Paper Sorcerer is a fairly simple, straightforward RPG, but there is some depth to it, and existing documentation is kind of inadequate. There's no manual, and the in-game help is unclear on a lot of mechanics. In a few instances there are in-game descriptions of mechanics that are wrong, with skills and the like that work differently than as described.

This guide is intended to be something of a combination of expanded manual and deep dive under the hood to explain how some of Paper Sorcerer's mechanics work. It'll explain some of the basic stats, game mechanics, and do a breakdown of each of the characters you can have in your party, along with some basic strategies for using them. Most of the strategies are operating under the assumption that you're playing on Hard or 1980s difficulty, as you get significantly more margin for error on Normal or Easy. This guide doesn't contain much information on equipment or items, as most of what's included in-game is self-explanatory.

I used the Unity Assets Bundle Extractor[github.com] to pull out the TextAssets from Paper Sorcerer, which contain nearly all of the game's information about mechanics, skills, items, characters, formulas, etc. in an easily-digestible XML format. Once you figure out the cross-linked references between the files it's fairly easy to decipher. If you want to see even more detail than this guide provides (say, you want to see the damage range for each skill level of a given spell) then you can use the above tool to take a look at the data directly.

The only thing that differs as far as I can tell between the difficulty levels is enemy strength. Enemies' baseline stats are boosted for any difficulty higher than Easy:


Note that Hard and 1980s difficulty both give you EXP bonuses, and also give enemies blanket damage resistance--slight in Hard and significant in 1980s.

Overall Easy and Normal are balanced but not super challenging, Hard is tough but fair, and 1980s is a slog.

The game is definitely beatable on 1980s (I've done it) but I'd advise against it unless you're something of a masochist. If you take the plunge, here's some advice:

• Take the Imp or the Succubus. If you don't have their Sleep spell to disable some or all of your enemies, some of the fights on the higher levels (e.g. against multiple Samurai) will not be survivable without a lot of luck.
  
• The Vampire will not cut it as your primary healer in 1980s difficulty. If you take him you'll need an alternate healer like the Cultist, Dryad, or Witch. Cultist is probably the best healer overall due to his hardiness; Dryad is a close runner-up as her Eternal Winter does wonders when combined with Sleep.
  
• While less essential, the Minotaur's damage output is very useful.
  
• The contents of treasure chests are random until you open them. Savescum them all; save right before opening a chest and reload if you don't get something good.
  
• Disabling status effects are very important. Most status effects are applied via spell and require a high Magic in order for them to have a good chance to proc, so train up Magic on your disablers.
  
• Consumable items are critical. Stock up on Defense, Healing, and Energy potions. Save your Acid Flasks for boss fights--you'll need them.
  
• You will need to prepare a very specific party to beat the final boss. He has a regeneration spell with a cooldown of only 5 rounds that heals 2400+ HP per round, and he will use when he hits half health (3900 HP). The easiest way to counteract this is with the Abomination's Dispel Enemy spell. Otherwise you will need to have a party that can deal over 3900 damage in a single round.

Strength affects damage done by melee attacks and any skill with the Strength icon by it.

Strength Modifier = Strength /2

Most melee attacks and most skills that use this modifier add it to any numerical effects (eg damage).

Agility affects a lot of different things. Move order in combat, critical chance, block chance are among the factors that are affected by Agility. Skills with the Agility icon by it are affected as well.

Agility Modifier = Agility /2

Most skills that use the Agility modifier add it to any numerical effects of the skill. The Agility modifier also affects normal melee attacks with "Agility Weapons," in other words the Dagger, Chain, and Katar. Half of the Agility modifier is added to standard melee attacks with agility weapons. This is in addition to the Strength modifier which is added as normal.

Magic affects the strength of your spells and any skill with the Magic icon by it.

Magic Modifier = Magic /2

Most skills that use this modifier add it to any numerical effects.

Defense is possibly the most complex and confusing stat. Defense is used to reduce incoming damage. There are two types of attacks in the game, melee and spell attacks, and Defense works differently depending on the type.

When most melee attacks hit, the formulas used are:

HP Damage = Damage Roll - Target Defense

A melee attack is any use of the "Attack" command or a skill that uses a melee weapon. For example the Cultist's Smite is a melee attack and uses this formula, even though its element is Divine rather than Physical.

Most melee attacks also damage Defense and reduce it a bit. This is done with a separate roll from the one used to determine HP damage. Most of the time the formula used is:

Defense Damage = Damage Roll / 4

Spell attacks are handled differently. Defense reduces damage from spell attacks but less so. The formula normally used is:

HP Damage = Damage Roll - Target Defense / 2

Note that most spell attacks do not damage Defense.

Not all skills use these formulas--there are lots of variations from skill to skill. And there are some attacks (like most damage over time effects) that ignore Defense completely.

Lastly, Defense reduces the chance of being critically hit.

Every attack in Paper Sorcerer has one of five damage types associated with it: Physical, Arcane, Divine, Fire, and Ice. Resistance is a measure of what percentage of damage you take from that attack type, so lower is better. E.g. a Physical Resistance of 25% means you only take 25% damage from Physical attacks. A Fire Resistance of 150% means you have a weakness to fire and take one and a half times normal damage from it. For some reason these values are only visible in the Shop interface.

Only a handful of summons or enemies have any sort of natural resistances or weaknesses. A very small number of enemies have negative resistance levels, meaning they're healed rather than damaged by that damage type.

Resistance is primarily changed via equipment, training, or temporarily via spells cast in battle.

These values indicate the minimum and maximum damage that you can do with an attack, and for almost everyone both values are naturally set at 1 and never change--only equipping weapons change the value.

The Werewolf and Giant, however, are special summons who can't equip weapons, but whose Minimum/Maximum damage values improve as they gain in levels.

This value is added on to any melee attack (and a handful of spell attacks too). It's almost always zero; only a few weapons and scrolls can raise this value.

Vampire Blood is a special value that only Vampires have and it only does one thing: affect the amount of damage healed by the Dark Sacrifice skill.

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Hit Chance depends entirely on the skill or attack being used. The base chance to hit for a standard attack, and many skills, is 100%, but this can be reduced by various status effects like Blindness or Slow.

Some skills have no specified hit chance. These attacks will always hit, regardless of whether or not the user has to-hit penalties. Most of the skills that fall under this category are attack spells.

If you see an attack was Evaded rather than Missed, that's a separate calculation; it means the target succeeded in a Block check, not that the attack missed.

Your base chance to critically hit a target, before adding any modifiers from equipment is:

Your Agility Modifier - Half the target's Defense + 5%

A critical hit is twice as effective as a normal hit. There's no feedback as to when you make a critical hit (other than damage that goes above what you should be able to deal) so it's hard to tell, but it appears that Skills cannot critically hit, only attacks made with the Attack command.

When you use the Defend command, your Agility Modifier * 1.2 will be added to your Defense that turn.

Most status effects have a chance to work that are not 100%. The chance to work varies from skill to skill, but most have a modified chance to work based on the stats of the attacker and target:

Physical Effects: Attacker STR - Defender STR + (random number between 85 and 95)
Magical Effects: Attacker MAG - Defender MAG + (random number between 85 and 95)

An important note is that the game has almost no internal consistency with Physical Effects. Many Physical Effects actually use the Magical Effects hit chance calculation instead. This is likely deliberate, as many of those Physical Effects are applied via spell, where the caster has low STR but high MAG.

The Status Effect section of this guide goes into greater detail with which Physical Effects use the Magical Effects calculation for hit chance.

Your base chance to block attacks is your Agility Modifier / 4.

Amost all buffs have a fixed duration in rounds. After that, there is a chance for the buff to end. This is almost always 100%, but there are a few exceptions. If a buff doesn't end, the game will keep rerolling in future rounds until it finally does.

Many buffs have multiple levels; higher levels are more potent than lower ones. The table below lists all the buffs and their strengths at their respective levels.

Debuffs basically work the same as buffs do in that they all have a fixed duration in rounds, after which there is a chance for the debuff to end. Unlike buffs, though, most debuffs do not have a 100% chance to end after their duration.

Debuffs are roughly lumped into "physical" or "magical" categories which can be dispelled by the Mending or Restoration spells or potions respectively. However this whole categorization system is kind of broken and inconsistent. There are "Physical" debuffs that act like Magical debuffs in that they depend on the Magic stat, debuffs that are inconsistent in how they're dispelled, and a few where the can only be cured by the Abomination's Dispel Party spell. Broken effects are noted when applicable.

* The game calls these Physical Effects in terms of what cures them, but use the formula for Magical Effects to determine if they hit.
** Paralyze is extra broken in that it acts like a Magical Effect, and can be cured by the Mending spell but not a Mending potion. It can't be cured by the Restoration spell but can be cured by a Restoration potion.

*Slow is broken. Slow I can be cured by any Mending or Restoration spell or potion. Slow II can only be cured by a Mending potion and not spells (except for Dispel spells).

*These are Magical debuffs in terms of how they work but can't be dispelled by Restoration potions or spells.

The following is a list of debuffs that your party members can afflict enemies with, but that no enemies use.

*This is not a mistake; despite only being able to hit via a spell and being functionally identical to Burn, Scorch is a Physical effect.

Paper Sorcerer is a game where putting together a party is a central part of your strategy. Not every potential party will be successful, especially on higher difficulties. Summons generally fall into one of four general categories: Attackers, Tanks, Healers, and Support, though some can pull double-duty in one or more categories. And you may need to change your makeup based on the fight--for example a Tank might be less useful in a boss fight than an extra damage dealer.

Attackers' job are to deal HP and Defense damage on the enemy. Attackers generally fall into either Physical attackers and Magic attackers. Physical attackers have to cut through all or most of an enemy's Defense before they can start dealing damage. Magic attackers bypass half of an enemy's Defense but don't lower it. It can be good to have both a Physical and Magical attacker at the same time; the Magical attacker can slowly whittle down the enemy's HP while the Physical attacker gets rid of his Defense.
Specialized Attackers: Sorcerer (all classes), Giant, Minotaur, Shadow, Troll

Tanks are characters with high Defense that serve to draw the enemy's attention and soak up damage. It requires either the tank to have the "Challenge" skill, or another party member to have the "Bait" spell. Tanks are especially useful if your party has more fragile members like the Shadow, Ghost, Dryad, or Witch.
Specialized Tanks: Abomination, Skeleton

Healers' job is to restore lost HP and Defense to the party. Without a Healer a party will need to rely heavily on consumable items, which is generally not worth it unless you get really lucky with money (or grind in the Catacombs a lot).
Specialized Healers: Cultist, Dryad, Witch

Support characters usually are oriented toward providing buffs to the party or debuffs to the enemy. Status effects are very important in Paper Sorcerer and in most fights you'll want a character at least partially dedicated to applying them. Support characters tend to be fragile and are often hard to keep alive in boss fights.
Specialized Support characters: Ghost, Goblin, Imp, Succubus

Note that there are some hybrid summons that don't fit cleanly into any of these categories. That doesn't mean they're not worth taking; some (like the Vampire) are in fact very good.

The Succubus and Dryad are special characters only available to Kickstarter backers, but are also enabled by default on the GOG version of Paper Sorcerer. They are still in the Steam version's game data so it's not difficult to mod either into a save game if desired. Even if you don't, not having the Succubus and Dryad isn't a great loss, as they're almost one-to-one clones of the Imp and Witch respectively. The Succubus and Dryad have a few skill changes from their counterparts that make them arguably better characters, but the differences overall are minimal.


The Giant is a special easter egg character you won't meet until much later in the game, in Cell Block 8. The only way to get him to join is to play through the entire game until you meet him with only the first 3 summons you get in the first cell block. If you get a single summon (or the Puppet) in the catacombs he won't join.

Your main character, the Sorcerer/Sorcereress will always be in your party. This is a special character as you get to class change mid-way through the game. You start out with your class as Sorcerer, and then will be given the opportunity to change to either Arch Magus or Knight Magus. Your stat growth will remain the same no matter which you pick; only your skills and equipment will differ between the two classes. The Sorcerer specializes in damaging enemies through magic spells, though the Sorcerer-specific spells remain fairly weak.

The Arch Magus will learn a large number of much more powerful spells in the vein of the vanilla Sorcerer but will still have the same equipment restrictions. The damage output of the Arch Magus is quite significant but you'll be very reliant on Energy.

The Knight Magus is a warrior-mage hybrid that doesn't learn the powerful spells of the Arch Magus, but in exchange gains the ability to wield Greatswords and equip better armor. The Knight Magus learns skills that are essentially physical attacks that do magic-type damage.

Since you're going to have a Sorcerer or Sorceress no matter what, your main decision is whether or not you want to make him/her an Arch Magus or a Knight Magus. Which is a better depends on the composition of the rest of your party. If your party is fighter-heavy, the Arch Magus is probably a better choice. Conversely if your party is very magic-heavy, the Knight Magus is probably more appropriate.

Weapons: Daggers, Staves, Maces, Longswords, Greatswords (Knight Magus only)
Armor: Light armor, Medium Armor (Knight Magus only)
Shield: Knight Magus only
Accessories: 2

The Abomination is a tank that specializes in soaking up attacks and damage for the rest of the party. There are two tank summons in the game (the Skeleton is the other) and the Abomination is the more restoration-oriented one, with an array of healing and protective skills. While not a great damage dealer, the Abomination has a few tricks there too; in particular his Arcane Backlash is a great tool for killing mages quickly. The Abomination can also serve as an emergency healer in a pinch, especially later in the game when he gets a revival spell.

The Abomination is one of the best summons in the game. He's a solid addition to any party as a tank, though less so on the harder difficulty levels as enemies tend to rip through Defense pretty quickly and battles last longer. If you're going to try 1980s difficutly, the Abomination is almost a "must have" character as he's the only character with the ability to dispel the last boss' powerful regeneration effect.

Weapons: Warhammers
Armor: Any
Shield: Yes
Accessories: 1

The Cultist is a "pure" healer, a Cleric straight out of any other typical RPG. Almost all of his skills are oriented either toward healing, with a very small handful of buffs and offensive abilities. Among the healers in the game, he's the most oriented toward durability, with the ability to wear shields and medium armor. He's also the healer character that's best at melee attacks, though he's still not very good at it.

The Cultist isn't quite as good at healing as the Witch or the Dryad; he learns his healing spells more slowly and he doesn't get the top-tier party heal spell Blood Pact. Furthermore he's on the slow side and tends to act fairly late in the round, so if you have a heavily wounded character, the Cultist might not get his spell off in time. However these shortcomings are more than made up by the Cultist's sheer durability. On higher difficulties he's arguably the best healer because he's less likely to get killed.

Weapons: Maces
Armor: Light and Medium armor
Shield: Yes
Accessories: 1

The Dryad is a mage/healer, in contrast to the Cultist who is more of a warrior/healer. The Dryad lacks some of the buffs that the Cultist has but is more proficient at healing, both learning healing spells more quickly and learning high-level heals that the Cultist won't get. However, as a mage archetype she's on the squishy side so she'll need some form of protection, either from a tank or her Bait spell. The Dryad also gets some really nice debuffs and attack spells--Eternal Winter in particular is an incredibly effective spell for the level you learn it at.

The Dryad is a solid choice for a healer in any party. She's a little on the fragile side but more than makes up for it with her powerful spells. In terms of whether or not to pick the Dryad or the Witch, they are mostly identical. There are only two significant differences: First the Dryad does not get Curse of the Weak or Curse of the Fool. In exchange, the Dryad gets Eternal Winter instead of Witchfire, and the former is a much better spell.

Weapons: Staves
Armor: Robes only
Shield: No
Accessories: 1

The Ghost is a pure support character, specializing in buffs and debuffs. While they all start fairly modest in terms of their effects, at high levels the Ghost's buffs and debuffs are quite powerful. He also has a few damaging spells in his arsenal. The Ghost also has a natural 25% resistance to physical attacks which increases as he gains levels in the Incorporeal skill. His weapons are chains, which aren't great weapons overall, but are Agility weapons, so with the Ghost's high Agility can do more damage than you might otherwise expect.

The Ghost is a decent support character, but most of his buffs and debuffs don't last that long, so you need to use them at the right time. The Ghost is best paired with a strong offensive character who can quickly take advantage of the temporary effects. Also the Ghost has some durability issues; he's got some innate Physical resistance, but it's not enough to make up for his inability to equip any sort of armor. That said, his buffs and debuffs are the most powerful in the game, so if you're going to create your party around a buffing and debuffing strategy, the Ghost is an excellent addition.

Weapons: Chains
Armor: None
Shield: No
Accessories: 2

The Giant is good at only one thing, but he's really good at it--punching things very hard. He has the highest HP, Strength, and natural Defense of all the characters in the game. The Giant can't equip anything but a two accessories but his natural damage increases with level, much like the Werewolf. The Giant has a very limited selection of skills--3 in total--though they're powerful. The Giant's lack of equipment however is an issue--with only his natural Defense to rely on and no resistances to speak of he tends to die much more quickly than you might expect, especially on higher difficulty levels.

In practice the Giant is not nearly as good as he seems. He just dies too quickly, and while he packs a punch, other properly-equipped summons will do just as much damage if not more. The Giant's not strictly a bad character, and with the proper training in the Sanctuary can be pretty decent. But in most instances you're better off getting extra summons from the Catacombs.

Ironically enough if you mod the Giant into your party at the beginning of the game at level 1, he's much more useful. He can't do anything but direct attack in the early stages of the game but his boosted stats make him shine in an environment where your party doesn't have much in the way of skills anyway.

Weapons: None (Damage increases with level)
Armor: None
Shield: No
Accessories: 2 (limited selection)

The Goblin is a support character that can do double-duty as a melee attacker, though his damage output is much less than a dedicated offensive character. His specialty is in debuffing the enemy using bombs that add status ailments to the whole enemy party. Despite using daggers, one of the weakest weapon types in the game, the Goblin can do more damage than you might expect with his Agility bonus and critical hit chance, though those are only a factor with standard attacks. Lastly, the Goblin has some traditional RPG thief skills--he can steal items or gems from enemies, and he can pick locks, though has a chance to fail. On the downside, the Goblin is quite fragile, and his bombs fail to apply their status effects a lot because of his low Strength and Magic.

The Goblin seems like an attractive choice solely because of his ability to pick locks, but don't choose the Goblin just because of that--there's always a key available for the locks that the Goblin can pick. That said, there's other reasons to pick the Goblin; his ability to hit entire groups of enemies with status ailments is a nice one, even with their high failure rate. That failure rate tends to skyrocket on the higher difficulties, so the Goblin will need a lot of training in Strength and especially Magic there in order to be effective. Overall the Goblin is a fun character, but because of his fragility and unreliability is somewhat of a lackluster one.

Weapons: Daggers
Armor: Light armor
Shield: No
Accessories: 1

The Imp is a support mage, specializing in buffs and debuffs, with a few attack spells thrown in for good measure. His buffs and attack spells are OK, but nothing spectacular. There are two things that separate the Imp from the rest of the pack. The first is his hardiness--despite his low HP he only takes 25% damage from physical attacks and potentially even less with the right equipment. His Fireborn skill grants him resistance and eventually immunity to fire damage too.
More important though is his Sleep spell, which is probably the single most powerful skill in the game. Sleeping enemies are completely disabled until they wake up (which takes a while) or are hit with a direct attack. It doesn't work on bosses but is fantastic for keeping powerful groups of enemies from overwhelming you. The Sleep spell alone makes the Imp worth taking.

The Imp is a "must-have" character if you're playing on 1980s difficulty, solely because of his Sleep spell. If you can, you can swap out the Imp for the Succubus who's even better because of her Heal spell. However the Succubus doesn't get the Imp's Fire resistance/immunity or his Flame spell so take that into consideration as well. Even on lower difficulties the Sleep spell is great so the Imp's a great addition to any party.

Weapons: None
Armor: Robes only
Shield: No
Accessories: 2

The Minotaur is a physical powerhouse character, oriented toward doing large amounts of damage and little else. He has a few minor buffs and handful of minor debuffs (Knockdown and Execution, the latter of which is essentially poison). He has higher than average HP and Strength, and can serve as a tank in a pinch, as he can equip some armor and gains a small amount of Physical resistance via levels. The only major point of note with the Minotaur is that he uses Axes as his weapon, and axes have a high damage spread, so you risk doing low damage with a bad roll.

If any character in Paper Sorcerer could be argued to deserve a nerf, it's the Minotaur. There's not really a downside to taking him--he has better damage output than anyone else in the game. One would think due to his weapons he would be a luck-based character that could do either low or high damage depending on your roll. In practice though with the Minotaur's innate Strength bonus and powerful skills, he ends up doing decent damage at the low end and amazing damage at the high end. He's worth taking in any party.

Weapons: Axes
Armor: Light Armor
Shield: No
Accessories: 1

The Puppet is an unusual character in that he can be customized for any role. His base stats are terrible and he learns no skills at all. Instead, all of his stats and skills are gained through equipping body parts. He gets a head and a body which boost his base stats, and then two arms which determine his damage and skills. (though many arms also have a stat bonus) Each arm gives two skills so the Puppet can have four skills in total. There are 4 types of heads, 8 types of bodies, and 11 types of arms, each with 3 quality levels, so you can mix-and-match parts based on what you need the Puppet to do at any one time. The caveat is that you have to either find or buy these parts before the Puppet can equip them,

The Puppet is a novelty character, and quite frankly isn't very useful. He is highly customizable with his various body parts and it can be fun to create a mix-and-match character, so he is versatile in that sense. But overall no matter what job you build the Puppet to do, there's going to be another summon you could have taken that would be able to do that job better. With as many summon slots as you get there's just not a lot of reason to bring the Puppet along.

That said, if you do take the Puppet, some of the skills he has are pretty good, and you can mix-and-match your skills depending on the situation. In terms of builds, overall a Defense-oriented build is probably best--with top-class parts the Puppet will have a higher Defense than just about any other character in the game, making him a passable tank. (You'll need the Dryad or Witch for this though, and he still won't be as good as the other tanks)

Weapons: Arms (2)
Armor: Bodies and Heads
Shield: No
Accessories: No

The Shadow is a "glass cannon"-type summon, specializing in attack magic. Most of his skills are Fire, Ice or Arcane attacks capable of very high damage, high enough to do significant amounts of HP damage even to enemies at maximum defense levels. However the damage range is high, with the low bounds always in the single digits. So if you get a bad roll you might do little or no damage at all. The Shadow also has a few unique skills like Shadow Backlash, which essentially causes the target to do a Defense-piercing standard attack against themselves. The downside to the Shadow is that it's the most vulnerable summon in the game. With low HP, low Defense, no resistances, and an inability to wear armor, the Shadow can be killed very easily. It's also very Energy-dependent.

The Shadow is one of the hardest summons to use effectively because of its fragility. With no equipment and no real defenses to speak of, it'll get routinely one-shot from max health on the higher difficulties. Its high reliance on Energy also means it'll spend a lot of its turns recharging with Manifestation or Focus rather than attacking.

However, the Shadow is also one of the most potent offensive characters in the game. It vastly outclasses all the other summons in terms of spell damage. If you don't have any great casters in your party (not unlikely if you choose to class change your Sorcerer to Knight Magus) the Shadow can play a valuable role. However a tank of some sort is an absolute necessity to protect it, and you'll want to keep a lot of Revival potions and crystals on hand just in case..

Weapons: None
Armor: None
Shield: No
Accessories: No

The Skeleton is a defensive tank, designed to protect weaker party members and soak up damage. He's very similar to the other tank character in the game, the Abomination. Stat-wise they're almost identical, with the Skeleton's Agility being high and Magic being low, and vice-versa for the Abomination. Skill-wise they're similar, but where the Abomination focuses on mage-killing and restoration, the Skeleton has a wider array of general-purpose attack skills and Runes that cure individual types of status ailments. At very high levels the Skeleton also gains Absolute Defense, an extremely useful skill that allows each party member to negate a single hit. However, with no method of speeding his Energy restoration during combat, you won't be able to use it very often.

The Skeleton is a solid defensive summon that can soak up damage and keep going. If you want a tank character it's either him on the Abomination. The Skeleton has a few tricks that the Abomination can't do; His auto-regeneration, while slight, can help restore some of the damage he takes as a tank. His final two skills, Grave Resilience and Absolute Defense, are defensive skills the Abomination can't match either. However in the end the Abomination is probably a slightly superior summon, with a greater variety of useful skills and a higher resistance to status effects. Still, the Skeleton is a good character overall and the difference between the two is very slight.

Weapons: Longswords
Armor: Any
Shield: Yes
Accessories: 1

The Succubus is a support mage, but a bit of a jack-of-all-trades as well. She's got a few OK attack spells, a healing spell, and a variety of buffs and debuffs. In terms of physical attacks she's worthless. Her buffs are OK but nothing spectacular. There are two things that separate the Succubus from the rest of the pack. The first is her very high resistance to physical attacks--she only takes 25% damage from them and potentially even less with the right equipment; despite her low HP she is quite hard to kill. More important though is her Sleep spell, which is probably the single most powerful skill in the game. Sleeping enemies are completely disabled until they wake up (which takes a while) or are hit with a direct attack. It doesn't work on bosses but is fantastic for keeping powerful groups of enemies from overwhelming you. The Sleep spell alone makes the Succubus worth taking.

The Succubus is a "must-have" character if you're playing on 1980s difficulty, solely because of her Sleep spell. Even on lower difficulties the Sleep spell is great so the Succubus is a great addition to any party.The Imp of course makes a perfectly viable substitute for her as he's almost a carbon copy. I'd say the Succubus is slightly better than the Imp because of her Heal spell. In place of healing the Imp gets fire resistance--and eventually immunity--which is also very nice to have.

Weapons: None
Armor: Robes only
Shield: No
Accessories: 2

The Troll is a melee attacker-type summon that's oriented around speed and spike damage through critical hits. His weapon type, the Katar, is actually quite weak, but is an "agility weapon" meaning 1/4 of the Troll's Agility is added to damage. In addition, Katars give a bonus to critical hit, meaning the Troll will frequently do double damage. He's also got a wide variety of nice physical attack skills, including some that applying powerful debuffs in addition to doing damage. The primary problem with the Troll is that none of his skills take the Katar's Agility bonus into effect. And since skills can't critical either, they all just operate with the low base damage that Katars do. As a result the Troll often will do more damage with his standard attack than with his special attacks. I can only surmise this is a design oversight, but it reduces the Troll's potential effectiveness quite a bit.

Because of the odd mechanics behind the Troll's skills vs his weapon type, it's hard to recommend him as a physical damage-dealer when you have alternate summons that are better at that role. That said, the Troll still can pack a punch with his standard attacks when he critically hits, and the debuffs he can apply with his skills (Poison, Bleeding, Physical Resist Down) are powerful and work against most bosses. Overdrive is also an extremely powerful skill, almost on par with the Minotaur's Mountain Splitter. So while he could be a lot better overall, the Troll isn't worth discounting entirely.

Weapons: Katars
Armor: Light Armor
Shield: No
Accessories: 1

The Vampire is billed as an offensive healer, but he heals slightly differently than the other healer characters; his healing skills consume his own HP rather than Energy. He also has an array of HP-draining skills to replenish the HP he lost healing. This setup can work, but is rather dangerous on higher difficulty levels, where the Vampire sacrificing his own HP is liable to get him killed. In addition to his healing abilities, the Vampire has a wide variety of offensive skills. While not as effective at damage-dealing as fully combat-oriented summons, the Vampire is still quite good at it, especially given that his weapon type is the Greatsword, one of the most powerful in the game.

Despite the game's description, the Vampire is not an efficient primary healer, though he does get a revival spell long before any of the other summons do, which is a point in his favor. When acting as a healer, the Vampire actually works best when side-by-side with another healer like the Cultist. However his good armor, powerful weapon type, and varied skill set make the Vampire one of the most versatile and well-rounded summons in the game. He's a jack-of-all-trades that might not excel in any one category, but is pretty good at all of them nonetheless. He's a solid pick for any party, and one of the best summons in the game.

Weapons: Greatswords
Armor: Light and Medium armor
Shield: No
Accessories: 1

The Werewolf is a speed-oriented fighter, with Agility on par with the Troll and Ghost and only lower than the Goblin. His main trait is that he cannot use weapons of any kind; rather his attacks increase in damage with level. Any of the other melee-oriented classes will have better damage output with the Werewolf, provided they've got a decent weapon, but the Werewolf has a few skills that still set him apart. Most notably is his "Hurricane Claw" skill, an attack against all enemies that he can use every round if he wants. It starts with a low hit chance (50%) but gets better as the Werewolf improves. He also has an array of minor buffs

The Werewolf is hard to quantify role-wise. He has a lot of direct-damage attacks but his damage output is too low for him to be suited as a pure attacker. He's got some buffs but they're relatively minor. His high Defense and 50% Physical Resist makes him a potential tank, but he doesn't have the Challenge skill. Overall the Werewolf works as a supplemental character who assists another in battle. For example his Hurricane Claw, while not that damaging, is good for softening up large groups of enemies and lowering their Defense so that a more focused attacker can finish them off. Likewise the Werewolf has good synergy with the Witch or Dryad, who can use Bait on him to turn him into a low-budget tank. The Werewolf will likely want to be benched for boss fights, but otherwise can be useful in a variety of situation.

Weapons: None (Damage increases with level)
Armor: Light Armor
Shield: No
Accessories: 2

The Witch is a mage/healer, in contrast to the Cultist who is more of a warrior/healer. The Witch lacks some of the buffs that the Cultist has but is more proficient at healing, both learning healing spells more quickly and learning high-level heals that the Cultist won't get. However, as a mage archetype she's on the squishy side so she'll need some form of protection, either from a tank or her Bait spell. The Witch also gets some really nice debuffs, weakening the enemy and making them vulnerable to various elements. Lastly she gets a few attack spells, like Witchfire, a low-damage DOT that lasts a long time.

The Witch is a solid choice for a healer in any party. She's a little on the fragile side but more than makes up for it with her powerful spells. A tank of some sort will be necessary to protect her on the higher difficulty levels, though, as she risks getting one-shot otherwise. The Witch is nearly identical to the Dryad so if you have the option you could opt for the Dryad instead. The Dryad misses out on some of the Witch's curses, but she gets Eternal Winter which is an excellent spell the Witch doesn't have. Still, the two characters are nearly identical so it's more or less a wash as to which to pick.

Weapons: Staves
Armor: Robes only
Shield: No
Accessories: 1