There were two ideas that led to the founding of the Amber project in July 2003. First of all, my husband suggested that we make one of our BG player characters into an NPC mod. Since it would have been odd to reduce one of our mighty Bhaalspawns to a mere sidekick, the characters that I took into consideration were our Icewind Dale 1 and 2 characters and the secondary characters from Baldur's Gate 1 and 2.

At the time we were also facing an irritating disadvantage with our current BG2 party that we had nicknamed 'Righteous Fury' - a powerhouse of anti-magic zealots that included a devout priestess of Helm as the main protagonist coupled with a dwarven wizardslayer and accompanied by Anomen, Keldorn, Mazzy and Valygar. As all of the thief NPCs in the game, except for Yoshimo who dies halfway through the game, were also arcane spellcasters, we were unable to recruit a thief to open locks and find traps for us. So we needed a thief who was not a mage and could also hold his or her ground on the battlefield. That focused our attention on two attractive ladies: Beryl, a chaotic neutral half-elven fighter/thief from our Icewind Dale 1 party and Amber, a chaotic good tiefling rogue with a few fighter levels from Icewind Dale 2.

Both already had personalities and backgrounds that were interesting enough, but in the end I chose Amber to save the poor protagonists from Beryl's immature and often snotty attitude. It would have been really unnecessary to burden the poor Bhaalspawn with yet another kid to drag around. Not that life with Amber will be any easier; different, but not easier.

I tried to make Amber as faithful to her Icewind Dale 2 incarnation as possible, which was somewhat challenging, as Icewind Dale 2 uses the 3rd edition rules which differ significantly from the earlier system used in Baldur's Gate 2 with regards to characters' statistics and abilities. Obviously feats like 'weapon finesse' and 'improved evasion' could not be reasonably implemented, so I simply dropped them out. On the other hand, the 'envenom weapon' feat could conveniently be replaced by the 'poison weapon' ability of the assassin kit, and I also took the liberty of expanding on the ability of tieflings to blind their opponents and gave her a degree of fire resistance as a courtesy of her fiendish background, echoing a memory of her evasion skill.

The disadvantages I gave her are due to her rather impressive special skills and also helped in remaining true to her Icewind Dale 2 forebear. It is not that Amber could not use heavier than leather armour, but rather that she will not. This also goes for shields and helmets, which would just get in her way, as well as some of the larger weapons that just do not suit her tastes. I have not yet decided if more penalties should be added to balance out her special abilities.

Her personality remained much the same as it had been, though some slight changes must have taken place as I do not find the soundset used for her in the Icewind Dale II fitting for her anymore. This is rather understandable; while I had made up a background for Amber for Icewind Dale, writing all the interactions and banters for Baldu's Gate II fleshed out her character more and helped me get to know Amber better. The Icewind Dale party members also provided a cadre of past friends to whom she could refer to - hopefully creating a more lively background for Amber. However, one should remember although that while Amber is based on the Icewind Dale character, they are not the same - it would not make much sense in the light of the time-frames of those two games.

In the end, Amber will not solve the problem of our party of arcane magic haters (now long retired anyway), since demons and their offsprings, together with evil witches, would be the first thing to be eradicated by them, but hopefully she will offer a more fighting-oriented option for Imoen, Nalia and Jan, while also proving an interesting acquaintance for the player characters to meet and perhaps fall in love with.

- Meira