Ultima III: Exodus/Characters

Characters in Ultima III have several features that affect gameplay. Like its predecessors - but unlike later Ultima games set in Britannia - Ultima III allows the player to choose from several different races. In this game, the playable races are humans, dwarves, elves, bobbits, and fuzzies. It was the last main Ultima game to do so. Ultima III also allows each character to have one of three genders: male, female, or "other".

Health and Magic
Characters have health points that determine the maximum number of damage they can receive, and magic points, that determine the spells they can cast. Even though the documentation mentions reagents, that is only background information. In the game, the only limitation to cast a spell is to have enough magic points to cast it. Better spells need more magic points. There are two types of magic in the game: sorcerer spells and priest spells, each having sixteen spells. For more about magic, see the Magic page.

Experience and levels are only useful to determine the maximum number of health points a character has, for the first time in the Ultima series. Experience is obtained by killing monsters. One hundred experience points (xp) are needed to go up one level. Levels are given by Lord British after gaining enough experience points. Lord British will increase the maximum health points for a character to (100*current level) plus 50. However, Lord British will only advance players to level 5. Only after getting the Mark of Kings will he advance up to level 25. After level 25, there is no effect for getting more experience or reaching further levels.

Attributes
Characters in this game have four attributes or stats: strength, dexterity, intelligence and wisdom. The race a character has affect the maximum value each of the attributes can be raised to. Strength modifies the damage done by a character; Dexterity changes a character's chance to hit and avoid attacks and traps; Intelligence and Wisdom affect the magic points, either for sorcerer or priest spells, respectively.

The following table shows the maximum values each race can have in each of the four attributes:

Attributes are gained by going to Ambrosia and donating at the Shrines of Truth. Each shrine raises a specific attribute, and each multiple of 100 gold donated will raise the respective attribute by one point.

Professions
Ultima III allows the player to choose from eleven professions for each character. Different professions allow for different restrictions on weapons and armor, plus other special characteristics. Each class is influenced by the four primary classes (Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, and Thief), either entirely by one, or partially by multiple classes. The following diagram and table shows the characteristics of each profession.



The diagram summarizes the characters according to their attributes:
 * TOP: characters with no magic abilities;
 * BOTTOM: characters with great magic abilities;
 * LEFT: characters with healing spells (white);
 * RIGHT: characters with offensive spells (black).

Character creation
When creating a new character, the following steps have to be done (See Getting Started for more a detailed description):
 * Select an empty spot from the character roster.
 * Assign the character a name, maximum of 13 letters.
 * Choose the sex.
 * Choose the race.
 * Choose the type (profession).
 * Distribute 50 points between the four attributes. No attribute can have less than 5 points or more than 25 points.

Up to 20 characters can be created and stored at the same time, and parties can be formed by selecting four characters from that roster. Parties can be dispersed and re-formed even in the middle of saved games, before loading a game.

Suggested characters (NES)
The NES port of Ultima 3 has the option of choosing readymade characters. From the comparison below with usual character creation, in the NES port only the readymade Paladin and Thief can be improved.

Comparison of race choices:

Suggested parties
Characters earn experience according to the number of enemies that each one defeats. Therefore, a character with limited attack abilities will earn less experience than a character with good offensive abilities.

Characters can be divided into three groups based on this observation:


 * Strong physical attackers, who can equip the best weapons (6): Fighter, Barbarian, Lark, Paladin, Ranger, Thief
 * Strong magical attackers, who can cast mass-distruction spells (2): Wizard, Cleric
 * Weak attackers, who can equip low-level weapons and cast low-level spells (3): Illusionist, Alchemist, Druid

A party that does not include at least either a Cleric or a Wizard has very slim chances to pass a specific point in the game, and thus to complete the game at all. Said this, the weakest possible party that can still beat the game would be the following. Stay away from it unless you're an expert player:
 * 1) Illusionist
 * 2) Alchemist
 * 3) Druid
 * 4) Wizard

Vice versa, many strong parties are possible. One of the strongest is:
 * 1) Thief (top dexterity)
 * 2) Cleric (top healing magic)
 * 3) Wizard (top offensive magic)
 * 4) either Barbarian or Paladin or Lark (best weapons and either good dexterity or some healing magic)

In general, a party should include:
 * 1) A destroyer (Cleric or Wizard), who can cast mass-destruction spells;
 * 2) A natural healer (Cleric or Druid), who can cast healing spells since the beginning of the game;
 * 3) A second healer (Paladin, Illusionist, Ranger), who can learn healing spells during the game;
 * 4) A dodger (Thief, Alchemist, Illusionist), who can avoid most traps in the dungeons;
 * 5) A first attacker (Barbarian, Lark, Paladin, Fighter), who can use the best weapons;
 * 6) A second attacker (any of the above 4 plus Ranger, Thief and Wizard), who still has good attack abilities.

Well, these are six, but you can only have four characters in your party. This means that you should choose characters that fill two positions.

Here's a set of three equally balanced parties that allow to use all the 11 different characters in just three games: