Tao

"Am I being of use to you? As long as there's breath in my body, I'll keep fighting!" -Tao upon being talked to at Headquarters

## Tao

* Official Art
* Portrait

## Information

### Weapon

Staff

Tao is an Elf who is one of the first members of the Shining Force. When she joins her class is mage (MAGE) and can be promoted to the class of wizard (WIZD) at level 10.

## Personality

Tao was born in a small village and raised by her two skilled mage parents, and it's this relation that stemmed her inspiration to be a mage as well. However one day a Cerberus began harassing the village for sacrifices, when it came time for Tao to be offered her parents went up the mountain to slay the beast.

Though details are vague on the exact events it was believed Tao's parents died fighting the Cerberus, but on investigation it turned out the beast died from it's wounds days after the fight, and without her parents bodies anywhere the village suspected they ran from the encounter, and subsequently the village and their daughter.

Tao doesn't believe this to be true, or that there is more to it then cowardice. The thought that it might be though gives her great distress. Some time after this Tao made her way to Manarina where she served as a maid under Princess Anri and through this acquaintance learned the basic spell of Blaze and further setting her on her goal to become a great mage.

## Recruitment

Tao is a mandatory recruitment as the player will receive her, along with 4 other members in the Guardiana Headquarters just before leaving to the first fight of the chapter (Chapter 1 Fight 1). You can talk to Tao in Headquarters to listen to her backstory.

## Combat and Skills

### Movement

While having some good agility compared to the rest of the early Shining Force her movement it self is pretty low. With her larger casting range at later levels her distance is no longer a problem.

### Attacking

Tao's attacks are pretty low if not holding a special staff. While she'll do low damage with her hits, if she does hold an anti-enemy weapon such as the doll hater she'll do a lot of damage to those types of enemies.

### Spells

Tao acts as the Shining Force's early Mage, she has good stats for a mage and the most HP, she serves to teach players about magic. Her Blaze is a high damaging spell especially to Undead as it deals bonus damage to this type of enemy.

Her other three spells are great utility and support for the team. Attack can really boost the damage of allies, helping them catch up if they start to lack damage. Sleep will put enemies to sleep if it connects, allowing your units to take advantage of the situation. Dispel acts as a bounce back to enemy spells, allowing it to reflect back onto the caster.

## **Statistics**

Tao's starting stats are alright compared to the rest of the starting cast. She has the highest agility(tied with Hans) of the starting crew, allowing her to be the first unit moved. Her growths are great except that she takes awhile to receive MP and magic resistance. While he may have the lowest cost spells and highest HP of the mages, she only has one damaging ability and is quickly replaced by Anri because blaze's bonus damage to undead is short lived due to the of the lack of undead enemies later.