It is important to remember that you are Corwin Ironfist. The basis of any roleplaying game is putting yourself in the active role of the character you are playing. It is not expected that you have skill in combat and a familiarity with a sword. In order to simulate these type of things, we use attributes.
Character Attributes
Attributes are numbers that represent how well (or awful) your character is at something. In Death Blade, most attributes are in the range of 0-18, with 18 being the best. Some attributes can be "drained" through special creature attacks, or can be temporarily increased through magic. When an attribute is lower than what it is supposed to be (possibly drained), the attribute will display in red text. If the attribute is better than it is supposed to be (such as going defensive for AC) the attribute will be shown in green. Otherwise, all attributes are displayed in white. These indicator's are important since drained attributes (most of them) can be restored through the use of magic. Note that some attributes, such as level, can not be restored. Once a level is lost, it is gone forever, or at least until you again earn the level through skill.
Below are some of the attributes used in Death Blade and what they mean.
Level
A character's level represents a character's skill at the whole adventuring thing. A character starts out at level one and advances in levels as he gains the correct amount of experience points. Once the proper experience points are earned, you will be notified of the level increase and receive additional hit points. Your combat skill is closely tied to level. The higher level you are, the easier time you will have landing blows on your enemies.
Experience Points or XP
Experience points represent your character's ability to learn. Each time an enemy is defeated, a small amount of experience is gained with combat. This skill takes the form of experience points. Earning experience points is the way your character advances and improves himself.
Hit Points
Hit Points are your character's life force. As you take damage, your hit points decrease. When your hit points reach zero or less, your character dies. There are numerous ways in the game to heal hit points, through the use of sleep and magic. Hit points are shown as a "quick to read" green bar along the top right of the screen. When your hit points are reduced to less than 50%, the bar will turn red to indicate a serious condition.
Armor Class
Your character's armor class represents the difficulty others have in landing a blow. This attribute is in the range of -10 to 10 with -10 being the best. As your character finds better armor, or increases in dexterity, your armor class rating will drop.
Strength (0-18)
Strength is how strong you are. It represents how much the power behind each blow you deliver to an enemy. Strength attributes of 15 or higher receive damage bonuses. That is, each hit you deliver is slightly more damaging.
Intelligence (0-18)
Intelligence represents your character's ability to reason. It is used to held find secret doors and other strategic events in Death Blade. An intelligence attribute of 15 or greater increases the character's chance of automatically locating secret doors (illusionary walls).
Dexterity (0-18)
Dexterity represents your character's stability and nimbleness. In Death Blade, this attribute is used to represent how well your character can dodge blows from the enemy. Dexterity attributes of 15 or greater reduce the character's armor class, thereby reducing the change of getting hit.
Endurance (0-18)
Endurance represents how you character handles prolonged physical activities. Death Blade uses this attribute to modify any hit points awarded when advancing a level. An endurance of 15 or greater causes bonus hit points for the character each time he advances a character level.
Damage and Healing
It is inevitable. You will get hurt and you will take damage. As you take damage, your hit points will drop. There are a number of ways you can take damage. When an enemy hits you, you will take some amount of damage. Traps and spells improperly cast can also produce damage.
Your character may heal damage by sleeping, taking healing potions, casting Restoration scrolls, or through the use of items like the Ring of Regeneration. You will need to master healing early on in the game if you want to survive to see the more difficult levels of Death Blade.
Sleeping is simple. When you need healing, you may attempt to sleep by clicking on the sleep button or pressing the sleep key (see "Death Blade Interface"). Sleeping can only be done when the area has been cleaned out of creatures. Corwin will not be able to sleep if he feels his life is immediately threatened.
One other item of note is poison. If poisoned, your character will continue to loose points, even after combat is over. This effect will last for some time, causing your character to move closer to his death bed. When poisoned, the only cure is a Neutralize Poison potion. This potion will remove all traces of poison, making your character well again.
