Sunday 26 August 2007

Statistically speaking, redux

Following up on my earlier article about stats in roguelikes, I thought I'd post from the revised help-files about exactly how stats affect game play in Unangband. I'm breaking a few conventions with my implementation, but take care to notice how each stat can help both warriors, spell casters and often archers or throwing specialists.

Strength
Strength is important in fighting with weapons and in melee
combat. A high strength can improve the amount of damage
done with each hit. Characters with low strengths may
receive penalties. Strength is also useful in tunnelling
and in carrying heavy items. You may find some weapons
too hard to use if your strength is not equal to or greater
than the weapon weight in pounds. Finally, strength improves
the range of thrown weapons and firing from slings and bows.
The firing speed from crossbows can be improved with a
sufficiently high strength.

Intelligence
Intelligence is important in improving your accuracy with
weapons both in melee combat and fired or thrown attacks as
well. A high intelligence can also reduce the chance of
breaking thrown weapons or fired ammunition, so is very
useful for archers and particularly for thrown weapon
specialists.
Intelligence also affects the spellcasting abilities of many
spellcasters. Intelligence will affect the number of spells
you may learn each level. A good intelligence can also help
with using magic devices, picking locks, and disarming traps.

Wisdom
Wisdom is important in both physical and magical defense.
A high wisdom will increase your overall armour class, whilst
a low wisdom will penalise it. A good wisdom can also help
to improve your chances of resisting magical spells cast upon
you by monsters. A high wisdom will increase the number of
spell points you earn at each level for the majority of spell
casting classes.

Dexterity
Dexterity represents your manual dexterity and coordination.
A high dexterity may allow a character to get multiple blows
with lighter weapons, thus greatly increasing his kill power,
and will increase his chances of hitting with any weapon, both
in melee combat and at range. Dexterity is also useful in
picking locks and disarming traps.
Magical spell casters, such as mages, artisans, rangers and
warrior mages require dexterity to assist in the casting of
their spells - a high dexterity will decrease the overall
failure chance of spell casting for these classes. Wearing
gloves will however penalize magical spell casters however.

Constitution
Constitution is a character's ability to resist damage to his
body, and to recover from damage received. Therefore a
character with a high constitution will receive more hit
points and also recover them faster while resting. Spell
casters will also notice their mana increase with increasing
constitution. This mana reserve can be drawn on in times of
danger to allow the caster to cast additional spells. This
extra reserve of mana poses the risk of temporarily draining
or damaging the caster's overall health, so should not be
used too often.

Charisma
Charisma represents a character's personality and physical
magnetism. A character with a high charisma will receive
better prices from store owners, whereas a character with a
very low charisma may be robbed blind. A high charisma
character will cause monsters to flee from him sooner, and
makes it less likely for monsters to use their ranged attacks
or to summon their fellow monsters - this makes charisma an
ideal 'crowd control' ability. Finally, charisma assists in
the control of summoned monsters and in the use of magics
that charm or influence monsters, whether the magic is from
a spell or magical device that the player uses, or from
the abilities of their allies.
Priestly spell casters, such as priests and paladins require
charisma to assist in the casting of their spells - a high
charisma will decrease the overall failure chance of spell
casting for these classes.

Agility
Agility is a measure of your quickness and overall altheticism.
A high agility will increase your overall speed, and a very low
agility will slow you down, even if you are not currently
encumbered. Agility also increases your overall defence against
physical attacks and helps greatly with protecting yourself from
some of the thieves that inhabit the dungeons. Indeed, if
the character has a high enough dexterity, thieves will
never be successful in stealing from the player.

Size
Size is a numeric representation of the character's height and
weight. It directly influences these two abilities, and the
resulting benefit of larger height and weight also increases
the character's overall hit points. Size also greatly benefits
your ability to charge with heavy weapons, and can allow you
to achieve large amounts of damage with the heaviest of weapons.
Note: size cannot exceed your strength without slowing you down.
For every 2 points your size is over your strength, your agility
is lowered by one.

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