The Phrozen Keep

[Phrozen Heart]

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Many people
making mods seem to have a problem grasping some of the columns within
the charstats.txt file. In this tutorial, I’ll explain in detail the
functions of each of the columns, as well as giving some other
information when required. To
find the charstats.txt file, it is within the d2exp.mpq file in the
Diablo directory, not the patch_d2.mpq file. You can easily pack the
charstats.txt file into the patch_d2.mpq file and do the usual -direct
-txt execute, and it will over-ride the one in the d2exp.mpq. I won’t
go into detail about this, just look at the Keep for a tutorial as to
how (NB All those making a normal Diablo II mod, use the charstats.txt
file found in the d2data.mpq file). This
is basically where the name of the class is placed in the .txt file.
Its easy enough to understand, as the character names are in full.
Changing the character name here will NOT change it in the game. You
need to hex-edit for that to happen. Changing the names may cause
problems, crashing the mod. Just leave these be. However, if you do the
relevant editing in the .tbl files within the .mpq archives, then you
could change these columns, though don’t ask how through this tutorial.
This is for the charstats.txt file only! Str, dex, int, vit;
These are the base stats for the characters. From left to right, its
Strength, Dexterity, Energy and Vitality. These only affect the
characters base stats. It doesn’t affect any levelling up in any way.
Note that the amount put into Energy and Vitality will affect that
characters base hp. Tot;
The total amount your stats come to when added together. This is one of
the unused columns in the file, so just leave them alone. You can
delete the entries here easily and put whatever you want in (comments,
funny faces, whatever). Stamina and hp add;

The stamina column is basically the amount of stamina you have at the
start of the game with a base character. Note that base stamina is NOT
affected by your character’s base Vitality. Hp add is the number of hp
added on top of the vitality bonus. Note that the base hp for all
characters is base vitality + hp add. The amount of hp gained per
vitality in the game doesn’t affect the amount of hp with a base
character. PercentStr, Dex, Int and Vit;
These columns are read as bytes but aren't used for anything in the
game, so you may enter any byte value here and use them if you make dll
changes. (Thanks to Isolde for the above paragraph!) ManaRegen;
This the speed at which characters regenerate their mana. It is
interesting to see that all the characters have equal mana regen. Just
so you know, the lower this value is, the faster that character will
regenerate their mana reserves. This value is the amount of seconds it
takes for a character to regain full mana from nothing. Just to note, a
sorceress can regenerate her own mana with max warmth skill in a few
seconds. (This is calculated as
MaxMana/(ManaRegen*25)*ManaRegBonus/100) If you know its on that kind
of sliding scale, then you have a general idea as to how changing this
value may affect a character. ToHitFactor;
This is used in the calculation to hit a monster using a non-magic
weapon (sword, bow etc.) The higher the value, the more of a bonus that
character will gain. This also affects your characters chance to be hit
by non-magical means. An e.g. of how this works can be seen here. A
barbarian, with a ToHitFactor of 20 has an attack rating of 72. An
amazon, with a ToHitFactor of 5, has an attack rating of 77. Both have
an equal chance to hit a fallen (94%). Another example is following. An
amazon has an AC of 6, a sorc, with a ToHitFactor of -15, has a AC of
7. Both have an equal chance of being hit by a fallen (66%). Basically,
the higher this value, the better that character is at landing physical
blows, and avoiding them. This is a straight add to attack rating and
defense bonus, so is only really useful for lower level characters in
the game. WalkVelocity and RunVelocity;

Pretty much self-explanatory. The higher it is, the faster your
character can walk and run. Try to have the RunVelocity higher than the
WalkVelocity, or it may cause problems. These are the stats affect by
item which increase walk/run speed by a percentage. E.g. A Barbarian,
who has a walk/run velocity of style='mso-spacerun: yes'> 6 and 9
respectively, has a pair of boot which increase walk/run velocity by
20%. His new speed = 6 * 1.2 / 9 * 1.2 = 7 walk speed and 10 run
velocity. RunDrain;
This is the amount of stamina drained whilst your chracter is running.
This is the stat affect by items which have stamina drain reduction
(see above). Basically, the lower it is, the longer your character can
run in affect. This is lost in 256ths every frame. Comment; Jus’ a little ol’ comment by the good people at Blizzard to help mod makers :-) Life/Stamina/Mana per level;
As mentioned in the document, the following numbers are fourths (incase
your wondering why an Amazon doesn’t gain 8 hp per level). This means
that any number you place in here is divided by four before it is added
to the character. This is how some characters gain 1 and a half hp per
level (see the necromancers column). This pattern follows for each of
the columns, with Life Stamina and Mana self-explanatory. Life/Stamina per Vit and Mana per Int;

Exactly the same as the per level columns, except these relate to the
amount of hp, mp and stamina gained with each point put into their
respective stats. Note that these values are also in fourths. Also note
that these values will not affect your characters base Life, Stamina
and Mana (see above). Values with a # in front of them;
These appear to be pre-beta values, most likely used by Blizzard whilst
the art teams were devising the animations. Changing these values will
probably do nothing to your characters which are noticable, so changing
them won’t do much (Another bit of info provided by Ruvanal) BlockFactor;
Whilst playing Diablo, you will probably have noticed that all the
shields have a blue number for their blocking, indicating an
enhancement to that item, even though there are no visible changes.
This is the value which affects that. If you open the armor.txt file,
you will see that most shields have really low blocking %, such as 15
or 10. This is because the BlockFactor of a character is added on top
of this. Paladins use shields the most, so their BlockFactor is the
highest. As calculations go, a value of 75 or higher will allow a char
to have almost full blocking (>75 = 75% blocking). The formula used
(Blocking * (Dexterity - 15)) / (Character Level * 2) means that a char
will most likely have full blocking, but not all the time. StartSkill; Another unused, pre-beta column still in there. Nothing important. BaseWClass;

This just determines that your character is in hth, or combat, mode,
with both skills set to normal attack. This won’t really affect
anything, so just leave it. The
next columns are for the use of your base equipment. Here you can put
any item you want into the character, either in their inventory or
equipped (NB You can’t put stuff in the Horadric Cube or the stash,
even if you give your character it as a starting item. It won’t work). The
first column is basically where you put the item code. These codes can
be found in the items.txt, weapons.txt, armor.txt, or runes.txt if you
want to put specialist stuff in there. The next column is where the
item is. Leaving this blank will put it in your inventory (potions
should automatically go into the belt if there is room. Otherwise,
they’ll stay in the inventory). If you want to put the item in a
specific place, then you must place in the relevant code for that part
of the character. Look in the .txt files for the column which describes
where an item goes, and then use that code. The next column allows you
to put in more that one of an item. Try to do this only for potions and
the like, otherwise you may have problems with doing stuff like, say,
spawning ten short swords. For
the columns, you can have a total of ten separate items either equipped
or in your inventory. If you don’t want any item, then put a 0 in the
first and third columns, then put nothing in the second one. That
just about covers everything there is to know about the charstats.txt
file. Remember, it only take a few minutes, but you can almost totally
change the way in which Diablo is played altogether if you know how to
change the stats in the right way. Have fun! Maxx Power (P.S. Thanks to both Isolde and Ruvanal on the forums who corrected some of the mistakes on this tutorial. Big props you guys!)

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[url=https://www.d2mods.info/forum/kb/viewarticle?a=223]Knowledge Base - Charstats.txt File Guide[/url]