Wizardry Just started a new Wizardry 8 run...

[King Crispy]

I got sick of waiting for Cleve's dumb lazy ass so I went and bought Wiz 8 from GOG. God, I love those guys.

So my party consists of:

- Mook Fighter, sword and board but I want to dual-wield him

- Human Samurai, who will pick up Earth magic asap

- Felpurr Monk, pure Martial Arts

- Hobbit Gadgeteer, who picks my locks

- Elf Bishop, going with Divinity, Alchemy and Psionics

and my oddball,

- Dracon Mage, going with Fire, Water, Air and a little Mental

I will pick up the Valkyrie NPC pretty soon who will provide more frontline power.

Now I realize this is basically an "I-win" party, but I'm looking to enjoy the game on Normal difficulty, not to be banging my head on the desk every other fight. Still, any criticizms with my choices or any advice? I really don't want any spoilers at all, but any tips or tricks you'd like to throw in would be appreciated.

It's truly amazing how much fun these games were. Just romping around in the monestary so far has been a blast. I am a little concerned with how quickly I'm already leveling, though; I'm already up to level three with a few of the guys and I know I don't want to go past level five until after I've made it to Arnika. Does the leveling flatten out pretty soon?

Anyway, forget Grimwah. I'm all up in this bitch now.

 

[King Crispy]

Crap, thread title's FUBAR. JarlFrank, Jaesun, VentilatorOfDoom, would one of you fix it please? Thanks.

 

[GlutenBurger]

Crap, thread title's FUBAR. JarlFrank, Jaesun, VentilatorOfDoom, would one of you fix it please? Thanks.

Well, it's not the most embarrassing Freudian slip I've ever encountered.

Anyway, I feel that a party with a gadgeteer is better off also including a ranger for the autosearch. It's extremely frustrating to miss gadgeteer parts as you need multiple specific components to make any of it usable, unlike a bard who gets fully-formed instruments and so can be well equipped even if you miss a few along the way. The alternative is to never forget about turning search mode back on after turning it off for an upcoming encounter, which isn't THAT much trouble but can still grow to be a nuisance.

 

[King Crispy]

Thanks for the tip. So far I don't see any reason to leave search mode off, but you're saying there are situations where you'll want to do that before a fight? I'll keep that in mind.

Finding hidden items all over the place so far, hopefully will continue to.

 

[GlutenBurger]

Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly, but I could have sworn there were initiative penalties and a chance of missing the first round of combat.

 

[GrimoireFTW]

I also installed this game a couple days ago. Ive played it before, a few times at least but for some reason I always lose interest, then go back and try again a few years later. haven't started a new game yet but im seriously considering it, especially since it seems grimoire wont be out anytime soon

 

[Occasionally Fatal]

Search mode turns off when you go into run mode, I believe.

 

[ghostdog]

Where's mah beloved bard ?!

 

[Wizfall]

Search mode turns off when you go into run mode, I believe.

Yes.
However don't worry about ranger, you really didn't need one to find gadget.
You should find every gadget part without problems (i mean by that ranger or not).
Leveling is fast at the beginning but it's going to slow down relatively quickly.
Any party composition work without problem (except all pure spellcaster maybe).
Bards are really powerful IMO.
For your Bishop put level up skill point in the school of magic you want to train ( Divinity, Alchemy and Psionics) rather than element (fire, etc...).
Be sure to have Wizfast and if it still too slow for your taste the other program that is like wizfast but speed up animation/projectile.
It's a great game.

 

[DraQ]

- Mook Fighter, sword and board but I want to dual-wield him

Dude, don't!

Mook fighter, ok. Swords, awesome, but don't dual wield or explicitly put points into shield. *The* reason to take Mook fighter is a 2h sword. Points put into shield or 2w would better serve you put into something ranged or auxiliary skill like artifacts or mythology (Mook should develop any of those quickly enough) .

and my oddball,

- Dracon Mage, going with Fire, Water, Air and a little Mental

Your oddbal will develop a bit slowly, but should be a good and pretty well rounded character.
Give mage staves and bishop mace&flail.

I am a little concerned with how quickly I'm already leveling, though; I'm already up to level three with a few of the guys and I know I don't want to go past level five until after I've made it to Arnika.

I don't think I've ever avoided hitting lvl5 in monastery. Just sayin'.

 

[JarlFrank]

Crap, thread title's FUBAR. JarlFrank, Jaesun, VentilatorOfDoom, would one of you fix it please? Thanks.

Fixed.

 

[King Crispy]

JarlFrank, you nigger, fix it properly or I'll tell nomask where you live.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Searching can get you into an ambush, meaning that the mob will get a free extra turn.

Picking ranger just for the scouting is a bit pointless.

Also, there's nothing "I-win" about your party, it's not very powergame'y.

 

[King Crispy]

Also, there's nothing "I-win" about your party, it's not very powergame'y.

You're right. What I should have stated instead is that my choices are mostly ones that make sense from a drop in and play efficiently standpoint as opposed to picking completely bizarre choices like a Faerie Fighter or an all spellcaster party or something like that.

So far I haven't been challenged much at all but I'm only up to the second floor of the monastery. I do remember that getting onto the road to Arnika is where the difficulty can ramp way up, especially if you're over-leveled for it.

Some more quick questions: As far as a two-hander for the Mook, does one find one of those soon enough or will it take a while? Should I stop any progression into Shield at all now? And, with the samurai, as long as his Intelligence and Piety are high enough, is it just a matter of finding a trainer in order to learn Wizardry and thus Earth magic? What are the requirements for him to pick that up?

 

[rashiakas]

It probably will take a while if you don't know where to look. And Hybrids start witch spellcasting at level 5 IIRC.

 

[King Crispy]

Okay, excellent. Thank you.

 

[DraQ]

Also, there's nothing "I-win" about your party, it's not very powergame'y.

It's still a sound build, though.

Some more quick questions: As far as a two-hander for the Mook, does one find one of those soon enough or will it take a while? Should I stop any progression into Shield at all now?

It will take some time, but you won't find any offhand sword for fighter, and using some other weapon will have you spreading a bit thin only to ignore those points later on.

What I would do is putting the points religiously into close combat, sword and third skill (preferably artifacts or some ranged combat skill as Mooks are both smart and perceptive, meaning they are good at both shooting and identifying, then using all kinds of magic stuff - like weapons with spell charges), alternating between 2h swords and 1h swords + shield depending on whatever I could hit the hardest with at any given moment and keep something ranged in secondary weapon slot.

Even without putting points into it shield will still provide some defence and won't hamper your attacks (plus it will grow naturally anyway), OTOH wielding offhand weapon without skill in 2w will hamper your ability to use your primary one.

And, with the samurai, as long as his Intelligence and Piety are high enough, is it just a matter of finding a trainer in order to learn Wizardry and thus Earth magic? What are the requirements for him to pick that up?

Samurais get wizardry at lvl5. Do note that it's wizardry rather than any elemental realm that affects the choice of spells and general casting abilities the most. Also, do mind that your samurai probably won't be able to progress at both casting and combat at full pace. With mage already on-board I'd probably opt for just making the samurai a funky weeaboo fighter, rather than proper hybrid, though there are remarkably few right or wrong choices in Wiz8 party development.

Piety only gives you resistances, stamina and spell points, while intelligence is necessary for powercast and helps develop wizardry and realm skills.

 

[King Crispy]

Yeah if I wanted another tank I would have just rolled another fighter or a Lord or whatever. I wanted more flexibility out of the Samurai and I was hoping that some of the Earth spells I'll be hunting for will provide that. It's fun not knowing (remembering) what those choices will be so please again don't spoil me. If I made a bad choice there, I'll happily live with it.

 

[JarlFrank]

JarlFrank, you nigger, fix it properly or I'll tell nomask where you live.

All right, all right. Done.

 

[King Crispy]

I hate you. You will never fall in love.

(Although that was rather amusing)

 

[dragonbait]

Hey Crispy,

You should be able to update your threads title without need for moderator intervention. Click Edit, then click More Options. There you should be able to update your thread title and click Save Changes.

 

[King Crispy]

Well fuck me. Thanks, man!

 

[King Crispy]

My God am I having fun. The level design in this game is superb.

Couple more questions: When one wants to change targets (especially in ranged combat) for the entire party, is there an easy way to do it? So far I've been clicking each character's portrait then clicking on the desired target. Also, concerning my samurai, once he hit 5th level he indeed did gain access to Wizardry spells, but Earth was not among the choices. I skipped the spell selection screen and it asked me if I wanted to save my spell choice and continue, which I did. Will I be able to re-choose at next level-up and will he eventually be able to learn Earth spells, either through a tome or some other method?

Thanks for responses.

 

[Sacred82]

There are no Earth spells in the Mage book on spell level 1. When you hit level uh... 7(?) you can learn Web.

BTW I don't see a real reason to focus on only 1 element even with a hybrid.


edit: the spell lists are in the manual appendices

 

[King Crispy]

Okay, got it. I should download the manual from GOG.