Wizardry 6 (and 7 and 8)

Hi all,
First of all apologies for a new thread on this but the only one I could find on this forum was quite old and I did not want to necro it.

As many of you will probably know Wizardry 6,7 and 8 are (or were recently?) on sale on Steam.

I remember buying Wizardry 7 when it came out and playing it excessively without having too much of a clue of what I am doing which eventually meant that in the later stages of the game I simply could not continue as I screwed up a lot.
I also played Wizardry 8 a little bit as well.

I never played Wizardry 6 but when I saw it on Steam I bought all 3 again and my intention is now to start with Wizardry 6 and take the party over to 7 and eventually 8.

My "problem" is that not too much has changed since I first played Wizardry 7 in terms of my knowledge of the game series. I spent the the last 3 days reading various different FAQs/Guides but I am still stuck at the very basic but important hurdle of creating a party that won't make me quit the game half way through or later because the party didn't work out or because I made class switches that sounded cool but were in fact rather stupid and done at the wrong times.

So my question/request really is to get some advice from some of the veterans on here.
I intend to have the following "rough" party line-up:

2 Valkyries
1 Samurai
1 Bard
1 Priest
1 Mage

First problem I am not entirely sure on races: I had Dwarf/Rawulf in mind for the Valkyries. Felpurr for the Samurai, Fairy for the Bard (only to then discover that the fairy cannot equip the lute? or am I being silly?), Rawulf for the Priest and Elf or Mook for the Mage.

Note: those are just initial "preferences"/ ideas, I am more than happy for you to critique here and tell me I got the races all wrong.

On to the next topic and this is probably my biggest worry: Bonus point distribution
For my first chars all I did was max out STR and put the rest in VIT , no matter what the class actually is (so even for a Mage)… now I am pretty sure this is wrong.

I also understand that I should use the bonus points to work towards the class I want the character to switch to?

On the topic of switching which is probably of equaly importance as the bonus distribution for me:

What kind of switches make sense for the party above and when?
I was thinking about switching the Mage to a Priest at lvl 10 maybe and the Priest to a Mage.
The Bard to a Ninja and the Valkyries to Samurais for the critical strike chance skill and then back again immediately?
Not sure what to do with the Samurai?
Do these switches even make sense? Or would I make things harder for myself?
With regards to the "When?" I read conflicting information here, some people say I should switch before LVL 2 even, others say LVL 5 is a good time for example.
Many thanks in advance for your feedback, it is much appreciated!

I played with a very similar party through 6,7 and 8:

1 Valkyrie
1 Samurai
1 Bard
1 Priest
1 Mage
1 Ninja

Every party mix works in Wizardry, some mixes are easier some are more difficult.

You need patience to develop Ninja, Samurai and Valkyrie, but they really rock after gaining a few levels.

Hint: You get a second Valkyrie in Wizardry 8 as a recruitable character.

PS: I developed the Mage into a Bishop later on. Not other class changes.
-> Class changing makes the game easier in part 7, but I don't like it.

If you haven't yet seen it, this is quite an indispensable Wiz8 thread: http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=830

Thanks guys. Any advice with regards to bonus point distribution? Piety for priests and int for mages?

Me again.


I am now in the Mines and slowly but surely approaching the time where it makes sense to switch class (Most my chars are lvl 7 now)…

The party I ended up with is:

Dwarf Valkyrie
Felpurr Samurai
Fairy Ninja
Felpurr Bard
Rawulf Priest
Elf Mage

Now… I think I will switch the Priest to a Mage and the Mage to a Priest at lvl 10… or maybe both to a Bishop?
I am more concerned about the Bard… since I already have a Ninja, which class makes sense? Monk? Ranger (planning ahead for W7 where Rangers are more useful) ?

Cheers guys!