*The Adventurers' Guild

Here's one that is only useful in specific situations, but is still fun. If you find that you are not able to hit things reliably, there is a way to trick the game into letting you hit better. For example, level one magic users can't reliably hit the samurai statue, even if they have 18 dex and you ...

I give everyone luckshields, but especially the lead character. It makes a significant difference running from encounters and resisting spells, breath attacks, and trap damage. And landing spells and area attacks like flame horn. After they get to LO armor class I save my inventory space. So my monk...

Probably my favorite and most useful exploit is using the spectre in the cats for quick level-ups. It seems in the IBM PC version, getting hit by a spectre or vampire will drain you a level. However, if you pay at the temple to have it healed, you get enough experience "restored" to immedi...

Well, the Soul Sucker breathes about as often as the Wind Dragon -- about 1/3 of the time. But he does quite a bit more damage. And he can't be disbelieved.

Yeah, I'm liking my pet.

I just have to say how much I like my pet Soul Sucker.

He is the Awesomest!

Really.

Yeah, Dexterity isn't what helps you run from encounters -- it's luck and experience level. Even with 18 luck you're going to have a hard time running from encounters in Mangar's tower at level 18. Get a Luckshield for your lead character and that will help, but you still won't be reliably running f...

Wow - those threads were gold! Still have a couple of questions, though: 1) Does strength provide a bonus to "to-hit" or to damage? I thought I read somewhere about Str-17 being added to damage. Strength just provides a bonus to "to-hit". Could you re-check this one? In my exper...

You came to the right place. Drifting is the expert, and could answer most actual specific direct questions. For more specifics, read some of the posts in this particular forum. Specifically the one titled msdos disassembly, and the one titled Item & Moster Specs. If there are things you don't u...

When fighting against a single opponent, like a Samurai or Mad God or Spectre or Crystal Golem, if the opponent strikes first, any successful attack against it after that will kill it. Even if you only do 1 hit point of damage. If the opponent doesn't go first, you have to hit it twice. Again, it do...

When you first start or re-load a game, whether you can hit an opponent or not seems to adhere to the expected rules. However, there is a point after which you can ALWAYS hit any monster. I think I tracked it down to the point where you are first out in town when it turns night time. After that, eve...

Interestingly enough, everything after the Crystal Golem can be done with one Archmage if he is high enough level. Darendor was correct, you don't have to actually have the silver shapes equipped (on the IBM PC version at least), so one character can make it past the door if he has the all three sha...

Even in the Bard's Tale 1 DOS version, implementation of the songs in combat is inconsistent. Traveler's tune stacks, and Falken's Fury stacks, but Badhr Kilnfest doesn't stack. So even though you only have to play the heal song once and you'll recover one hit point per round, playing it twice doesn...

The internet archive (archive.org) has a software library of DOS games. One of the titles is The Bard's Tale 1 - Tales of the Unknown. You can actually play the game in your browser. It fires up DOSBox in the browser and works remarkably well. And it saves your characters between browser sessions. I...

I have used them, but only in specific situations. I use Vorpal Plating when I have a new party and there's nothing else useful for my Magician to do. I use the MSDOS version of Bard's Tale, and Battleskill and Oscon's Ogre Strength don't even have an effect. Same with Luckalaran. The FEAR spell act...

Well, it might be possible to create a patch. Although it's usually easier to patch stuff where you can bypass or nop code than it is when you have to add code. If I understand the data structure correctly, and if the Amiga data structure is like the one for DOS, the magic + field is in the top 4 bi...