Wizardry 8 Party Creation Advice

There's also a powder on the waterfall. You've got to grab it before sliding down, because it's impossible to stop on the ledge where the powder is.

Ah, good to know that thanks a lot dteowner!
Btw, I'm still shocked that I missed it when it came out, what a shame...

The more people talk about this game the more I think about making Tactica more like it.

Except it is not going to be so much combat. There is really too much combat in Wiz 8.

GothicGothicness said:

There is really too much combat in Wiz 8.

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Yeah.. as much as I enjoyed Wiz8, I have to admit the amount of combat was one of its few weaknesses. That, and the fact that NPCs don't react to you looting their stuff.

Maybe 'cause it's the first time I play a Wizardry game, but I've found combat to be so funny that I don't care (for now, at least) the number of fights: definitely one of the best RPG experiences I've ever had. I just started another party btw:

1 Dragon Valkyrie
2 Mook Samurai
3 Hobbit Gadgeteer (very nice class indeed)
4 Felpurr Ranger
5 Elf Bishop
6 Faerie Monk

I'd like to see how it works. Any opinions?

Hope you made the gadgy a female. If not, you're going to run out of stamina too often because hobbits get a smaller base. There's a female-only stamina item in Arnika that will help you a lot.

If you're going to run a melee faerie, you would have been better off to make it a ninja rather than a monk (even though monk is my favorite melee class). There's a special weapon (quarterstaff, so build that skill if you go this route) for faerie ninjas that you can get in Trynton.

Obviously, you're melee heavy. Personally, I'd consider that a good thing, but it does require some care. As I've said on here a thousand times, the beauty of Wiz8 is that ANY party can be made to work. Some will be harder to develop, but there are none that doom you to failure. If you like your party, go with it at least as far as Trynton. Usually, Arnika is my cutoff for "experimental" parties, but since you're new to the game you might want to go a little farther before deciding whether you like the way the party is coming together for you.

dteowner said:

Hope you made the gadgy a female. If not, you're going to run out of stamina too often because hobbits get a smaller base. There's a female-only stamina item in Arnika that will help you a lot.

If you're going to run a melee faerie, you would have been better off to make it a ninja rather than a monk (even though monk is my favorite melee class). There's a special weapon (quarterstaff, so build that skill if you go this route) for faerie ninjas that you can get in Trynton.

Obviously, you're melee heavy. Personally, I'd consider that a good thing, but it does require some care. As I've said on here a thousand times, the beauty of Wiz8 is that ANY party can be made to work. Some will be harder to develop, but there are none that doom you to failure. If you like your party, go with it at least as far as Trynton. Usually, Arnika is my cutoff for "experimental" parties, but since you're new to the game you might want to go a little farther before deciding whether you like the way the party is coming together for you.

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Thanks for the advices, as I said it was an experiment: I'm still a newbie with this game, and for now it didn't work well for me, so I'll switch to my first party, which is was more balanced for me, even if I messed up a bit with spell choices. Too bad that I can't change them .

There's no real problem in making mistakes with spells for priest, mage, or ranger. Now, if you had a bishop in the party, that would be a different matter.

I normally think of roll your owns as being very bland, but I loved the character interactions and random comments in this game. The personalities were interesting and always surprising me and/or giving a good laugh.

I agree the combat was a bit of a chore at times and the Rapax castle has to be one of the most obnoxiously repetitive areas of any game I've ever played. Still, it's a classic and someone really needs to do a game with this party style again.

Motoki said:

I agree the combat was a bit of a chore at times and the Rapax castle has to be one of the most obnoxiously repetitive areas of any game I've ever played. Still, it's a classic and someone really needs to do a game with this party style again.

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Worst part of the Rapax Castle was making sure you didn't get pulled into a battle when you were near Ferro. Nothing worse than having the best merchant in the game run off and get himself killed...

According to a certain very old man on this site, Frayed Knights is the first quality title in a long time to scratch that Wiz8 itch. You might want to take a look.

I hope you forgive me for necroing this thread, but I need some advice regarding my party:

Dracon Fighter
Human Samurai
Faerie Mage
Rawulf Priest
Female ? Bard
Mook Ranger

Will I have all the useful spells/abilities covered? Will I finish the game with this party?
Thanks.

Yep, that party will work just fine with one caveat--your bard will have to be your trap monkey so make sure you dump as many points into locks-n-traps as you can. For race on the bard, I'd go with human. Halflings are better suited for it stat-wise, but they don't have nearly as much stamina as humans and that will be important to you.

Outside of a couple unimportant race choices, the only difference between your crew and what I'd consider my "standard party" is the sammy. I'm not a big fan of that class, although it's not like that screws up the party by any stretch.

dteowner said:

Yep, that party will work just fine with one caveat—your bard will have to be your trap monkey so make sure you dump as many points into locks-n-traps as you can. For race on the bard, I'd go with human. Halflings are better suited for it stat-wise, but they don't have nearly as much stamina as humans and that will be important to you.

Outside of a couple unimportant race choices, the only difference between your crew and what I'd consider my "standard party" is the sammy. I'm not a big fan of that class, although it's not like that screws up the party by any stretch.

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I played with the above party a little bit, then made some changes.

The party I currently play is:

2 x Dracon Fighters (male/female)
- Samurai ain't no fighters, so I decided to pick another efficient meat grinder. I've read about Lords being absolute powerhouse with the mace towards the end, but many-many years ago I've tried one and didn't really like it.
Human Valkyrie (I wanted a warrior priest and I've noticed that the Valkyrie is better in that case)
Female Fearie Bishop (didn't want to miss out on spells, although I still don't fully understand the system. Every 10 points in a school of magic means one level?)
Female Hobbit Gadgeteer (I just love the Omnigun and want to see the gadgets)
Male Mook Ranger (I tried parties without him and I've really missed the auto-search)

How do I mix potions? I got my Ranger set on Alchemy but have no clue on how to start making money to buy my spell books for my Bishop.

Do you have some tips for the Bishop?

*rolls up sleeves*
OK, let's see here. Your crew is melee-heavy, but that's how I play the game so you won't get any complaints from me. If this is your rookie run, you might want to think long and hard about that bishop. They're tricky to develop and with your melee party build you'll need to get the bishop right. That's not to say it can't be done, because it most certainly can, but it might be a tall order for someone still getting a feel for the game mechanics.

The mace-masher lord is another tricky build. Very impressive at the end game if you can pull it off, but he'll suck rocks in the early game and improve to merely disappointing in the mid-game. Still, he's a sight to behold once he gets the 2 weapons he needs, so it can be worth it.

Have you considered a monk? Good critical hits, psionic spellbook that you don't have (well, your bishop has it, but most likely won't be able to develop it), and good carry capacity since he doesn't use much equipment. I loves me some monks, but it's still worth a thought even considering my bias.

Spell abilities (and actually most of the abilities in the game) are based on 15's. For learning spells, the actual formula for whether you can learn a spell is your book skill plus 10% of your realm skill compared to 15 x (lvl-1). So, to use fireball, you need a wizardry stat of 30 (15 x lvl3 spell), or a wizardry stat of 25 plus a fire stat of 50. This is actually part of the reason why the bishop is tough to develop—you've got 4 books and 6 realms to build up and only so many points to go around.

There are about 10 formulas that you can mix. Each one has a skill requirement. I've got the whole list at home, but I do remember the first one requiring alchemy=15 (light heal + medium heal = heavy heal). You can make some money with that one, but you'll generally have a shortage of medium heals. The real money is in renewal potions (cure disease + heavy heal = renewal), but I think that requires a 50 stat.

You might want to to make your gadgy human for the same reason that I spelled out for the bard earlier.

Your bishop will need to be a buff machine. Wiz8 doesn't really emphasize offensive magic. You'll keep the Sacred 7 running at all times once you learn them, and will pop up a couple more in-combat buffs the first couple rounds. Then you can start using the hocus pocus. Also remember that status effect spells are generally more useful than direct damage spells, so Freeze Flesh and Freeze All are often better than Fireballing something into the ground (for example). For early development, it's all about getting the stats you need to cast the Sacred 7. That will take some work on a bishop, particularly with all those fancy offensive spells distracting you. I suppose I should detail, just in case, the Sacred 7. Let's see if I can remember them. Light, missle shield, magic screen, armorplate, enchanted blade, ummmm…and 2 more.

More info than you ever wanted, I'm sure!

I've rolled a party like 20 times now, some of them made it to Arnika and were pretty good on the road. It's really hard to make up my mind.

Should I try:

Fighter
Monk
Priest (battle priest, mace/shield)
Mage (Faerie)
Gadgeteer
Ranger

I'd be confident about the first four. I'm not sure whether I should take a bard or a gadgy. Is the Ranger bad? Every time I had a party without him, the lack of auto-searching annoyed me.

Which classes do you recommend for a relatively new player? I used to play this game up to a certain point, so I have some knowledge of the game, characters and certain equipment. But what I really don't know, are the most essential spell picks, spell books etc. Which spells are useless and all that.

Thanks, cheers.

I always take a Mook ranger and I love the fairy ninja for the cane of corpus. I make her my trap monkey. As Dte says, buff spells are essential and should take preference over the underpowered damage spells. Haven't played in a couple of years, so I forget the details.

codename47 said:

I've rolled a party like 20 times now,

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Looks like we've got another dteowner in the making.

codename47 said:

I'd be confident about the first four. I'm not sure whether I should take a bard or a gadgy. Is the Ranger bad? Every time I had a party without him, the lack of auto-searching annoyed me.

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Personally, I think a Gadgeteer is more interesting, but that's entirely subjective. You definitely don't want both though. I didn't have a Bard when I played, but I still found most hidden things just from having a character with a high Senses stat.

JDR13 said:

Looks like we've got another dteowner in the making.

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I had twice that many parties just with the demo... But our young pupil shows great promise.

@code - your choice between bard and gadgy is pretty even. Bards are a little better in the early and mid-game and the camping bonus is nice, but they fizzle a bit at the end. Gadgys start out a little weak, but they're quite solid in the end. It's personal preference, plain and simple. I always include a ranger unless I'm doing a special gimp party, even though I know pretty much where all the hidden stuff is by now. The auto-search is nice, they usually serve as my potion mixers, and if I use a mook they get a nice weapon to melee with towards the end game. Overall, your planned party is a perfect "starter" crew with either the bard or the gadgy in there.

Ok, I've given up on GOG ever releasing this game and puchased a reasonably priced euro-version on Ebay. (my discs died long ago and my HD backup got corrupted as well). This is my first install in Windows 7, so far all looks good, I've added the 1.2.4 patch and think I am ready to go. (delay for work, damnitall) Any suggestions for dosbox settings and such? Should I bother with the no_cd patch? I'm planning a marathon restart this weekend and want to make sure I'm not missing any beats.

Thanks

Yes, a lot of useful info.

Alright then. I'm going with the following:

Male Dracon Fighter
Female Felpurr Monk (Martial Arts)
Dwarf Priest (battle priest, mace/shield)
Female Faerie Mage
Female Human Gadgeteer (Trap Monkey)
Male Mook Ranger (Bow)

Should I choose a different race for the Monk or Gadgeteer? I think you said that Hobbits are better in some sense, but Humans have better Stamina.

How should I distribute my skill points? My plan is:

Fighter - max out STR/VIT, then DEX/SPD (Strong tank. Then gains more swings per attack, right?)

Monk - max out DEX/SPD/SEN (?), then STR/VIT (High AC and more hits with criticals?) Will the Monk need to focus on INT or PIE?

Priest - 2 STR/2 PIE/2 VIT (since he's going to do a bit of tanking)

Mage - max out INT/SPD (powercasting and high initiative) then VIT/???

Gadgeteer - max out DEX/SEN (I guess I do this to have a higher chance of ranged criticals) then VIT/INT (?)

Ranger - max out DEX/SEN, then VIT/STR (I guess... I'm not sure. I prefer a Bow using Ranger)

Then I guess I should give my Ranger a sword as well.

Many-many years ago, I had a party (Lord, Bishop, Gadgy, Fighter, Ranger, Valk ... can't recall exactly) which made it to the T'Rang / Umpani camp, Marten's Bluff, the Swamp, Mines, Mountain Wilderness (I ran away after I've met the wandering monsters) and that dreaded temple in the Wilderness (with the Death Knights and Sorceress). At that point in the game I thought my party was horrible. (lvl 9-11, maybe a bit higher.) Although I do remember that my Ranger started doing instant kills and shot twice. I was super happy.

For my Fighter, I want to use Bloodlust. I just love this sword. Is it okay if I use that to finish the game? (Another reason why I wanted the Bishop is because of the cursed items)

Beyond Bloodlust, Demonsting and Demonsbane, I haven't really found the better weapons. So I can't plan for them.

I want this setup to be my final config. I really have no more patience to start over and over again. (especially after grinding L&T three times with three different parties) Although I have to admit, it's a great way to understand the game.

About the spells... should I get most spells or just a select few? And should I pick them or learn them from books? I see that the more spells I have, the more spell points I get. For example, should I get Freeze Flesh at all when there is Freeze All later in the game?

I see that there are spells at level 6 and 7. How do I get those?

The sacred seven, eh? From what I've read on these forums and from personal experience, these buffs are essential, not sure about the rest:
- Light (not sure why I need this)
- Armorplate
- Magic Screen (does this help against Insanity?)
- Missile Shield
- Enchanted Blade

All in all, I'm doing all this research, because I don't want to hit a brick wall with my party and stop playing again. That just sucks. I'm not even sure if that's possible, but I'm afraid of it happening.

Thanks for all the tips.