Basic game mechanics

While much of the game is self-explanatory, the German-only game manual for Dungeons of Avalon includes some useful information that’s not necessarily obvious to the player. I’ve collected this below and added a few notes which even the manual doesn’t mention. This document contains no spoilers.

Creating a new character

When creating a new character, you can click the “New” button above the top-right of the character stat window to repeatedly re-roll the character’s starting stats until you get ones you like.

Once you create a new character, you still have to load them into your party from the “load character” menu.

See Character creation and level up for a run-down on each race’s specific statistics.

Basic statistics

Your six ability scores are chosen randomly. As in many RPGs, they increase with character level. The game manual doesn’t explain what they do, so these meanings are inferred by analysis of the the game code. They may do other things which have not yet been discovered in the code.

IN: Intelligence (Inteligenz)

I’m not sure what this actually does.

DX: Dexterity (Geschick)

Technically required to wield certain weapons. However, all weapons in the game have a Dexterity requirement of zero, so this is irrelevant.

WI: Wisdom (Weisheit)

According to the game, spellcasters need this to learn new spell levels. However, in reality, you gain a new level of spells every two levels after the first (see Character creation and level up). Because level up always grants increased Wisdom, you don’t notice this.

LU: Luck (Glück)

Increases your armor class (WC) by 1 per 16 points of Strength.

ST: Strength (Kraft)

Technically required to wield certain weapons. However, all weapons in the game have a Strength requirement of zero, so this is irrelevant. Increases your attack stat (AC) by 1 per 16 points of Strength.

KO: Kondition (Kondition)

Something like constitution or stamina. Increases your attack stat (AC) by 1 per 256 points of Kondition.

Obvious to players familiar with RPGs, but with a few quirks:

EXP.

Experience points. You do not automatically level up, but must return to a city and pay The Wise Three to train you. The manual doesn’t mention that different classes need different amounts of XP to level up. See Character creation and level up.

GOLD

The amount of gold coins held by this particular character. To buy something, you may need to Pool All Gold at a shop, which will give one character all the party’s gold. You can cheat this by making throwaway characters and pooling their gold away.

LP

Life points, or hit points. It’s also shown in the yellow bar.

MP

Magic points, or mana. Shown in the red bar.

A new character’s starting gold, LP and MP are chosen randomly, but modified by race. A new character will start at level 1 with zero XP. The default starting characters that you can load from disk are already at a higher level.

The Dungeons of Avalon 1 manual also says there’s a stat called Runen-Level (Rune Level), but this doesn’t appear in the final game. Translated:

The rune level is zero because you have to teach your hero to read runes later.

On the second stat page (click the left/right buttons above the top-right of the character window), two further stats appear.

WC (RS)

Armor class. According to the German manual, it’s Rüstungstärke, meaning “armour strength”. It’s equivalent to (Level+LU)/32 + item bonuses. The level maximum is 16, so it contributes relatively little.

AC (AS)

Attack class. In the German manual, it’s called Angriffsstärke, meaning “attack strength”. It’s equivalent to (((Level+KO)/16)+ST)/16 + item bonuses. In other words, about 1 AC per 16 points of ST, and one per 256 of KO.

The city

The item shop, identified in the manual as specifically a weapon shop or arms dealer, also lets you identify unknown items. However, no unidentified items appear in Dungeons of Avalon, so you will never use this feature in the first game. Some unidentified items apepar in Dungeons of Avalon II.

The temple can heal your wounds, but according to the manual charges more based on the number of life points to be healed and the experience of the character to be healed. Actually, from analysis of the DoA2 game code, it costs half the character’s hit point maximum in gold to heal them, regardless of the actual damage healed. It’s a poor deal, as resting at a camp spot in dungeons is free and safe.

The temple can heal all status effects. It costs 45 gold.

The temple can also resurrect slain party members. However, this doesn’t automatically cure any wounds or status effects they had, such as poison. You can also resurrect a set of bones found in the dungeon by dragging it into an empty party member slot and having it resurrected at the temple. Raising a character costs four gold times the character’s hit point maximum, and leaves them on one hit point.

The trainers must be paid to increase in level, and to learn a new level of spells. You must have acquired the requisite amount of XP to level up, and must have reached the required level to learn new spells. Every two experience levels after the first unlocks a new level of spells. The trainers will claim that you need higher Wisdom to learn spells, but level is the only actual prerequisite. The maximum experience level is 16, and the highest spell level is 8 (gained at level 15).

The dungeon

You can discard any item simply by clicking it in inventory, and then clicking on the dungeon floor. After that, it’s gone for good.

Squares with a “C” logo on them are safe spots where you can camp (rest). This recovers LP and MP for free. There are no time-sensitive game elements, so resting is a cost-effective way to heal up.

The compass direction you’re facing is shown at the top of the screen. Note that since the graphics for this were never updated to English, East is represented by the letter “O” (for the German, Ost).

The manual mentions “spinners”, squares which change your facing when you step on them. These can be frustrating as they may cause you to walk back the way you came, walk into a wall, or assume that a misclick or bug caused an incorrect input somehow. Pay attention to your compass direction.

The manual also mentions antimagic (squares which dispel your ongoing spell effects), teleporters (which bring you to another teleporter) and switches (including wall switches, which can be clicked to toggle, or floor switches, which toggle when their square is stepped on).

There are other dangers and secrets, but I’ll omit them here since the manual does not mention them. My advice is to pay attention and click on things.

Combat

The combat system is largely self-explanatory.

Monster encounters are often divided into groups of monsters. This is significant if you have a spell which targets a group of enemies, rather than all enemies.

The first number in a monster line is the number of monsters in that group. All monsters in a group will be of the same type. The second number is its distance in metres.

According to the manual, “parry” is mainly useful when your character can’t hit anything, such as when they’re in the back row and their weapons can’t reach. It increases the character’s ability to defend themself. Note that it’s not a counter-hit system, as the term “parry” is sometimes used to mean in modern video games.

Fleeing gives the enemy advantage and lets them attack directly, without allowing the heroes to fight back.

Not mentioned in the manual, you can perform some unexpected moves with weapons. You can stab with an arrow as a weapon, or even throw an arrow. The bolas can be used in melee or thrown, as can the dagger and spear. You can also fight empty-handed.

NPC characters can be raised from bones, which can be found in the dungeon, dragged into an empty character slot and resurrected in a temple as normal. NPCs act automatically in combat and do not gain XP. According to the manual, “A good NPC can help a group get better experience points”, which may suggest that XP is divided between non-NPCs only. You also cannot observe or change an NPC’s inventory. Some NPCs are higher level than the maximum normally allowable.

Symbols

The four boxes on each side of the main screen are for symbols which indicate when beneficial spells are in effect on the party:

• Eye: A Magic Eye is watching over the party. Clicking it shows your coordinates in the dungeon and will identify adjacent traps.
• Orb: Clicking this symbol will show a top-down view of the map, but only places the party has already been. The spell “Eagles View” is a better auto-map feature which shows more details of the dungeon.
• Feather: Party is levitating.
• Shield: The party is protected by a spell which increases both Armor Class and Attack (the WC and AC stats appearing on the second character page).

Items

Text scrolls simply contain information you can read. They and other items can be activated with “Use Object”.

Equippable items must be placed in the correct slot to be effective. Weapons go in the right hand, and shields in the left.

Spells

Spells cost MP, which can be recovered by resting at a camp site.

Spell scrolls (and spells you can cast in general) are divided into three colours:

• Red are for combat spells, and can only be used in combat.
• Blue are healing spells, and can be used both in and out of combat.
• Yellow are dungeon spells, which can do things like defuse traps. They can only work outside of combat.

There is a full article on Spells.