Dragon Warrior IV features a unique cast of eight characters, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Here this section will show you information on all eight characters.
The Hero/The Heroine
| NES Version | DS Version | Japanese Name | Level | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Expel | Poof | ニフラム | 1 | Occasionaly makes a group of enemies vanish, but no experience will be received. |
| ---- | Heal | ホイミ | 2 | Restores around 30 HP to one ally. |
| Blaze | Frizz | メラ | 3 | Deals small fire damage to one enemy. |
| Healmore | Midheal | ベホイミ | 5 | Restores around 75 HP to one ally. |
| Return | Zoom | ルーラ | 7 | Allows you to return to a previously-visited location. |
| Firebal | Sizz | ギラ | 9 | Deals small fire damage to a group of enemies. |
| Repel | Holy Protection | トヘロス | 11 | Wards off weaker enemies. |
| Outside | Evac | リレミト | 13 | Allows you to escape from a dungeon or tower. |
| Sleepmore | Kasnooze | ラリホーマ | 15 | Usually puts a single enemy to sleep. |
| Awake | Cock-a-Doodle-Doo | ザメハ | 17 | Awakens all allies from sleep. |
| Fendspell | Snub | マホステ | 19 | Negates all currently-applied magical effects and temporarily protects all combatants from magic spells. |
| Ironize | Kaclang | アストロン | 21 | Transforms all allies into steel, making them invincible but also unable to act. |
| Boom | Boom | イオラ | 23 | Deals moderate explosive damage to all enemies. |
| Zap | Zap | ライデイン | 25 | Deals moderate lightning damage to one enemy. |
| Healall | Fullheal | べホマ | 27 | Fully restores the HP of one ally. |
| Vivify | Zing | ザオラル | 28 | Resurrects an ally with half of his or her HP restored. It has a 50% chance success rate. |
| Transform | ---- | モシャス | 30 | Transforms the caster into a different form. |
| Healusall | Omniheal | ベホマズン | 32 | Fully restores everyone's HP. |
| Lightning | Kazap | ギガデイン | 34 | Deals major lightning damage to all enemies. |
| Thordain | Kazapple | ギガデイン | 37 | Deals major damage to an enemy, but requires 15 MP from everyone in the active party. |
| Chance | Hocus Pocus | パルプンテ | 39 | Produces random effects when used in battle. |
| ---- | Gigaslash | ギガスラシュ | 50 | Deals major damage to one enemy with a lightning-infused sword slash. |
The Hero is a powerful character who should always be a part of your party. He has very well-rounded stat growth, but most of his stats begin to level off at around level 50. Keep the Hero in the front, dealing powerful damage with the best weapons you can afford. You should keep the hero outfitted with the best weapons and equipment you can find, but once you get towards the end of the game you will receive very strong equipment that only the Hero can wear so you won't need to find equipment upgrades.
The Hero learns a wide variety of healing spells including Healall, but he learns these spells later than Cristo and Nara, who are much better healers. Keep the Hero's healing spells for outside of battle once you gain those characters, so they two can conserve MP for tough battles. But unlike Cristo and Nara, the Hero learns the best healing spell in the game: Healusall. This spell costs a massive amount MP, but fully heals everyone in the party. This will be very helpful for the final battle.
In terms of group damage, the Hero learns a variety of fire spells early on, but nothing hard-hitting. Towards the end of the game he or she will learn Zap and Lightning, some of the most powerful offensive spells in the game. Zap is only really helpful in situations where enemies have high defense ratings, but this does not happen so often that Zap does more damage than the Hero's normal attacks. Lightning, on the other hand, deals massive damage to all enemies, and with the spell only costing 15 MP, it's a spell worth learning.
The Hero's ultimate spells are Thordain and Chance. Thordain draws 15 MP from every character to deal massive damage to a single enemy. Although this sounds like a sweet deal, it requires that every character has MP, which means Alena, Ragnar, and Taloon can not be in the battle. This makes Thordain a double-edged sword. Sure, it does a lot of damage for only 15 MP per character, but if Ragnar or Alena were in the battle and the enemy was fully sapped and all melee-fighters had Bikill applied, you would do the same amount of damage anyway if everyone attacked on the same turn than if you wasted a turn to cast a single spell. Thordain is more of a novelty spell than a useful one. Speaking of novelty, Chance is just that. Chance is a gamble; the effect is random and you don't know what will happen. Try it during random encounters, but try to avoid using it otherwise.