Character Classes and Races
The following data is compiled from the Bard's Tale 2 Manual, with additional game notes (possible minor spoilers) provided in bordered blocks:
Races
HUMAN
The people of this race are known for their inventiveness, hardiness, aggressiveness, and downright stubbornness in the face of adversity. A perfect set of traits for survival in the Realm of the Bard.
Average race, jack of all trades.
Available Classes: All classes
ELF
These fair-haired, fair-skinned people closely resemble humans but are usually taller, faster, and more agile. The Elven people are highly skilled in the arts - especially magic and war.
Gifted with higher Intelligence.
Available Classes: Warrior, Paladin, Rogue, Bard, Monk, Conjurer, Magician
DWARF
These short, stout people are amazingly strong and healthy, but not always very bright. All very good reasons to make sure you have the dwarves on your side in a fight.
Gifted in strength and constitution.
Available Classes: Warrior, Paladin, Rogue, Bard, Hunter, Monk
HOBBIT
These small people are wise, nimble, and usually very patient. It is said that, if need be, a hobbit can steal the gold-purse from a shadow.
Gifted in speed and luck.
Available Classes: Warrior, Rogue, Bard, Monk, Conjurer, Magician
HALF-ELF
These people are living proof of the compatibility between humans and elves. They are fair-haired and light-skinned like elves, but gain some bulk and strength through their human ancestry.
Part human, best of both worlds.
Available Classes: Warrior, Rogue, Bard, Monk, Conjurer, Magician
HALF-ORC
Orcs are large, semi-intelligent, pig-like creatures that can usually be found in the employ of evil wizards. Half-orcs, because they are 50% human, aren't quite as despicable as full orcs - but they're sometimes just as dangerous.
Part human, with boosted strength.
Available Classes: Warrior, Rogue, Hunter, Conjurer, Magician
GNOME
These people resemble dwarves, but usually have less hair, shorter tempers, and are always better at using magic.
Nimble and intelligent.
Available Classes: Warrior, Rogue, Hunter, Monk, Conjurer, Magician
Attributes
Each character you create has five basic attributes which define his physical and mental prowess. When you create a character each attribute is assigned a value from 1 to 18, with the higher number reflecting higher capability.
[ST] STRENGTH:
Pure, physical power that determines the amount of damage a character can inflict on an opponent in hand-to-hand combat. Make sure your fighting characters are strong.
[IQ] INTELLIGENCE:
Mental power. A magic user gets bonus spell points for a high intelligence score.
[DX] DEXTERITY:
Agility and nimbleness. A high score in this area makes your characters harder to hit and helps them land the first blow during combat.
[CN] CONSTITUTION:
Healthiness and survivability. It takes more damage to kill characters with strong constitution. Strong constitution is usually reflected with bonus hit points.
[LK] LUCK:
As always, luck is ambiguous, unpredictable, and has a number of unforeseen effects on your characters' lives. Lucky characters are more likely to resist evil magic and avoid traps.
Classes
WARRIOR
Warriors can use nearly every weapon they come across. For every four levels of experience after the first, warriors get an extra attack capability during combat.
PALADIN
Paladins are fighters who have sworn to fight all evil and uphold honor and purity in all places and situations. Paladins can use most weapons including many that other fighters can't. Paladins get multiple attacks at higher levels and also have greater resistance to evil magic.
ROGUE
Rogues are professional thieves with mediocre combat skills. However, rogues are experts at skulking in the shadows, as well as searching for traps and disarming them. Without a rogue in your ranks, your party's booty will come at an unusually high price.
BARD
Bards are colorful characters. Most Bards are warriors who have given up the art of war for the art of magical music. This doesn't mean, however, that they've forgotten how to handle warrior weapons. But because they're not true warriors, Bards don't the advantage of extra attacks during combat.
Because of their unique form of musical magic, it's nearly impossible to survive in the Realm without a Bard in your party. Most Bards always have a repertoire of seven songs, but must also have an instrument in order to perform. A Bard song played while exploring is long lasting and will resume after combat; even if other tunes were played during the fight. Songs performed during combat are brief -- lasting only one round -- and their effects differ from the noncombat versions.
Only one Bard tune can play at a time, and the tunes vary according to the difficulty of the dungeon. If a second tune is started by the same or a different Bard, the first song will end. A Bard can play as many tunes as he has experience levels before his throat dries; e.g., if your Bard has four experience levels, he'll be able to play four tunes from his repertoire. The only cure for a Bard's dry throat is a large tankard of ale from the nearest tavern. This is the source of one of the Realm's popular sayings, "When the going gets tough, the Bard goes drinking..."
HUNTER
Hunters are often known by other titles; assassin, mercenary, ninja. Hunters can use most weapons and can often instantly kill an opponent by striking a nerve center or other vital area during an attack (a handy skill that increases in accuracy as the hunter accrues experience points).
MONK
Monks are inhuman fighting machines trained in all aspects of the martial arts. Monks can use traditional weapons, but usually (especially at the higher experience levels) are more effective using their bare hands.
The Monk's melee attack damage increases significantly level by level, most effective when not having an equipped weapon.
Spellcasters
Magic users gain access to a book of spells belonging to their class. They level up by gaining experience just as any other class, however they gain the ability to improve their spell level after the Review Board has deemed them worthy - that is, for every 2 experience levels, they may purchase the next level of spells for their class (see Spell Points below).
After learning their 3rd level in any spell class, they are also granted the right, if they so choose, to convert to a new spellcaster class. In doing so however, they forfeit their right to learn any further spells in the class(es) they left behind.
An spellcaster may only begin learning the Archmage class once experienced in each of the other 4 spellcaster classses.
CONJURER
Conjurers are the first of the five levels of magic users. They can heal the wounded and create physical phenomena such as fire and light.
MAGICIAN
Magicians are the second level of magic users and use their magic to change the properties of physical objects; i.e., enchanting a sword, making armor stronger, or making a dungeon wall disappear.
SORCERER
Sorcerers are the third level and deal in the creation and manipulation of illusions. The level is very powerful and isn't available to new characters.
WIZARD
Wizards are the fourth level and can summon and bind supernatural creatures. These creatures don't like our plane of existence and aren't very friendly. Trying to control these creatures is extremely hazardous and therefore the Wizard level isn't available to newly created characters.
ARCHMAGE
These magic users have learned at least three levels for each of the previous four magic user classes. The Archmage is one of the most powerful and important characters in The Destiny Knight because an Archmage can do almost anything. Remember, Lagoth Zanta is an Archmage ... fight fire with fire.
Character Properties/stats
[AC] Armour Class
Reflects the level of protection a character has against physical attack. Armor class starts at 10 for a totally unprotected character with low dexterity. As the character's protection improves through armor, spells, and other means, the armor class drops to -10, and eventually all the way to L+ (the equivalent of a -21 armor class). Once your character's armor class reaches L+, the display doesn't change even thought the armor class may continue to go lower than -21.
AC rating also has the additional effect of providing a boost to the chance of successfully attacking an enemy. A lower AC provides better defense as well as offense.
[HP] Hit Points
The two columns that show hit points reflect the amount of damage a character can take before dying and the character's current condition. The HIT column shows the character's total number of hit points, or the character's potential at full health. The PTS column shows the actual current condition of the character. For example, if a character has an HIT column that contains 20 and a PTS column that contains 20, the character is at full health. If the character takes 3 points of damage during battle, however, the HIT column remains at 20 while the PTS column drops to 17; thus showing you the character's total potential hit points, and the current actual status.
Condition is also displayed indicating a special state as an effect of a magic spell or item or other form of attack. These include:
DEAD - Self explanatory
OLD - Withered, with greatly reduced AC rating
POISoned - Hit points will slowly drain as long as the character is afflicted
STONed - Character has been petrified and effectively DEAD, unless revived by special means
PARAlyzed - Temporarily immobilized from performing actions
POSSessed - Character becomes antagonistic towards the party and launches dissention in the ranks
NUTS - Crazy in the head. May launch into a party attack
[SP] Spell Points
These two columns show the total possible and current actual spell point status. Spell points are used with each spell the character casts. The amount of spell points used is determined by the spell itself. For instance, if a Conjurer's SPL and PTS columns both contain 18, he is at full power. If the Conjurer casts a Mage Flame spell that costs 2 spell points, the PTS column value drops to 16. The character's maximum spell points are listed in the SPL column, while the spell point remaining are shown in the PTS column.
[XP] Experience Points
Measures the character's abilities that have been gained by experience. The higher the experience points, the greater the character's abilities. Characters earn experience after every battle, relative to the success or failure of the battle (success or failure being determined by the number of survivors in your party).
Gold
Gold is as precious in the Realm of the Bard as it is in your own world. Your characters start out with just enough gold to buy them the bare essentials in armor and weapons to start the quest. Your party can earn more gold from the monsters they defeat in battle, or by selling the things they find in dungeons -- the overall strength and armament of your party should determine which method you use in the beginning.
Levels
Reflects the level of achievement within a character's class. For example, Level 1 is a Novice, while Level 13 is needed to become a Master of a magic user class.
Based on experience points, the Review Board promotes characters to higher levels within their class -- but only if the character requests promotion in-person; i.e., you must find the Review Board. Advancing levels is important because it usually means increases in attribute scores such as hit points, spell points, and so on.
See the Monk class above for hints about the effect of increasing levels on attack effectiveness.
