Dark Ages (video Game) - Character Customization

Character Customization

Players begin the game with the creation of a new character. They may select a name up to 12 characters long. They may then select the gender and hair color of the character. A limited selection of gender-specific hairstyles is then chosen, eighteen styles for males, seventeen styles for females. Players then enter their desired password and enter the game as the default Peasant class.

Characters are broken up into the archetypal character classes of Warrior, Monk, Priest, Wizard and Rogue, with the default being Peasant. In order to become one of the common classes, players must enter a specific building in the starting town of Mileth. They may bring a player of the desired class to initiate them into the class, or may elect to do so alone, with the NPC as their initiator.

Darkages has typical primary stats some of which are altered by the gear worn by the character, some of which are customised by the player upon gaining a level. Primary stats are STR (Strength) which relates to damage done in melee combat and some attacking skills, as well as the weight of items a character may carry or wear. CON (constitution) which relates to mostly to life regeneration, hp gained upon leveling and monk’s damage skills. DEX (dexterity) relates to chance of success in nonmagical attacks, chance to evade melee attacks, and some of the rogue’s skills predominantly. INT (intelligence) relates to a characters chance of succeeding with a magical attack and the damage inflicted by wizards spells predominantly. WIS (wisdom) relates to mp regeneration, mp gained upon leveling, and the damage of priest’s spells.

Learning skills and spells require the character to have a certain amount of each stat, for example for a Warrior to learn the "Windblade" ability he must raise his INT and CON to 5, STR to 6, and DEX to 12. Only then may he learn the ability after presenting the trainer with a specific item(s) and/or gold. Many players plan their character around using items to boost stats so they can learn skills with the fewest points actually spent possible, enabling the excess points to be spent in CON or WIS, allowing the character to enjoy a greatly improved HP or MP pool and regeneration while leveling.

HP and MP are the standards hit point and magic points. HP is reduced from receiving damage in combat from enemies, and if it is reduced to 0 results in the death of the character except under special circumstances. If a character is a member of a party, instead of immediate death the character is in a swooning state in which they cannot move or use skills, spells, potions or complete any action other than speech. It is commonly called Skulling in the game, in reference to the skull which appears over the character head for a short duration. Other characters may use a specialized potion to cancel the effect and return the character to 1 HP during the duration. Otherwise the spell ends and the character dies per usual. HP and MP are increased every time the character gains a level based on a mathematical formula involving the characters CON stat for HP or the characters WIS stat for MP.

There is an AC (armour class) rating which controls how much of the potential damage from an attack is mitigated. MR (magic resistance) ratings control the chance of a spell to miss the target. HIT is a modifier for nonmagical weapon and some skills damage as well as involved in some formulae for attack success chance. DAM (damage) is another modifier relating to combat damage.

The STR, CON, DEX, INT and WIS stats start at 3 each and may be added to in any desired manner by the character. Each time characters gain a level, they receive 2 points to place in any of the 5 stats they desire. Skills and spells all have specific stat requirements, so in order to get desired skills and spells, characters must increase the appropriate stats.