Sometimes it helps to know what attributes do what for Murkon and for the opponents he faces. Here's a brief description of the effects of each attribute. Murkon's Attributes Strength How much damage is done by each hit in combat. Agility How early in a round of combat Murkon moves. How well Murkon can dodge physical attacks. Dexterity How likely Murkon is to land a physical attack against an opponent. Stealth How good Murkon is at ambushing adventurers and avoiding their ambushes. (This is also dependent on the ambush skills of the monsters Murkon is with.) Fear How likely Murkon is to be too scared to act during a round of combat. Positive values indicate that this is possible; at zero or below, this won't happen. Some attack spells can cause this value to be raised for the duration of a particular encounter. Poisoning How likely Murkon is to poison a character he has hit in battle. Paralyzing How likely Murkon is to paralyze a character he has hit in battle. Drain How likely Murkon is to drain levels from a character he has hit in battle. Fire/Cold/Poison Magic The maximum power that Murkon can put into an elemental spell. Fire/Cold/Poison Breath The maximum power that Murkon can put into an elemental breath attack. Adventurer Attributes Strength How much damage is done by each hit of a short range weapon in combat. If a character paralyzes a monster with a physical attack, how long the paralysis lasts. (Dexterity is also considered.) Vision How much damage is done by a hit of a long range weapon in combat. How well a monster's physical attack can be dodged. (Agility is also considered.) Except for the first character in the party, how good one is at landing hits on a monster in a physical attack. Dexterity is the other major factor that determines this skill. The further back in the party one is, the more important vision is and the less important dexterity is by comparison. Use of long range weapons also makes vision count more heavily and dexterity count slightly less heavily. The effectiveness of a magic spell that targets just one specific monster (as opposed to a whole group, or all of them). (IQ or Wisdom, depending on the spell, is also considered.) Agility How early in a round of combat the character moves. How well a monster's physical attack can be dodged. (Vision is also considered.) Whether or not an attempt to ambush monsters will succeed. (See a similar effect of wisdom.) Dexterity How good one is at landing hits on a monster in a physical attack. Except for the first character in a party, vision is also considered. The further back in the party one is, the more important vision is and the less important dexterity is by comparison. Use of long range weapons also makes vision count more heavily and dexterity count slightly less heavily. If a character paralyzes a monster with a physical attack, how long the paralysis lasts. (Strength is also considered.) Vitality How often paralysis may be avoided by attacks from certain monsters. IQ How effective sorcerer spells are. (In the case of spells that target a single monster only, vision is also considered.) Wisdom How effective wizard spells are. (In the case of spells that target a single monster only, vision is also considered.) Whether or not a monster ambush may be escaped. (See a similar effect of agility.) Charisma This attribute has no effect in Murkon's Vengeance. Speed How many times a character will hit a monster in combat. How many monsters a character can attack in a single round of combat. (Note: a character may not strike more than one monster in a single combat round until that character's speed reaches at least 5.)