Incline Elminage Gothic (former Japan only dungeon crawler)

[Miner 2049er]

I've started the game a few years back, but was heavyly turned off by the menu navigation and the mapping systems. I made it to the 2nd dungeon where my party was destroyed and I said: "Fuck it game. You go your way. I go mine."

Blobbers became one of my favorite rpg forms and in the last few years I was playing great titles like M&M X, Etrian Odyssey 3, Genration Xth, Stranger Of Sword City and Starcrawlers. I believe I have enjoyed Starcrawlers the most, because I really like me some nice animations.
(Besides lacking the ability to import custom portraits that's my main gripe with Elminage: Gothic. Yes, I have red there is actually a way to do it, but it sounded way to complicated.
If someone of you has edited all the needed files, so I just have to paste my portraits over them, that'd be really appreciated.)

Now I'm using a gamepad and i'm flying through the menues. I just finished the Ice Caves with most of the party at level 13.

I'm seeking your advice for 2 characters I'm not sure how to develop them.

My party is:

1 Human Samurai (me)
2 Dragonewt Fighter
3 Human Valkyrie
4 Hotlet Thief
5 Dwarfen Cleric
6 Dragonewt Mage > Alchemist > Hunter (level 10 Alchemist now)

Okay the first character in question is the cleric. He's kind of boring. Has the lowest kills (I know, it's not his job). About 40, while the Dragonewt Fighter has ~ 1500. Should I change him to mage ? To bishop ? Do I want him to stay singleclassed ? My valkyrie became quite good at healing, but the cleric is the only one able to resurrect. Honestly I have no idea.
I have just red aweighs last post and the conclusion would be to let the cleric stay singleclassed. But again the skill he's getting (xp for dispelling) is leaving me rather cold. I haven't used Dispel a single time.

The second is the Hotlet Thief. She has the stats to be changed to a ninja. And I want a ninja, but I want to steal, too. How mighty/important is stealing ? Should I wait for the post game to change her to a ninja ? Do I want to have a ninja and a thief ?

 

[pippin]

Maybe this will be of help? https://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/841384-elminage-gothic/70114424

Why did you double classed the mage? did you made sure it learned diomente at least? That's the point where you should cut it imo. Also, you could make a mage - cleric - alchemist, which is something I've been meaning to try for maximum cheese (and spellbooks).

Don't do bishop. In true Wizardry fashion, bishop levels slow, mage-cleric will get more spells than bishop and more quickly. Cleric is very cool, has many extremely helpful spells. Imo a cleric would make a good Lord but you won't get one for aligment reasons.

Also, be wary of age limits. Your human will die when he reaches like 60yo, which, without counting special effects, means he'll die at level 60? And you can't bring him back. This sucks just as much as the alignment mechanics, and it kinda forces you to go with elves, dwarves and dragonewts only.

 

[Haplo]

Bishop will inherit all the Cleric spells, so it would be an okay choice. Just make sure he's level 13 before you switch (7th level spells). He would gain mage spells slooowly though. I think Bishop is maybe better for the main game. It is the more versatile class. It helps that he can identify stuff, which is very convenient and lets you save a ton of gold.
However post-game... you may wish you've kept your cleric. His heals and instant kill spells are the most potent (and HPs can go into thousands). Also the only class almost guaranteed to succeed at resurrection attempts. Still, in this case you should maybe multiclass him to Mage+Alchemist (both at level 13, to learn their spell schools) before you settle on Cleric till the end.

I'd go with the Ninja MC. It's an awesome class. You could potentially steal some nifty things with the Thief... but from what I've seen, not so much. And usually not so awesome. Most of that stuff you'll eventually be able to find anyways. Beheading is great and so is the Vigilance 50% ambush prevention.

One problem I see is that you don't seem to have an active Alchemist in your team. You really want one.

Pippin:
Diomente is kinda important, agreed. But eventually his Samurai will learn it too. (well, a lot of xp later then the pure mage would).

And you exaggerate a bit with the aging. He won't instantly die, his Vitality may start permanently decreasing. Which can be countered with Alchemist Protectorate spell. And there are "Kiss of the Goddess" traps which make the opening character younger. 60 yrs should be manageable. I mean people make do with fairies with 30 year age limit. If it comes to worst, near the end of the main game there is one fountain which can change your race to Devilish and they have like 300 yrs life expectancy.

 

[Miner 2049er]

Thanks for replying, guys. Yes, them mage / alchemist / hunter did learn diomente before I class-changed him.
Can someone please tell me how to use diomente right ? I can change the floor, but not the desired tile. Is it random ?

I have a level 10 bishop back in town (for opening a quest), who is becoming active when the warehouse is full of unidentified stuff. So if a cleric/bishop's main advantage over a singleclass cleric is convenience I tend to let him stay singleclassed. Yes, I know he'd also gain the mage spells, but I'm not using them much and I have a samurai. I think the alchemist spells are way more interesting.
Is it wiser to change the cleric to mage and then to alchemist and back to cleric again or just let him stay singleclassed ?

Haplo, you say I really want to have an active alchemist and I am having one. It's the former mage and now alchemist, I was planning to change to a hunter. So you're advice is not to change him to a hunter, because...an alchemist is much more valueable than a hunter ? And when changed to a hunter he'll lose his so very useful alchemist skills ?

Thanks Haplo. You convinced me to go the ninja route and forgo stealing.

It's quite shocking that aging seems to be tighter than I have imagined. For re-rolling reasons all my characters are as young as possible and I thought without crazy class changing and dying I'm safe.

 

[Courtier]

Aging is not really a concern unless you start out middle aged, die very often and don't reload. I had two humans in my party from start to finish, throughout all the postgame dungeons and every single quest. They started at around age 16 and would have ended up in their early 30s if it weren't for kiss of the goddess traps being rather common. The mysterious child you get early in the game (I never used him) started at age 5, and by the time I beat the last boss at around 200 hours he was age 21.

Diomente is not random unless you use it in combat, you need to press once to select the floor and then you can select a destination tile with directional keys before pressing confirm again.

I personally had a mage go through the spellcasting classes before finally settling on bishop just for convenience, but a pure single class is the most powerful. You should do your classchanging relatively early and settle on what you want after getting all the spells. Preferably don't classchange warriors as they will lose their hard earned swings and to-hit bonus. I highly recommend changing one of the mages to summoner in the end, for a 7th partymember.

A character who stays an alchemist throughout the game is extremely useful, because you will need them to forge your gear even if you don't have them in your active party. After the main game, I swapped my aging level 50+ gnome alchemist out for a monster-adventurer. Despite not being up to snuff, now and then I'd swap him back in to gain a couple levels because he was integral to creating better equipment.

 

[Haplo]

Yeah, like Courtier wrote, aging is not a large concern. I struggled with that a bit on my fairy Brawler, but early and mid game Brawlers have terrible AC, they are a frontline class and fairies have terrible Vitality. So she died a lot. And their life expectancy is only 30 years. But a backrow fairy Bishop (for example) would be fine despite the 30 yr limit, IMO. You shouldn't worry about 60 year limit races.

I think you don't give mage spells enough credit. They can easily wipe whole (back)rows of troublesome foes by exploiting their elemental weaknesses (single target lightning spells are the most potent ones). They can crowd control with Sleep or Petrify (single target spells have far higher landing chance). Particularly in post game I've found their enemy AC increasing spells, Robuti and Hallobuti, most useful. But debuffing most enemies with those will lead them to become simple fodder for your melees.
And having 9 slots per spell level of both cleric and mage spells, like a Bishop does, is very useful.

Regarding Alchemist, he's crucial for upgrading your equipment with magic ore effects. Functionally there is no difference between a level 1 and level 25 Alchemist. So theoretically it's fine to just have one sit in the tavern. However at level 26 he learns to remove ores from equipment without destroying them, which makes equipment upgrade process that much easier and less painful (don't need to grind new ores once you've found new weapon/armor/accessory and you get to keep the best ores forever). And he starts accumulating ore AP bonuses. That's a slow process and in the main game it might not make too much of a difference. But in the post game it may eventually mean the difference between staying alive (due to much better AC and resistances) and wiping.

Admittedly I have parked my Alchemist around level 30 in the tavern, but my party consists mainly of more potent monsters turned adventurers (generally they have great resistances) and two of my frontliners get additional AC bonuses with levels (Brawler and Ninja). I don't think I'd dare stare the post game enemies in the eye with a "standard" party without a dedicated Alchemist squeezing every last point of AC from the magic ores on every piece of armor and accessory.

Alchemist -> Hunter is a good multiclass, as it keeps all 9 slots of Alchemist spells. But then I guess I'd have the Hunter replace the Thief (he can also disarm traps) and train another dedicated Alchemist. Depends which you like better: a Hunter with full Alchemist spellcasting ability or a Ninja.

 

[Miner 2049er]

Thanks guys. Regarding how to use Diomente: Yeah...I figured it out last night. Let's pretend it never happend, k ?

Courtier, you recommend a summoner for a 7th party member, but I have already changed the thief to ninja and took replica as the skill choice. I guess I can't have a 8th party member from a summoner ? And regarding the replica: I made it in town and it's listed in the character's skill page, but I haven't noticed in combat, yet. Something like "Replica did 25 damage". Is the replica still in town drinking and whoring, while the party is working off their asses and jumping in deep dark holes ?

 

[Haplo]

You would clearly see the Replica name and its HPs above the character bar. So it seems you didn't actually summon it. Make sure you have SPs to summon.

And no, you can't have both summoned monsters and Ninja replicas.

 

[Biggus]

Does anyone have the modded EL03_001.dds file that has the white walls? I have a modded file that I got somewhere (here?) with black walls, and it is a huge improvement over the default brown on brown with shades of brown map graphic, but I used to have a modded file that had white walls, back when I first tried to like Elminage (and failed). I found a link to this white walled file, but it is dead. I am not smart enough to know how to edit the original file Anyone?

 

[Exbelion]

I think I know from where Samael's design came from:

Wizardry Dimguil has an awesome monster design, just like Elminage

 

[aweigh]

Grampy_Bone

The dungeons get much better. E: Gothic dungeons tend to focus more on providing a "maze experience", with only around half of them featuring outright logic puzzles and even then they are fairly simple.

Where E: Gothic shines (dungeon wise I mean, as it "shines" everywhere) is when you get to the first "demon dungeon", and the game begins introducing legit-core spinners, teleporters, tons of secret doors and all that Wiz-goodness but they manage to straddle the line perfectly between "hard-core" and "enjoyable/satisfying to solve".

My personal favorite dungeon from E: Gothic is "The Royal Tomb", in terms of deisgn:


My "emotionally favorite" dungeon in E: Gothic, though, is "Cave of the Ancients":

 

[aweigh]

This game is great! I really recommend it.

BTW, a "high definition" PC port was just released on PC/Steam of "Elminage: Original".

I high recommend all Wizardry-lovers to check it out, as well as anyone even mildly interested in dungeon crawling and/or party-based turn-based games.

 

[aweigh]

Exhibit A:

ooh, look at all dem locations!

Exhibit B (cut visit to Elminage/Record Keeper):
https://photos-6.dropbox.com/t/2/AA...7PM6g6TV8l4IW2I6m0?size=1600x1200&size_mode=3

 

[aweigh]

Excuse the repeated postings of these images I just wanted to make sure they actually showed up as embedded image links so I just went and used all possible methods of posting them.

BTW, as I mentioned, these were a huge surprise to me (well, not that huge) as I found these textures (completeyl and fully done, btw) when I was going through all of E: Gothic's PC port textures (unpacking them / ripping them) in order to hack them into the game menus of Elminage III on japanese PSP.

I did succeed in doing that, btw, thanks to PPSSPP's super easy to use texture-replacement tool.

 

[aweigh]

as per Scrooge 's request, a tag.

 

[aweigh]

Wow, none of the images worked.

newtmonkey Haplo fluent Dorarnae

look at all those locations.

looks like a visit to the Record Keeper had also been planned.

 

[aweigh]

There's a final pic I haven't posted yet with the concept villages/dungeon list, and it is wildly different from what made it into the game. They did get far enough to make the menu textures for the locations though, which may mean something? or not? those types of textures are extremely easy to whip up anyway... but it's curious that the files themselves actually made it inside the game data.

The E: Gothic master ITEMS file also has column dedicated to two (2) Villages that aren't in the game. I had always wondered what the names referred to, and finding the menu textures finally solved that mystery.

The columns were supposed to denote item availability in those village's shop(s), but in the E: Gothic ITEMS file they are blank.

Lastly, it is also very interesting the circumstances surrounding the Lead Project Director of Elminage Original (and 2 and 3) and his abrupt departure from Starfish studio. I was only able to find a brief interview in a japanese gaming blog and I had to read it using Google Translate, but basically he gave no answer as to why he left Starfish, and he did not comment on whether or not it had anything to do with the different direction E: Gothic went (important to note that E: Gothic is the only Elminage game where he wasn't the Lead Project Director)--

--he only talked about how it was simply time for him to go as he says (remember, Google Translate) that he no longer felt valued.

 

[aweigh]

aight, i was googling JP Amazin reviews of Original and Gothic to see If I could find japanese gamers commenting on DAISUKE KOMIYAMA (Lead on E: Original for the very first iteration of the game on PS2, all the way up till Elminage 3) and his departure from Starfish SD, but I couldn't find anything so I gave up.

Goolging the japanese kanji for Elminage + KOMIYAMA + quit/fired/Starfish yielded this quote from a JP gaming site's review of Gothic:

"Mr. Daisuke Komiyama served as the series director before the release of the third series work has left the company.The non- numbering work after that can not deny the feeling of being strayed."

I *think* what happened was the E: Gothic director, Tanaka Something (who, btw, had never previously done anything for Starfish or its contractors such as UFO and Ghostlight; E: Gothic was Tanaka's very first project for Starfish)--

--ahem, I find it fun to conjecture that Komiyama wanted to make Gothic another Elminage 4, something that can be inferred from the texture work done with the names of multiple Villages/Towns, and a menu texture completely done with a dungeon list similar to E: Original (and 2 and 3)... and that suddenly Tanaka said WHOA NELLY I WANT TO MAKE L33T HARD-CORE WIZARDRY GAME YOU ARE OLD NEWS KOMIYAMA IT IS TIME TO RECAPTURE DUNGEON FEEL OF MAYBE NEVER FIND EXIT!!!

Cue japanese-style drama (i.e. no one does anything overtly dramatic), and then Komiyama decided to leave UFO/Starfish SD because he felt pushed aside.

Pure conjecture but fun!

 

[Dorarnae]

would probably have more info on the artbook of the elminage series. there are interviews in it, but I cant read it :S

 

[Grampy_Bone]

aweigh

I keep meaning to come back to this. What's your recommended "low maintenance" party? Something that performs fine without having to class-change 50 times. Not that I'm opposed to class changing, I just don't like builds that have you being weak as shit for 90% of the game just so you can be OP for the last 10%.

After wiz 6-8 and burning out about halfway through Strange of Sword City I filled up my blobber quota for the year. I'm working on Last Remnant and Romancing Saga, then we'll see.

 

[Matador]

Grampy_Bone I don't think class changing a lot is necessary like in Wiz 7. There are some obvious good paths, but the pure classes are very good, and you don't need to give every character 3 schools of magic to make your party work.

As aweigh has commented a lot of times:

- Fighters are insane damage dealers late game.
- Clerics have very offensive powerful spells against high level enemies and their success healing and resurrecting is key to win tough battles.
- Alchemists have impressive spells, and their ability to craft very good items cheaper is insanely powerful.
- Plain Brawlers are punching machines of death.
- Mages have the best magic damage.
- Valkyries are very flexible due to their ability to attack from the back row making very good damage and healing.
- Samurais can just start as mages and become very effective warriors with the flexibility to cast a lot of spells.
- Ninjas avoid ambushes and are instant death beheading bringers of pain.
- Lords are what you expect. Good tanks and warriors that can heal and resurrect.
- Hunters conserve 9 casts of alchemist spells, and they are insane damage dealers from the back. Good synergies with brawlers.
- Haven't experimented with Summoners, bards or Shamans. But they seem from good classes to very powerful.
- Bishops are very flexible, have a lot of casts and can identify items for free and inside dungeon.
- Thiefs are weaker, but don't underestimate stealing some stuff or the much improved success opening chests

So almost all classes are good, including vanilla ones, and the only plan you really need without too much powergaming, is start some later warrior classes as casters (like mage -> samurai, cleric ->brawler or alchemist -> ninja ) to have more casting flexibility ability in later tough dungeons. I think this game has the strength of being flexible in their strong party compositions, but of course punish stupid decissions.

Do you want some vanilla Fighter, Cleric, Mage mixed with some classic hybrids like Samurai, Lord or some easy to maintain but powerful "exotic" classes like hunter or Brawler? You have it.

Do you want to play with more complex classes like Shaman or Summoner? They are pretty powerful.

This game is going to punish you in the party management strategy only if you make strange decissions like to not get a healer or no crowd control spellcasters.

 

[Haplo]

My favorite loadout:
1. Samurai: Great melee output and full suite of mage spells. Can potentially start as a mage if you don't have another one to race to level 7 spells and get Diomente (teleport) ASAP. Seriously you really want this spell in Gothic with the wicked and deep dungeon mazes. Werebeast would be nice.
Recommend Brace Ex skill. Once he hits high mastery and can randomly parry and counter enemy attacks he can become a great defender... a parry god. Brace will let some parries slip (plus its excellent throughout the game). Spells can help take care of enemies which Swallow Return themselves.

2. Brawler: Crazy damage output. Late/post-game also excellent AC due to their level AC bonuses. Devilish race would be good to use some nice cursed weapons (enchanted The World was simply crazy for my end game -> 2 and a half post game dungeons). There is a fountain near end-game which can change the race of your character to Devilish. Don't make a Fairy, their weapon selection sucks badly. Alternatively if you have a Summoner with Spirit Pact and are willing to play around, there are many excellent monster brawler candidates. Some will also have excellent resistances, regeneration and/or spells. Nice early picks include Minotaur from the Great Tree (nice regen + Giant race resists) or maybe the one-eyed/cyclops from the haunted mansion (gets some alchemy spells + giant race resists).
If he's not a monster adventurer (you don't want to multiclass them), then maybe he should start as a Cleric, or you may play a risky game early on, with only a single Valkyrie to perform clerical duties.
For the long run recommend Swallow Killer Ex skill. Enemy counters really get deadly in the post game and it's good to be able to attack. But this is post game mostly. If you're more interested in the base game, then maybe Brace or even Mark of Ruin (Cruelty is safer, but effect far less pronounced... with some enchanted gear you can outheal Mark's damage).

3. Valkyrie: Great damage output and full suite of cleric spells. Very important perk of dealing heavy melee damage to the enemy back row while in the party front row. Throughout the game can one-shot most pesky enemy casters in the back. With high mastery can use spears one-handed. There are even some sub spears in the end/post-game, so you can eventually dual-wield them. Crazy! And spears are really excellent weapons in Gothic. Dwarfs have excellent stats for this class, but ultimately it's up to you.
Hand of Kindness Ex Skill for somewhat effective late/post game healing. Notable mention to Swallow Killer and Brace.

4. Ninja: Can be difficult to roll one, so may start as a Thief or even a caster (but then you need another thief-type). Instant kills on enemies, enemy ambush prevention (50% - in the post game enemy ambushes were the most frequent reason for my wipes), same number of attacks as warrior classes, excellent AC late/post game due to level based bonuses, hiding plus Thief skills (try to get that Luck high, as trap disarm chances are level+Luck based). What's not to love.
One mysterious child can also be recruited from an early event. Also a good monster adventurer candidate with some mobs that have innate behead chance that stacks with Ninja level based bonus (early redcap ninjas from the Great Tree or a bit later Dragonfly kunoichi from the haunted mansion - also has 35% Charm chance!).
If you don't use a Summoner, you may want the Replica EX Skill. Otherwise maybe Mysterious Bag (seriously want this on one of the characters).

5. I think you'll need an Alchemist. I'd make a Dragonnewt one, as his combat usefulness will be very low outside of casting nice buffs/debuffs and as dragonkin he can at least contribute by breathing fire (sure, there's the level 1 Alchemy spell that does just that, but it's only up to 9 slots and competes with Root (Paralyze)... and you fight a lot). Personally I would also multiclass him, teach him some different spell classes, maybe end up as a Summoner (high mastery boosted summons get quite crazy). But you wrote low-maintenance, so maybe leave him be. You'll definitely want a level 26+ Alchemist late/post game. Maybe bench one alchemist at the tavern for early enchanting duties and start as a Cleric, later multiclass to Alchemist (then you don't need to multiclass the Brawler... melee classes should maximize single class levels IMO - in order to boost the number of attacks, accuracy, HP and, in case of Brawlers, also AC). If you want to play with Summons, you could also get some Summoner levels there to catch some earlier targets... maybe turn them into monster adventurers via Spirit Pact. But that goes beyond "low maintenance" I guess.
Recommended Ex Skills: Mysterious Bag (if Thief/Ninja doesn't have it), War Rite (nice party-wide buff, limited uses/rest). Divination is not really needed, you'll see the ore AP at the Alchemy Warehouse anyway. Without it you'll get junk sometimes while digging, but it's not a big deal IMO.

6. Mage: Mage spells are very nice, especially sleep, petrify, damage to the back row casters, damage to Swallow Returning samurais and most importantly Diomente teleport. You also need the Sosareo levitation in some dungeons. Damage spells are good in certain portions of the game as well, but not worth focusing on, IMO. You could go with a Cleric instead, but then you'll only rely on your Samurai with mage spells. I recommend multiclassing this char: mage level 13 (make sure you learn Diomente) -> Cleric level 13 -> Bishop. Bishop will inherit up to 9 slots from both schools and will provide the convenience of identification on-the-fly. But he's too slow to level on his own. Consider a Fairy to often move first (and start the fight by debuffing enemies/healing allies). Neither mages nor Bishops loose any gear worth mentioning. Just watch the age on this race.
My recommended Ex Skill: Magic Essence - you want his debuffs to stick.

 

[hackncrazy]

aweigh Haplo Sigourn Matador Dorarnae and everyone else.

Let me ask you guys something that's been bothering me: Just how much reloading is too much?

So, if you guys remember (probably not) some time ago I tried playing Elminage Original and failed miserably. I'm thinking about giving it a second try, but since I'm replaying Grimrock right now, the quest about reloading started to bother me.

In Grimrock, you can save pretty much at every second, so, I play almost if I was going to a 100% perfect run, to the point that if I take too much damage on a fight, I reload it.

Doing this, I started to remember what was happening when I played Original: Every time a a member of my party died, I reloaded the game. Considering that (thank God) the game allow saving only in the town, that meant restarting the dungeon after every death which, thinking it back, could very well have been one of the reasons for my frustration.

On the other hand, I remember some guys telling me that reloading in this kind of games is par for the course, so I should not bother so much.

So, with that in mind, comes the question (again): Just how much reloading is too much?

Do you guys follow any kind of internal rule or something like this to keep yourselves from reloading? I remember that at some point, aweigh told me that the Bishop (I think) get some spell that can resurrect dead party members. Is that a game changer in your opinion?

I'm asking this because I really want to beat the game when I try it again, so I need some help in this sense.

 

[Dorarnae]

aweigh Haplo Sigourn Matador Dorarnae and everyone else.

Let me ask you guys something that's been bothering me: Just how much reloading is too much?

So, if you guys remember (probably not) some time ago I tried playing Elminage Original and failed miserably. I'm thinking about giving it a second try, but since I'm replaying Grimrock right now, the quest about reloading started to bother me.

In Grimrock, you can save pretty much at every second, so, I play almost if I was going to a 100% perfect run, to the point that if I take too much damage on a fight, I reload it.

Doing this, I started to remember what was happening when I played Original: Every time a a member of my party died, I reloaded the game. Considering that (thank God) the game allow saving only in the town, that meant restarting the dungeon after every death which, thinking it back, could very well have been one of the reasons for my frustration.

On the other hand, I remember some guys telling me that reloading in this kind of games is par for the course, so I should not bother so much.

So, with that in mind, comes the question (again): Just how much reloading is too much?

Do you guys follow any kind of internal rule or something like this to keep yourselves from reloading? I remember that at some point, aweigh told me that the Bishop (I think) get some spell that can resurrect dead party members. Is that a game changer in your opinion?

I'm asking this because I really want to beat the game when I try it again, so I need some help in this sense.

I pretty much only reload if my party is lost, which mean teleporting into a wall. it's very rare so it doesn't happen often. I used to reload when I was losing lvl because of monster with level drain but not anymore.
If you keep a character with all the money at the bar, you can pretty much recover from any situation. if my party dies in the dungeon, I pay to get the bodies back in town....if I get level drained, I can exchange money for exp.
Of course I know these game very well, so you could reload a bit more til you learn the game well. but there is something for almost anything in the game.

 

[Emmanuel2]

Do you guys follow any kind of internal rule or something like this to keep yourselves from reloading? I remember that at some point, aweigh told me that the Bishop (I think) get some spell that can resurrect dead party members. Is that a game changer in your opinion?

I'm asking this because I really want to beat the game when I try it again, so I need some help in this sense.

Thankfully, you can save anywhere in Gothic.

Rule of Thumb of mine: If reloading will require more time and effort than any of the possible solutions, then I'll go straight ahead to the solution.

As for me, I only reloaded when a level drain (when I had no access to easy levelling) happened or when something stupid happened. I only did the "reload when a member dies" around the first 6 or 7 levels in order to avoid the frustration you got back then and after that, the situations can be handled. That said, save often you'll never know when you'll get wiped in and out of battle.