An alcoholic NPC

[Drew]

Question. What (if any) effects are being a hard core alcoholic (not a drunk) going to have on an NPC. I 'm not talking about a lush. What I'm talking about, here, is the kind.the kind of hard core maintenance drinker who never gets drunk.....who finishes his day with a nightcap that could kill an elephant and starts it the same way. He drinks all day, non-stop, every day....and his beleagured liver never gets a break. He's the kind of stone cold sober dude a policeman expects to pass the breathalyzer......until he blows .3. Aside from the fact that he'll probably die inside of 10 years, what kind of stat/thieving skill penalties is this guy going to have?

[Simbriant]

Hm, well, since this guy has basically drunk himself sober, maybe he should suffer the same penalties as a PC that is drunk except the negatives are halved? Of course, if he ever actually gets drunk then his intoxication penalties should be more severe (such as he receives the normal intox penalties on top of his alcoholic penalties).

 

This also brings up the question that since he is a professional alcoholic, if the player does not keep up with the NPCs drinking habit, will he begin to suffer penalties for withdrawal?

 

That's just my opinion though.

 

Something interesting to create if you did manage to pull a mod like this off would be to create a drunken master kit for the monk.

[Andyr]

Question.  What (if any) effects are being a hard core alcoholic (not a drunk) going to have on an NPC.  I 'm not talking about a lush.  What I'm talking about, here, is the kind.the kind of hard core maintenance drinker who never gets drunk.....who finishes his day with a nightcap that could kill an elephant and starts it the same way.  He drinks all day, non-stop, every day....and his beleagured liver never gets a break.  He's the kind of stone cold sober dude a policeman expects to pass the breathalyzer......until he blows .3.  Aside from the fact that he'll probably die inside of 10 years,  what kind of stat/thieving skill penalties is this guy going to have?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Did you post this drunk?

[Drew]

Did you post this drunk?

Yes, but that's beside the point. It really is part of my NPC concept that I've been working on and writing off and on for a while. He won't have any issues aquiring alcohol, since he has one of those everfilling flasks.....except it's enchanted to hold whiskey or dwarven spirits instead of water. In all seriousness, the alcoholism will barely even play into the mod, though, unless the PC chooses to make an issue of it. It'll probably take a while for the player to even notice that he's a hardcore drinker. The idea, here, is that he's one of those "sober drunks" who hasn't had a BAC lower than .15 at any point in years.

[Simbriant]

Just a note: His everfilling flask would probably take up an item slot much like Boo does for Minsc. Trying to take it away from him would probably be amusing.

[Drew]

Just a note:  His everfilling flask would probably take up an item slot much like Boo does for Minsc.  Trying to take it away from him would probably be amusing.

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Yep.

[BigRob]

I've heard a couple of stories from someone who knew this kind of drinker personally. Supposedly, if he was sober, he could barely do anything, but with enough of a drink in him, he could climb like a monkey. Apparently he did his job well and didn't mess up significantly more than most. Not that many people were all the comfortable to work with him.

 

I assume there'd be some penalties across the board if the NPC were drunk enough, but I think they'd have something to do with how bad the drinking has made his general health at the time. If he was still in relatively good shape then something small, maybe 5% for all skills if he's in the sweet spot. If he's actually sober, then those penalties would probably get very severe.

[Drew]

Probably a 1 point thac0 penalty, too?

[BigRob]

I don't think a 1 or even 2 point penalty would be unreasonable. Finding chinks in armour/defences would be a pretty taxing for most people anyway.

[Thauron]

Long term alcoholics won't suffer that much physically, until the liver says bye bye, that is.

 

But what I noticed with people with bad drinking habits is that their personality starts to change, not in a pleasant way, becoming less and less emphatic, less open to others, more self-absorbed, a pleasant sense of humour catching on an extremely cynical twist,...

 

So I would think the Charisma and Wisdom should suffer the most.

[Drew]

True enough, but the stats wouldn't actually lower. He would merely have a penalty to situations that require those stats.