Finally, luck influences an invisible stat which represents the likelihood of being impacted by a status affliction. Wisdom functions in a similar manner but for Max MP – the maximum MP of a character will generally be twice their wisdom stat, give or take a couple of points. Max HP will always be roughly twice the character’s resilience. Resilience may be the defensive stat in most Dragon Quest games, but in III it solely influences your character’s Max HP potential. The other thing agility affects is defense half of your agility is added to the base defense value of the character. Agility influences how fast a character acts in combat, but be aware that agility is “rolled” each round in combat and so a poor roll can still have a high-agility character following a low-agility one. Higher strength translates one-for-one to higher attack power. Strength is pretty straightforward in that it influences the physical power of your character. These stats then influence others such as Max HP, Max MP, Attack, and Defense, as well as invisible statistics that are not displayed on your character screen. The core stats in Dragon Quest III are strength, agility, resilience, wisdom, and luck.
Dragon Quest III is unique compared to other games in the series in that some of its stats function differently, so even if you’re a series veteran you may be surprised by what things like agility or resilience do for your character. Not every player feels the need to understand the math driving a roleplaying game, but when you do it can be helpful when making decisions about what equipment to purchase or which stats are most important to a particular character. I’m going to start with the mechanics of the game then dive into character creation before finally touching on exploration and battle strategies. With that in mind, this guide is meant to introduce new players to some of the concepts which will be helpful to you in making the most out of Dragon Quest III. Now available on the Nintendo Switch, DQIII is a great way to experience a piece of series history while also experiencing a video game that is mechanically complex enough to require some thought and strategy. These days, things like creating your own characters and changing jobs are not new concepts to RPGs as a whole or to Dragon Quest in particular, but for its time this game was quite ahead of the curve. Dragon Quest III introduced many new mechanisms to the series when it was originally released.