1. Does character level increase to-hit? What about dex?

2. Do all characters gain extra attacks as they level?

3. How does attack rate work? For example, I saw an attack rate 5 club for sale. Does this mean I get 5 attacks?

4. What does speed do? Does increasing speed mean I go before other combatants? It doesn't seem to raise the # of attacks I get.

Thanks.

Rob

It increases with Strength. All except spellcasters. From GameFaqs:

Combat-oriented classes get +1 attack rate for every 5 levels.
Utility-oriented classes get +1 attack rate for every 10 levels.
Spellcaster classes get no bonus attack rate period.

Attack rate itself is basically additional hits with your weapon. In a given attack, only 10 hits maximum can land on your target (15 if fully buffed by the alchemist spell). By speed, do you man agility? it affects order of attacks and success of thief skills, but not # of attacks.

Actually, that is not strictly true; Clerics get extra attacks every 10 levels (and are actulally decent when given a good hammer). Note that Clerics do not get the mastery skill that strengthens physical attacks, however.

Note that the strongest alchemy-compatible hammer is male only (a restriction that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever).

Also, there is another way to gain more than 10 attacks; if a character is wielding a medium-range Double weapon, the maximum number of attacks is equal to 10 plus the weapon's base attack rate (so 13 for the Saint's Spear, for example). The Valkyrie's Holy Lance Art will not prevent you from getting these extra attacks, but using alchemy to increase the weapon's range will.

Edit: One correction: you can get more than 10 attacks with a short range weapon as well, as long as it is a Double weapon.