Aura Glimmershine is a young lawful good-aligned gnome artificer and inventor from the island nation of Lantan. She is kind and idealistic at heart, and while she can be rather shy and socially inept when interacting with strangers, but easily turns peppy and excitable when the topic strays into her fields of expertise. Aura uses the custom artificer thief kit—while unsuited for direct combat, it specializes in various forms of utility such as traps, alchemy, and a bit of unique magical prowess.
She can be found at the Beregost town square and carries with a small selection of personal items. If the PC is female, she may show hints of romantic attraction, though there is no full romance within BG1.
In Siege of Dragonspear, she can be found in the Coast Way Forest, after leaving Baldur's Gate.
@Vallmyr Better yet, throw in Imoen and Neera for a pink-haired quintet And if you have BG1NPC installed, Xan as a temporary extra once you reach Baldur's Gate city
This is the portrait I commissioned for my gnome character of whom I'll be using in my next run. They are going to be the best of friends (if not more)!
Miniature giant space hamsters and clockwork squirrels do not get along with each other.
Minsc: Boo thinks he'd like your Muffy, Aura. Aura: You sure? Muffy's a little bit mean to anything smaller than him. Minsc: Fear not, for while Boo may be small, his heart is larger than... no, Boo! Stop fighting with the nice squirrel! Aura: Stop that, Muffy! Be nice to little Boo! Don't be a bully!
The writing for Aura-BG1 is complete. But there is still testing and SoD to do, and I've decided against releasing the BG1 portion as a standalone for the moment. Hopefully the wait for the finished product will not be for much longer.
All my BG1 NPCs have BG2 content intended for them. Getting them done will take some time. Not too much though, as I have already planned out their entire personal storylines.
now i play the game on story mode so take this with a grain of salt. but i find that compared to bg2 it feels alot easier to write for bg1 , sod, and tob due to them being shorter in length .
Eagerly awaiting this one. I like the idea of the kit, and you can never have enough gnomes. They tend to be the most entertaining NPC's of the series.
Update: The writing's making progress. I've also updated a lot of the kit and ability mechanics and visuals. I'm going to provide some details regarding two of the artificer's skills:
Explosive Weapons
Currently I have created roughly a dozen explosive weapons, though only a few are available throughout BG1 and SoD.
The first three are immediately available once Aura begins making explosives.
With SoD's level cap, Aura can reach level 12, giving her access to a fourth:
Additionally, a fifth explosive is available after a certain stage of SoD.
Automaton
From level 8 onwards, Aura can build an automaton which follows the party as a familiar would.
The automaton has solid stats (18/16/16/9/9/9) and is durable, but cannot be conventionally healed. It can be enhanced via runes.
Runes vary in effect and strength depending on their type and level of power. For example, a Minor Fire Rune, available at level 1 gives +1d2 fire damage and +1 weapon enchantment, while a Perfect Fire Rune at level 21 gives +1d10 fire damage and +5 weapon enchantment.
Getting there... slowly, a bit at a time. Hoping for an open testing version before Christmas, but, well... I’m notoriously bad at keeping my promises.
Going on a writing spree, had a close shave with a hardware crash that would’ve cost me over a dozen banters. Fortunately I’ve managed to recover them.
Comments
Fear of bears:
Having Aura around can lead to some other benefits...
My next run was going to be a female Cleric/Thief Charname with pink hair.
I might take Aura just so I can bring her and Alora to be a pink haired shorty trio! XD
This is the portrait I commissioned for my gnome character of whom I'll be using in my next run. They are going to be the best of friends (if not more)!
Minsc: Boo thinks he'd like your Muffy, Aura.
Aura: You sure? Muffy's a little bit mean to anything smaller than him.
Minsc: Fear not, for while Boo may be small, his heart is larger than... no, Boo! Stop fighting with the nice squirrel!
Aura: Stop that, Muffy! Be nice to little Boo! Don't be a bully!
For reference: Aura BG1 > Drake BG2 > Aura BG2 > Gleya BG2 > The Fallen Light.
Explosive Weapons
Currently I have created roughly a dozen explosive weapons, though only a few are available throughout BG1 and SoD.The first three are immediately available once Aura begins making explosives.
With SoD's level cap, Aura can reach level 12, giving her access to a fourth:
Additionally, a fifth explosive is available after a certain stage of SoD.
Automaton
From level 8 onwards, Aura can build an automaton which follows the party as a familiar would.The automaton has solid stats (18/16/16/9/9/9) and is durable, but cannot be conventionally healed. It can be enhanced via runes.
Runes vary in effect and strength depending on their type and level of power. For example, a Minor Fire Rune, available at level 1 gives +1d2 fire damage and +1 weapon enchantment, while a Perfect Fire Rune at level 21 gives +1d10 fire damage and +5 weapon enchantment.
Introducing a new form of status: Freeze
New item:
Learned how to add custom status icons for clarity. Yay!
Hopefully it won’t be too far off completion now.