During the course of your adventures, you will encounter many types of vile creatures that try to stop you in your path. By ridding the kingdom of them, you will earn valuable experience points which help you earn character level promotions; and you will get to keep whatever gold or other items you find amongst the fallen foe.
		When you encounter some monsters, you will be faced with a screen like the one to the left. The picture in the top-left always shows the first (or closest) monster group in out of all the monster groups you face. To the right of the picture, all monster groups you face are listed, sorted by distance. Notice that there are actually two groups of monsters attacking you in this case. The first group is a lizard beast, 10 feet away, and the second group is a lizard summoner at 20 feet.
Combat Options: Combat works in turns. When you encounter a set of monsters, you will be presented with several choices. After you have selected a course of action, a round of battle commences. Each member of your party and each monster you face will get a chance to attack, in turn, according to their dexterity. Faster monsters and characters go into action before slower ones. If the combat messages scroll by too slowly, you can speed them up by pressing the up key. If they go by too quickly, slow them down by pressing the down key. To replay the last round of combat messages, go to the menu by pressing the "Menu" silkscreen key, select the "Options" menu, and select "Last Message". This menu option will only display the last round of combat messages when you are in combat mode. Otherwise, it will display the last popup text message your party encountered. When the combat round completes, you will be presented with more combat choices, like when the encounter began. Or, if you defeated your enemies, you will be presented with a treasure screen that displays the gold, experience, and objects you may have found on the bodies of your fallen enemies. When a new round of combat commences within an encounter, you will always be presented with the following choices: Run - Attempt to run away from the all the monsters in the encounter. This option is useful in cases where your party is too weak to fight the monsters it faces. Note, however, that running is not always the best plan. If you run away, you abandon any experience you may have already earned during this encounter. Also, your chances of successfully running are based on levels of the characters in your party. If you are an even match for the monsters you face, then your chances of successfully running from them are about even. But if your characters are of a lower level than the (highest level) monter it faces, your chances of successfully running are reduced. If your attempt to run is unsuccessful, you will be forced to fight and will not have the opportunity to advance. Fight - Fight the monsters you face. If you think you can take them, choose this option to initiate combat against the monsters. Selecting this option puts you into a menu where each character in your party gets to choose a method of attack (or defense) for the upcoming combat round (see below). Depending on the distance of your party to the nearest monster group, and the relevence of your last round of combat choices, you may also have either of the following options. Advance - Advance your party closer to the monsters you face. In cases where you face any group of monsters that are out of melee range (farther than 10 feet away), you will have the option to advance on them so that they will be in range of your deadlier hand-to-hand combat weapons. This menu option does not appear in cases where one or more groups of foe are already within 10 feet of your party. Beware -- advancing on a group of foes may also put you in range of their deadlier hand-to-hand attacks. Also note that some character classes have the ability to cast a "Near Foe" spell which brings one group of monsters 10' closer without requiring you to consume an entire round of your party's combat choices with a single "Advance" instruction. Repeat - If you are fighting the same group(s) of monsters you faced in the previous round, all at the same distances, you may be given the option to repeat your previous round's combat instructions. However, some types of spells probably should not be cast twice in a row, and sometimes commands you gave to your party in the last round will not work again (e.g., because you don't have enough spell points to cast the same spell this time). So if it is not possible or desirable to repeat your last round of combat commands, you will not be given the option.

Fighting:

		If you chose to fight the monsters you face, or you attempted but failed to run away from them, then combat proceeds by choosing a set of commands for each character in your party for the upcoming round of battle. Note that summoned creatures cannot be given commands during combat. They will choose their own combat round. All other characters may choose from the following four menu options:

• Attack - Attacks a monster group with the currently equipped weapon. Use this option only if you have already equipped the character with a weapon, or wish to punch. (See the inventory section of this document for information on equipping objects). Note that in the case where your party faces more than one group of monsters, each character will be prompted to specify which group of monsters to target for their attack. In the case that your party only faces one group of monsters, all attacks are assumed to target that one group.
  
  • Attacking with no weapons equipped
    If no weapon is equipped, then selecting ATTACK will simply punch at a monster in the target monster group.
    
  • Attacking with an equipped hand weapon
    If the currently selected character has a hand-to-hand combat weapon such as a sword is equipped, then the character will use that weapon to attack. But remember, that hand-to-hand weapons can only reach monsters in melee range. Attacking with a hand-to-hand weapon against monsters farther away will always miss.
    
  • Attacking with an equipped ranged or spell weapon
    If the currently selected character has a spell or ranged weapon (such as a bow) equipped, then that weapon will automatically be used for the character's turn, during combat. Note that attacking with a spell weapon in this fashion will consume one charge if the weapon has a limited number of charges (see the inventory section of this document). Use of bows (and items without a #charges after the item name), however, is unlimited. Be careful not to equip a valuable spell weapon, and quickly use up its charges by attacking with it for every round of combat.
• Cast Spell - Choosing this option will allow the currently selected character to select a spell to cast during his or her turn in the upcoming round of combat. There are many types of spells available during combat. See the spell table for details on the types and requirements for using particular spells. Refer to the spell casting documentation section of this document pertaining to casting spells for information on using the Dragon Bane II spell casting interface.
  
• Defend - Selecting this option will cause the currently selected character to defend him or herself during the upcoming round of combat. By defending, a character effectively lowers his or her armor class by two points during the upcoming round (note: thieves hide better when defending, see Character Classes section). Use this option only when a character doesn't have any other more useful options available for the upcoming round of combat.
  
• Use Item - The character will attempt to use an item in his or her inventory during the upcoming round of combat. Although each of your characters probably only carries one good hand-to-hand combat weapon, they may choose to carry other weapons with special uses for special circumstances. For this reason, the default equipped weapon or device can be overriden by selecting any other object (even if that object is not equipped) .
  
  If you attempt to use a weapon or spell-weapon that requires a target (for example the Wand of Aid requires you to target one of your own characters), then you will be prompted to select the appropriate character or monster target.
  

Confirm Combat Commands:

		When you have entered a command for each member of your party (except for a summoned creature, if you have one), you will be prompted to confirm the use of your given commands before the combat round proceeds. If you accidentally entered the wrong combat command for a certain character, or you change your mind about a combat command, this is your chance to start over and assign new commands for the upcoming round.

Computation of hit and damage:

The chance for an attack to hit (whether it be a monster attacking your characters or your characters attacking a monster) is computed using the attacker's level and the target's armor class. Higher level attackers have a better chance to hit, and targets with lower armor class have a better chance to defend against an attack.

After the chance to hit is computed from the table above, a small 5% random factor is taken into account, and then the chance to hit is reduced by the accuracy factor of the attacker's weapon. If the attacker is 100% proficient at using the given weapon, the raw chance to hit from the table is used. However, if the attacker is only accurate 50% of the time using the current weapon, the chance to hit is reduced accordingly.

If a hit is successful, damage inflicted is computed using the damage of the attack against the resistances of the target. All offensive weapons' and spells' damage is described as a triplet of (physical base /fire damage /magic damage). Likewise, all armor' defense is described as a triplet of (AC / fire resistance % / magic resistance %). Damage is then computed as the sum of three values:

1. Physical Damage: Some random value between half and full physical base damage of the attacker's weapon plus a factor for the attacking character's strength.
2. Fire Damage: The attacker's fire damage is reduced by the defender's fire resistance percentage. For example, if the defender has a fire resistance of 20%, then the defender only receives 80% of the attacker's fire damage.
3. Magic Damage: The attacker's magic damage is reduced by the defender's magic resistance percentage. For example, if the defender has a magic resistance of 20%, then the defender only receives 80% of the attacker's magic damage.

Fire and magic resistances max out at 99. At that point, your character will be immune to all fire or magic based damage.

It is a good idea to study the characteristics of your offensive weapons and spells and see how their effect varies against different monsters. Obviously, it is not a good idea to use a fireball spell against a fire elemental, because you would expect that creature to be mostly immune to the fire attacks. Likewise, it would be prudent to save objects with fire resistant properties for use when fighting fire breathing dragons or other strong monsters that use fire attacks.

Tactics: