@aosaw Yea I have places to be tonight which prevent me from getting more into this. But basically since this is an issue solely in BG2EE, and since players who aren't already aware of the wild mage will be introduced to them and their effects while playing BG1EE I don't feel there is a need to fully eliminate the "get rid of all your gold" part of the game. Heck, since many of these new players will be on tablets, and may not even choose to buy the DLC that includes Neera. Many won't even have these issues we are talking about. It is only going to be those select few who choose to not read the wild surge table, who choose to buy and use Neera, and who choose not to carefully approach how they play the game that are going to get burned. There is something to be said for not having too much hand holding when you have a class like this in a game, and I think the suggestions I proposed are pretty reasonable to both old and new players.
I think the suggestions you proposed don't solve the problem, because they require the player to play a game in a way that is compromised. It has nothing to do with the class's balance, and everything to do with completing that one quest. It's idiotic game design to intentionally leave something like this as-is, because it creates a scenario where the player can't hope to succeed.
There is NO OTHER PLACE in the game that is like that, which leads me to believe--and should lead anyone playing the game to believe--that no one should expect to ever be put into a situation like that.
Your solutions are:
A) Put all your expensive stuff you don't want in a chest somewhere! It makes total sense that you would randomly scatter your stuff across the realms rather than actually sell it for gold you can use!
If this happens, turn into a petty thief and just steal a bunch of stuff from the local merchants! After all, you're already helping out one of two big underworld players, right?
Both of these solutions are great, if you happen to be playing a character or in a party for which that makes sense. A halfling that likes to hang on to his possessions, or a petty thief who has no compunctions about stealing to get things done, would be perfectly fine for your scenarios.
Your solutions are stupid to any player who wants to play the game differently. Offer a solution that doesn't require the player to break character or alignment. Offer a solution that doesn't involve reloading or cheating.
Offer any kind of solution that might have been intended by the developers as a way to resolve that quest if the player gets hit with #17.
The Wild Mage was introduced with Throne of Bhaal, after Shadows of Amn was released. It was designed with Throne of Bhaal in mind. It wasn't designed with the Bodhi/Gaelan quest in mind. But in order for it to be a viable option for players, it needs to be designed with that in mind. Because if you fail that quest, you don't get to play the rest of the game.
@Dragonfolk2000 Seems to me that the party in BG2 who try to kill you and then reload when they die is poking fun at this trope- having a hard time? Reload!
@jalily Your idea is interesting, although its effects could potentially be even worse in the long run. A wild surge shouldn't be able to destroy a powerful magic item like the Staff of Rynn, for example.
As an obsessive collector of everything, I was thinking of exactly that type of situation when I came up with it. Unfortunately, if the surge doesn't touch powerful magic items, it becomes more and more irrelevant as you improve your equipment and eventually become almost immune to its effects.
Luckily, avoiding a Staff of Rynn destruction is much easier than avoiding gold loss. Since only the caster's items are destroyed, don't give your Wild Mage anything you really, really want to keep. This is simpler and makes more roleplaying sense than converting gold into goodies at a loss and stashing them somewhere because you read the surge table beforehand.
@I would support an idea that caused the caster's equipment--armor, weapons, and inventory--to drop on the ground, however. That would be a terrible thing to have happen during combat, since you can't equip armor during combat, but it wouldn't break any quests.
A Wild Mage is hopefully nowhere near the front lines, so not having a robe equipped isn't so bad. More importantly, it isn't even remotely in the same league as the gold loss, which is what I think many people don't like about some of the alternate solutions proposed. Not that they change the effect, but that they are nerfs that make Wild Mages safer and less memorable.
Losing the caster's items would, as you said, be in the same league or worse, but has the benefit of not breaking any quests.
@Dragonfolk2000 It's Bondari, Tim Goldenhand and Nanoc the Barbarian. Here are the quotes:
Bondari: Die, cursed eyeball! Uh... ? ... Do I, uh, know you? Protagonist: I have freed you from your stone prison, young adventurer. Bondari: Uh, thanks. Guys, are you ok? Nanoc the Barbarian: Yeah. Tim Goldenhand: Yes (no thanks to you... can't even backstab an eyeball!) Bondari: Shutup, Tim! Greetings, my, uh... Lord. I am Bondari Quickhand, a thief. These are my companions Nanoc the Barbarian and Tim Goldenhand. He's an elf. And a mage. Bondari: Uh... I guess I should thank you for saving us. Is there some way we brave adventurers can repay your kindness? Something we can do for you to fulfill our debt of gratitude. Anything? Anything at all? Protagonist: A terrible evil has swept across the land and the lives of millions hang in the balance. You have been chosen, Bondari, and you must not fail in your quest! Bondari: A Quest! Wow! This is great! What do we have to do? Protagonist: A fiendish beholder and his kobold cohorts have infested a cave to the east of here. An evil dragon threatens the land! I must have the beholder's eyestalk to slay the dragon and save the country from certain doom! Bondari: By Mask's mask! We can't let this happen! Protagonist: Go, noble adventurer, and retrieve the eyestalk. The fate of Tethyr lies in your hands! Bondari: What kind of reward do we get? Protagonist: I shall give you... 100 gold! Bondari: 100 gold! We're rich! You have a deal, sir. We shall fetch this eyestalk and save the world. C'mon guys! Tim Goldenhand: Wait! I have to rest and memorize magic missile! Nanoc the Barbarian: Worry not, elf. Nanoc will protect you! Several days later... Bondari: (I'm telling you we can take Protagonist. Nanoc, you are unfettered by the weaknesses of the civilized world! Tim, you can cast magic missile! I will backstab. I bet he has all kinds of great treasure!) Nanoc the Barbarian: (But Tim is terrible. Remember the kobold king? He cast one spell then hid behind a rock while we had to slay everyone!) Tim Goldenhand: (Hey! I have the healing potions! I heal you!) Nanoc the Barbarian: (I can shrug off a blow that would fell a normal man! Unfettered by your civilized ways, I...) Bondari: (Enough! Ready...) ATTACK!!! [Bondari and company attack Protagonist, who transforms into the slayer and kills them] Bondari reloads... Bondari: Uh, here's your eyestalk sir. We found something else, too. I hope you like it. Protagonist: Well done, Bondari. Here is your reward. Bondari: Thanks. It was a good quest. I found a dagger and Tim here got a scroll of identify. In a couple of days he'll be able to tell me about my dagger. Tim Goldenhand: Hi. Bondari: Thanks again, Protagonist! Bye! Good luck with the dragon! Nanoc the Barbarian: I bid you a "Farewell" suitably unfettered by civilization.
The hypothetical loss scenario is sounding increasingly hypothetical: if a newbie is playing a wild mage, and if he didn't know about the various possible wild surges, and if he happens not to see the dialog, and if this hypothetical newbie is carrying around tons of cash, and if this newbie has no inclination to save his game on a regular basis, and if thus newbie happens to get the wild surge that makes him lose all his gold, and if the newbie saves over his Quicksave, and if he doesn't realize his gold is gone until the instant he desperately needs a major purchase ...
... then yes, that hypothetical player would be upset.
But a newbie in that situation would also be upset by many, many, MANY other things that are far more likely: antagonizing a quest-giver accidentally, missing a saving throw, critical-missing in a crucial battle, breaking two weapons and having no replacement, putting thief skills into the wrong spot, forgetting to pick up (or drop off) quest items before the end of a chapter...
The Wild Mage surge is the least of all worries of this hypothetical never-saves clueless newbie we're theorizing.
I'm just saying, it's an issue. It's an effect that the engine creates that could potentially create a no-solution scenario without telling the player that it's basically game-over.
I would much rather get turned into a chicken or explode in fiery death, rather than find out too late that all the gold in my inventory has been destroyed by a single wild surge, I'll never be able to get it back, and I have no way to proceed with the game's main quest.
There either needs to be a replenishable source of gold in the game, or the gold needs to be relocated rather than destroyed, or the effect needs to be subdued. Really, I don't care which of these things is done. If a solution can be found that handles it on the side of the quest, rather than the wild surge table, that's fine with me too.
Game over? Losing your money is hardly the end of the game. You don't need and cash in order to go adventuring. You just go. Even presuming all of the unlikely conditions of this never-saving neophyte scenario, there's cash lying around in bags.
By contrast, "turned to stone by a basilisk" IS game over. Or "one-shotted by a magic missile by the assassin at the Friendly Arm Inn." The newbie who doesn't save is going to run into that situation many more times than a random wild surge, which only shows up if he plays a wild mage, only some of the time. I wouldn't call it a "priority issue" over actually, you know, dying.
Instead of changing the wild mage for such a remote possibility, why not implement some of the other spells the wild mage had in P&P to deal with wild surges.
Some examples I gave in another thread:
Wildshield - the caster is surrounded by a color shield that automatically absorbs 2d6 spell levels cast against him. Wild surges are absorbed as well and count as 1d6 levels of spells.
Hornung's Surge Selector - If a Wild Surge happens, the wild mage rolls twice in the wild surge table and chooses which effect will actually happen. Lasts for 1 surge/ 5 levels or 12 hours.
I'd rather have a more complete class than a crippled one, and the wild mage is crippled now. Some of the really interesting spells they had were never implemented.
Both of those spells would be very interesting to have. I do think there needs to be some provision in place to protect the unwary player from a no-solution event, but I will concede that it need not necessarily be in the wild surge table itself.
Look, raising the money isn't hard, even without using cheat codes. But IF the player is physically at a dead-end where the game is literally unwinnable, where he has NO money, NOTHING of value, and NO way to earn more, then freakin' reload. I don't believe such a situation exists in BG 1 or 2, where the player has NO way to get money at all, and is forever doomed, but there you go: that's what game saves are FOR.
It's possible in theory (but only just) to have run every mission, scoured every container, sold every expendable piece of gear, and only then to lose all gold. It is also theoretically possible for this player to be a newbie player who hates risk (and stupidly picks a wild mage BUT never saves his game). But anybody who has got that far will have already learned the value of game saves. And if he hasn't, well, lesson learned.
I get that YOU don't like it, but let's not contort into knots imagining how this is an act of charity that may one day protect some imaginary hypothetical player. If such a player ever exists, let her speak for herself.
It's not a theoretical possibility; it's a statistical possibility. There are only so many quests in the game. There are only so many of those quests that you can start and complete before you pay Gaelan or Bodhi. It is perfectly reasonable that a player would seek out and complete those quests first, not knowing whether paying Gaelan will prevent them from doing these other quests or not. Which means that it's a very real possibility that you could have completed all of the available quests prior to paying Gaelan or Bodhi. And once you have completed all those quests, it's perfectly reasonable to sell all your extraneous equipment.
At which point, there is a statistical 1 in 2,000 chance that any spell you cast will randomly result in your immediate inability to continue. If you happen to not notice the change in your wallet's size before you travel to another location, your auto-save will be overwritten and you'll be unable to reload.
Which means either reloading from a much earlier save (if you haven't been solely relying on auto-saves), or on a quick save--assuming you thought to quick save your game before casting that spell.
Under normal circumstances, your reaction would be "Well, crap, that sucks." Because it's a game, and there will probably be more gold later on in the game. But because there is a plot-related quest that requires a large sum of gold to be paid all at once, you enter into a no-solution scenario. Your options are to either sell all the equipment that your party has currently equipped, to steal from a shop (which will end your career as a paladin pretty quickly), or to start your game over.
I'm proposing one of two solutions: That either the wild surge only destroys a portion of your gold (because at that point in the game, even if you lost 70% of your gold, you would still have enough left to pay Gaelan), or that it scatters your gold to a random location in the world, which you can then retrieve given enough time and effort.
Thinking more outside the box in terms of solutions that don't rely on the wild surge table, if you could somehow complete Gaelan/Bodhi's quest without the 15k, or if there were a repeatable quest or activity that would allow you to raise that kind of money, then that would eliminate the problem altogether.
I will say again, my only problem with this effect is its potential consequence with regard to the main plot of BG2.
All this worry over a non-issue. Do a few quests and the player has way more than 15k in ch2. I played a wild mage in BGII, I think the gold destroying surge only happened ONCE in the entire game. It's a non issue.
I do recall wild surging gems on player, in which case I gained several thousand GP.
If the player isn't making strategic game saves throughout their game, then its their own fault if they are forced to redo large sections of the game. The infinity engine is VERY forgiving, you can save virtually anywhere.
Don't wave statistics at me; I know the math isn't on your side. Statistically you're much more likely to hit that gold-missing surge at a time when it makes NO difference to your game whatever, none, zip, nada. In order to make your scenario seem likely you have to postulate the quests are done in a certain order, that the party sold all their goods, that the surge happens at a particular time, and that the player did NOT learn until just that moment that maybe, just maybe, a Wild Mage in the party would suggest frequent game saves were a good idea.
Assuming it is equally likely that The player pays Gaelan after any of the subquests; odds that he pays after there are none left (ie, NO means for earning money): 1 in 54 Odds that a player sold all his extra gear, hoarding nothing for later: 1 in 5 (generous estimate, considering this involves re-teaming with all joinable NPCs and selling all their gear too) Odds that a player with a wild mage has not saved his game recently: 1 in 10 (very generously, the odds that the player has NEVER before had a bad wild surge in the prologue and previous 54 missions) Odds that the player is attacked by a wandering monster between selling his gear and visiting Garlan: 1 in 6 (chance of wandering monster) Odds that the player must cast a wild spell as his only spell: 1 in 15 (# different spells known by 10th-level wild mage) or that he will get a wild surge on any other spell (1/100 times 14/15) Odds of this particular wild surge: 1 in 100
Odds this scenario happens when the player casts a wild spell: 1 in 24 million
Odds this scenario happens when the player casts any other spell: 1 in 173 million
I don't know why losing gold pushes your buttons so, but the problem you're trying to fix is minuscule compared to ... virtually any other game-ending scenario. This hypothetical new player is more likely to get killed walking into a trap on level 1 of Irenicus's dungeon.
I'm not going to discuss this with you anymore, @Hertz, if you're going to blatantly ignore my point.
My point was that an engine-created effect has the potential to leave a player in a position where they have no way to proceed forward, and that a solution to this potential problem ought to be explored.
Your point seems to be that anyone who considers this to be a problem is a whiny little git.
Clearly, we're operating under different perspectives of reality.
Even if you always reload when your gold goes missing (and you wont, maybe it happens when you ar after a shopping spree) how many extra reloads does that mean? It is a 1 in 100 chance, and the surge happening is 1 in 20. That is a 1 in 20 000 chance assuming regular spellcasting. As it has been already said: dweomer should be used as a rare gamble, and last resort instead of a regular feature that always works. This means that in a regular game even having 2 extra reloads due to gold loss would be rare. What you want is a class feature turned off, that most of us are fine with, can be worked around with some roleplaying (keeping less gold on yourself, more in items) just so you have to reload your game one less time. Maybe we should start removing all other reload worthy effects as well then? Petrification, level drain, ability drain, NPC death - its a hassle to work around them, so why not remove them completely? Maybe every enemy should be incapeable to kill the player, so we don't have to reload if a fight goes badly...
That is a 1 in 20 000 chance assuming regular spellcasting.
Chance is much bigger.
17 - All the party's gold is destroyed 24 - Roll twice more. Both effects apply. 46 - All doors in area of effect open. If there are no doors, roll twice and use both effects. 51 - If outdoors, start snowing. Otherwise roll twice more. 63 - Roll 4 more times. All effects happen 95 - Destroy all gold on target
Okay, so let's say it is a 1:1000 chance. It is still low enough that you will need 2-3 extra reloads because of it during the whole game. If you can't cope with that, than I don't think this is the game for you... At low level basically every encounter has a much bigger chance of your mage simply dying to a random critical hit, or even an arrow. If he/she gets posioned its most likely over, even on lvl 2-3, unless you chug all those health potions, or have enough neutralize posion handy. (Oh, the rage I had when I used my last remaining one on Imoen so she wouldn't die, only to have a random hobgoblin arrow posion my mage charname...)
It's in the name - wild mage. Bad things happen. If you have one, be prepared to deal with it - one way or another.
Comments
Now I'm either a hoarder, or a fallen paladin or ranger. Guess that serves me right for allowing a wild mage to be in my party, huh?
It is a tiny aspect of the game. It is a very tiny aspect of the game.
And yet, if nothing is done to fix it, it has the potential to ruin the game. It's also, notably, incredibly easy to fix.
There is NO OTHER PLACE in the game that is like that, which leads me to believe--and should lead anyone playing the game to believe--that no one should expect to ever be put into a situation like that.
Your solutions are:
A) Put all your expensive stuff you don't want in a chest somewhere! It makes total sense that you would randomly scatter your stuff across the realms rather than actually sell it for gold you can use!
Both of these solutions are great, if you happen to be playing a character or in a party for which that makes sense. A halfling that likes to hang on to his possessions, or a petty thief who has no compunctions about stealing to get things done, would be perfectly fine for your scenarios.
Your solutions are stupid to any player who wants to play the game differently. Offer a solution that doesn't require the player to break character or alignment. Offer a solution that doesn't involve reloading or cheating.
Offer any kind of solution that might have been intended by the developers as a way to resolve that quest if the player gets hit with #17.
The Wild Mage was introduced with Throne of Bhaal, after Shadows of Amn was released. It was designed with Throne of Bhaal in mind. It wasn't designed with the Bodhi/Gaelan quest in mind. But in order for it to be a viable option for players, it needs to be designed with that in mind. Because if you fail that quest, you don't get to play the rest of the game.
Luckily, avoiding a Staff of Rynn destruction is much easier than avoiding gold loss. Since only the caster's items are destroyed, don't give your Wild Mage anything you really, really want to keep. This is simpler and makes more roleplaying sense than converting gold into goodies at a loss and stashing them somewhere because you read the surge table beforehand.
Losing the caster's items would, as you said, be in the same league or worse, but has the benefit of not breaking any quests.
Bondari: Die, cursed eyeball! Uh... ? ... Do I, uh, know you?
Protagonist: I have freed you from your stone prison, young adventurer.
Bondari: Uh, thanks. Guys, are you ok?
Nanoc the Barbarian: Yeah.
Tim Goldenhand: Yes (no thanks to you... can't even backstab an eyeball!)
Bondari: Shutup, Tim! Greetings, my, uh... Lord. I am Bondari Quickhand, a thief. These are my companions Nanoc the Barbarian and Tim Goldenhand. He's an elf. And a mage.
Bondari: Uh... I guess I should thank you for saving us. Is there some way we brave adventurers can repay your kindness? Something we can do for you to fulfill our debt of gratitude. Anything? Anything at all?
Protagonist: A terrible evil has swept across the land and the lives of millions hang in the balance. You have been chosen, Bondari, and you must not fail in your quest!
Bondari: A Quest! Wow! This is great! What do we have to do?
Protagonist: A fiendish beholder and his kobold cohorts have infested a cave to the east of here. An evil dragon threatens the land! I must have the beholder's eyestalk to slay the dragon and save the country from certain doom!
Bondari: By Mask's mask! We can't let this happen!
Protagonist: Go, noble adventurer, and retrieve the eyestalk. The fate of Tethyr lies in your hands!
Bondari: What kind of reward do we get?
Protagonist: I shall give you... 100 gold!
Bondari: 100 gold! We're rich! You have a deal, sir. We shall fetch this eyestalk and save the world. C'mon guys!
Tim Goldenhand: Wait! I have to rest and memorize magic missile!
Nanoc the Barbarian: Worry not, elf. Nanoc will protect you!
Several days later...
Bondari: (I'm telling you we can take Protagonist. Nanoc, you are unfettered by the weaknesses of the civilized world! Tim, you can cast magic missile! I will backstab. I bet he has all kinds of great treasure!)
Nanoc the Barbarian: (But Tim is terrible. Remember the kobold king? He cast one spell then hid behind a rock while we had to slay everyone!)
Tim Goldenhand: (Hey! I have the healing potions! I heal you!)
Nanoc the Barbarian: (I can shrug off a blow that would fell a normal man! Unfettered by your civilized ways, I...)
Bondari: (Enough! Ready...) ATTACK!!!
[Bondari and company attack Protagonist, who transforms into the slayer and kills them]
Bondari reloads...
Bondari: Uh, here's your eyestalk sir. We found something else, too. I hope you like it.
Protagonist: Well done, Bondari. Here is your reward.
Bondari: Thanks. It was a good quest. I found a dagger and Tim here got a scroll of identify. In a couple of days he'll be able to tell me about my dagger.
Tim Goldenhand: Hi.
Bondari: Thanks again, Protagonist! Bye! Good luck with the dragon!
Nanoc the Barbarian: I bid you a "Farewell" suitably unfettered by civilization.
Gold vanished - consider it a tax cut, it won't take ALL your gold.
Protagonist going to petrified is much much worse.
... then yes, that hypothetical player would be upset.
But a newbie in that situation would also be upset by many, many, MANY other things that are far more likely: antagonizing a quest-giver accidentally, missing a saving throw, critical-missing in a crucial battle, breaking two weapons and having no replacement, putting thief skills into the wrong spot, forgetting to pick up (or drop off) quest items before the end of a chapter...
The Wild Mage surge is the least of all worries of this hypothetical never-saves clueless newbie we're theorizing.
I would much rather get turned into a chicken or explode in fiery death, rather than find out too late that all the gold in my inventory has been destroyed by a single wild surge, I'll never be able to get it back, and I have no way to proceed with the game's main quest.
There either needs to be a replenishable source of gold in the game, or the gold needs to be relocated rather than destroyed, or the effect needs to be subdued. Really, I don't care which of these things is done. If a solution can be found that handles it on the side of the quest, rather than the wild surge table, that's fine with me too.
By contrast, "turned to stone by a basilisk" IS game over. Or "one-shotted by a magic missile by the assassin at the Friendly Arm Inn." The newbie who doesn't save is going to run into that situation many more times than a random wild surge, which only shows up if he plays a wild mage, only some of the time. I wouldn't call it a "priority issue" over actually, you know, dying.
Some examples I gave in another thread:
Wildshield - the caster is surrounded by a color shield that automatically absorbs 2d6 spell levels cast against him. Wild surges are absorbed as well and count as 1d6 levels of spells.
Hornung's Surge Selector - If a Wild Surge happens, the wild mage rolls twice in the wild surge table and chooses which effect will actually happen. Lasts for 1 surge/ 5 levels or 12 hours.
I'd rather have a more complete class than a crippled one, and the wild mage is crippled now. Some of the really interesting spells they had were never implemented.
Look, raising the money isn't hard, even without using cheat codes. But IF the player is physically at a dead-end where the game is literally unwinnable, where he has NO money, NOTHING of value, and NO way to earn more, then freakin' reload. I don't believe such a situation exists in BG 1 or 2, where the player has NO way to get money at all, and is forever doomed, but there you go: that's what game saves are FOR.
It's possible in theory (but only just) to have run every mission, scoured every container, sold every expendable piece of gear, and only then to lose all gold. It is also theoretically possible for this player to be a newbie player who hates risk (and stupidly picks a wild mage BUT never saves his game). But anybody who has got that far will have already learned the value of game saves. And if he hasn't, well, lesson learned.
I get that YOU don't like it, but let's not contort into knots imagining how this is an act of charity that may one day protect some imaginary hypothetical player. If such a player ever exists, let her speak for herself.
It's not a theoretical possibility; it's a statistical possibility. There are only so many quests in the game. There are only so many of those quests that you can start and complete before you pay Gaelan or Bodhi. It is perfectly reasonable that a player would seek out and complete those quests first, not knowing whether paying Gaelan will prevent them from doing these other quests or not. Which means that it's a very real possibility that you could have completed all of the available quests prior to paying Gaelan or Bodhi. And once you have completed all those quests, it's perfectly reasonable to sell all your extraneous equipment.
At which point, there is a statistical 1 in 2,000 chance that any spell you cast will randomly result in your immediate inability to continue. If you happen to not notice the change in your wallet's size before you travel to another location, your auto-save will be overwritten and you'll be unable to reload.
Which means either reloading from a much earlier save (if you haven't been solely relying on auto-saves), or on a quick save--assuming you thought to quick save your game before casting that spell.
Under normal circumstances, your reaction would be "Well, crap, that sucks." Because it's a game, and there will probably be more gold later on in the game. But because there is a plot-related quest that requires a large sum of gold to be paid all at once, you enter into a no-solution scenario. Your options are to either sell all the equipment that your party has currently equipped, to steal from a shop (which will end your career as a paladin pretty quickly), or to start your game over.
I'm proposing one of two solutions: That either the wild surge only destroys a portion of your gold (because at that point in the game, even if you lost 70% of your gold, you would still have enough left to pay Gaelan), or that it scatters your gold to a random location in the world, which you can then retrieve given enough time and effort.
Thinking more outside the box in terms of solutions that don't rely on the wild surge table, if you could somehow complete Gaelan/Bodhi's quest without the 15k, or if there were a repeatable quest or activity that would allow you to raise that kind of money, then that would eliminate the problem altogether.
I will say again, my only problem with this effect is its potential consequence with regard to the main plot of BG2.
I do recall wild surging gems on player, in which case I gained several thousand GP.
If the player isn't making strategic game saves throughout their game, then its their own fault if they are forced to redo large sections of the game. The infinity engine is VERY forgiving, you can save virtually anywhere.
Assuming it is equally likely that The player pays Gaelan after any of the subquests; odds that he pays after there are none left (ie, NO means for earning money): 1 in 54
Odds that a player sold all his extra gear, hoarding nothing for later: 1 in 5 (generous estimate, considering this involves re-teaming with all joinable NPCs and selling all their gear too)
Odds that a player with a wild mage has not saved his game recently: 1 in 10 (very generously, the odds that the player has NEVER before had a bad wild surge in the prologue and previous 54 missions)
Odds that the player is attacked by a wandering monster between selling his gear and visiting Garlan: 1 in 6 (chance of wandering monster)
Odds that the player must cast a wild spell as his only spell: 1 in 15 (# different spells known by 10th-level wild mage) or that he will get a wild surge on any other spell (1/100 times 14/15)
Odds of this particular wild surge: 1 in 100
Odds this scenario happens when the player casts a wild spell: 1 in 24 million
Odds this scenario happens when the player casts any other spell: 1 in 173 million
I don't know why losing gold pushes your buttons so, but the problem you're trying to fix is minuscule compared to ... virtually any other game-ending scenario. This hypothetical new player is more likely to get killed walking into a trap on level 1 of Irenicus's dungeon.
My point was that an engine-created effect has the potential to leave a player in a position where they have no way to proceed forward, and that a solution to this potential problem ought to be explored.
Your point seems to be that anyone who considers this to be a problem is a whiny little git.
Clearly, we're operating under different perspectives of reality.
Well, knock me over with a stick. :P
Even if you always reload when your gold goes missing (and you wont, maybe it happens when you ar after a shopping spree) how many extra reloads does that mean? It is a 1 in 100 chance, and the surge happening is 1 in 20. That is a 1 in 20 000 chance assuming regular spellcasting. As it has been already said: dweomer should be used as a rare gamble, and last resort instead of a regular feature that always works.
This means that in a regular game even having 2 extra reloads due to gold loss would be rare.
What you want is a class feature turned off, that most of us are fine with, can be worked around with some roleplaying (keeping less gold on yourself, more in items) just so you have to reload your game one less time.
Maybe we should start removing all other reload worthy effects as well then? Petrification, level drain, ability drain, NPC death - its a hassle to work around them, so why not remove them completely? Maybe every enemy should be incapeable to kill the player, so we don't have to reload if a fight goes badly...
17 - All the party's gold is destroyed
24 - Roll twice more. Both effects apply.
46 - All doors in area of effect open. If there are no doors, roll twice and use both effects.
51 - If outdoors, start snowing. Otherwise roll twice more.
63 - Roll 4 more times. All effects happen
95 - Destroy all gold on target
Every roll have chance to be " gold destroyer ".
At low level basically every encounter has a much bigger chance of your mage simply dying to a random critical hit, or even an arrow. If he/she gets posioned its most likely over, even on lvl 2-3, unless you chug all those health potions, or have enough neutralize posion handy. (Oh, the rage I had when I used my last remaining one on Imoen so she wouldn't die, only to have a random hobgoblin arrow posion my mage charname...)
It's in the name - wild mage. Bad things happen. If you have one, be prepared to deal with it - one way or another.