Just use Vi - she's a Valkyrie and better than a Priest.

To force Vitalia (Vi) to anywhere with you, you will need 2 characters that are able to set portals.

1. Set one in Arnika and the other inside the area (Rapax Rift, Bayin, etc.)
   
2. Go to Arnika and recruit Vi (she will be at the tavern).
   
3. Have your character that set the portal in Rapx Rift or other area where Vi won't go cast "Return to Portal"
   
4. Vi will be with you but she will be very unhappy and complain all the way demanding that you get her out of there. However, she DOES NOT leave on her own, so you can adventure with her no matter what.

Wasn't there supposed to be a mod somewhere that tones down the ridiculous respawning level scaling enemies? I remember enjoying the game quite a bit in the beginning, but I eventually quit because of that.

I know only of mods that enhance the difficulty - great stuff:

http://wizardryvault.com/file-downloads/
http://www.zimlab.com/wizardry/recov…trykes_w8.html

Maybe I'm thinking of the fast wizardry utility. Doesn't actually cut down on the endless respawns, but looks like it makes them less tedious to kill.

I think I spent a few hours in the Rapax Castle corridors killing seemingly endless spawns. Eventually it did end though. :)

If you managed it in a mere few hours, you were absolutely flying. ;) I'd be more prone to believe a few days (unless you're a Korean Starcraft player, in which case it would be a quick, invigorating blink of the eyes).

Not that I know of. As hiddenx posted, outside of the wizfast utility (a must-have in my book) it seems the mods that are out there are usually aimed at increasing the difficulty. I happily endorse Dodd the Slayer's mod, although I wouldn't recommend it for first-timers as the difficulty ramp is significant. Very, very well done, but not for the faint of heart.

Sometimes we forget details of painful experiences as protective measures. This may be one of those. ;)

You should make it a priority to join the Rapax Templars. All of the Rapax become friendly after you do so.

Way too much XP to be had from clearing the castle, me thinks. Kill everything that moves except for Ferro and then give your heart to Al-Skanky.

Anyone know a good source of information where I can find out exact number gains for raising attributes and skills?

I guess you have to really enjoy constant grindy combat to replay this ;)

As if that is a bad thing….

pibbur who thinks Wiz8 is one of the very few games he would like to replay. If it wasn't for his unmentionable backlog.

Not a bad thing at all if you enjoy it ;)

one of my favorite games. Except only on normal difficulty. Expert difficulty is a badly balanced, endless grinding experience.

A small part of a very large otherwise great game doesn't turn it into a grinder.

You didn't seriously just call combat a small part of Wizardry 8, did you?

Not sure such a thing exists. I do know a few things-
1) Back in the day, the dev team refused to release that "under the hood" info. Several people did extensive research using a trainer program and lots of trial and error but never came up with definitive answers.
2) Generally speaking, the stats and skills appear to be based on 5's and 15's. The most obvious place to see that is in spell availability, but it appears to be the case across the board. So there's very little difference between a 28 and a 29 (for example), but a measurable step between a 29 and a 30.
3) Although it was never confirmed, it was also "very loudly" never denied by the devs that there's some sort of random rolls involved in the calculations. This might tie into the inability of those gunners to deconstruct the system.

Now, now, expert isn't that bad. I also prefer to play on normal since the appeal of the game lies in character development for me, but I've done a few expert runs and it just requires greater adherence to tactics you probably try to do anyway.