I need help with character choice/creation...

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Gavindale Marchovia
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I need help with character choice/creation...

Post by Gavindale Marchovia »

I am new to Dungeon Master, and have a question about how to start the game off. What are the pros and cons for character creation/choice - should I go the resurrection route, or reincarnation? Is there anything else I should know about the game before I play? Any help is appreciated!
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Re: I need help with character choice/creation...

Post by Ameena »

When you resurrect a character, you get that character as they are, with all their stats and skills exactly as you see them whe you inspect them in the mirror. If you reincarnate them their skills (Fighter, Ninja, Wizard, Priest) are completely wiped but their stats remain the same (and you can also rename the character). While it might seem like a bad thing to clear their skills, this is DM which as far as these games go is relative Easy Mode. Whenever a character gets a skill increaase, some stats relating to that skill will increase as well (eg for gaining Fighter levels I think you get some stamina and hp and stuff). It doesn't take long to regain the lost levels and you'll get some stat increases that you therefore wouldn't otherwise have got :). This is good in DM as the dungoen is pitched for newbie-level characters. If you tried this in CSB you'd get totally wrecked (not that that's unusual for high-level characters either, mind you ;)).

As for specifics on which characters to choose...well, they can all become good at everything if you train them up. At the start you're likely to run into some problems but if you give people enough practice at stuff they can overcome them. For example, Tiggy has bugger all hp/stamina and characters such as Stamm have no mana. But you can give the low-hp people practice with melée weapons to increase their Fighter levels and up their health. Meanwhile there are items that give the wielder a small amount of mana so you can give these to the no-mana people to cast spells until they get an actual Wizard/Priest level and develop some mana of their own.

As it's your first playthrough I recommend taking a full party of four, but note that you don't have to take this many - you could try a solo run if you wanted :D. Don't worry about taking your time, at least in the early levels, as there's plenty of food and water so you don't need to worry about running out of that unless you take a really long time (and even then, there are some regenerating food supplies if you know where to look ;)).

Hmm, what else...well, I can think of a few general tips...
When recruiting your heroes at the start, bear in mind that until you actually rez/reincarnate someone, you have no food or water bars to worry about so you can take as long as you like wandering around and checking everyone out before you actually recruit someone. There are 24 heroes in total to choose from.
Spells only use mana when you initially click the runes - the actual casting of the spell doesn't use any more, so you can prepare spells in advance (eg get offensive spells ready when you know you're going into a room full of monsters) and hurl them all off at once when you need to :).
Shields never seem to really do any good, so I never bother with them and instead my characters always keep an empty potion flask in their off-hands so I can have them create their own potions.
Similarly, I'm not sure what good some armour does - much of it doesn't seem to offer much more protection than any other, so don't feel as though you have to equip everyone in the most impressive-sounding armour you can find (as that kind of stuff tends to be quiet heavy ;)).
Speaking of stuff being heavy, if you're moving around and notice that you seem to be moving slowly, go into people's inventories and check their weight (shown at the bottom of the screen). If it's in the yellow, you're approaching that person's weight limit and are slowed. If it's in the red, you've gone over and are even more slow. If the number is yellow/red but you're not carrying much (or haven't added anything to that person's inventory since before they became encumbered), check to make sure they don't have any injured body parts (they will have a red square around them and if you unequip that slot you'll see the body part is bandaged). If they do, just give 'em a health potion and this will fix it :).

I think I'll leave you with that for now. Hope that's enough to get you started but let us know if you have any more questions - it's always good to meet new people getting into DM even after all this time :D.
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Jan
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Re: I need help with character choice/creation...

Post by Jan »

Oh, hello, welcome to the forums, and especially welcome to this beautiful game! :D

I think Ameena covered most of the topics, so I'll just sum it up and add a few minor points:

1. Ressurection - easier at the beginning of the game; reincarnation - more difficult at the beginning but a better progress and stronger characters at the end. Ressurection perhaps better for a complete beginner in the game.

2. Experienced players usually pick two characters. I usually take only one :wink: (someone like Chani). For a beginner it's probably the best to pick all four - at least you won't have to worry about the space in your inventory and the carrying capacity. You can either go for four jack-of-all-trades characters (good at fighting and casting spells, like Chani as I mentioned), or you can pick two very strong but dumb characters for the front row to do the fighting and two weak but intelligent characters for the back row as priests and wizards. The later is probably recommended for a beginner, although it's a good idea to train the fighters in magic and the wizards in fighting as well to some extent.

3. A small aid for the first few levels - it's not a cheat or a bug, but an interesting feature of the engine: note that the "war cry" action (for an empty hand)
Spoiler
increases your priest level
! :shock:

4. All you need to know is that you cannot "get stuck" in the game - there are no "dead ends" and there is no way you could "screw things up" irreversibly. In other words - there's always a way... I think it's good to know 'cause it makes you more relaxed.

That's probably enough for me now, go and explore the dungeon, good luck, and certainly inform us on your progress! :)
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Re: I need help with character choice/creation...

Post by Ameena »

Technically you could completely run out of food and/or water and save the game with everyone about to die of thirst and/or starvation...or right in front of a monster with everyone on low hp or something. But yeah, other than that, you can't completely mess up :D.

I was going to mention about War Cries, but I forgot and ended up talking about other stuff instead.

Oh, one other thing - when you're looking around in room, be aware that grey-colored keys (usually iron ones) can be pretty hard to see on the grey floor. If you're stuck at a locked door which has a keyhole and you're sure you've searched everywhere and not missed any hidden buttons or anything (to open secret rooms which might hold the key), it may be worth checking the floor in rooms you've already been to, just in case :). It's also possible to end up with one or two leftover keys on a couple of the levels, so don't worry if you find the stairs down and still have some bits and pieces left unused :).

Ohh, and another another thing...in DM, each level is pretty self-contained - that is, for the most part, there's never any items on one level that you need on another one (not counting better weapons and stuff to kill the tougher monsters ;)). There is a bit of an exception to this, but it should become apparent at the time.
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Re: I need help with character choice/creation...

Post by Jan »

Ameena wrote:Ohh, and another another thing...in DM, each level is pretty self-contained - that is, for the most part, there's never any items on one level that you need on another one (not counting better weapons and stuff to kill the tougher monsters ;)). There is a bit of an exception to this, but it should become apparent at the time.
I'm afraid that there are so many important exceptions to this rule that this is not... erm... a rule at all. :wink:
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Re: I need help with character choice/creation...

Post by Ameena »

Really? In DM? The only part where using something from one level on another is necessary is...you know, the kind-of-vital-to-the-game bit. I can think of one other point where you need some stuff to get past something at the start of a level...but that level has two entrances from the one above it, so you don't have to do that.
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Re: I need help with character choice/creation...

Post by Jan »

I sent you a PM, Ameena. I wonder what our old good Gavindale Marchovia thinks of our conversation? :roll:
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Re: I need help with character choice/creation...

Post by Gavindale Marchovia »

How did I come up in the end of this conversation?
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Re: I need help with character choice/creation...

Post by Ameena »

I think it was more a reference to what you might be wondering about all this weird stuff we're referencing as vaguely as we can so as not to accidentally drop any spoilers ;).
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Re: I need help with character choice/creation...

Post by Daecon »

When I first started playing way back when, I always made sure Wuuf was in my party because she had a vital piece of equipment - the Empty Flask. I didn't feel secure unless I had a way to create Vi potions right at the start.

Leyla's rope can be very handy to have as well.
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Re: I need help with character choice/creation...

Post by Jan »

Daecon wrote:Leyla's rope can be very handy to have as well.
Funnily, I've never used rope in DM or CSB - except the very few times when I just wanted to make sure how (and that) it works and that it really really only works in one direction. I normally just jump into the pits (and, no, before you ask, I don't do that in my real life, only in the game :) ).
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Re: I need help with character choice/creation...

Post by Saumun »

Haha.... I'm also a non-rope user
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Re: I need help with character choice/creation...

Post by Ameena »

I don't think I ever bother with it either. Not in DM, anyway.
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Re: I need help with character choice/creation...

Post by Gavindale Marchovia »

What does the rope do?
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Jan
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Re: I need help with character choice/creation...

Post by Jan »

Don't ask. Try it! Put it in your "action" hand and "use" it. It's used to
Spoiler
climb down into pits
Spoiler
(not up, of course)
.
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