I have begun work on an NPC mod.

He will be a halfling thief. Now, don't start screaming "We have to many thieves already!" I have hardly seen mods that include halfling NPC's (Alora is the only one I know) and I just imagine halflings as being thieves and nothing else. Needless to say, I dislike Mazzy!

I'm no artist, but I scraped up this portrait for him. I may want to change it later.



His name is Halbo and he is an over-sized Halfling. He has a tendency to rub other party members the wrong way -- intentionally if he can. Though he has no problems with verbal warfare, he prefers to avoid real battle if possible. He is highly-skilled with a sling (including called shot ability), but at a cost.

He will be available somewhere in the Druid Grove.

His stats are:

STR: 15
DEX: 19
CON: 17
INT: 13
WIS: 8
CHA: 11

Total: 83

For starters, I intend to just make him a basic character. He will have plenty of banters with the other NPCs, plus some interjections. Later I would like to add his own special quest and items.

I'm open to ideas.

I posted a story using Halbo here: Story

Congrats on the start of a new project.
A question, if you don't mind.

What is his alignment?
An "oversized halfling"? A halfling a little taller than most, or a halfling the size of a human? (I certainly don't hope for the latter)

Ah, forgot to put in his alignment. For now, he's at chaotic neutral, although I'm not 100% sure he'll stay that way. It depends on how he develops as I go along.



Right, he's a large halfling, but still a shorty compared to the humans. Hmm...interesting idea, though...a cross between a fire giant and a halfling...

Heheheh.
Yes, I was thinking chaotic neutral when I read the first post.
Good luck in the development of your character. I'm sure he'll be popular. I agree that halflings, gnomes and dwarves are underrepresented.

What's the benefit of 17 score of CON for a thief? He won't gain hp bonus for constitution over 16. I suggest to lower the constitution to 16 and add the extra point to one of his other stats.

Sometimes a character's stats reflect his/her character, regardless of gameplay-usefulness. Not everyone views the game in such a tactic way. But you are right about the HP bonusses, of course.

Originally I had forgotten about that constitution thing, but later I decided to keep it that way for the reasons mentioned by Moongaze.

If I did anything with that extra point, I'd just get rid of it rather than placing it in another stat.

Thanks for pointing it out anyway. I tend to miss obvious stuff like that sometimes!

Carnifex

I wasn't satisfied with the original portrait as it didn't reflect my NPC's personality, so I spent a few more hours working on a different one. Here are two versions.



I know that Bioware portrayed halflings as having pointed ears (Montaron, Alora), but I tend imagine them as they are in the Lord of Rings (in which you can't see the ears under the hair and therefore they must look normal ). However, since this is supposed to blend with the BG2 style, perhaps I should modify the ears. Maybe I should swirl the background some, too.

Comments?

It isn´t bad at all, but if you want really a perfect one, try visit nwvault.ign.com. Although the site is dedicated to NWN and NWN2, there´s a lot of useful stuff, portraits especially. Just navigate your own via menu on the left side to portrait section and I´m pretty sure you´ll find some that will suit your needs...

I usually do this when I´m trying to get some portraits for my NPCs... Either way at least it´s worth viewing.

other than he looks to 'nice/good' for a CN character it is a better pic for IE than the last one.
probably not a bad idea to play with the background a bit either.
To me, haflings have always been more related to dwarves or humans than elves, so the ears are fine.

Well, I agree that his wide grin seemed a bit out of place, but I tend not to go along with the idea that evil characters have to look mean, rugged, or ugly, or that good characters have to look angelic (Keldorn certainly doesn't!) with neutral being somewhere between. I think movies have ingrained that in us.

I'm trying to give him more of a mischievous look. The edited version is now alongside the first one. His goofy grin has been replaced with a smirk, plus the background is changed. Better, I think, but he still looks "nice".


I looked that over plus a bunch of other sites I found. It's tempting to want to grab a pre-made portrait, but I think that I'd still like to make my own. There's more of a sense of accomplishment that way. Plus, I enjoy the challenge.

Thanks for all the input!