Player Characters

[Detomah]

Describe what a player character is?
A player character is an avatar in the world through which a player can take part in the events that transpire on Athiria. Through the player character, the player can issue commands, manipulate objects, and perform skills. Multiple player characters can interact together in groups, cities, guilds and individually. The player character in Athiria is the vehicle through which a player can live and thrive in the world.

What attributes does a player character have?
A player character(PC) has eight primary attributes, Strength, Dexterity, Body, Agility, Will, Intelligence, Charisma, and Luck. All of these abilities help define the character and limit or enhance the ability of a character to interact with the world using skills.

What does each attribute mean?
Strength - How strong is the character? What can the character lift/move with relative ease.
Dexterity - How well can the character use their hands. Hand-eye coordination.
Body - This attribute determines how massive a character is and how resistant to diseases the character tends to be.
Agility - How nimble is the character? This is a measure of balance and maneuverability.
Will - A measure of how well your character can maintain concentration or resist the effects of spell casting backlash.
Intelligence - This attribute measures capacity for learning.
Charisma - The ability to influence others and maintain control over summoned beings. It also plays a role in the performance of music.
Luck - A hidden attribute that defines how lucky a character is.


What is the range of values that the attributes can be?
While this is not set in stone yet, the numbers we are working with state that an attribute ranges from 1 to 25.

Can starting attribute values be raised?
Yes, there will be ways to raise attributes, though no decision has been made concerning how high you can raise them from their base rating or how fast that can occur.

Why hide the Luck attribute?
Mainly because it is not realistic for someone to know without a doubt how lucky they are. There are many things that we want to do with this attribute. It would fill too much space here to discuss and validate every design decision behind this attribute so you will just have to judge for yourself how important the attribute is when the game is released.

Does a player character have a health bar?
Yes. A player character has three health bars that measure the status of the character. A physical health bar measures the bodily health of the character. When this bar is reduced to zero the character is dead. A physical stamina bar represents the endurance of the character while a mental stamina bar represents the mental concentration that can be maintained by the character.

Sounds like a typical health bar setup. What's significant about it?
What makes the three bars significant is that they are all dependent upon one another. When a character runs out of physical stamina, this does not mean that the character is prohibited from performing any more strenuous physical activities. They can continue to perform beyond their physical stamina limitations though at the expense of physical health. This is particularly important in spell casting where it is possible for a spell caster to cast a spell too powerful for that person and kill themselves while doing so. Running out of mental stamina does not prevent casting, it simply means that the caster might start bleeding from the ears if he or she continues to cast spells without rest.

Won't this make caster types all powerful?
No. The potency of a spell is determined separately from the resisting of backlash. Typically, spell casting that stands a chance of killing a caster will not be cast very successfully and therefore will be easier to resist by the target. Very rarely is it a good idea to cast a spell that might kill you.