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Just got Wiz 8
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RPGDot Forums > Wizardry 8

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Lord_Brownie
High Emperor
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Joined: 16 Feb 2003
Posts: 575
Location: Unfashionable arm of the spiral galaxy
Just got Wiz 8
   

I just started Wizardry 8. I was afriad it would be too much like M&M 7 which I thought was ok, but not great (just not my play style). I was asking myself a few months ago: "what happened to games with lots of classes like ninja and samerais (sp?), and lots of races including monster races like lizardmen. Now I know there is one more game with those concepts. Sso far I realy like W8, lots of skills and stats to play with, and lots of classes and races. The problem is my girlfriend realy likes it too, so now I have to run for place to place to find anther copy. My party is Human Ranger, Dracon Fighter, Elf Rogue, Dwarf Cleric, Elf Mage, and Pixie Psionist. Party balence seems ok, but I was hoping to multi with a second class one or two of the above, but the game manual doesnt talk much about the dos and donts, and good and bad of mult classing. What do I need to know before multi classing my PCs? Mostly affriad they will become weaker if multi classed, but hopefully the added functionaltiy will payoff.
Thanks,
LB
Post Sun Mar 09, 2003 11:50 am
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the mighty stamar
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Cool.
Well as far as party based games like this... I think it was the last one.
More than a year has gone by.
Maybe mm 9 was released more recently. I think it was. Other than that, for some reason the party based games havent been developed.

I think wizardry 8 is up there among the best games ever made.
It will be tough and you have a long road ahead of you. Id look up a walkthrough because some of the parts are hard to figure out

As far as multi classing...
Well Im still on my first run through it, I havent finished yet. But I didnt multi class anyone. I dont really understand the concepts involved so Im afraid lol. But Im reasonably certain you should multi class the bard/gadgeteers to something after theyve maxed out their skills... they dont gain much after a certain point.
Post Sun Mar 09, 2003 12:05 pm
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Val
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Joined: 18 Feb 2002
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Multiclassing is generally something you want to steer clear of. But if you do want to try it out, then you'd want to multiclass to a class that has similar skills. For instance, a rogue to a gadgeteer or bard. Any pure magic caster to a bishop or their equivilant warrior class like a mage to a samurai. If you multiclass to a class that doesn't share skills with the previous class, then those skills can no longer be improved. For instance, if you decide to multiclass your rogue to a fighter, then you wouldn't be able to improve their pickpocketing, locks and traps, or stealth skills anymore, because those skills are not associated with the fighter class.
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Post Sun Mar 09, 2003 12:17 pm
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Lord_Brownie
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Thanks for the replies. I'll stay away form multi classing until I am more into the game and have a better idea of what I want out of my party members.
The M&M games never apealed to me much, so I didnt pay much attention to them after 7. I'm not sure what elements of game play they include.
I might pick up a book for the game when I'm out looking for anther copy, it will give me something to read at work. I general dont use walkthroughs unless I've been stuck somewhere for months, or I dont like the game that much, and I just want to finish it.
thank you both,
LB
Post Sun Mar 09, 2003 12:29 pm
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dteowner
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Don't waste your money on a hintbook- we'll happily give you any hints you need. At reasonable rates, too.

As for multi-classing, I'd strongly recommend you not do it your first time thru the game. It difficult to do well, particularly if you don't make extensive use of skill practice.

Your party might be a little weak on melee types, but not badly so. You'll do just fine.
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Post Sun Mar 09, 2003 4:34 pm
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Lord_Brownie
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Work demands I do something other than work; like read these forums.
LB
Post Sun Mar 09, 2003 4:49 pm
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the mighty stamar
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Location: arcata ca, humboldt county
   

Well you are missing either a bard or a gadgetteer....

Overall you have only one dude that can heal all, the cleric. Unless one of the spell casters can heal all somehow... So I think the party is going to have a tough time in certain areas. The cleric has a lotta things its gonna have to do in tough sitchuations, and your spell casters are always a step from death anyway.... well youll see. My lizard fighter has died once in my game... my pixie mage has died 146 times.... often three times each battle at this point. Hehe.... Hes gonna be resurrecting healing rest all etc.
My party has both bard and gadgeteer. To do the gadgeteer i think you almostg have to look at the walkthrough to find where to build his stuff.

Ok If I understand correctly though, what you possibly want to do is practice up your thiefs hiding I think its called, and then switch over to bard or gadgeteer. Thing is also its a lot easier to be a female bard or gadgeteer because theres a fairly common female only stamina regenerating thing.
Post Tue Mar 11, 2003 3:39 am
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the mighty stamar
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Location: arcata ca, humboldt county
   

Heh heres a couple other alternate things...

Ok, switch over one of the fighters to valkrie. If youre keeping the thief I think you dont need the ranger... Then you have fighter who heals all and maybe eventually ressurects. But do it now as opposed to waiting....
Or, switch over one of the spell casters to bishop. TRain on the divine area a lot.

Maybe do both of those.

MAx effeciency is round 1 1 bard/psionist cast haste 1 cleric cast soul shield 1 wizard cast elemental shield.

So in your party maybe youll have spell casters doing things that my bard and gadgeteer do. So stock up on mana stones and magic nectar for the big battles.
But if you are going to spell casters, you need more cleric magic than you have I think so I would make at least one class switch to get more cleric magic in your party.
Post Tue Mar 11, 2003 4:06 am
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Bilbo
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Joined: 12 Mar 2002
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Location: New York
   

Any party combination is winnable. Brownie, you've started with a tough party, though - light on the melee compared to most other people's first parties. Having said that - remember you can recruit people to help. Your first recruits can be either thief & valkyrie (probably) or ranger & bard (far less likely if you follow the early clues given to you). While some people view them as XP leeches, they can be very helpful to fill in gaps in the early stages. Once your party hits about level 14, the balance in the game shifts to your favor (most of the time), and you can consider dumping any NPCs you happen to have recruited. Of course, they do add something to the game, so feel free to keep them around anyway. [I'm on my third party, a weaker one, still wandering around Arnika. Until I switch my thief to a samurai in a few levels, I am glad to have 2 NPCs to help with the fighting.]

I disagree with some of the previous posts and think the complaints about lack of healers in your party are unfounded. Your ranger will get healing to help out later, and your psionic has the basic healing early and will pick up some slack from the priest with some other spells later. They won't get heal all, but they will free up your priest for other things at times. It's all in how you train them.
Post Tue Mar 11, 2003 5:17 am
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Lord_Brownie
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Joined: 16 Feb 2003
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Thanks for the tips. I'll keep going with what I have for now and will try to head off some of the problems that have been brought up- esp. the cleric. Right now my Psc can heal, too, and hopefully my ranger will soon. I'm in the city of Arnika now, and have already recruited the valkrie. The thing I have been playing with now is party formation. I what my thief to be up front enough to BS but right now she looks like the spear head for the party (Highest on the party view window). My cleric is in the center using a whip, and I dont want to loose the few melee attacks he can make. I was thinking about moving the valkrie up front, the thief to front left and the ranger in back (so he can use his bow the whole time); however I am concerned about giving up my meleer up front. What should I be looking at for party formations? I have been tactical as I can to keep flankers and rear opponents from presenting themselves as a treat.
Thanks for the comments,
LB
Post Wed Mar 12, 2003 2:25 am
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dteowner
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There's lots of different ways to do it. With the party you have, I'd give you two choices depending on how you decide to develop your ranger.
Option 1: front: fighter, rogue middle: cleric, psi, mage back: ranger
(this is if you want your ranger to be a bow-master and alchemy caster)
Option 2: same as above but move the ranger up front
(this will give your ranger a chance to become quite good with melee)

If you plan to keep Vi around and want your ranger to melee (particularly with polearms), you can move on to "advanced formations".
left: Vi middle: fighter, rogue right: ranger back:psi, cleric, mage
This allows you to melee with more than the usual max of 3 characters since the middle and flanks become your front line.

I found that formations didn't matter a whole lot beyond a few simple "rules". Make sure you can keep your casters sheltered from melee, and make sure the guys you want to be able to use melee weapons can reach the front with what they've got. Formations can royally screw you up if you violate those two rules, but beyond that you can experiment.
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Post Wed Mar 12, 2003 3:28 am
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Bilbo
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1 clarification to Dte's formation suggestion. For an "advanced" formation, there is a maximum of 5 melee characters going across the middle (now the front) row. Dte suggested a 0/4/3 formation if you're keeping Vi around, and that's the best you can do right now for melee.

If you're going to experiment, there are 11 positions for characters, arranged in rows that have maximums of 3/5/3.

If you're planning on sticking with NPCs, I'd say you're probably better off training him/her as a bowman / caster. But if you're going to work as a party of 6, you'll want his melee skills more than his alchemy, since you already have three pure casters. Just MHO.
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Post Wed Mar 12, 2003 3:52 am
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dteowner
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And a clarification back at you...

Actually, there's 15 possible locations. You can put 3 characters on the flanks as well. I remember one guy a long time ago that did a party of 6 fighters. He set it up as 2/2/2 down the middle. That way, he had nobody getting solo damage (a single character in any zone will receive every attack for that zone), and could have all 6 melee.
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Post Wed Mar 12, 2003 4:35 am
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Bilbo
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quote:
Originally posted by dteowner
And a clarification back at you...

Actually, there's 15 possible locations. You can put 3 characters on the flanks as well. I remember one guy a long time ago that did a party of 6 fighters. He set it up as 2/2/2 down the middle. That way, he had nobody getting solo damage (a single character in any zone will receive every attack for that zone), and could have all 6 melee.
So you're saying it's 5/5/5? I'll have to play with the flanks more. I couldn't get more than 1 to a flank, but maybe I just wasn't doing it right.
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Post Wed Mar 12, 2003 4:44 am
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dteowner
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Sorry for the confusion. 15 total positions, counting the front and back:

X/3/X
3/3/3
X/3/X

At least, that's what Brenda said way back when. She's actually the one that spilled the beans on the "empty front" technique, which a couple guys on the design team reportedly came up with and used extensively.
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Post Wed Mar 12, 2003 5:06 am
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