I guess I don't really understand the mechanics of this game deeply, is there a good page that explains how weapon damage and leveling actually works? I've checked the wiki and I couldn't find a place that boiled everything down for me.
As for character levels, those are basically nothing but good. I haven't looked much into melee, but for mages,
your level directly acts as a multiplier for mana, and same goes for HP. It also partly determines how good the loot you get is. There are only 2 negatives, both of which are minor to the point of being trivial: the first is higher cash penalties for things like the thieves random event, the second is slightly higher taxes. Aside from those trivially unimportant things, it does a ton of great stuff for you (more cash from good random events too!) and generally means high character level is a very good thing. More HP, more MP, more feats, more free skill training & potential, more/better loot, better cash from good random events, better treasure from treasure maps, and the list goes on. Levels:
http://elona.wikia.com/wiki/ExperienceEdit: As stated, fame is the real one to watch and control. However, if you aren't running dungeons back to back, you won't build up too much. In E+, it seems to be really easy to control fame above around 10k. Fame from quests decreased over time for me; dunno if that's based on level or fame, and the negative fame from failing quests increased dramatically. Currently, succeeding at a farming quest increases my fame by about 30. Failing one decreases it by over 600. Early on, it's much more even; though again, I dunno if that's levels or fame based.
As for melee combat, here's my understanding of the basics; which may be wildly inaccurate.
1 DV = +1% evade chance; this will quickly go above 100%, you will still be hit because hit chance can also go above 100%; dunno if the two are subtracted, or if it's some sort of ratio thing. There's also the Greater Evasion skill from the mage guild; this either gives you a second evade roll or allows you to evade crits, wiki people weren't sure on which exactly. Crits will otherwise always hit, even if you were able to evade all enemy attacks.
Evasion does not help for typical damage spells, be they arrow, bolt, or ball.
PV does a damage reduction; FinalDamage = InitialDmg-(PVPercentageValue*InitialDmg+PVDiceRollValue)
There's also a hidden PV bonus from armor skills; something on the order of +2PV per level of the armor skill you are using.
Not sure whether PV has an effect on magic or not; I would think not, but I need to do more experiments in that area, as my last one didn't have adequate control groups.
As for magic, this post suggests NPCs have an inherent resistance to all sorts based on level:
http://elona.wikia.com/wiki/Thread:8456which is likely the cause of many of the experiences us magic users have of our spells being very ineffective against higher level enemies, but 1-shotting them just a few levels later.
Spell potential increases by 20% per sleep in E+, up to a maximum of 400%.
Spell stock use decreases with spell level, and is proportional to MP cost. The wiki is unclear if it's proportional to base cost or cost with level modifiers. Either way, stock use decreases with levels from what I've seen. The main exception to this general rule is Wizard's Harvest, which seems to stay the same, if not increase, with spell use.
Spell stock gains from reading books decreases in a logarithmic fashion relative to current spell stock; wiki gives the formula "RandMod * (Memorization + 100) / (50 * ln(10 + CurrentSpellStock))"
Spell MP cost increases with level, with the equation Cost = BaseCost + BaseCost * SpellLevel / 25
Resistance to a school of magic also provides a bonus to casting with that type of magic; wiki was unclear as to how powerful the bonus is.
The "Enhances your spells" enchantment does so either through a multiplier to your spell level for any given spell or through a flat damage/duration bonus; the wiki had conflicting info there.
The "Enhances your casting" enchantment is a multiplier which affects casting chance.
Damage/duration/effects of spells increase with level.
Damage of spells also increases with Magic levels; the exact equations vary based on spell.
Magic Dart damage equation: (2+Magic/50+L/12)d(11+(L-1)/6)
Nerve Arrow: (1+Magic/18+(L+5)/7)d(11+2L/5)
Chaos Eye: (1+Magic/18+(L+5)/7)d(11+2L/5)
Fire Bolt: (2+Magic/20+L/5)d(6+(2L+3)/5)
Lightning Bolt: (2+Magic/20+L/5)d(6+(2L+3)/5)
Ice Ball: (1+magic/20+L/5)d(6+(2L+3)/5)EDIT: LOLNOPE, WIKI EQUATIONS ARE ALL WRONGSo as you can see, not all damage spells are created equal. That said, I suspect these equations are somewhat out of date. Lightning and fire bolts have very different damage at the same level in E+1.19, despite this saying their equations for the rolls should be the same. So take with a bit grain of salt. So as you level, pay attention/write down the changes, derive the equations, and update the wiki if it's incorrect.
With more of them listed on the wiki:
http://elona.wikia.com/wiki/Spells