Consequently, characters have a great many statistics that define their abilities. Although it is not necessary to understand every last statistic before proceeding with the game, it is helpful to know as much as you can. If you are new to games of this type, it is recommended that you read this help text once just to get the general idea, and then, if necessary, come back later after you've played the game a while to pick up the fine points.

The most important statistic is the character's level. The level of a character is a simple number that represents approximately how experienced a character is. The higher the level, the more experienced and skilled the character is. Characters start at level zero and progress from there. To gain levels, the character must accrue a certain number of experience points. Each successive level requires more experience points to attain. (Starting with level 13, the necessary number of experience points to gain the next level remains constant.) When viewing characters, you can see not only how many experience points the character has but also how many additional experience points are required to gain the next level.

A character's hit points defines the amount of damage they can take, in combat or from poison or traps, before dying. Characters have a hit points attribute, representing the number of hit points they have currently, and a maximum hit points attribute, which is the highest number of hit points they can have (and how many they need to be at full health). As characters gain levels, they also gain hit points.

There are eight basic attributes that define a character's abilities. These are strength, vision, agility, dexterity, vitality, IQ, wisdom, and charisma. These attributes are based on a scale of 1 to 30. As characters gain levels, these attributes increase. In addition, there is a 'points left' attribute, which says how many points may be distributed among any or all of the eight ability attributes. This is described in greater detail in the Editing Stats section.

There are three resistance attributes, which define a character's resistance to various forms of attack. These are heat resistance, cold resistance, and poison resistance. They are based on a scale from 1 to 10, where 5 indicates a normal resistance. Higher numbers indicate a high resistance, while lower numbers indicate a vulnerability. Characters do get more resistant to heat, cold, and poison as they progress, but they gain it very slowly.

Each character can be one of several different races. The character's race and gender will define the initial settings for the ability and resistance statistics.

A character's class is the character's profession -- a particular area where the character is most skilled. There are six different classes: knight, rogue, sorcerer, wizard, druid, and assassin. Different classes will be able to use different types of equipment and learn different types of spells.

• Knights are excellent fighters, have high hit points, and can use almost all types of equipment. However, they cannot learn spells.

• Rogues are shady characters, stealthy and skilled at disarming booby-trapped chests. They can use some of the lighter types of equipment. They get a moderate amount of hit points and do not learn spells.

• Sorcerers cast spells designed primarily for use in combat. They cannot use very much equipment at all and, while their magic is deadly, make poor hand-to-hand fighters. They do not get very many hit points.

• Wizards are more intellectual spell casters, adept at casting defensive, informational, and analytical spells. They can use more equipment, get better hit points, and fight better than sorcerers, but they are still relatively unskilled in hand to hand combat.

• Druids are spell casters with a broad range. They can learn both sorcerer spells and wizard spells but learn them more slowly. They don't gain many hit points, and they cannot use very much equipment. However, they get more spell points than either sorcerers or wizards, and their magic constantly heals and protects them, even without the invocation of spells.

• Assassins are ruthless killers. Although they have mediocre hit points and know no spells, they are the best fighters and have two special abilities, both of which improve with experience. One is the ability to hit enemies in critical spots, causing paralysis or even instant death. The other is the ability to use his body as a weapon and a defense mechanism, causing his weapon and armor class (see below) to be raised even without equipment. Of course, equipment always helps.

A character's spell points indicates how much magic a character can use before resting to recuperate. Weaker spells generally require fewer spell points than stronger spells; a spell casting character can cast spells until there are no more spell points left. To regain spell points, the character must rest at the inn in the town square. Similar to hit points, there is a maximum spell points attribute that indicates the highest number of spell points the character may have. As the character gains levels, this increases.

A character's speed indicates the maximum number of times the character can strike an opponent in combat in one round. If the speed is high enough, it may also enable a character to combat more than one opponent in a single round. The mechanics of hand-to-hand combat is described in greater detail in the Combat section.

A character's AC and WC stand for armor class and weapon class, respectively. Armor class is an evaluation of how well protected the character is for facing enemies in combat. (An AC of 0 means that the character is not protected by armor at all; an AC of 65 or more makes the character invulnerable to physical attack.) Weapon class evaluates the general strength of the character's weapon. (Weapon class does not take into account the critical hit probability of the weapon, which is a special property of a weapon to hit in critical spots, causing instant death. Assassins can administer critical hits with any weapon, even their bare hands, but other classes require special weapons to do this.)

Characters may be equipped with up to six types of equipment: weapon, body armor, shield, helmet, gauntlets, and boots. Throughout the game, the character may acquire different types of weapons or armor but may use or wear only one of each type at any given time. (The armor class and weapon class attributes evaluate only what the character is currently using or wearing.) Additionally, the character may carry up to nine other items of equipment.