This round of number-crunching provided a following experimental party:
- Felpurr warrior->rogue at lvl2. I started off as fighter to get the precious close combat points which will be of help later, to put some points in maces, get points in swords and avoid taking dagger points. The plan is to get lockpicking to 30-40 (should be enough with poseur's cap & knock knock & divine trap), stealth to 50 or 60. Then I switch back to fighter and enjoy a plated dual wielding berserking angry kitty. Could be done with a popular fighter choice, ie. a dracon, but a kitty starts with way higher speed and somewhat better intelligence which is important for close combat. Also - no mental issues. Basically I want to get to 80 SPD as fast as possible to get the AC bonus, get SEN to 60 and then focus on STR and DEX. I suspect that when I couple rogue's stealth with heavy armor and Reflection I can neglect the VIT somewhat. HP count will still be decent.
- Human Samurai. I picked a human since I wanted to have a fair piety that wouldn't gimp my spellcasting later on. Thought about getting a mage level but that would mean too much of a sacrifice.
- Human Monk. Will develop spellcasting too. Getting psionics levels wouldn't be worth it since I need every chance i can get to put points into stealth, crit and MA. Might be more viable if I wanted a staff monk, but what's the point of making a monk if you won't get him to fight barehanded?
- Human Valkyrie. Will develop spellcasting and fight from the flank or the back, depending on the situation. Once I get Vi I'll definitely put both valks on flanks and gouge people's eyes. And listen to Wagner while doing it.
No multi for the above three hybrids as there's no real worthwhile synergy for them.
- Elf Mage -> Bishop at lvl2. This guy will concentrate on wizardry and divinity. Since it's only two books I'll start conserving spell picks after I leave the monastery. The bonus to four realms helps a lot for the early bishop. I might develop the remaining spellbooks later on if I feel like it. If I ever reach level 19, however unlikely that is, I'll probably multi the bishops into something that will grant a better armor selection.
- Elf Alchemist -> Bishop at lvl2. Alchemy and psionics. His alchemy is already in mid-twenties and he's got decent throwing to boot, otherwise it's the same as above.
Playing this party is fun. A bit squishy now since I don't have a proper tank but that should pass soon as the rogue and monk develop. The party should start to really shine around lvl 12 once the supporting casters gain access to 4th level spells but the difficulty curve should start flattening once I get to Arnika.
I_am_Ian: It might be that some abilities develop solely over levelling. I read somewhere that Lord's HP regen is level-dependent, and that a monk gets the ability to KO opponents at higher levels. At the same time it's completely possible that you get KO when you cross a certain Martial Arts threshold, and that Lord's regen is simply based on a percentage of your HP. I will test the monk out tomorrow - first I'll set all his relevant skills to 100 and check his combat stats, then I'll level him up to 20 to see if anything changes.
Seems to me that Wiz doesn't have any D&D elements like this and that all the abilities and derived stats are skill and stat dependent instead of level dependent; levels just give you access to stat and skill increases and, in case of mages, new spells. Might be that that's all there is to levelling.
As to the caster -> hybrid switch, I think that the only decent ones are 4lvl priest->lord and ranger->2 or 3 lvl alchemist->back to ranger. Priest->valk can be done to a degree of success but it'd be best if you'd switch at lvl2 so that you don't skip too much of polearms use.
The issue with mage->samurai and psionic->monk is that you need to spend 5 additional stat points on intelligence that would be much better spent elsewhere, seeing as how the hybrids are already hard pressed for stats. Also, while the priest has got decent HP and can train maces the lord will use, and the alchemist can train the ranged combat for the ranger there isn't such a synergy for mages and psionics. Another bad thing about it is that Monks and Samurais are frontliners while mages and psionics are the squishiest of all the classes; the lack of HP will make early game a pain in the ass.
I say it's better to stick with pure samurais and monks. Developing psionics for the monk should be easy enough on its own (just mindstab whatever's not in range of your fists and support the party with basic healing), in case of samurais just be sure to pick a race that doesn't have crap piety, as tempting as it may be, or boost it to respectable levels. Remember that piety controls the realm skills and if you leave it at hobbit's or felpurr's 30 then their development will be close to a crawl. I think the piety factor is something people often overlook when making hybrids.
Still wondering about alchemist->ninja since you can develop throwing with an early alchemist nicely and the needed DEX you'd probably purchase anyway, but I never liked the Ninja so I doubt I'll be checking it out.
