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             The Bard's Tale ][:  The Destiny Knight - [Part Two]
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                          Typed up by: The Vandal...

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Legend:

{}'s = Boldface Type
[]'s = Italics


-(Page 7)-


{CHARACTER TYPES}

Humans are only one of many races that can be found in the Realm of the Bard.
Half the fun of exploring the Realm is learning about and getting to know the
non-human inhabitants.  In this chapter we'll take a look at the different
races, classes, and abilities.


{Races}

Including humans, there are a total of seven races that inhabit the Realm of
the Bard.  Each of the races that inhabit the Realm are described briefly in
the following sections.


{Human:}  The people of this race are known for their inventiveness,
hardiness, agressiveness, and downright stubbornness in the face of adversity.
A perfect set of traits for survival in the Realm of the Bard.


{Elf:}  These fair-haired, fair-skinned people closely resemble humans but are
usually taller, faster, and more agile.  The Elven people are highly skilled
in the arts -- especially magic and war.


{Dwarf:}  These short, stout people are amazingly strong and healthy, but not
always very bright.  All very good reasons to make sure you have the dwarves
on [your] side in a fight.


{Hobbit:}  These small people are wise, nimble, and usually very patient.  It
is said that, if need be, a hobbit can steal the gold-purse from a shadow.


{Half-Elf:}  These people are living proof of the compatability between humans
and elves.  They are fair-haired and light-skinned like elves, but gain some
bulk and strength through their human ancestry.


{Half-Orcs:}  Orcs are large, semi-intelligent, pig-like creatures that can
usually be found in the employ of evil wizards.  Half-orcs, because they are
50% human, aren't quite as despicable as full orcs -- but they're sometimes
just as dangerous.


{Gnome:}  These people resemble dwarves, but usually have less hair, shorter
tempers, and are [always] better at using magic.


{Classes}

Each of the characters in your party of adventurers must belong to a
particular class, or profession.  There isn't a single class that's the best,
your characters must depend on each other and use teamwork to succeed on their
quest.

Class selection is the most important aspect of creating a character in the
Realm of the Bard.  There are ten different classes, but only eight to choose
from with a newly generated character.  A character's class is shown in View
Character mode, and onscreen at all times by an abbreviation in the CL (Class)
column.  Each class has its own set of strengths and limitations which are
described briefly in the following sections.


{Warrior (displayed onscreen as WA):}  Warriors can use nearly every weapon
they come across.  For every four levels of experience after the first,
warriors get an extra attack capability during combat.


-(Page 8)-


{Paladin (PA):}  Paladins are fighters who have sworn to fight all evil and
uphold honor and purity in all places and situations.  Paladins can use most
weapons including many that other fighters can't.  Paladins get multiple
attacks at higher levels and also have greater resistance to evil magic.


{Rogue (RO):}  Rogues are professional thieves with mediocre combat skills.
However, rogues are experts at skulking in the shadows, as well as searching
for traps and disarming them.  Without a rogue in your ranks, your party's
booty will come at an unusually high price.


{Bard (BA):}  Bards are colorful characters.  Most Bards are warriors who have
given up the art of war for the art of magical music.  This doesn't mean,
however, that they've forgotten how to handle warrior weapons.  But because
they're not true warriors, Bards don't have the advantage of extra attacks
during combat.

Because of their unique form of musical magic, it's nearly impossible to
survive in the Realm without a Bard in your party.  Most Bards always have a
repertoire of seven songs, but must also have an instrument in order to
perform.  A Bard song played while exploring is long lasting and will resume
after combat; even if other tunes were played during the fight.  Songs
performed during combat are brief -- lasting only one round -- and their
effects differ from the noncombat versions.

Only one Bard tune can play at a time, and the tunes vary according to the
difficulty of the dungeon.  If a second tune is started by the same or a
different Bard, the first song will end.  A Bard can play as many tunes as he
has experience levels before his throat dries; e.g., if your Bard has four
experience levels, he'll be able to play four tunes from his repertoire.  The
only cure for a Bard's dry throat is a large tankard of ale from the nearest
tavern.  This is the source of one of the Realm's popular sayings, "When the
going gets tough, the Bard goes drinking..."


{Hunter (HU):}  Hunters are often known by other titles; assassin, mercenary,
ninja.  Hunters can use most weapons and can often instantly kill an opponent
by striking a nerve center or other vital area during an attack (a handy skill
that increases in accuracy as the hunter accrues experience points).


{Monk (MO):}  Monks are inhuman fighting machines trained in all aspects of
the martial arts.  Monks can use traditional weapons, but usually (especially
at the higher experience levels) are more effective using their bare hands.


{Conjurer (CO):}  Conjurers are the first of the five levels of magic users.
They can heal the wounded and create physical phenomena such as fire and
light.


{Magician (MA):}  Magicians are the second level of magic users and use their
magic to change the properties of physical objects; i.e., enchanting a sword,
making armor stronger, or making a dungeon wall disappear.


{Sorcerer (SO):}  Sorcerers are the third level and deal in the creation and
manipulation of illusions.  The level is very powerful and isn't available to
new characters.


{Wizard (WI):}  Wizards are the fourth level and can summon and bind
supernatural creatures.  These creatures don't like our plane of existence and
aren't very friendly.  Trying to control these creatures is extremely
hazardous and therefore the Wizard level isn't available to newly created
characters.


-(Page 9)-


{Archmage (AR):}  Archmages have mastered [at least three levels] of magic
spells for the previous four magic user classes.  Needless to say an Archmage
can pretty much do as he pleases, and new characters cannot immediately
proceed to the Archmage level.  If you have an Archmage in your party, you
probably don't need to read any further.


For more information on the magic classes and using magic, see the "Magic
System" section later in this manual.


{Special Members (MN or IL)}

Special members (generically called "monsters") are characters who meet and
join your party during its travels.  Special members can be either monster
(MN) or illusion (IL).  There are two ways for special members to join your
party:


1.  By being summoned, created as illusion, or using some other magical
    artifice.
2.  By introducing themselves to the party and offering their services as a
    comrade in arms.


Your party can have up to six special members.  They can even be renamed and
saved to disk when you return to the Adventurers' Guild.  However, you can't
control special members during combat.  Special members pick their own forms
of attack and usually go after the first group of monsters your party is
facing.  Likewise, special members can carry items for your party, but cannot
find or use items -- only characters you create can use the items they find or
purchase in the game.  Illusionary members disappear from the party ranks when
they are killed.  An illusionary special member is killed if a foe disbelieves
in its existence.  Any items that an illusionary special member is carrying
(such as [gold]) are lost if the illusionary character is killed.

If a nonillusionary special member is attacked by another party member for any
reason, the special member immediately turns hostile and fights until
defeated.  Dead special members can be resurrected and healed just like your
regular [Destiny Knight] characters.  You can remove special members from your
party with the "Drop Character" command (see your Command Summary Card).


{View Character Attributes}

Each character possesses six attributes that define the physical and mental
abilities for the character, as well as the character's race, class, and
possessions.  Each of the character's attributes is randomly assigned a value
from 1 to 18 -- the higher the number, the greater the capability.  The
following five attributes are found in the View Character mode.  (See the
Command Summary Card for the key sequence that enters View Character mode.)


{Strength (displayed in View Character as ST):}  Pure, physical power that
determines the amount of damage a character can inflict on an opponet in
hand-to-hand combat.  Make sure your fighting characters are strong.


{Intelligence (IQ):}  Mental power.  A magic user gets bonus spell points for
a high intelligence score.


{Dexterity (DX):}  Agility and nimbleness.  A high score in this area makes
your characters harder to hit and helps them land the first blow during
combat.


{Constitution (CN):}  Healthiness and survivability.  It takes more damage to
kill characters with strong constitution.  Strong constitution is usually
reflected with bonus hit points (see "Hit Points" below).


-(Page 10)-


{Luck (LK):}  As always, luck is ambiguous, unpredictable, and has a number of
unforeseen effects on your characters' lives.  Lucky characters are more
likely to resist evil magic and avoid traps.


{Spell Levels (SORC, MAGI, CONJ, WIZD):}  These four attributes in View
Character mode show the spell level for the character.  This rating determines
the highest group of spells a magic user can use in their class.  For
instance, a Conjurer with a rating of 3 can only use Conjurer spells up to the
third level -- higher levels can't be accessed without a higher rating.  There
are seven spell levels per magic user class.  Like other attributes, the
ability to learn new spells increases with experience points (but you must pay
to learn new spells).  The table below lists the progression.


          Experience Level                        Spell Level

                 1                                     1
                 2                                     1
                 3                                     2
                 4                                     2
                 5                                     3
                 6                                     3
                 7                                     4
                 8                                     4
                 9                                     5
                 10                                    5
                 11                                    6
                 12                                    6
                 13+                                   7


{Character Acquisitions}

Also found in the View Character mode are skills or items that your characters
acquire during the course of the adventure.  There are four categories
altogether.


{Experience Points (EXPER):}  Measures the character's abilities that have
been gained by experience.  The higher the experience points, the greater the
character's abilities.  Characters earn experience after every battle,
relative to the success or failure of the battle (success or failure being
determined by the number of survivors in your party).


{Gold:}  Gold is as precious in the Realm of the Bard as it is in your own
world.  Your characters start out with just enough gold to buy them the bare
essentials in armor and weapons to start the quest.  You party can earn more
gold from the monsters they defeat in battle, or by selling the things they
find in dungeons -- the overall strength and armament of your party should
determine which method you use in the beginning.


{Level (LVL):}  Reflects the level of achievement within a character's class.
For example, Level 1 is a Novice, while Level 13 is needed to become a Master
of a magic user class.


-(Page 11)-


Based on experience points, the Review Board promotes characters to higher
levels within their class -- but only if the character requests promotion
in-person; i.e., [you must find the Review Board].  Advancing levels is
important because it usually means increases in attribute scores such as hit
points, spell points, and so on.


{Items (1-8):}  Up to eight items can be carried at one time.  Items fall into
ten categories; weapons, shields, armor, helms, gloves, musical instruments,
figurines, rings, wands, and miscellaneous.  You must [Equip] the character
with the item in order to use it (see your Command Summary Card for the Equip
command).  Only one item from each type can be equipped at one time.  This
means that your character can't use two shields at once, even though there may
be two shown in the inventory.

Certain items can be used only by specific characters.  For example, only
Bards can use musical instruments.  An item that can't be used by a character
is marked with a 0 in View Character mode or the Equipment Shoppe.  An item
that has been equipped (so the character can [use] it) is marked with a *
symbol.


{Onscreen Statistics}

In addition to the ten basic attributes shown in View Character mode, there
are an additional five characteristics that determine your characters'
attributes in other areas such as health, experience, armor class, and so on.
The next five attributes are listed in onscreen columns at all times.


{Armor Class (AC):}  Reflects the level of protection' a character has against
physical attack.  Armor class starts at 10 for a totally unprotected character
with low dexterity.  As the character's protection improves through armor,
spells, and other means, the armor class drops to -10, and eventually all the
way to L+ (the equivalent of a -21 armor class).  Once your character's armor
class reaches L+, the display doesn't change even though the armor class may
continue to go lower than -21.


{Hit Points (HIT PTS):}  The two columns that show hit points reflect the
amount of damage a character can take before dying and the character's current
condition.  The HIT column shows the character's total number of hit points,
or the character's potential at full health.  The PTS column shows the actual
current [condition] of the character.  For example, if a character has a HIT
column that contains 20 and a PTS column that contains 20, the character is at
full health.  If the character takes 3 points of damage during battle,
however, the HIT column remains at 20 while the PTS column drops to 17; thus
showing you the character's total [potential] hit points, and the current
[actual] status.


{Spell Points (SPL PTS):}  These two columns show the total possible and
current actual spell point status.  Spell points are used with each spell the
character casts.  The amount of spell points used is determined by the spell
itself.  For instance, if a Conjurer's SPL and PTS columns both contain 18, he
is at full power.  If the Conjurer casts a Mage Flame spell that costs 2 spell
points, the PTS column value drops to 16.  The character's [maximum] spell
points are listed in the SPL column, while the spell points [remaining] are
shown in the PTS column.


{Class (CL):}  Shows the character's class in abbreviated form.  See "Classes"
to learn the onscreen abbreviation for each class.


-(Page 12)-


{Creating a Character}

If you decide that you want to create your own characters for your quest
party, you can use the Create Character mode.  Create Character mode only
works in the Adventurers' Guild.  Use the command shown on your Command
Summary Card to enter Create Character mode, then use the following procedures
to build your characters one-by-one:


1.  Select a race for the character.

2.  Next the computer displays a set of attribute values for the character
which are like a combination of genes and luck.  There is a lowest possible
value for each attribute of each race -- these are the genes.  The computer
then "rolls the dice" and adds the random number to each of the attributes --
this is the luck.  The sum of the gene and luck values are then displayed as
the attribute values for the character.

3.  If you're satisfied with the computer's "dice roll," choose a character
class, then name the character.  If you want to try for a better set of
attributes, use the command listed on the Command Summary Card to make the
computer "re-roll the dice."

4.  After the character's name is assigned, the character is saved to your
character disk.

5.  To use the character, you must [add] him or her to your party with the Add
command shown on the Command Summary Card.


{Tips from the Adventurers' Guild:  Characters}


1.  Don't be to 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.


-(Page 13)-


8.  Keep a slot open for special members.  There will be times when you need
to temporarily enlist the services of a special member to help your party
through certain portions of the game.  If all the member slots in your party
are filled, you won't be able to add a special member.

9.  You can save special members with your party, but you must either rename
the party, or save the special members seperately.

10.  Beware of the Doppleganger monster.  It enters your party and looks just
like one of your characters.  Dealing with one Doppleganger isn't so bad, but
if you have a number of empty member slots and multiple Dopplegangers enter
your party, things can get pretty confusing.

11.  The first character in your party is the group leader.  Having a high
level, high luck character in that slot can help you avoid a lot of trouble.
A Paladin is the most effective group leader.

12.  Pay close attention to character statistics while exploring.  If you see
that your character's spell or hit points are draining for no apparent reason,
you may be in a special square -- move immediately.  There are many special
squares in [The Destiny Knight] that can affect your party in various (and
lethal) ways -- watch out for them.

13.  Always leave open slots for new items in your inventory.  Some puzzles
require you to take or possess a certain item in order to solve the puzzle.
Having no room in your inventory prevents you from solving these types of
puzzles.


-<END OF PART TWO>-


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