Bard's Tale II:
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1. Don't be too concerned about losing a level 1 character; just make another. When your characters reach level 3, however, backup your character disk regularly with your favorite disk copy utility.
2. You have several options if your favorite character is killed. You can spend spell points to resurrect the character with magic, or gold to resurrect the character in a temple. You can turn off the computer, reboot, and reload your party from the point where you last saved them to disk (meaning all the characters lose all the gold and experience points they may have earned since the last time they were saved). Or you can delete the dead character from your main character disk, and replace the character from your backup disk.
3. 16's, 17's, and 18's can often make a big difference when "rolling" for a character's attributes. For example, Dexterity gives everyone bonus armor protection and first strike capabilities; Strength enables you to do extra damage in combat; Luck often allows you to survive even if you accidentally spring a trap; and Constitution provides all characters with extra hit points. Although it makes no difference in the first allotment, magic users with high intelligence ratings get bonus spell points in later turns.
4. Many races have a specific attribute they excel in. Pay close attention to the starting attributes when designing your party.
5. Develop a Sorcerer fast -- they're quite useful in dungeons. Wizards are very important at advanced levels because they can summon extremely powerful special members. Work toward Archmagedom. You'll need at least one, and wish you had many more.
6. The *ATEAM, while excellent for the starter dungeon, may not last long at the advanced levels. Experiment with a hunter: because of their "critical hit" capability, a hunter can often vanquish superior monsters. And don't overlook monks -- after the sixth level they are probably the best fighters of all.
7. Warriors and other fighters are often less effective against the higher level, magic-using monsters, but without their protection your magic users won't survive long enough to learn the higher level magic spells.
1. Your first adventure should be in the starter dungeon in Tangramayne. The starter dungeon is at the opposite end of town from the Adventurer's Guild. Instructions and details about this dungeon are presented when your party enters. Any party is allowed in the starter dungeon, but only characters less than level 12 receive the maximum reward for completing the starter dungeon.
2. Explore and map every square in every maze. There are "Magic Mouths" that give hints. Mazes also contain one-of-a-kind magic items and spell regeneration zones. In addition to keeping you alive, carefully drawn maps will show the logical places for secret doors and rooms.
3. Avoid potential traps. High level rogues can easily open chests, but use the "Trap zap" spell when in doubt. TRZP is guaranteed to protect the party from harm. TRZP will disarm any trap you encounter, including the innocuous Gas Cloud traps -- which have doomed many brave (but foolish) heroes.
4. Make sure all members of your party are fully healed before entering a new dungeon.
5. When finding your bearings in a labyrinth, remember that each successive level goes up in a tower or castle, and down in a dungeon or tomb.
6. The segments of the Destiny Wand are hidden within real-time puzzle rooms known as Snares of Death. The game will alert you when your party has entered one. Once inside, you have a limited amount of time to complete the various tasks, puzzles, and riddles within the room and retrieve the segment. In some rooms the tasks must be completed in a specific order, in other rooms the order isn't important. In any case, if you take too long in a puzzle room, your entire party will instantly perish. There is a Snare of Death in every dungeon with the exception of the starter.
1. The character with the highest dexterity rating and level number usually attacks first. Use the character with the highest dexterity rating to attack especially fearsome creatures such as Dragons. Less dexterous characters might not survive long enough to get in the first strike.
2. Use spells and Bard song to lower the armor class of your entire party. Remember, the lower the armor class rating the better.
3. If attacked by more than two groups of monsters, concentrate your efforts on the magic users first. If you can't kill all the magic-using monsters, cast magic-repellent spells to protect your party from illusions, possessions, and other spells.
4. As a general rule, attack groups containing only one monster last, unless it contains a particularly deadly monster, then attack it while your party is strong.
5. Many undead monsters (monsters who have returned from the dead; i.e., zombies) can drain experience levels, rapidly age characters, critically hit, or even turn characters to stone. Treat the undead with respect -- kill them quickly.
6. Be prepared to lose a lot of level one and two characters; especially at night and when you're walking unarmed to