The first time you access the character screen will be to make your first character. As you play through the game, you can return to this screen to spend ADV Points and develop your character at any time by pressing the "C" key.

To create a new character, for Single Player, start a new Single Player Game.

To create a new character, for Multiplayer, host or join a Multiplayer Game and select Load Character.

From the Character Create Menu, select Make New Character.

The Portrait and bars in the upper-left corner of the screen indicate your character's current status. The red bar represents the character's current health, while the blue bar represents how close the character is to reaching his next level. When the blue bar is full (and you enter the character screen C Key ), the character will attain the next level (gaining an EXP and ADV point bonus) and the bar will reset.

Placing the cursor over this area while on the Character Screen, will display the character's personal stats.

Level: The character’s current level. All characters start the game at Level 1. Each level requires a certain number of experience points to attain. An advancement point bonus will be awarded upon the acquisition of each new level.

EXP: The number of Experience points the character has accumulated toward advancement to the next level. All characters start the game with 0 experience points.

Class Specializations: These icons show the character’s current class specializations. Classes the character has obtained will appear in color, while class the character has not obtained but is questing to obtain will appear in black and white.

ADV Points: The number of Advancement points the character has available for increasing his/her attributes and learning new skills. All newly created characters start with a fixed amount of Advancement points to spend during character creation.

Next LVL: The number of EXP required for the character to reach the next level.

Setting Race, Class, and Appearance

Your first task is to set the character’s race, class and general appearance. The controls for this phase of the creation process are located on the display below the character’s image in the center of the screen. There are six items you can customize:

To cycle through the available choices for Race, Class, and appearance, click the arrow buttons to the left and right of the item you want to change.

As you cycle through appearance options (Handedness, Skin Color, Hair Style, and Hair Color), the changes are displayed on the character image. Cycling through the Race choices updates the character image, and the Race and sex are displayed in the Race/Sex display above the character’s statistics in the upper-left. Class changes are displayed in the Class Specializations area.

Character Races - Description

Although the appearance selections are purely cosmetic adjustments, Race and Class affect the character’s performance during the game. The basic statistic levels for each character race are shown in the following table.

A character class enhances the ability to learn certain skills and skill types and/or grants the character access to certain additional skills and heraldry that might not be available to other character classes. One class may be selected when the character is created and additional classes and advanced classes may be attained by joining guilds and completing quests.

The following table lists the starting character classes and the learning bonuses and additional skills/heraldry for each.

Starting Character Classes - Description

Adept: Adepts are the primary keepers of the Celestial magic, and use mystic Star Crystals to cast healing and beneficial spells. Adepts begin the game with a small shield a small mace, a Crystal of Healing, and a Crystal of Peace (Pacify).

Fighter: Fighters are skilled in the use of weapons and armor. No starting character is more versed in the art of melee combat than the fighter. Fighters begin the game with some light armor, a shield and a short sword.

Mage: Mages wield the esoteric powers of Arcane magic and can harness mystical and elemental power to strike down their enemies. Mages can also develop abilities to wield magic weapons. Mages begin the game with the Arcane Spells Freezing Touch and Shrieking Star and a wooden staff.

Thief: Thieves are those versed in "The Craft", the art of skullduggery and subterfuge. Thieves are versed in the picking of locks, sneaking, evasion, and the use of thrown weaponry. Thieves begin the game with lockpicks, a dagger, and throwing daggers.

As you toggle through the classes, notice that certain skills appear only for certain classes. Also, certain skills for each class have a gold border. The currently selected class receives a cost-reduction to these skills.

When you have completed your changes, click Continue to move on to the next step.

Increase Attributes and Learn Skills

Every character starts off with some Advancement Points (ADV Points). You can spend these points to increase the character’s Attributes and add to the character’s repertoire of skills.

At this point in the character creation process, all of the Attributes and skills you can increase/add are surrounded by a golden glow. (See below)

Basic Attributes

• To increase an Attribute, click the + to the right of the Attribute you want to increase. Each click increases the Attribute by one point. The number of ADV Points required for each increase varies by attribute. To see how many ADV Points you must expend to increase an Attribute, move the cursor over the attribute. A pop-up window displays the cost.

Each character has a set of basic attributes that define his or her key abilities. These basic attributes are, in some cases, the building blocks that help define the character’s other skills and abilities.

Strength: Strength determines the character’s ability to handle weapons and armor. The higher the character’s Strength, the heavier the weapons and armor he or she is able to use.

Intellect: Intellect determines your character’s ability to learn. Increasing Intellect reduces the character's skill costs.

Dexterity: Dexterity defines your character’s coordination. High dexterity increases the character’s accuracy with weapons and allows them to use the weapons more effectively.

Agility: Agility determines your character’s speed and reflexes in combat. Characters with high Agility can strike and defend faster than those with low Agility.

Vitality: Vitality determines your character’s Life level. Increasing a character's vitality increases his maximum health.

Honor: Honor defines your character’s level of heroism and bravery in combat. Honor is gained by defeating monsters and completing quests. A certain honor score may be required before your character can obtain a certain advanced classes.

Health and Combat Statistics

A character’s health and combat statistics are determined by his or her attributes and define the character’s ability to fight and survive, as well interact with other characters in a non-violent way.

Life: Life indicates how much damage the character can withstand without dying. A character’s Life increases along with his/her Vitality.

Strike: Strike determines your character’s ability to hit an opponent in order to inflict damage with both melee and ranged weapons. The higher the character’s Strike, the more effective the character is at bypassing an opponent's armor and parry skills in order to damage him. A character's Strike increases with his/her Dexterity.

Damage: The Damage attribute indicates the character’s ability to deal additional damage with melee weapons (above and beyond the weapons’ normal damage potential).

Speed: Speed determines how fast your character can attack and cast spells in combat. Characters with a high Speed characteristic experience little delay between subsequent actions, while characters with lower Speed must wait longer between attacks/spells. A character’s speed increases along with his/her Agility.

Parry: Your character’s ability to block incoming attacks is governed by his or her Parry attribute. The higher the character’s Parry ability, the less likely enemy attacks are to connect with him. A character’s Parry increases along with his/her Agility and Parry skill.

Influence: Influence is your character’s charisma when it comes to negotiating price when buying or selling items. The higher the character’s influence, the better the price he or she is able to negotiate when buying or selling items. A character’s influence increases along with his/her Honor and Bargain skill.

Skills

• To add or increase a skill, click the icon for the skill you want to increase. Move the cursor over an icon to see a description of the skill and the number of ADV Points you must expend to add the skill. (This information appears in the lower-right corner of the screen.)

Every character has a finite set of skills he or she can learn during the course of the game. Each known skill has a level score, representing the character's proficiency in that skill. The skill level can be raised by spending ADV Points on the Character Screen. The ADV Point cost to train a particular skill is determined in part by the character’s class. Some special skills (mostly Diabolic skills) are available only to certain character classes.

There are six basic categories that encompass all of the available skills in Dungeon Lords:

Character skills are measured in levels of effectiveness. When a character acquires a skill, the character’s proficiency in that skill is level 1. The higher the character’s level of proficiency in a skill, the better the character performs tasks requiring that skill.

Some skills have prerequisites before they can be purchased. For example, in order to gain the Medium Weapons skill, a character must first attain a level 3 skill in Light Weapons. In addition, a skill that requires a prerequisite can never be raised higher than the prerequisite skill itself. For example, if your character has a level 3 Light Weapons skill, his/her Medium Weapons skill level is limited to level 3 until his Light Weapons skill is increased to 4. This also holds true for any further dependent skills. For example, a character with a Light Weapons skill of 3 and a Medium Weapons skill of 3 must increase both Light and Medium Weapons beyond level 3 before he/she can attain a skill of 4 in Heavy Weapons.

When you no longer have enough ADV Points remaining to affect the character’s Abilities or Skills, the golden glow will disappear.

To undo any changes you make during this process, click Go Back to return to the previous step in the process, and then click Continue. Note that all Attribute and skill changes are lost when you click Go Back.

When you have finished updating Abilities and Skills, click Continue.

Heraldry
 

Heraldry are unique bonuses bequeathed on the character. Starting characters choose their first heraldry and further heraldry are awarded upon the completion of special quests.

The next step in character creation is the selection of the character’s first Heraldry. Click one of the shields that appear in the Heraldry box on the left side of the screen. Move the cursor over a shield to display a pop-up window that shows the name of the Heraldry and its effect on the character should you select it. The table below lists the starting Heraldry available for selection:

After you select your Heraldry, click Continue to move on.

Character Name

Type your character’s name in the name field in the upper-left corner of the screen. Character names can consist of any combination of letters, numbers, and spaces, but cannot contain special characters (?, ., /, and so on).

After typing the name, press ENTER on the keyboard to continue.

Play This Character

After entering your character’s name, the character creation process is complete! Examine the Character Screen to ensure that the character meets your needs. To make changes, click Go Back (NOTE: Go Back will return you to the previous step of character creation and all changes in that step and after will be lost). To play the game using the character displayed, click Play This Character.

At any time during play, you can access the Character Screen with the C key to view your character information and spend any new advancement points you have earned.