Spell Points: This category only pertains to those who cast spells. It
shows the most spell points you can ever have, or your spell point
potential. Compare the SpPt value on the Onscreen Statistics against his
to see how you’re doing. For instance, if you have 20 spell points, and the
SpPt value is 18, then you have almost all of your maximum spell points.
If, however, you’re down to 3 SpPt, then you’re almost out of power to
cast spells. You’ll have to wait until they regenerate. To regenerate spell
points, you have to be under the healing rays of the sun. They don’t
regenerate at night, so cut back on unnecessary spell activity during this
time. They also won’t regenerate in dungeons unless you stand on a magic
square, use a spell-regenerating magic item, or play a spell-regenerating
Bard’s song.
Experience: The more fights you get into (and live through) the more
experience you’ll gain. When you acquire enough experience points, you
can move up a level. How many experience points you need depends on
your class. The Old Man in the Review Board will let you know if you have
enough, and if not, how much more you need.
Gold: The more the merrier. You acquire gold by killing your enemies
and cleaning out their pockets. Gold lets you pay the Old Man his fee for
giving you spells, bribe folks for clues, buy drinks, and do a number of other
useful things. Don’t worry about buying equipment - you can’t. (Tarjan
doesn’t believe in free enterprise so he put Garth’s Equipment Shoppe out
of business with an awesome incendiary spell.) You’ll start out with the
weapon and armor that you need. Whatever else you want, you’ll have to
find.
Pool Gold: Press P to pool gold, and all the other characters will give this
character their gold.
Trade Gold: Trade gold lets you trade gold to any other character on the
roster. Press T, enter the roster number of whom you will give the gold to,
and then enter how much.
Inventory: On the next screen, you’ll see the character’s inventory (the
items he or she is carrying). See the “Items and Equipment” section for
more details.
Special Information: On the third screen, you’ll see any special
information pertaining to your character. Rogues can view their ability
percentages for things like disarming traps, identifying chests, hiding in
shadows, etc. Bards can view the number of tunes they have left. Magic
users can view a list of their spells. Hunters show critical hit percentages.
Not all characters will have this third screen of information.
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• When you roll for attributes, shoot for 16’s, 17’s and 18’s since they can
make a big difference. For example, high dexterity gives you bonus armor
protection and first-strike capabilities; luck often lets you survive if you
accidentally spring a trap; constitution provides all characters with extra hit
points; and high intelligence gives mages bonus spell points in later turns.
• Certain races rely on certain attributes being strong. A mage who is
strong but not intelligent is at a far greater disadvantage than a mage who
is intelligent but weak.
• Develop a Sorcerer quickly to use in dungeons. Wizards, too, are
important because they can summon extremely powerful special members.
Work toward Archmagedom. You’ll also need to prepare at least one
character for the role of Chronomancer.
• Experiment with Hunters. They can often kill superior monsters quickly
because of their critical hit capabilities. Rogues also have excellent critical
hit abilities, but only when they hide in the shadows. And don’t dismiss the
Monk as a lightweight best left chanting in the monastery; after the sixth
level, they’re probably the best fighters of all the classes.
• You can always enlist the services of special members and save them to
your party.
• Beware of certain magic squares. Keep an eye on your character’s
statistics while exploring. If you see that your character’s spell or hit points
are dropping for no apparent reason, your character is probably on a
magic square that drains power - jump off the square before he or she is
sapped of all strength.
VIEWING YOUR CHARACTERS
At almost any time during the game, you can call up a character to see
what his or her status is and what he or she possesses. To do this, enter the
character’s number. (To view a character’s status without bringing up his or
her picture, press <Shift> and the character’s number.) On the first screen,
you’ll see the following:
Level: The higher the value, the better your character will perform in his
or her role. All newly-made characters start out as level 1. As you gain
more experience, you can advance in levels (see “Moving Up in Levels”).
Sex, Race, Class, Attribute Values: You learned all about these when
you created your characters.
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