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dteowner
Shoegazer
Joined: 21 Mar 2002
Posts: 7570
Location: Third Hero of Erathia |
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We've had several threads going recently about party composition for rookie players. What struck me was that many of us ended up with the same 6 classes as the demo (fighter/monk/ranger/bard/priest/mage). I don't know about anyone else, but I played 5 different parties before settling on one to finish the game with. After all that tinkering? Yep, same as the demo party (although I did change a few races). I was wondering if it was coincidence that we ended up with the demo party, or if it was intentional for others. Val and Bilbo both used those classes as well, IIRC.
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Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
RIP Red Wings How 'Bout Dem Cowboys! |
Sat May 18, 2002 5:07 am |
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Val
Risen From Ashes
Joined: 18 Feb 2002
Posts: 14724
Location: Utah, USA |
Frankly, I just liked that set up. I didn't even have to restart with that group. I just played all the way through with them. It seems to me that this particular setup is a very strong, well rounded group to go with. With those classes you have all the spell books covered, decent fighters, and the bards ability to play the instruments you find in the game. They can do everything you need from casting fireballs to picking locks. I just switched some of the races around to take advantage of starting attributes being better.
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Sat May 18, 2002 5:24 am |
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Guest Dare
Guest
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It is a nice setup but I actually recommend using only pure characters for rookie players. Why? Because they level a great deal faster and are not complicated by hybrid skills.
Fighter, rogue, mage, psionic, priest, alchemist. Notice how there's 6 of 'em? Kind of convenient huh?  That is unless I forget a class...
I do not recommend taking 1 of each type, but I do recommend taking at least 1 damage oriented caster, 1 healing oriented caster, and at least 2 tank melee types. So I would probably recommend something like....
Fighter
Rogue
Fighter
Priest
Mage
Alchemist
And race I would recommend starting with whatever trips your trigger as long as it doesn't start with a stat deficit. |
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Sat May 18, 2002 6:22 am |
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Guest
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I've found that leveling faster is not really much of a concern; as by L18 my Bishop's mana pool was almost 3 times that of my L20 Mage, and my L18 Ranger and Samurai had tons o'crits, while my L21 Fighter only occasionally made enough damage in one round to kill more than one thing. If you indulge a bit in letting your characters practise their skills, the fact that one character gets one more level for every ten or so the party goes up won't make up for the fact that they can all cast and fight. |
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Sat May 18, 2002 6:40 am |
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Guest Dare
Guest
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Its not so much for skills/mana/etc... that I recommend taking a fast levelling party for rookie's.
The reason is surviveability!
The faster you level, the more HP and resists you will have naturally. It also opens up the 100+ skills quicker which will help rookie's to have a better time while they are learning tactics and gameplay.
Remember that the monsters in this game level with you, so a rookie really needs to have a low complexity party in order for his skills to develop well enough to survive.
Its a well known fact that all hybrid classes take more skill and thought to play due to their more complex array of skills. For rookie players it should be kept simple yet effective. If you throw a bishop into a rookie's party I will bet you that he will have royally screwed his develop up by the time he leaves the monestary....
Some exceptional newbies aside of course |
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Sat May 18, 2002 12:26 pm |
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Guest Dare
Guest
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oops
develop = development |
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Sat May 18, 2002 12:28 pm |
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Bilbo
High Emperor
Joined: 12 Mar 2002
Posts: 1620
Location: New York |
For those who haven't read my other posts, my party that Dteowner refers to is: ranger, monk, lord, priest, bard, mage. The demo party differs only by substituting a pure fighter for the lord.
I have a different reason than most people for using this party - it's an import from Wiz7 (which was imported from Wiz6). The reasoning behind this party was its balance and coverage - all spells, diplomacy (not in Wiz8) / thieving / music / scouting skills, 3 tanks in the front (this is before Wiz8 introduced customizing party formation and attacks from all sides), and double coverage for the more important (IMHO) priest and mage spells (in Wiz6-7 bards had mage spells).
The fact that my party is very similar to the demo party I believe is because it covers all spell realms, has as many different skills as possible, and has enough fighting (3 [I don't count the bard]) and magic (4 + bard's instruments + 1 more if you use a lord instead of fighter) to make the game playable without being overly dependent on either sword or sorcery, and does not make you 1 character dependent.
Besides the above, I think the reason many people playing for the first time pick similar parties is that those who played RPGs for many years will be used to the 3 fighters in front, 3 casters in the rear.
For those who want to argue about leveling and the autoleveler in picking classes, Dteowner & I had a deep discussion in another thread (and there are more than a few threads here that discuss it) about how to level up characters.  <More of an evil cackle, but that's close enough.>
For the pure v. hybrid class argument, I would note that the demo party was 4 pure characters + 2 hybrids. The demo was for players of all skill levels, which IMHO means that Sir-Tech felt that hybrids were also for "non-exceptional newbies " (as called by Guest Dare). I would also think that almost anyone playing the game the first time through would want a ranger for the scouting abilities. (Yes, there is detect secrets, but it's a level 2 spell so starting parties won't have it immediately and without sleeping often they won't be able to keep it on constantly.) Honestly, the only classes that I think might really frustrate rookies are the bishop (4 spellbooks is too many directions to study, without knowing how to focus) and the ninja (3 skills - fighting, alchemy & thieving, as opposed to the other hybrid classes which only have 2 main skills).
My import party is close to the end (I haven't played in a week due to time constraints), and I would recommend it for any level player.
My second party which was chosen to give me a chance to replay with different classes (samurai, ninja, monk, valkyrie, gadgeteer, and bishop) [again, going for a wide spread of skills], was also picked to try to give me a different challenge - I'm starting off with better fighting party, but a weaker casting party. While I wouldn't recommend it for first time players, once you've played the game a while (say as far as Arnika) with another party, the skills you learned would make even this challenging party playable.
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Sun May 19, 2002 4:44 am |
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HolyWarrior
Guest
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My choice for a starting party:
Fighter
Bard
Thief
Gadgie
Priest
Mage.
Fighter, Thief, Priest, Mage are the four basic archetypes of Fantasy RPGs going back to D&D, so I considered them musts. I took a bard along for the musical skills--plus as a nod to that old classic Bard's Tale series. And I HAD to try a gadgie--he was AWESOME at the endgame. He singlehandly took out about a dozen rapax with the NegatAir.
For races, I prefer the fantasy classics--who needs cat and dog races? Since the mook was a new race particular to Wizardry, I took one along as well. With some mix-and-matching, I ended up with
Human Fighter
Gnome Bard
Hobbit Thief (duh)
Mook Gadgie (since the Mook are supposedly a tech race. I was quite disappointed when I learned that Gadgies couldn't use the Giant Sword)
Dwarf Priest
Elf Mage. |
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Fri Jun 14, 2002 4:08 am |
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HiddenX
The Elder Spy
Joined: 20 Jul 2001
Posts: 749
Location: NRW / Germany |
my wiz6/wiz7 import party was good to play:
Samurai
Valkyrie
(Faerie) Ninja
Bard
Bishop
Alchemist
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=Member of The Nonflamers' Guild= |
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Fri Jun 14, 2002 11:46 pm |
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