Guide

## Getting Started Guide

Welcome to Antharion! Your characters will enter the world cold and (basically) naked, able to be squished by a few bites from giant rats. Your warriors will do measly damage and your wizards will probably mess up their spells more often than not. But fear not, they will become powerful in time...

If you're having trouble surviving these first few steps, this getting started guide will point you in the right direction.

### Character Creation

#### Race

Races do not have a significant impact on character development or plot, and are mostly aesthetic. However they do provide slight modifiers to starting stats, so it is ideal to select a race that complements its intended role.

Each character starts with a base level of 5 in each stat. In total each Race provides 30 bonus points to certain base stats:

Knowing these bonuses, it is thus ideal to select a race that boosts the stats that suits the character's intended role. E.g. a race with a high strength bonus like an Orc would make a good starting melee fighter.

#### Choosing Gender

Gender likewise does not appear to significantly impact the plot or gameplay, however each gender has a slight difference in starting starts which can help boost certain roles.

* Male characters gain +5 strength
* Females gain +5 wisdom.

#### Choosing Class

Antharion's system is mostly classless, so although you can nominate a class you can develop your character's skills as you wish. Therefore while the initial choices are not at risk of being game-breaking, it is useful to plan out each character's role to optimise starting starts. This will make combat during the first 5 levels or so much easier.

Classes do not influences starting stats but do influence starting skills. In total each Class grants 20 bonus points to certain skills.

Knowing these bonuses, it is thus ideal to select a class that boosts the stats that suits the character's intended role. E.g. the Black Wizard class would obviously be the best starting choice for offensive spell caster.

### Good Race/Gender/Class Combos

With the above in mind, it is recommended to select a class that best suits the type of role.

* Male Orcs and Wolfkin make the best Fighters or Warriors.
* Felmur make the best Rangers, followed by Elves
* Female Necrophils and Undead make the best spell casters, followed by female Elves
* Felmurr and Elves in fighter classes could make good backup spell-casters, especially females
* Humans are balanced, and in theory could make good hybrid classes.

Utility skills do not seem to be affected by base stats. E.g. dexterity doesn't influence lock picking success rates, and intelligence or wisdom do not affect persuasion. Therefore you only need to worry about how the race/gender/class combo will affect combat abilities.

Having said that, using a "non-optimal" combo probably won't make the game unwinnable or impossibly difficult in the long-run. So if you want to make a custom class Elf Barbarian that likes to forage in their spare time, go ahead!

Good Party Compositions

According to Orphic Software's homepage, Antharion was designed to allow and encourage any type of play. Since starting stats are not game-breakers, it is up to you how you'd like to compose your party. Nonetheless, the starting part of the game can be difficult as it requires several combats where your characters will have limited skills. The following are ideas to help make the starting stages easier:

* The optimal balance appears to be at least one main fighter and one main magic user.
* It is essential to have at least one competent healer as healing items and alchemy ingredients are finite and resting is generally much more effective.
* Because there is a lot of combat, it is probably ideal for the other characters to have at least some melee/ranged ability
* Arrows are in limited supply, so it is probably better to only have one character train in Archery.

### Party Ideas

Balanced Team

* Male Orc or Wolfkin warrior/fighter,
* Female Felmur Ranger,
* Necrophil/Undead Black Wizard,
* Necrophil/Undead White Wizard.

This party has a two decent fighters that don't need to rely on magic, while starting with a black wizard will net you the handy Firebolt spell, and a white wizard will grant the Minor Heal spell for free, which will help you survive the first encounters, and save you money on needing to buy spells later.

Barbarian Raiders

* Male Orc fighter with sword and shield,
* Wolfkin warrior with 2-handed sword,
* Female Felmur Ranger, later put skills into 2-handed melee
* Female Human "Warlord" (custom class) with points in 2-handed melee and black magic.

This party focused on offence and won't need to rely on mana so much. Initially all can hold their own in melee or ranged combat, while later the Felmur can put points into 2-handed for close range combat and to conserve arrors when needed. This also works well since swapping weapons (with the 'x' key) doesn't automatically re-equip shields. The Human can put skills into magic skill to add another kind of ranged damage. Healing will be a challenge for this party.

Mages' Guild

* Female Necrophil Black Wizard
* Female Undead White Wizard
* Female Elf Gray Wizard, later learns Archery
* Male Human Sage, later learns magic

If you want a challenge, try an all-magic party. The beginning will be tough but once the party gets into stride they will be able to decimate foes. Mana will be a challenge for this party - as all characters would need a supply of mana potions but there likely won't be enough to go around. This means that instead, the party would need to rely on defeating a battle before all mana runs out, and resting between battles.

## The First Dungeon (the Prison)

The first prison is not too tough, but it is possible for your party to be wiped out if you're not careful.

## The First Town (Astrillyn)

After escaping the prison, you will be given directions towards the first town, Astrillyn. To reach it, simply follow the path to the south-east.

Astrillyn has all the standard RPG features including an armory, magic shop, inn and finally the tavern, where your quest continues, in the eastern side of town. If it is late at night, many of the shops will be closed (you can enter but the NPCs wont serve you) until the day starts.

In the tarven there will be a hooded man, speaking to him will trigger the next stage of the main quest. He will ask you to retrive the codex from a nearby dungeon. However, he will acknowledge that you are probably not powerful enough to beat the dungeon yet, and recommends that you complete some quests around town first.

There are a few quests to find in town and in the surrounding areas. There are also a few optional dungeons which provide useful experience and are worth taking on before tackling the next main dungeon.

## The Second Dungeon (the Codex)

The first 'official' dungeon in the main quest line. The Codex Dungeon is much larger than the prison and is much more dangerous. It also has the first real boss encounter of the game.

## FAQ

### How do I change my character order?

You can't. Therefore it is important to have them in the order you like during character creation.

### If one of your four characters dies, can you bring them back?

Characters automatically ressurect after combat.

### How do I use Pickpocketing?

Stand next to the target NPC and right-click, then select 'Pickpocket'

### How do I split items?

Hold the mouse cursor over the item stack, hold shift then click on the item to bring up the stack-splitting dialog box.

### Is there a level cap?

Currently reports state that level 24 is the maximum level, although this may be raised in future updates..