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In this excerpt of the Prima Fast Track guide, you'll find information the
basics of character development and combat.
Character Development
Your character exhibits six characteristics: Strength (Strn), Constitution
(Cons), Agility (Agil), Reflexes (Rflx), Mind, and Luck. Each is important.
Strength measures physical power. In game terms, it affects the damage you do,
the armor you wear, and the weapons you use. The Strength characteristic
controls how many Hit Points and Fatigue Points you gain as you ascend levels.
It affects armor as well: wearing certain types of armor requires a high
Constitution.
Agility contributes to how often you'll land a blow in combat. It affects both
ranged and melee attacks. It is useful for everyone but a pure spell-slinger.
Reflexes, the other side of Agility's coin, govern how well you can avoid
attacks. This characteristic is useful for everyone but tank-like warriors,
such as Bayne, who don't care how much damage they take.
Mind is a measure of mental power. Spellcasters want a high Mind statistic to
maximize their mana. Non-spellcasters needn't concern themselves about it.
Finally, Luck can be a sneaky leveling factor, the hidden edge everyone needs.
If you have a high Luck characteristic, things just tend to go your way.
Improving Characteristics
Every time you go up a level, some of your characteristics will increase. You
can choose which will improve, as your game manual explains.
You may add two points to your characteristics per level, up to Level 15. You
can apply both points to the same characteristic, or split them between two.
From levels 16 to 30, you may add one point per level. That means you get a
total of 45 points to increase your characteristics over your character's
entire lifetime. So plan ahead to determine how you'll allocate them.
Experience Points
Every time you kill a monster, you get Experience Points toward raising your
level. How many depends on your level and how tough the monster was. When the
monsters that gave you good Experience (and a good fight) in the past start
providing smaller rewards, it's time to look for tougher foes.
Skills
Each time you use a skill, you'll gain Experience Points in it. At a certain
point, your skill level will increase. All skills start at Level 0.
As with characteristics and level, skills are limited to a maximum value of
30. Unlike characteristics, you can work as many of them up to that level as
you want. (It's just extremely hard to do.)
Skills such as Invoke and Lockpicking increase whenever you use them
successfully. Weapon skills increase whenever you use a weapon to land a
killing blow.
Each weapon class-Hands, Swords, Bludgeons, Axes, and Bows-has its own skill
category. When you use a certain type of weapon to kill something, you'll earn
experience in the corresponding category. As you increase in level, the amount
of experience you gain for doing the same thing changes.
Combat Basics
When a threat approaches, draw your weapon and turn to face the enemy. When
you get close, employ one of three swings: Thrust [A], Swing [S], or Chop [D].
You can also Block [Q] and Dodge [CTRL] + arrow key.
It's that simple. In the single-player game, you may choose from swords,
bludgeons (such as clubs and maces), axes, and your bare hands. The
multi-player game adds staffs (for Navarro only) and bows.
If You'll Hit
When you attack, the computer first checks to see if your character is in
position to hit the enemy. If so, it compares your Attack and Weapon skill
levels and your Agility to your opponent's Defense Skill and Reflexes. If you
have a skill advantage, your chance to hit goes up. If your opponent is
superior, your chance to hit goes down: the computer generates a random
number; if you're lucky, you land a blow.
The computer then generates damage based on the damage range of your Weapon
and Strength statistics. Armor reduces this. The computer does all of the hard
calculations. You just need to aim your blows accurately.
Fatigue
The Fatigue attribute governs how much energy you have for attacking. As you
swing at your target, you'll tire and your Fatigue level will drop. If your
Fatigue level is too low, you'll make a "fatigued blow." These are less likely
to hit and they do much less damage. Try to maintain enough energy to attack.
If you get tired, retreat a bit. Try dodging around. This frustrates enemies
and allows you to recover Fatigue. (You spend it only when you attack, not
when you move or dodge.) Dodging around the battlefield is a good way to buy
time while you recover Fatigue; just don't dodge into another group of
monsters!
Dodging
If something comes charging toward you, dodge. This will cause that big
opening attack to miss you. If you need to increase your Fatigue level, dodge.
It's impossible to dodge too often. It costs nothing and can save you a lot of
pain.
Special Moves
As you gain levels, you can learn special combat moves (refer to the manual).
These start with "closing moves," such as the Charging Thrust, and progress to
deadly combination moves. These can deliver far more damage to your opponent
than ordinary swings.
The trick with combination moves (Puma Strike, Cobra Strike, and the like) is
that you must be moving toward your target for them to work. If you're just
standing in front of your enemy, hitting Thrust three times is just going to
thrust; you won't pull off a combination. But if you have a little (not too
much) distance and then rush in hitting that Thrust key three times, you'll
get amazing results.
Weapon Skill and Choice
When you use a specific weapon to eliminate your enemies, you earn experience
with it. Weapon skills increase the way Character level does-although more
slowly-and require the same number of experience points. As with Character
level, the maximum skill level you can reach is 30.
Some weapons are more effective against certain creatures. For example,
bludgeoning weapons are very effective against Stone Golems. Go for the weapon
that will do the most damage against each enemy.
basics of character development and combat.
Character Development
Your character exhibits six characteristics: Strength (Strn), Constitution
(Cons), Agility (Agil), Reflexes (Rflx), Mind, and Luck. Each is important.
Strength measures physical power. In game terms, it affects the damage you do,
the armor you wear, and the weapons you use. The Strength characteristic
controls how many Hit Points and Fatigue Points you gain as you ascend levels.
It affects armor as well: wearing certain types of armor requires a high
Constitution.
Agility contributes to how often you'll land a blow in combat. It affects both
ranged and melee attacks. It is useful for everyone but a pure spell-slinger.
Reflexes, the other side of Agility's coin, govern how well you can avoid
attacks. This characteristic is useful for everyone but tank-like warriors,
such as Bayne, who don't care how much damage they take.
Mind is a measure of mental power. Spellcasters want a high Mind statistic to
maximize their mana. Non-spellcasters needn't concern themselves about it.
Finally, Luck can be a sneaky leveling factor, the hidden edge everyone needs.
If you have a high Luck characteristic, things just tend to go your way.
Improving Characteristics
Every time you go up a level, some of your characteristics will increase. You
can choose which will improve, as your game manual explains.
You may add two points to your characteristics per level, up to Level 15. You
can apply both points to the same characteristic, or split them between two.
From levels 16 to 30, you may add one point per level. That means you get a
total of 45 points to increase your characteristics over your character's
entire lifetime. So plan ahead to determine how you'll allocate them.
Experience Points
Every time you kill a monster, you get Experience Points toward raising your
level. How many depends on your level and how tough the monster was. When the
monsters that gave you good Experience (and a good fight) in the past start
providing smaller rewards, it's time to look for tougher foes.
Skills
Each time you use a skill, you'll gain Experience Points in it. At a certain
point, your skill level will increase. All skills start at Level 0.
As with characteristics and level, skills are limited to a maximum value of
30. Unlike characteristics, you can work as many of them up to that level as
you want. (It's just extremely hard to do.)
Skills such as Invoke and Lockpicking increase whenever you use them
successfully. Weapon skills increase whenever you use a weapon to land a
killing blow.
Each weapon class-Hands, Swords, Bludgeons, Axes, and Bows-has its own skill
category. When you use a certain type of weapon to kill something, you'll earn
experience in the corresponding category. As you increase in level, the amount
of experience you gain for doing the same thing changes.
Combat Basics
When a threat approaches, draw your weapon and turn to face the enemy. When
you get close, employ one of three swings: Thrust [A], Swing [S], or Chop [D].
You can also Block [Q] and Dodge [CTRL] + arrow key.
It's that simple. In the single-player game, you may choose from swords,
bludgeons (such as clubs and maces), axes, and your bare hands. The
multi-player game adds staffs (for Navarro only) and bows.
If You'll Hit
When you attack, the computer first checks to see if your character is in
position to hit the enemy. If so, it compares your Attack and Weapon skill
levels and your Agility to your opponent's Defense Skill and Reflexes. If you
have a skill advantage, your chance to hit goes up. If your opponent is
superior, your chance to hit goes down: the computer generates a random
number; if you're lucky, you land a blow.
The computer then generates damage based on the damage range of your Weapon
and Strength statistics. Armor reduces this. The computer does all of the hard
calculations. You just need to aim your blows accurately.
Fatigue
The Fatigue attribute governs how much energy you have for attacking. As you
swing at your target, you'll tire and your Fatigue level will drop. If your
Fatigue level is too low, you'll make a "fatigued blow." These are less likely
to hit and they do much less damage. Try to maintain enough energy to attack.
If you get tired, retreat a bit. Try dodging around. This frustrates enemies
and allows you to recover Fatigue. (You spend it only when you attack, not
when you move or dodge.) Dodging around the battlefield is a good way to buy
time while you recover Fatigue; just don't dodge into another group of
monsters!
Dodging
If something comes charging toward you, dodge. This will cause that big
opening attack to miss you. If you need to increase your Fatigue level, dodge.
It's impossible to dodge too often. It costs nothing and can save you a lot of
pain.
Special Moves
As you gain levels, you can learn special combat moves (refer to the manual).
These start with "closing moves," such as the Charging Thrust, and progress to
deadly combination moves. These can deliver far more damage to your opponent
than ordinary swings.
The trick with combination moves (Puma Strike, Cobra Strike, and the like) is
that you must be moving toward your target for them to work. If you're just
standing in front of your enemy, hitting Thrust three times is just going to
thrust; you won't pull off a combination. But if you have a little (not too
much) distance and then rush in hitting that Thrust key three times, you'll
get amazing results.
Weapon Skill and Choice
When you use a specific weapon to eliminate your enemies, you earn experience
with it. Weapon skills increase the way Character level does-although more
slowly-and require the same number of experience points. As with Character
level, the maximum skill level you can reach is 30.
Some weapons are more effective against certain creatures. For example,
bludgeoning weapons are very effective against Stone Golems. Go for the weapon
that will do the most damage against each enemy.