Phantasie Party Guide (PC)
By Roman Farraday
v1.0
12.22.2013
Table of Contents
I. INTRODUCTION
IA: Copyright/legal/contact info
IB: Version history/credits
IC: About this Party Guide
II. SUPER-QUICK 1-PAGE GUIDE
IIA: Character Choices
IIB: Rolling Your Characters
III. RACES
IIIA: Minotaurs: To include or not to include
IIIB: Dwarves, Elves and Humans
IIIC: Other races
IV. FIGHTING & HIT POINTS, SPELL CASTING AND THIEVING
IVA: Fighting & Hit Points
IVB: Spell casting
IVC: Thieving
V. IN-DEPTH PARTY STRUCTURE OPTIONS
VA: Party 1: Swords & Sorcery
VB: Party 2: 7-Person Party
VC: Party 3: Motley Crew
VI. CLASSES
VIA: Tables
VIB: Fighter
VIC: Ranger
VID: Monk
VIE: Priest
VIF: Wizard
VIG: Thief
I. INTRODUCTION
IA: Copyright/Legal/Contact Info
This document is Copyright 2013 by Roman Farraday,
[email protected].
Suggestions, corrections and kudos are all welcome at any time. Please put
"Phantasie" or "GameFAQs" in the subject line.
Phantasie is the legally protected intellectual property of SSI.
I am not affiliated with any of the above named people/companies or anyone who
had anything to do with the creation of this game.
A2: Version history/credits
10/3/2013 This is the first version of this FAQ.
A3: About this FAQ
This party guide will take you 5 minutes to read, 15 minutes to follow, and
save you several hours of game time. Plus you will get access to the full
assortment of magic and hopefully, you'll feel like you've optimized your
Phantasie experience. Or you can read the super-quick guide in about 60
seconds.
Before you start rolling your characters, naming them and falling in love with
them, read this guide and think through what kind of party you want to put
together. It will make your character-creation process much more focused on
the outcome you want to achieve.
Why this guide for a game that came out in 1985, when there's already a great
walkthrough that was written in 2001 and nothing since?
Because Phantasie is one of my all-time favorite games and I was delighted to
find it on abandonia, along with Andrew Schultz's outstanding walkthrough.
Without any intention of writing a guide, I spent a lot of time playing to
optimize the best party and eventually put what I've learned to paper. I hope
this guide is helpful to the 3-5 people who read it, and I'm going to give you
the recommended actions up front, and the full details and rationale later on,
so you can read as little or as much as you like.
II. SUPER-QUICK 1-PAGE GUIDE
IIA: Character Choices
Decide if you want to 1) Create, develop and train a tough Minotaur Fighter.
It will save you a step later but you will probably pay through the nose to
train him, which will slow you down in advancing levels or 2) Go without a
Minotaur, get through the early levels faster, and just create and train one
up at the time that you need him. I prefer the former and like having my own
tough Minotaur Fighter but Andrew Schultz suggests the latter. Either way is
fine. More on the Minotaur question and other races in Section III on Races.
Roll 2 Dwarf Fighters, or a Dwarf and a Minotaur, 2 Human Priests and 2 Elven
Wizards. Your Fighters and Priests will do the fighting and you will end the
game with 4 casters of FIREFLASH IV. It's important to note that you don't
need a thief in this game, but without one you will get hit with traps and
need to closely monitor the health of your Wizards. If you love the idea of a
Thief and want to make sure you access as much possible game content, replace
your second Wizard with a Thief, either Halfling or Pixie, make sure he has
4/4 Magic to start, and don't teach him any spells until Level 13 when
FIREFLASH IV becomes available. Your party will still be light on magic later
in the game, and you'll want to replace your Thief or one of your Fighters
with a Wizard. Alternatively, use a Monk instead of a Thief in this scenario,
who will gain FIREFLASH IV at Level 8 and you can keep throughout the game.
IIB: Rolling Your Characters
Take the time to get a really good character before you move on to the next,
as it only takes about 2-3 minutes for a good character, maybe more like 5 for
a good Minotaur. The 15-20 minutes you put in up front will pay off. You can
typically let one of these minimums slide a little per character but more than
one attribute, or too much sliding, and you'll be unhappy.
MINIMUMS *denotes a really key attribute for that class
Race(s) Str Dex Int Con Cha HP Magic
FIGHTER Dwarf, Minotaur 19* 10 3 12 10 10/10 0/0
RANGER Dwarf, Human 16* 10 15 12 10 12/12 7/7
PRIEST Human (or Elf) 14 10 18* 15 10 10/10 7/7*
MONK Halfling, Human 14* 16* 15 16 10 10/10 7/7
THIEF Halfling, Pixie 10 18* 8 16 10 8/8 4/4*
WIZARD Elf (or Human) 10 14 19* 16 10 8/8 7/7*
Charisma: It is not easy to get all the attributes you need for each character
but Charisma should be 10 at minimum for all your characters and the higher
the better. You will want at least a couple of characters with 16+ Charisma to
keep your costs down and will find it difficult to support more than one
character with Charisma below 10, such as your Minotaur. Charisma determines
the speed at which you progress the early game, up to about Level 9 or 10,
more than any other attribute. A low Charisma means high training costs, and
those costs will slow you down from advancing your characters as fast as
possible and therefore slow down your early progress in the game. By the time
you've reached around Level 10, gold will no longer be a concern.
YOU ARE READY TO GO WITH YOUR PARTY OF 6! GOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUN!
III. RACES
Be patient and get the characters that you want and for me, that includes
rolling with a Minotaur Fighter. Before we discuss the various races, let's
address the Minotaur in the room.
IIIA: The Minotaur: To include or not to include
There are 2 options here: 1) Skip the Minotaur and go with 2 Dwarves. When
it's time for the Temple of Dosnebians, roll a Minotaur then, train him up a
bit, and enter the temple. If he dies you'll just take the temple on with a
Party of 5, OR 2) Roll a Minotaur, develop him and take him along in your
party. Let's look at the reasons to go with either option:
Here are the reasons to ignore the Minotaur:
1. Time it takes to roll. To roll a good character where you're already set on
race, such as a Human Priest, takes 2-3 minutes as you try to get a character
with the best stats possible. When you're rolling a Minotaur, you have to
roll a Random Creature until you get Minotaur, AND you want to get good stats.
This can take twice as long, 5 minutes or more (not 10 though), you can get
going faster by skipping this step.
2. Cost to train. It's hard enough to get a Minotaur Fighter with adequate
Strength, Dexterity, Constitution and Hit Points, so you're probably going to
have to sacrifice Charisma, and he's an ugly random monster so you'll likely
spend a lot of your early gold training him. You might even have to hold off
in training him at times because you can't afford it.
3. Good but not the best. If you really want to optimize the Fighter Class
and are willing to put in the same amount of time and money, you can get an
Ogre or Troll, with higher strength than the Minotaur.
Here are the reasons I ultimately suggest you develop and train a Minotaur:
1. It doesn't really take that long to roll. I came up with a pretty great one
in 3 minutes, with 20 strength, adequate dexterity and constitution (15+) and
hit points (15 in this case), sacrificing Charisma (4). I really didn't like
the training costs associated but if he's the only one in the party with high
costs, you can manage. If you want to take more time, maybe it will take you 5
minutes to roll the perfect Minotaur instead of 3, and that might mean
advancing your fighter a level where I had to wait a bit.
2. If you don't train a Minotaur, then you will essentially have to take on
the Temple of the Donsnebians as a 5-man party. As is, the Temple is arguably
the hardest dungeon in the game relative to the level you'll be at, and a
well-developed Minotaur Fighter will be a great asset during one of the game's
toughest sections, giving you a complete and complementary 6-person party.
Otherwise you'll have to develop and train a Minotaur when you're ready for
the temple, which isn't a problem but it does take some time, why not just do
it from the beginning?
3. Variety. Minotaur will add some flavor and variety to your party of Humans,
Dwarves and Elves.
For 3-5 minutes up front, it's well worth making the Temple of Dosnebians
easier, to me at least, plus I do enjoy the variety. As for the gold, well
that's what money is for. You'll eventually have more than enough anyways.
IIIB: Dwarves, Elves and Humans
Considering their low training costs and versatility, the fastest-to-advance
parties are made up of Dwarves, Elves and Humans and these should probably
make up 5 or 6 of your 6 party members. Take 2 Dwarf Fighters, or one if you
take a Minotaur as one of your Fighters, take 2 Humans as your Priests and 2
Elves as your Wizards.
IIIC: Other races
There is little reason to take any other races beyond Dwarves, Elves, Humans
and Minotaurs other than the fun factor, but there are 4 of them worth noting
in Trolls, Ogres, Halflings and Pixies. A Troll can be developed and trained
into the strongest possible Fighter in the game with 22 Strength, so long as
you're willing to pay through the nose in training costs and progress slowly.
You might also take a 21-Strength Ogre if his other stats are great. If you
take a Monk you might consider a Halfling. If you're going to take a Thief, go
for a Halfling with 22 Dexterity or Pixie with 21.
0 = HUMAN - A nice mix of everything, Humans can fill any role, but are best
suited to be Priests, Monks and the occasional Wizard.
1 = DWARF - Trade brains for brawn, Dwarfs make the best Fighters and
Rangers.
2 = ELF - A little weaker and slighter than Humans but also quicker and more
intelligent, Elves are best suited to be Wizards or high-magic Priests.
3 = HALFLING - Quick and nimble, Halflings make good Monks and Thieves.
4 = GNOME - Gnomes are quick enough to make excellent Thieves or maybe Monks.
5 = PIXIE - If you're going to roll a Thief, you might give a Pixie and their
high dexterity a try, but watch out for low constitution and hit points.
6 = SPRITE - A Sprite is sort of a poor man's Pixie but if you get one with
great stats, especially dexterity, they can make great Thieves.
7 = OGRE - Much like a Troll only a tad weaker, they can make great Fighters.
8 = GNOLL - No reason to keep one of these - reroll.
9 = TROLL - Strength up to 22, you have the possibility for the best Fighter
in the game with a Troll.
a = KOBOLD - Nothing wrong with these just nothing special about them. Pass.
b = ORC - Ditto
c = GOBLIN - Ditto
d = LIZARD MAN - Ditto but they can swim. Yay.
e = MINOTAUR - We've already addressed the Minotaur in the room at the
beginning of the section and I don't want to beat a dead Minotaur.
f = UNDEAD - I don't believe this to be a role you can actually roll, as I've
never seen it happen. I've only seen low level characters get brought back as
Undead. Undead are useless, if you have Undead, it's time to restart the game
or drop those characters permanently.
D. FIGHTING & HIT POINTS, SPELL CASTING AND THIEVING
In order to discuss party structure in more depth, what first must be
established is that there are basically 3 tiers each of fighters, spell-
casters, and thieves.
FIGHTING & HIT POINTS SPELL CASTING THIEVING
Tier 1 Fighters Wizards, Priests Thieves
Tier 2 Rangers, Priests, Monks Monks, Rangers Monks
Tier 3 Thieves, Wizards Fighters, Thieves Everyone else
Fighting is important early in the game, Magic is all-important later in the
game. Thieving is always useful and fun but not very important. When fighting
the game's toughest enemies like Nikademus and Black Knights, the FIREFLASH IV
spell is your main weapon. You're going to want at least 4 magic users who can
cast FIREFLASH IV several times, if not 5 magic users. Priests and Wizards are
the top tier spell-casters, though a Monk can fill in as a 4th spell-caster if
you want some thieving ability.
IV. FIGHTING & HIT POINTS, SPELL CASTING AND THIEVING
IVA: Fighting & Hit Points
Fighting ability: Fighting is essential early in the game when magic is very
weak at dispensing enemies, and because the better Fighters also get more all-
important Hit Points, making them the most durable party members. From the
beginning all the way to the end, you will face multitudes of annoying
monsters, making Fighting a useful ability throughout, and a strong fighter
can even land blows on a Black Knight. As the game goes on, however, Fighting
is less and less useful, being nearly useless against Nikademus and totally
useless against apparition-types like the High Demon.
Top Tier: Fighters only. Not only do they have the highest attack strength and
Hit Points, but they alone have the 4-attack SLASH and the highly useful
LUNGE, putting them in a class by themselves.
Middle Tier: Rangers, Priests and Monks. Although Rangers are the strongest
fighters of this group and Monks the weakest, there really isn't that big a
difference between them. The Ranger will have the highest attack strength and
Hit Points, and will progress the fastest through the fighting moves of this
group, but they all end up with the same SLASH move for 3 attacks per turn.
Low Tier: Wizards, Thieves. Both are basically combat liabilities with low Hit
Points and attack strength, and no ability to SLASH, only ATTACK. Thieves
have the highly useful ability to attack RANK 2 and RANK 3 enemies, but its
usefulness is curbed by the fact that the Thieves just aren't good attackers.
It's hard to carry more than 2 fighting liabilities in your party.
IVB: Spell Casting
Spell casting ability: Spell casting is all-important late in the game, and is
useful throughout except the first couple of levels. The Wizard's
TRANSPORTATION spell is essential to get as soon as possible, and the
FIREFLASH IV spell is your main weapon against Black Knights, Nikademus, High
Demons, Deities and the like.
There is both offensive spell casting and defensive spell casting. Offensive
spell casting includes FIREFLASH, group attacks like FLAMEBOLT and buffs like
STRENGTH. There is also defensive spell casting like HEALING, buffs like
PROTECTION and de-buffs like CONFUSION.
Top Tier: Priests and Wizards. Both are primary spell casters because they
have the most magic points, with both topping out at 20, but Priests gain
theirs at a slightly faster rate. Wizards are masters of offensive magic and
buffs while Priests are masters of defensive magic and de-buffs. Wizards gain
FIREFLASH IV at Level 7, Priests at Level 10. Wizards also are the only ones
to get the all-important TRANSPORTATION spell.
Middle Tier: Monks and Rangers. Both classes typically have enough magic
points to participate in secondary spell casting, though Monks have much more
useful offensive magic abilities including FIREFLASH IV at Level 8. Rangers
are mostly off-healers behind the Priests. Rangers lose their usefulness as
spell casters as the game goes on with HEALING being their only real asset,
which is sort of a reactive ability.
Low Tier: Thieves, Fighters. Neither are really spell casters. Thieves get the
FIREFLASH IV ability at Level 13 but typically only have enough magic points
to cast it once, maybe twice. Fighters can contribute QUICKNESS spells but are
usually more valuable fighting.
IVC: Thieving
Thieving Ability: The ability to spot traps, disarm traps, pick locks, and
listen for monsters, which allows you to both surprise them and avoid being
surprised. Springing traps isn't really so bad, but it can be a threat to low-
HP characters like the Wizard if you're not careful. Picking locks gives you
access to content, treasure and items, but you won't need it to win the game
and you won't miss any important content, treasure or items without picking
locks. Listening for monsters is a nice way to avoid being surprised and to
sometimes surprise them, and might be the most useful ability among these.
Top Tier: Thieves. They are simply the best at spotting traps, disarming
traps, picking locks, and listening. Throughout the game, these abilities will
help you avoid damage, give you access to content and treasures, and give you
advantages in combat.
Middle Tier: Monks. In all areas listed above, Monks are significantly worse
than Thieves but better than everyone else.
Low Tier: Priest, Fighters, Wizards, Rangers. None of these classes have any
real thieving abilities but the Priest is your best bet among them if you
don't have a Thief or Monk and need someone to disarm a trap.
V. IN-DEPTH PARTY STRUCTURE OPTIONS
Across your 6 party members, you will need 4 primary fighters and at 4 primary
magic users, and decide whether or not you want any thieving ability. Of
course, this means, that some of your party members - typically 2 Priests -
are fighters AND magic users. When facing typical Monsters, you'll have
everyone in the party fighting, but 2 of your party members will often be
liabilities, namely all Wizards and Thieves, so the other 4 have to do most of
the fighting and Wizards may cast support spells. When facing an apparition
type, you want to have 4 spell casters you can activate.
You can make any Class any Race, but I like to stick with the same Race per
Class since Race, not Class, determines what they look like. It's easy to
identify my Fighters if they're all Dwarves, my Priests if they're all Humans,
my Wizards if they're all Elves, and it's certainly not hard to tell the
Minotaur apart nor to remember that he's a Fighter.
I recommend 1 Minotaur Fighter, 1 Dwarf Fighter, 2 Human Priests and 2 Elf
Wizards.
The obvious thing to do would be to go with the "Motley Crew" or 1 of each
Character Class and 6 different races but the game doesn't really work out all
that well when you do that. The Thief and Monk are somewhat redundant and you
end up with neither enough Fighting early nor enough Magic late. Therefore I
recommend the Swords & Sorcery party:
VA: Party 1: Swords & Sorcery
Roll 1 Dwarf Fighter and 1 Minotaur Fighter or 2 Dwarf Fighters, 2 Human
Priests and 2 Elf Wizards. This group will cut through enemies like butter
while out-casting opposing magic users. This both fights and casts magic
better than a Motley Crew at the cost of thieving abilities. If you're looking
to get through the game as fast and easily as possible, go this route.
Strengths: Top 4 fighters of Fighter-Fighter-Priest-Priest is superior to the
Motley Crew's fighters because Fighters are just so much better than the
others. Top 4 magic users of Wizard-Wizard-Priest-Priest is incredibly strong
as well, you can give each of your Wizards and Priests particular buffing and
debuffing specialties, while all 4 can cast FIREFLASH IV at Nikademus.
Weaknesses: This group has it all except for the ability to pick locks and
disarm traps. But you can make it through the game without those abilities,
even if you miss a few goodies along the way. You will also get surprised
more, and do less surprising, than a party with a thief, but you won't really
know the difference and you should be sturdy enough to win those fights
anyways. The other weakness is that both Fighters will be of little use
against Nikademus or apparition-types like High Demons.
Tweaks:
1. Replace a Fighter with a Monk. At the cost of significant fighting ability,
you get 2 things in return: Offensive magic ability and some thieving skills.
This group actually has the best magic use of any discussed, with 5 casters of
FIREFLASH IV at the high levels. This means if you can overcome some
significant weaknesses early on, you'll have the easiest time with end of the
game. This group also has better lock-picking and trap-disarming than standard
Swords & Sorcery. Combat-wise, however, this group is the weakest of any that
will be discussed. Having 2 Priests and a Monk as your 2-4 best fighters is
weak, meaning you will struggle early. And in terms of thieving skills, a Monk
is better than nothing but not nearly as good as a Thief in these areas.
2. Instead of the above, consider replacing a Wizard with a third Priest if
you want to really max out combat ability. The Priest will be a major upgrade
in combat over the Wizard but you'll have less offensive magic ability
VB: Party 2: 7-Person Party
Develop 7 characters, starting with 2 Dwarf Fighters (or a Dwarf and a
Minotaur), 2 Human Priests, a Halfling Monk and an Elf Wizard. Somewhere
around Level 5, drop the Monk for a second Wizard and train him up by giving
him 3 shares of XP while everyone else gets 1. After you've completed the
Temple of Dosnebians with your 2 Fighters, drop 1 for the Level 5 Monk and
train him up.
This will give you a very strong party for most situations plus some thieving
ability, variety and fun, but it will require additional time training
characters and additional involvement and management. If you really want to
pwn this game, this party will serve you best, but if you're looking for a
quick game, just do Swords & Sorcery.
VC: Party 3: Motley Crew
Play 1 of each class, which is sort of how the game was intended, I believe.
If you went this way, I recommend, 1 Minotaur Fighter, 1 Dwarf Ranger, 1
Halfling Monk, 1 Human Priest, 1 Elf Wizard, 1 Pixie Thief. This offers a lot
of variety which is a lot of fun, but it's flawed in terms of how the game is
set up and can be frustrating when only 4 of your 6 party members can really
contribute in combat, and only 2 are primary magic users backed by 2 secondary
magic users. You'll struggle to find enough magic to defeat the toughest foes.
For this reason, taking a Minotaur along is a must, not an option, because you
can't afford to carry any deadweight. This, along with a Pixie Thief will cost
you a lot in training, though you can certainly go with a Halfling, Elf or
Gnome as your Thief.
Strengths: The main strength of this party is the variety and fun it offers.
If you want to really experience the game, give this a try. You have enough
fighting and magic to make it through the game, plus outstanding thieving
skills like picking locks, hearing monsters, and spotting and disarming traps.
You will not get surprised by monsters very often but you will get the
surprise on them, often providing an advantage in combat.
Weaknesses: Primary weaknesses are inclusion of the less-than-optimal Ranger,
and the redundancy of the Thief and Monk. As a result, the fighting is a bit
light with only one Fighter yet 2 liability types in the Wizard and Thief.
More significantly, the magic is definitely light with only 4 magic users in
the Wizard-Priest-Monk-Ranger, only 3 of whom can cast FIREFLASH IV. Your
Priest will be needed to cast offensive spells and your Ranger will have to do
some healing as a result. Against Nikademus, both your Fighter and Ranger will
be deadweight and your Thief will likely get only 1 casting of FIREFLASH IV
off before he is also dead weight.
Tweaks: There are several ways to tweak this party, though they all kind of
defeat the purpose of this party to begin with:
1. Drop the Monk in favor of a 2nd Priest. Priests are basically better than
Monks all around except for the thieving abilities.
2. Instead of the above, drop the Ranger in favor of a 2nd Priest, this will
give you a strong party in terms of magic but it will be a tad light in
fighting.
Dropping a Ranger for a second Fighter would leave you too short on magic,
unless you then drop the Thief for a Wizard and that's Swords & Sorcery.
VI. ATTRIBUTES
I'll admit that I don't fully understand these, but I'll pass along what I
know.
VIA: Strength
Strength appears to be all-important, especially for Fighters. Not only does
it determine your Attack skill, which I'm pretty sure determines how
frequently you hit, but it also determines what kind of weapons and armor you
can use.
VIA: Dexterity
I'm sure Dexterity helps with all thieving skills such as Pick Lock and Disarm
Trap, and I suspect it is used in "save" rolls against sprung traps. I'm not
sure if it has any use in combat, including the Parry skill. Perhaps it helps
you hit, but it does not improve your Attack skill.
VIA: Intelligence
Intelligence is the obvious driver of Magic Points, though I do wonder if your
Magic Points can be good even without great Intelligence.
VIA: Constitution
As with Intelligence and Magic Points, Constitution drives Hit Points, but I
also wonder if you really need high Constitution to have high Hit Points. I
suspect Constitution is used in certain "save" rolls.
VIA: Charisma
Charisma will actually determine the speed at which you progress the early
game, up to about Level 9 or 10, more than any other attribute. A low Charisma
means high training costs, and those costs will slow you down from advancing
your characters as fast as possible and therefore slow down your early
progress in the game. It is not easy to get all the attributes you need for
each character, and at higher levels, gold will no longer be a concern, but
Charisma should be 10 at minimum for all your characters and the higher the
better. You will want at least a couple of characters with 16+ Charisma to
keep your costs down and will find it difficult to support more than one
character with Charisma below 10, such as your Minotaur.
VIA: Hit Points
Hit Points are everything, especially for Wizards and Thieves, who need every
last one to survive.
VIA: Magic Points
Magic is critical for Wizards and Priests alike, though almost just as
important for Monks and actually Thieves, since you will need both to cast
FIREFLASH IV at the end of the game. Magic has some importance to Rangers but
none to Fighters.
VII. CLASSES
We've discussed these already in other contexts, but let's take a look at each
class in depth.
VIA: Tables
ATTRIBUTE BASES BY CLASS (i.e initial values before computer
modifies them)
STR INT DEX CON CHA
FIGHTER 12 8 11 10 9
MONK 10 10 11 10 10
PRIEST 10 12 10 10 10
RANGER 10 11 10 10 11
THIEF 8 10 12 10 9
WIZARD 6 13 8 10 11
HIT POINTS BY CLASS AND LEVEL FOR ADVENTURERS WITH CONSTITUTION 10
LEVEL
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
FIGHTER 10 20 32 44 56 70 82 94 106 120 130 140 150 160 170
RANGER 8 18 28 40 50 60 72 84 96 110 120 130 140 150 160
PRIEST 8 12 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 98 106 114 122 130
MONK 8 10 18 22 32 44 54 62 70 80 88 96 104 112 120
THIEF 6 10 18 22 32 40 48 54 60 70 78 86 94 102 110
WIZARD 6 8 12 16 22 28 34 38 44 50 56 62 68 74 80
MAXIMUM MAGIC POINTS AT DIFFERENT LEVELS BY CLASS
LEVEL
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
WIZARD 10 11 11 12 13 14 14 15 16 16 17 17 18 19 20
PRIEST 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 20 20 20 20
RANGER 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 18 18 18 19
MONK 10 10 10 11 11 11 12 12 12 13 13 14 16 18 20
FIGHTER 7 7 8 8 9 9 10 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 18
THIEF 6 6 7 7 8 8 9 10 11 12 13 13 14 14 15
OBSERVED ATTACK STRENGTH
Str 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
FIGHTER 20 71 111 136 156 171 184 195 208 220 231 241 251 255
RANGER 19 64 98 118 135 149 161 172 185 196 207 217 227 240
PRIEST 14 49 78 98 113 125 134 143 153 163 173 183 190 199
MONK 14 49 76 94 106 114 121 129 136 142 150 156 162 167
THIEF 10 36 56 69 78 85 91 96 101 106 111 116 121 126
WIZARD 14 44 66 79 86 92 95 99 101 104 106 109 111 114
OBSERVED DISARM TRAP SKILL
Dex 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
THIEF 22 55 79 91 97 100 102 103 103 103 105 106 106 106
MONK 17 38 54 60 62 63 63 63 63 63 63 63 63 63
PRIEST 18 21 31 36 39 40 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41
FIGHTER 16 13 20 23 25 26 26 26 26 26 26 26 26 26
WIZARD 13 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6
RANGER 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
RECOMMENDED MINIMUMS *denotes a really key attribute for that class
Race(s) Str Dex Int Con Cha HP Magic
FIGHTER Dwarf, Minotaur 19* 10* 3 12 10 10/10 0/0
RANGER Dwarf, Human 16 10 15 12 10 12/12 7/7
PRIEST Human (or Elf) 14 10 18* 15 10 10/10 7/7*
MONK Halfling 14 16* 15 16 10 10/10 7/7
THIEF Halfling, Pixie 10 18* 8 15 10 8/8 4/4*
WIZARD Elf (or Human) 10 10 19* 15 10 8/8 7/7*
VIB: Fighter
Fighters specialize in fighting, an ability that is critical early in the game
and useful throughout. They do all the dirty work better than everyone else
and therefore you are going to want a Fighter in your party, and there's a
great case to bring along 2.
Recommended Races: Dwarf, Minotaur, maybe Troll or Ogre. You can't do better
than a Troll's 22 strength. A 21 Strength Ogre or 20 Strength Minotaur are
also great fighter options, but all three races tend to have low Charisma and
therefore extremely high training costs. If you want to avoid those high
costs, a 19 Strength Dwarf is a viable option as well and if you have 2
Fighters, 1 of them should probably be a Dwarf for this reason.
Attributes: Strength is the most important attribute as it will affect your
Attack skill and determine what kind of weapons and armor you can carry. I
suspect Dexterity has some value but I'm really not sure. The good news is,
you don't have to worry about Intelligence or Magic whatsoever, a smart
fighter is no more valuable than a dumb one. Fighters will typically have the
most hit points so you can let Constitution slide a bit and still be ok.
Combat: Fighters are in a class all to themselves. They have the highest
Attack skill and Hit Points. They are the only class to get the full range of
moves including a 4-attack SLASH plus the highly useful LUNGE. They progress
through the combat moves the fastest, gaining ATTACK and LUNGE at Level 2,
SLASH at Level 4 and 4-attack SLASH at Level 10. Even in the final dungeon you
will face the odd Giant Ant/Bee or Coyote attack, and no one handles those
conflicts better or ends them quicker than Fighters.
These Fighters were predecessors to those in modern games like World of
Warcraft as they not only have the best fighting ability and highest Hit
Points, but also carry the best weapons and armor, making them even deadlier
and sturdier. The "sturdier" part is almost overkill, since unlike those
modern games, Fighters can't "tank" in Phantasie. There's really no way to
direct enemy damage to the fighter, so the extra Hit Points and great armor,
while nice, are kind of wasted much of the time.
Magic: Obviously Fighters are not magic users, mostly restricted to the
MONSTER EVALUATION spells, but they actually can cast QUICKNESS, and at higher
levels. You probably don't want to take one off the attack long enough to cast
QUICKNESS but if you have 2 Fighters you might.
Bottom Line: You're going to want at least 1 Fighter in your party and
probably 2. I've tried going without a fighter but it's very hard. Even though
they can't do much against Nikademus or High Demons, they are so good at
clearing out rows of enemy monsters and using LUNGE to reach RANK 2 that
they'll always be highly useful.
If you go with 2 of them, the pair on its own is a handful for the enemy
monsters. Two Fighters each using SLASH for 4 attacks, each with strength and
dexterity, can carve through a rank of monsters in no time. Better yet, you
can have one or both LUNGE into the RANK 2 and let your Priests and Monks
SLASH the first rank.
Fighters will even aid you against the tougher monsters like Black Knights,
doing steady, if limited damage. The weakness is that they can't do anything
at all against certain apparition-type monsters such as the High Demon, which
is why you might question bringing 2 of them. It will definitely make things
easier early in the game but later on you might want a Monk or another Priest,
who can cast spells, instead of a second Fighter.
VIB: Ranger
Rangers are the most combat-oriented of the generalists: Great fighters and
useful healers. Overall I'm not a big fan of Rangers and suggest you consider
going without one but if you go with one of every character class, he'll be
your 2nd best fighter.
Recommended Races: If you must take one, Humans and Dwarves make the best
Rangers. Humans are a little better at magic, Dwarves are a little stronger.
Attributes: Rangers need high Strength and Dexterity to do the dirty work up
front but also need the Intelligence to gain magic and cast spells. Like the
Fighter, they are high in Hit Points so Constitution can slide if you have
enough HP.
Combat: The Ranger will achieve ATTACK at Level 2 like the Fighter, and SLASH
3 at Level 6, faster than all classes besides the Fighter, however the Ranger
will cap out at SLASH 3 to the Fighter's SLASH 4, and the Ranger never gains
LUNGE. Therefore, a Ranger cannot replace a Fighter as your top fighter. The
Ranger is better at fighting than the Priest who in turn is better at fighting
than the Monk, but it's worth noting that Rangers don't fight that much better
than Monks, since both will be capped at a 3-attack SLASH. I will notice their
difference in Hit Points since Monks can be a bit fragile where Rangers are
very sturdy, but I rarely notice their difference in combat.
Magic: A Ranger's magic is only moderately useful. The only thing they really
do well is cast heal spells, but they won't have enough magic points to be
more than an off-healer and they can't do better than PROTECTION II as far as
buffs. Against Nikademus and other tough enemies, the Ranger may be your least
useful party member. The most the Ranger can contribute offensively is
FIREFLASH II, which may almost not be worth it, and is probably best suited to
heal when it's needed. If you have only one Priest, you might want that Priest
to use offensive spells and therefore need your Ranger to cast heal spells but
your Ranger is mostly a fighter who doesn't fight as well as a Fighter.
Bottom Line: Are a couple of healing spells really worth the significant trade
down in combat from a Fighter? I would say not. The Ranger sort of gets caught
in between and ends up not being very useful.
VIC: Priest
Priests are both specialists and generalists and probably the game's best
overall class. A Priest can fight and use the SLASH move at Level 8 and be the
3rd and/or 4th best fighter in your party, but a Priest is also a top tier
magic user. Priests specialize as your best healers and protectors but can
also cast a variety of de-buffs. Finally, they can contribute offensively with
FIREFLASH IV with enough Magic Points to use it repeatedly. They have to wait
longer to get it than Wizards do, but they get more magic early on to cast it
than Wizards do.
Recommended Races: Humans make the best Priests though you might consider an
Elf if you want a more magic-oriented Priest. However, Humans will handle
combat and damage better than Elves and those are not unimportant to Priests.
Attributes: Priests really need to do everything well and be an attributes
rock star. It's worth taking the time to get a really good Priest because
you'll ask him to do a lot of different things, but Intelligence and
Constitution are most important. You can let Dexterity slide a bit, but keep
your Strength high enough to fight effectively. If you don't carry a Thief or
Monk, you'll want at least one Priest with high Dexterity to pick locks and
disarm traps.
Combat: Priests fight better and have more Hit Points than Monks and are only
a shade worse than Rangers in these areas. Priests gain SLASH at level 8 and
then have the same array of moves as the Ranger. Priests can easily be your
4th best fighter and probably even your 3rd, especially if you have 2
Fighters.
Magic: Priests are top tier magic users and the very best healers and
protectors in your group. They can also be spec'd to a strong de-buffer role
with spells like BINDING and CONFUSION, and there are enough spells to go
around to easily warrant a second priest. Finally, at Level 10, Priests gain
FIREFLASH IV to use against the toughest foes. Offensively, they lack some of
the buffs and group attacks that Wizards bring but FIREFLASH IV is the key
spell of the game.
Bottom Line: If there's any role you should have 2 of, it should probably be a
Priest, and you might even want a 3rd Priest for the last parts of the game.
You can spec one for Healing and Protection and the other for De-Buffing,
while both would eventually use FIREFLASH IV. Both will also serve as capable
fighters and can hold down the position as your party's 3rd and 4th best
fighters.
VID: Monk
Monks are the ultimate generalists, a nice blend of fighting ability and
offensive magic plus the bonus of thieving abilities. There's a case to skip
them but there's also a case to include one in your party, perhaps instead of
a second Fighter and maybe, just maybe in place of a second Wizard.
Recommended Races: Halflings and Elves have extra Dexterity for the job, Elves
have better magic while Halflings are a little stronger at combat, Humans and
Gnomes are a little sturdier but not quite as nimble.
Attributes: Their generalist class means that Monks must be strong in all
attributes and it may take you a bit longer to roll one than the other
classes. Monks particularly need Dexterity to provide any value as thieves,
and must have high Constitution as their hit points are lower than Priests'
and decent Strength so they can contribute in combat.
Combat: Monks are mid-tier fighters who gain SLASH 3 at Level 10 but are
weaker and more importantly, frailer than Rangers and Priests. They are not
suited to be better than your 4th best fighter, though they do pick up NINJA
spells which can boost them to higher fighting ability in spurts.
Magic: Unlike the Ranger's magic, the Monk's magic is pretty useful. The NINJA
spells at the early levels can help pump the Monk up to be similar to a
Fighter in ability for single fights at a time. At Level 8, the Monk can cast
FIREFLASH IV, my Level 11 Monk had 13 MP so he could cast it up to 3 times,
plus make use of the smaller Magic Potions to do it again. Monks also have the
useful SUMMON ELEMENTAL spell at the mid-levels, though you'll want to keep
your magic handy for NINJA and FIREFLASH for the most part. You can't take
many spells total so you need to manage this carefully. A Monk is best suited
as your 5th best magic user but can hang in there as your 4th best. If he
replaces a Fighter, he'll become your 4th best fighter after your 2 Priests
and overall that's a fairly weak fighting party. Either way, you'll be at a
stretch for fighting early and/or for magic later if you have the Monk in your
party, but you get thieving skills in return.
Special: The Monk can serve as a poor man's Thief in terms of picking locks
and spotting and disarming traps. This is sort of redundant if you have a
Thief in your party, and because of the Monk's limitations in these skills, it
isn't all that highly useful even without a Thief. But it's better than
leaving it up to your Priest to pick locks and disarm traps. This is a bonus
to taking a Monk since thieving skills aren't all that necessary and he's
really not that great at them.
Bottom Line: A Monk neither fights nor casts spells as well as a Priest, so
there's a case to leave the Monk out of your party and concentrate on the
specialists. However, the Monk brings thieving skills to the party, is a
useful fighter at the low levels, and a useful magic user at the high levels.
A Monk would displace a second Fighter or a second Wizard, and should probably
not be in your party at all if you have a Thief.
VIE: Wizard
Wizards are masters of magic, specializing in offensive magic but can cast a
number of party buffs as well, and are unique in their ability to cast
TRANSPORTATION. The only question is if you want 1 or 2 in your party.
Recommended Races: Elves have the highest Intelligence and are pretty much
made to be Wizards. You could go with a Human for a little sturdier Wizard.
Attributes: Although Wizards are primarily concerned with Intelligence and
Magic, you can't let Constitution slide, they're fragile enough as is.
Furthermore, Wizards who can fight are valuable and armor can be highly
useful, so I wouldn't give up too easily on Strength but you may not be able
to have it all.
Combat: Wizards are the bottom tier of fighters and anything you get out of
them combat-wise is gravy. It matters little by Level 3, when you gain
FIREFLASH II, as your Wizards will be casting spells anyways. The main thing
to note is how really frail they are, and even events like swimming and sprung
traps can put them at death's door. You have to constantly monitor and
maintain their Hit Points and their Magic as well. They are probably better
off using offensive spells, buffs or de-buffs as opposed to attacking anyone
with weapons, but a Wizard with decent strength can contribute against weak
foes, or you can even use the NINJA spells to turn them into attackers.
Magic: Obviously this is what Wizards bring to the party, and they do it
better than anyone else. Wizards are essential for their use of the
TRANSPORTATION spell and you probably want to level one up as quickly as
possible in order to use it (and to boost their meager HP). Beyond this,
Wizards concentrate on offensive magic, not only the concentrated FIREFLASH IV
which they can get at level 7 but Wizards can use group attacks like FLAMEBOLT
IV and MINDBLAST IV to thin out large groups of enemies. Wizards also get
really useful buffs like STRENGTH and CONFUSION and by having 2 Wizards in
your party, each can specialize in one of these.
Bottom Line: A Wizard is absolutely essential for TRANSPORTATION and offensive
magic, the only question is whether or not you want a 2nd one. They are frail
in combat but have so many useful spells among them that you should bring 2 if
you're able. As combat liabilities, you probably can't bring 2 Wizards and a
Thief so keep that in mind. If you can manage to keep them alive through the
early levels, you'll be glad you have 2 Wizards in the later ones.
VIF: Thief
A true specialist, the Thief neither fights very well nor does he have useful
magic, but he is the best, hands down, at picking locks, spotting and
disarming traps, and hearing monsters. In combat he has the highly useful
ability to attack monsters in any rank, not that he will attack them very
well. In terms of magic, at higher levels, the Thief has the surprising
ability to cast FIREFLASH IV, though he will likely only have enough magic
points to cast it once or twice.
Recommended Races: As long as you're going this route at all, you probably
want to maximize fun with the game instead of your party's beat-down ability,
so you might as well go with a Pixie to really try something different. Plus,
with their high Dexterity, Pixies make the best Thieves anyways. If you get a
Sprite with great stats, they can also make great Thieves. If you want to keep
your costs down, choose a Halfling or Elf or even a Gnome.
Attributes: Thieves primarily need Dexterity to perform well at thieving
tasks, and Constitution to stay alive. Intelligence and Magic can be very nice
if you plan to keep one in your party through to the end of the game.
Combat: What differentiates the Thief in combat is the highly useful ability
to attack in any Rank, meaning it is the only class that can attack RANK 3,
and it can use multiple attacks via ATTACK in RANK 2 or RANK 3, as opposed to
the Fighter who can only LUNGE once. Despite this, the Thief is basically a
combat liability, clearly inferior to a Monk and generally in the same league
as a Wizard. He is also similarly frail as a Wizard, and has to have his Hit
Points monitored. Even his ability to attack the deeper ranks is mitigated by
the fact that the Thief isn't very good at combat and will miss quite a bit
anyways. The Fighter using one-attack LUNGE in RANK 2 has a better chance to
kill something than the Thief using a two-attack ATTACK in RANK 2.
Magic: The Thief is not a magic user but can cast the comical CHARM spell at
lower levels and has the odd ability to cast FIREFLASH IV at the higher
levels. His maximum magic goes as high as 12 by Level 10 and theoretically he
could cast FIREFLASH IV up to 3 times, though I've never seen a Thief with
enough magic to cast it even twice but even once can be very helpful.
Special: Obviously the Thief is a specialist who specializes in picking locks,
spotting and disarming traps, and hearing and spotting monsters. All of these
abilities are useful throughout the game but simply not essential.
Bottom Line: Take one only because you want to re-enact the Hobbit and have a
thief in your party, or because you love the idea of a thieving character who
can sneak deep into the enemy ranks to deliver blows, or because you don't
want to miss any content behind locked doors. Otherwise, the thieving
abilities don't have enough value in this game to offset poor combat
abilities, frailty in terms of Hit Points and armor, and no real magic to
speak of. I think it best to avoid the Thief altogether.
