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Best Spells
-----------
Which spells are the best is debatable and depends on whether you like to see things burned, zapped, blown up, etc.  Also, spell preference may depend on fighting style and terrain -- do you creep up and pick off enemies 1 by 1, or rush in and take them on en-mass?   Therefore, the highest level spells are listed, plus a few lower ones I think are notable.  Keep in mind that Combat Magic is better for - guess what - combat.
On the other hand, Nature Magic is better for protection, healing, and increased abilities, but fortunately there are also a couple of good NM spells for fighting.


===>  Combat Magic    Nature Magic   (64% of 70) dexterity level =  10.27 dexterity XP =  18.90 ---> (27% of 70) intelligence level =  10.09 intelligence XP =   6.30 ---> ( 9% of 70)
 ---------------------------------
uber level =     1.00 uber XP =   70.00

Why the game also assigns you XP in each of the 3 stats, I don't know - it seems unnecessary.
(Think "Nubedad" again.)

OK, now suppose you switch to your bow, and get another 70 XP, this time in your ranged skill.
While you've achieved level 1 in ranged, you are only (140-70)/(650-70)=0.12069 or ~12% of the way towards uber-level 2.  These 0.12 uber level points are split up between the 3 stats according to the %'s above (ranged).  For dexterity, the stat most affected, you get
0.12069*0.62 = 0.07483 added to your DEX level.  Use the same logic for the other 2 stats.
Then finally for stat-XP's, let's take strength for example... (STR-10)=0.67017,  so you are ~67% of the way to the next level, or ~67%*(70-0)=46.9119 would be your STR-XP.

Anyway, here is the picture after leveling up 1 in ranged... melee level =      1.00 melee XP =    70.00 ranged level =    1.00 ranged XP =    70.00 combat magic level =    0 combat magic XP =    0 nature magic level =     0 nature magic XP =    0
 ---------------------------------
strength level =   10.67017 strength XP =     46.9119 dexterity level =   10.34483 dexterity XP =   24.1381 intelligence level =    10.10569 intelligence XP =    7.3983
 ---------------------------------
uber level =        1.12069 uber XP =   140.00


As pointed out in other guides, it is VERY HARD, especially later in the game, to level up your character in all 3 stats !  Credit where it's due - - I will basically 'parrot' here what Tom Church teaches in his guide, with a few more specifics.

For example, let's say you achieved level 50 in both melee and ranged, but you haven't yet used any spells.  Now, let's suppose you want to start rounding out your character in magic skill and increase your intelligence by exactly 1.00.  Here is how that would work...

Your uber XP would be 2*9709985=19419970, and uber-level is therefore ~54.  If you want to know exactly, it's 54+(19419970-17582294)/(20395661-17582294)= 54.6532.  To increase your intelligence level by exactly 1.00, using combat magic spells, you would have to increase your uber-level by 1.00/0.70=1.4286.  To achieve this you need to get to uber-level 56.0818.  The uber-XP required for this level is 23659167+ 0.0818*
(27444833-23659167) =23968834.  That's a difference of 4548864 XP you need to accumulate using combat magic.  If you start at skill level 0 in combat magic, you would have to almost reach skill level 45 before you would earn that much XP and get the 1.00 point in intelligence.   And remember you would be starting with the measly fireshot level 0 spell !

Again, 'Nubedad' had to make some educated guesses on the formulas.  I finally wrote an Excel spreadsheet to figure this out - at least the way I think it works.  Then after those untold hours, I found almost the exact same thing on the web at: [ http://www.dsnetguide.com/downloads/statcalc.php ]

However, really the only reason you need to know this many specifics is so you can hack & cheat.

Another way to cheat a bit less blatantly is to use one of the mod's that are out on the Internet.  I like Reaper's XP mods, if you lean this way. [ http://www.dsnetguide.com/siegelets/siegelets.php?id=61 ]



 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
{  Section 4 - HEALTH & MANA  }
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is a short section to help explain how health and mana "level up" during the game.

Max HEALTH is defined according to the formula:
= [ (STR-9) * 29.4 ] + [ (DEX-9) * 9.8 ] + [ (INT-9) * 9.8 ]

Max MANA formula:
= [ (STR-9) ] + [ (DEX-9) * 4 ] + [ (INT-9) * 25 ]


If you remember the %'s above, (for example, melee: 0.64, 0.27, 0.09)  then you can calculate that for each 1.00 increase in UBER level (while using melee), your health will increase 18.816+ 2.646+ 0.882 =22.344

[What, so simple ?  Come on GPG, you could have atleast used Fourier transforms or something!]

Why, you say, is this important ?  Well it's really not but I'm on a geek-roll here.
Let's say you find two rings, one "of Colossus", and one "of the Lion", and you wanted to keep the better one and sell/trade the other.  You would know by the formula that the STR+11 will give you only 323.4 additional health, vs. the 529 from the other ring.
(I am ignoring the other benefits of STR such as increase in melee damage.)

BTW - does anyone know the formulas for STR/DEX/INT vs. melee/ranged damage?
It looks to me like... delta melee damage (min) = delta STR * 2.0625 delta melee damage (max) = delta STR * 2.125



 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
{  Section 5 - INVENTORY  }
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This section is written to help you figure out where your stuff is in your inventory.
An item's location is defined by one or more of 3 things:  (1) equipment slot,
(2) inventory location, (3) grid X & Y.  For the items you are carrying "on your body",
(1) and (2) are shown below, whereas (3) does not apply. equip_slot =   inv_location =
   ------------   --------------
Armor  es_chest    il_main
Helmet  es_head         "
Gloves  es_forearms       "
Boots  es_feet         "
Amulet  es_amulet        "
Spell Book  es_spellbook        "
Rings  es_ring_0         " es_ring_1        " es_ring_2        " es_ring_3        "
Melee weapon (n/a)     il_active_melee_weapon
Ranged Weapon (n/a)     il_active_ranged_weapon
Shield  (n/a)     il_shield

For other items you are carrying "in your pack", the inventory location is always "il_main", except for spells carried inside a spell book.  Then a grid location is specified via X & Y.
I am not sure if the grid numbers change (for example, depending on screen resolution?).
I decoded the grid on my installation as follows:

|            X          |
      |------------------------
   Y  | 255 | 287 | 319 | 351 |
 ==============================  As you can see
   30 |     |     |     |     |  it is a grid
 ------------------------------  4 squares wide
   62 |     |     |     |     |  and 13 squares
 ------------------------------  high.  Each
   94 |     |     |     |     |  square is
 ------------------------------  32 x 32 units
  126 |     |     |     |     |  (pixels?).
 ------------------------------
  158 |     |     |     |     |  The location of
 ------------------------------  large items is
  190 |     |     |     |     |  determined by
 ------------------------------  specifying
  222 |     |     |     |     |  the grid location
 ------------------------------  of the upper left
  254 |     |     |     |     |  corner of the
 ------------------------------  item.
  286 |     |     |     |     |
 ------------------------------  For example a 2x3
  318 |     |     |     |     |  crossbow in the
 ------------------------------  extreme lower
  350 |     |     | *CB | CB  |  right corner
 ------------------------------  would be assigned
  382 |     |     |  CB | CB  |  "grid_x = 319" and
 ------------------------------  "grid_y = 350".
  414 |     |     |  CB | CB  |
 ------------------------------


If you use one of the "back-pack" mods, then you just expand the 32x32 grid accordingly.
This type of mod is very useful and since it only allows you to carry more, its sort of not cheating, in my opinion.  If you're going to get one, might as well get the BEST !
This would be the biggest - - [ http://www.geocities.com/gamers554/ds.htm ]
The above does require a screen res of 1024x768.  Otherwise you need one of the smaller ones such as: [ http://www.dungeonsiegecenter.com/downloads/mods.phtml?id=138347 ] [ http://www.dsnetguide.com/siegelets/siegelets.php?id=4 ]



 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
{  Section 6 - HACKING   }
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Using the above info, if you are an unabashed hacker you should now be able to give yourself whatever items you want, with the highest level of magical enhancements possible.  You will first need the Tank Viewer and Tank Creater programs available from: [ http://www.game-editing.net/                     ] [ http://www.dsnetguide.com/downloads/modtools.php ]

! - ! - ! - ! - !
NOTE - Some published FAQ's/guides instruct that you can edit your single-player files
(*.dssave).  In my experience this does not work.  If you want to do play a hacked character in the single player map, you could play the Kingdom of Ehb campaign from within the multiplayer menus.
! - ! - ! - ! - !

Example - - suppose you want to fight with a devastating crossbow.  Just hack into your *.dsparty file and edit the resulting "party.gas" file.  Find whatever ranged weapon you have currently, and change it to: gold_value = 9999999; inv_location = il_active_ranged_weapon; modifier_prefix_name = sacred; modifier_suffix_name = oflightning; template_name = cw_g_c_l_p_avg; variation_name = o_mag;

You can do this with any of the items and modifiers listed above.  Finding it hard to stick to your "pure ethics" of game playing ?  VERY tempting isn't it?  You can resist though - just pray harder.

Of course, you can give yourself lots of gold too.  Obviously the first thing to do is edit your overall gold amount.  Another trick to "store" even more extra gold is to hack the sell-value of any potions or other small & expendable items you own, to 9999999, and then if you run low on gold you can sell one.

Finally, if you know the template name(s) of any unique items you want (such as
Town-stones, the Fury's Eye, books, knife, etc.) - you can just place them in an empty spot (grid) in your pack.

A note for more dedicated hackers - - if you know where to look you can find the base file that determines how much damage the crossbow does (or defense for armor, etc.) and change these values too.



 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
{  Section 7 - MULTIPLAYER WORLD  }
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


          --------------------------
Section 7-a... Town Stones
          --------------------------

In case you dont feel like getting your 30-50 bucks out of the game, you can hack and just give yourself all the items needed to complete the game.  These are the 8 town-stones, plus the