Your adjusted stats are low (71). Even the original stats are still below average (80) and I doubt anyone would accuse you of powergaming if you kept them (and you can just swap DEX and WIS and you have a legal mage->priest dualclass).

I'm usually the first to whine about overpowered NPC ideas, but as nice as it is to see someone take it in the opposite direction, you don't have to go that far. Even if you bump up your current WIS by one point, you'd still only end up with 72 points, and you definitely don't need to reduce them any more than that. (I'm not going to stop you if you want to do it, of course, but anyway.)


As for the class, it's no more complicated to do a necro->cleric dual than a wiz->cleric. It's just a matter of clicking mage->necro rather than mage->generalist in character creation.

[Cal Jones]

I like the idea very much, but as vilkacis says, those stats are very low. Having only 8 con would make him rather squishy and prone to being tired a lot, and yes he'd need 17 wis, although a few of the Bioware NPCs have illegal stats, so it's up to you, really. Personally, I'd go with a modified version of the original stats, swapping dex and wis as Miloch suggests: 12 strength, 11 dexterity, 16 constitution, 16 intelligence, 17 wisdom, and 8 charisma.

[Miloch]

Yeah, I think swapping wis and dex would be acceptable. It makes a bit more sense to have a high con, because you can always give the guy an item that boosts his AC or dex (from a "gaming" perspective - I wouldn't call it powergaming). But consider this from a roleplaying perspective: would a "surgeon" be more likely to be agile or healthy? Well, I wouldn't want a clumsy surgeon operating on me! But I guess an average dexterity isn't exactly clumsy.

[Nal'shu]

Personally, I do not consider Bioware's stats to be either fair or necessary. But since I am modding a BG1 NPC, I can let this belief of mine go. I gave it some thought, and agree with the suggestion of 12 strength, 11 dexterity, 16 constitution, 16 intelligence, 17 wisdom, and 8 charisma. The necromancer specialist is something that can be considered. Based on the dialogue I will write, I might be able to include it as a choice during install.

[Drizzle]

I'll grant you, the Bioware stats are high (very high) by typical 2e PnP standards but I'd suggest they are a necessity given that the game and all the mods have been balanced around them. The vanilla game could be completed on core rules with less generous values but once you start to increase the difficulty (or install SCS) it all pans out quite neatly.

Of course, it's your choice as to how you create your NPC but if he's not up to the "baseline" potential players might think twice before burdening their party with a weak link. He sounds very interesting so I think that would be a shame.

[berelinde]

I always liked this guy in BG1. Why was he wandering around healing the party for no good reason? It was just one of the many ideas that was never really expanded enough to suit my curiosity. It will be interesting to see what you do with him.

[Nal'shu]

Hopefully I will be able to turn him into an enjoyable NPC. I have not been able to work on it lately, due to increased job activity. After the holidays it will likely be somewhat calmer, and I can work on it again.