A phantasia character's abilities are determined by his/her statictics. These attributes change as a player ages or goes up in levels and can be enhanced with equipment found as treasure or bought at trading posts.

Here's a list of Phantasia's basic character statistics.

strength - determines how much damage a character will inflict with melee or skirmish.

quickness - a higher quickness gives you better chance of winning initiative in combat . Quickness can drop when too much gold is carried or when the character gets tired from too much fighting without rest.

energy level - specifies how much damage a character may endure before dying.

magic level - determines which spells a character may throw, and how effective those spells will be.

brains - basically, the character's intelligence; used to calculate the suc ess of luckout.

experience - experience is directly connected to levels. It is gained by fighting monsters and other characters.

level - a general rating of a character. Each time a character goes up a level, most other stats are im proved.

poison - sickness which degrades a character's performance (affects energy level and strength).

sin - accumulated as a character does certain nasty things. Players with high sin tend to be shunned by helpful creatures.

age of player - roughly equivalent to number of turns. As age increases, many personal statistics degenerate.

Phantasia characters have only one chance in life. Although your character is saved in a common file when you leave the game via the quit button, it is removed when restored with the proper password, and can not be re-restored if the character dies. In addition, the save file is frequently purged of inactive characters.

When the client and the server disconnect, the game saves your characters as soon as possible. If you are in combat, your character will leave when you get a chance to attack and a fresh monster will be summoned upon return. If you return to find your character gone, then you had no chances to attack. In a battle with another player, the game will try to evade until you are free of the battle or dead.

All phantasia characters have a distinctive class. In addition to attributes, this character class also determines how much gold a player may carry, how long until rings can overcome the player, and how much mana the character can have. The current classes are:

magic-user - strong in magic level and brai ns, weak in other areas. Must rely on wits and magic to survive.

fighter - good in strength and speed. This adds up to a character well-equipped to fight but poor in magic and brains.

elf - very high quickness and above average magic level are elves selling points. Although weak in energy, elves are immune to the pl ague.

dwarf - very high energy level and strength, but with a tendency to be extremely slow and not too bright. The tank of characters, dwarves regenerate energy at a slightly faster rate than any other class.

halfling - very smart backed up with good combat abilities, but poor in magic. The Halfling excels through the use of luckout and when born start with some experience.

gnome - fair in all respects other than mana the Gnomes must rely on their physical might and spells to keep alive.

ent - are the shepards of forest-life, they are slow to anger but when they do they release a storm of fury on their enemies. Harm no trees in their presence.

experimento - mediocre in all areas. However, the experimento may begin the game placed almost anywhere within 2000 distance of the origin and uses the fewest charms to block special attacks.

Each character class starts off with base statistics. These attributes are rolled randomly from the following list:

Type Strength Quick Mana Energy Brains Magic
Mag. User 10-14 29-33 50-100 40-60 40-63 5-10
Fighter 25-50 33-37 30-45 50-75 10-20 2-4
Elf 12-21 36-40 40-75 30-50 30-50 4-8
Dwarf 20-40 26-30 35-60 70-100 20-35 3-6
Halfling 16-34 31-35 25-30 60-85 50-80 1-2
Gnome 20-34 32-38 30-59 40-79 25-45 3-5
Ent 44-54 23-28 80-98 78-90 16-30 2-4
Experimento 25 33 40 60 40 4

Not only are the starting characteristics different for the various character types, the characteristics progress at different rates for each class type as the character goes up in level. An experimento's characteristics progress randomly as one of the other class types. The progression as characters increase in level is summarized in the following table.

Type Strength Mana Energy Brains Magic
Mag. User 1 80 20 4.5 3.0
Fighter 5 35 25 2 1.5
Elf 2 65 15 4 2.5
Dwarf 4 50 35 3 2
Halfling 3 20 30 6 1
Gnome 3.5 15 25 2.5 2.25
Ent 11 2.5 2 2 2


Dynamic Stats - The use of Dynamic Statistics will allow you more control over what kind of a character you end up with in the mid and later portions of the game. Instead of the linear values printed above, your character will gain statistics based on how you fight. Skills you use in combat will gain more, skills you neglect will gain less. This process can result in your character being inept in one area, while an expert in another. It is your choice whether or not you wish to participate in this style of leveling.