GB: We understand that there are new character classes - are you expanding the core class options beyond the basic four, or will all of the new additions be specialty classes? Can you give us an idea of how many you're adding, and what new roles you felt were needed in the game?
D.W. Bradley: One of the most short-sighted RPG design flubs at the time, in Dungeon Lords and other games such as Oblivion, was having so many magic spells and only 8 hot-key slots for casting them - doh! The new action bar in DL MMXII supports 12 hot-key spells and actions, but the game has many more magic spells than this, and to make this more manageable I decided to revise the four Basic Classes and assign the four schools of Magic spells among them: Fighters auto-learn Rune Magic, Rogues auto-learn Nether Magic, Mages auto-learn Arcane Magic and can acquire Nether Magic, and Adepts auto-learn Crystal Magic and can acquire Rune Magic. Auto-learn means that the magic spells in a specific school are automatically added to your Hero's spellbook when you Level Up. Each of the four Basic Classes also begins with a new special ability: Fighters have Charge Attack, Mages have Flash (super casting speed), Adepts have Divine Aura (absorption shield), and Rogues have Sneak.
A Hero may only cast spells in a school available to its Class, however, multi-class development remains a prime feature of Dungeon Lords, and players may quest to add a second Basic Class enabling them to acquire and cast spells of their secondary chosen Basic Class as well. The initial choice of starting Basic Class will determine the magic spells your Hero automatically learns when you Level Up, and any spells from the other Magic schools available to your Hero must be purchased from characters in the game or found in dungeons. The Tier II Classes were subsequently revised to offer advanced development based upon player's choice of Basic Classes. Each Basic Class still has an advanced Tier II Class equivalent, but the game also has a unique advanced Tier II Class for every combination of the Basic Classes. For example a Fighter-Mage Hero may choose to quest for any two (out of three) advanced Tier II classes for Fighter and Mage: Knight (advanced Fighter), Sorcerer (advanced Mage), and BattleMage (advanced Fighter-Mage). This led to new advanced Tier II Classes for the game, including Tier II Druid (advanced Tier II Adept-Rogue) and Tier II Nightblade (advanced Tier II Rogue).
Players that complete Dojo quests may choose to quest for Tier II Dojo Classes based upon their Basic Class choices - for example, a Fighter may quest for Tier II Samurai Class, an Adept may quest for Tier II Monk class, and a Fighter-Adept may quest for either, but not both. Female Hero characters joining the Sisterhood have exclusive advanced Tier II class options also based upon Basic Class choices, including the new Tier II Bladewitch Class. The advanced Tier II classes generally offer one or more additional skills to augment the hero's development in accordance with the Basic Class choices.
At the highest level, there is a corresponding elite Tier III class for every advanced Tier II class, and this led to new Tier III Classes for the game, such as Tier III Illusionist and Tier III Necromancer. Each Tier III class has an exclusive elite Skill that may be developed to provide exceptional ability, and it makes me laugh when I think how insanely powerful some of these new abilities are, the Ninjalord with Cripple skill that can bleed, fear, blind, stun, hobble, maim and kill enemies, the Dragonmaster with Whirlwind skill granting super speed movement and attacks, War Witch's Seduction skill that stupefies an enemy and compels other monsters to attack it, and Cabalist's Twisted Master skill which takes control of the enemy and compels them to attack the other monsters. Each Hero may only quest for one Tier III class, but Dungeon Lords MMXII now supports unlimited savegames and players may start new games and develop as many different Hero characters as they wish.
