Character Stats: What They Are, and How to Modify Them

What are Stats?

There are six character stats, which rate various aspects of your character's physical and mental capabilities. Your choice of race and class may give modifiers (positive or negative) to some or all of the stats; stats can also be permanently modified by drinking powerful potions, and temporarily modified by certain magical items.

The fundamental range for stats is based on the virtual rolling of three dice - one each of three-sided, four-sided, and five-sided - and adding 5 to giving a range of 8 to 17. Stats can go higher, if boosted by race, class or magical means: above 18, they are expressed as 18/xxx, where xxx can be any number from 1 up to 220.

Each stat affects different areas of skill and ability; having a stat below 7 may result in some negative effects, while stats above 18, generally speaking, will have positive effects. A character's class will determine which stats are more important to success in the quest to explore Angband and kill Morgoth.

The Stats - Descriptions

• STRength

This is simply a character's physical, muscular strength.

Strength affects the chance of inflicting damage and the amount of damage dealt with both melee and missile weapons, and a high strength potentially allows a character to strike more blows in a given time interval with heavier weapons.

It allows a character to carry greater burdens, and improves the ability to tunnel or dig.

• INTelligence

This is a character's mental acuity and reasoning and ability to perform complex tasks.

Intelligence increases the effectiveness of characters at using magical devices, picking locks and disarming traps.

For spell-using characters - mages, rangers and rogues – intelligence modifies how much mana a character has, how many spells can be learned, and the chance that a spell will fail when cast.

• WISdom

This is a character's insight, determination, and to some extent piety.

Wisdom increases a character's ability to resist magical and mental attacks (see Saving Throw)

For prayer-using characters – priests and paladins – wisdom modifies how much mana a character has, how many prayers (spells) can be learned, and the chance that a prayer will fail when cast.

• DEXterity

A character's agility, body and hand coordination, and manual dexterity.

In combat, dexterity affects the chance of connecting with a blow or a missile, and a high dexterity potentially allows a character to strike more blows in a given time interval. Dexterity increases the effectiveness of characters at picking locks and disarming traps, and can also give a better chance of not having one's own pockets picked by thieves encountered in the dungeons.

• CONstitution

Physical stamina, endurance and hardihood.

Constitution determines your character's ability to absorb and endure damage in combat, and the speed at which he or she recovers from this and other damage, such as poison, stunning, and cuts. Whatever class you have chosen for your character, this is a very important stat, as no character can avoid sustaining damage.

• CHArisma

A character's attractiveness, both physically, and from the ability to charm and impress others with eloquence.

When shopping in town, characters with higher charisma will get better prices when buying or selling items in the various shops. Charisma has no other effect in Angband, so is the least critical of the six major stats.

Points-Based Stat Generation

The points-based method of generating character stats is designed to allow you to 'tailor' your character towards your preferences, rather than relying on the random nature of dice-rolling.

The display shows six columns to the right of the list of stat names.

• Self: this is the basic character value for the stats, and is set to 10 initially, before the expenditure of any points. This value changes as you expend points to increase stats.
• RB: this shows the race bonus for each stat.
• CB: this shows the class bonus for each stat.
• EB: this shows the bonus to each stat for any magical weapons wielded or equipment worn.
• Best: this is accumulated value of the Self rating and all the bonuses from the previous three columns; in other words, this is the actual stat that will be used in the game.
• Cost: this shows how many points you have expended on increasing each stat.

To start you have 48 points to expend: the number expended and the total available are shown on the top line following the words Total Cost. Use 2 and 8 or the Up and Down arrow keys to move up and down the list of stats, and use 4 and 6 or the Left and Right arrow keys to increase or decrease the stat currently highlighted.

The first point you add to any stat costs 1 point from your 48, as does the second; after that the costs rise steeply:

• 3rd point costs 2
• 4th point costs 3
• 5th point costs 4
• 6th point costs 5
• 7th point costs 6
• 8th point costs 8 (and therefore an aggregate cost of 30!)

These costs are not affected by the starting value. It is not possible to increase any stat by more than 8 initially.

With only 48 points available, you cannot increase all six stats significantly – at one extreme you can increase two stats by 8 and 6, at the other you can increase all six by 4 points. This is your opportunity to shape your character, and therefore everyone will have different ideas as to the optimum choices; you can use the information you have already read on classes, stats and attributes to help you make your decision, and later in this manual there are sections on tips and detailed information which you may choose to use.

Note also that the points you spend on stats are also convertible into money: your character's available cash decreases by 100 gp for each point you spend. You can choose not to spend all your stat points and increase the cash available for equipping your character before beginning the expedition into Angband.

Dice-Rolling Stat Generation

The auto-roller and standard roller options are closely related. In both, each basic stat (tle 'Self' value, before race and class bonuses) is generated by generating three random numbers (1d3 + 1d4 + 1d5) and adding 5. This gives a value between 8 and 17 (this is where the 'normal' ceiling for stats originates), with an average of between 12 and 13. Bonuses may then push stats up above 18 in some cases.

Compared to the points-based system, this offers less control to the player, but in theory can give you a better resulting set of stats.

When using the standard roller method, you will see a set of stats, which you can 're-roll' by pressing the 'r' key if you don't like them. You can back up to the previous set generated by pressing 'p' (you can only go back one step, however). When you are satisfied with the set of stats generated, pressing the Enter key will accept the stats and move on to the final step.

The auto-roller allows you to set minimum acceptable value for each of the six stats, and the program will automatically 're-roll' the character stats until an acceptable character is generated. You can set any minimum value (up to the maximum shown) for each stat, but if you set all minima to high values, the re-rolling may take some time, and the program is designed to eventually give up and ignore your choices. Note also that the minimum values you set are final values, i.e. after bonuses have been added for race and class.

In this method, you can choose to re-roll as with the standard roller, but you cannot back up to previous sets.