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Wizardry The Wizardry Series Thread

Major_Blackhart

Codexia Lord Sodom
Patron
Joined
Dec 5, 2002
Messages
18,346
Location
Jersey for now
One character I'm personally having alot of fun with is a mace specializing Lizardman Priest. He can take a ton of hits and dish out a bit of damage too, plus he's a friggin healer. I figure after I hit a certain level I'll turn him into a Lord so he can be a friggin tank and a half.

My Monk is a fun lil dwarf is pretty nasty in the kill department.

My bard is a nice dracon lady.

I have a dracon fighter.

A Fairy Psionic

And a Halfling thief- The best thief race in the friggin game. Not only that, but the lil firepisser is a damage dealer too. However, because of all my tanks already, I keep him to the flank.
 

SkeleTony

Augur
Joined
Aug 17, 2006
Messages
938
My personal preferences:

Male Lizardman fighter - Tank

Male Dracon samurai - Dual-wielding tank/DPS

Male Mook Gadgeteer - Lockpicker/Ranged attacker/Utility class

Female(gender is important for this one. You will see why.)) Elven Bard - Utility class

Dwarven Priest(or Alchemist) - Healer

Fairy Mage(will become a ninja later on)- Mass buff/debuff and a little direct damage stuff.

I generally recruit Vi Domina(Valkyrie) and keep her through the whole game(but sometimes replacing her with that Android monk is fun) and sometimes recruit that human thief in Arnika to handle locks and such until my Gadgeteer is up to snuff. Often replace him with someone else later on.
 

Monocause

Arcane
Joined
Aug 15, 2008
Messages
3,656
I'm also a first timer, and currently I've got a nice party consisting of:

1.Dracon Fighter
2.Felpurr Samurai
3.Human Bard
4.Elf Gadgeteer
5.Elf Bishop
6.Faerie Mage

The game wasn't that difficult as I've read on the net, though I have the newest patch and it is said that it considerably tones down the difficulty. I have a question though: does the frequency of fights lower later in the game? Right now I'm going to Marten's Bluff and I'm losing patience for the game as there is simply too many combat and sometimes it gets seriously tedious.
Maybe there's some sort of a mod you'd recommend, changing the spawn rate. Fighting gazillions of bats, rogues, swallowers, slimes and other shit while exploring gets really boring, especially considering the turn length. A little less of them would be nice.
 

Monocause

Arcane
Joined
Aug 15, 2008
Messages
3,656
Major_Blackhart said:
Felpurrs are overrated unless its for sex.

Playing Wizardry 8 without a Felpurr Samurai is like having sex without an orgasm. You did it, it was fun, but you have that sinking feeling that something was amiss. Really, a Felpurr Samurai is obligatory. I mean, I know the stats aren't that great, but it's only fitting to have one in your party.
 

cutterjohn

Cipher
Joined
Sep 28, 2006
Messages
1,629
Location
Bloom County
My $0.02, Warrior, Thief, Mage, Priest then whatevr ou want....

If you know what you're doing then ANY party...

It's ENTIRELY up to you...
 
Joined
Nov 8, 2007
Messages
6,207
Location
The island of misfit mascots
As the guy quoted below said - go with bard on a first-time party. Don't be fooled by how crap bards are under most systems - in Wiz8 if you are using a full party they are the strongest class in the game. I say 'using a full party' because they are a support class - no good in solo or small group adventuring. But they can get most of the best spells in the game via instruments - which means they can spam them once you put the inevitable stamina-regen necklace on them, and with those items unlike normal casters they are fully rested (stamina-wise, which is their 'mana') after each battle, rather than having a good chance of getting caught with no mana. What's more they can have decent hitpoints AND don't overlook them as a melee fighter with a sword (though bow is decent too). Fairly standard 'power-gaming' (not silly power-gaming but good to make the 1st playthrough easier) is to give the bard the cursed sword (that gives you beserk) you get in the bank vault. They'll use it almost the entire game and do awesome damage with it. The advantage of giving it to the bard is that on top of their being able to get decent sword skill, unlike other classes they don't need to change from melee to range when the mobs are out of melee range (the only disadvantage of that particular cursed sword is that you need to cast uncurse to unequip it - which makes it impractical for fighters/rangers etc who you want to switch to their bows/guns when creatures are out of melee range) - when the mobs are out of the bard's melee range the bard will be using the instruments anyway. Put the bard on the flank and the sword will guarantee that any mob that gets close enough to threaten that flank gets a smackdown, while the bard spends the rest of the time using instruments.

From memory - and I could be wrong - a bard also is a useable substitute for a rogue in that you can put the bard on lock-picking duties and they'll be good enough to suffice.

Also, have at least one mook - you'll need it for a quest. Best to make it a mook ranger - they'll primarily be a bow-user, but they'll be able to get a great two-handed sword that only Mooks can use as their back-up weapon when mobs flank them and get to melee range.

So, easy cookie-cutter party (easy early, decent middle, very strong late-game):

- fighter (focus on a melee weapon, but also give him/her a gun to take shots with while mobs are approaching - bows are more practical, but you'll have several other party members using those already)
- DON'T TAKE A VALKERIE - why? They ARE the best melee class in the game, and a decent caster, but you'll get a fantastic NPC one very early on.
- samurai if you want a 3-melee front line(could be another fighter, but just to mix things up - and so you have at least one crit-based melee class. Just don't go a lord - in Wiz8 valkeries do everything they can do but better) BUT I'd actually go ranger instead. Reason for this is that you can get a valkerie (as mentioned) early, and her and your fighter are enough of a front line. The bard (with cursed sword) and ranger can hold their own in melee enough that you can put them on the flanks and expect them to live if they do get forced into melee combat. And the ranger will do a ton of instant kills late game. Also, from the mid-game your 2nd recruited NPC can be a superb monk. That will give you 3 front-line classes and 2 hybrids (ranger and bard) that can survive if flanked. You really don't need that 2nd front-liner on creation. Go the mook ranger and if you want a samurai for coolness replace the fighter instead (will make the first dungeon harder, but progressively easier after that)
- 2 bishops, each focusing ONLY on 2 scpell schools. Basically one is your priest and one is your mage or psionic. In earlier wizardries that was a bad idea as bishops would get spells slower, but in Wiz8 it all depends on how many spell schools you spread yourself out over. So using a bishop with all the points in priest and something else, and another with all the points in 2 mage schools is just as practical as having a mage and a priest, except that you get more flexibility late-game. These characters are your 'long-term' investments - trust me, late game you'll appreciate them much more than a mage and a priest.
- bard - for reasons above
- either gadgeteer, or ninja. I prefer gadgeteer - they are both good ranged classes, but the gadgeteer gets some good 'spells' via crafted items that gives him more flexibility than the ninja

catfood said:
I'm a first timer with Wiz8 too, been playing the game for the last couple of weeks or so.

My party is like this:

- Dracon fighter: general tank

- Dwarf monk: at first I thought I made a mistake since I saw how I had to to wait 2-3 levels until I was able to increase his attributes, but right now he is my main killing machine and has the most kills

- HUman bard: probably my favorite representation of a bard in any game; at first I was using a bow but then I realised how awesome the instruments are and I'm using them almost exclusively now

- Rawulf priest: can heal, cast buffs, the usual stuff

- Hobbit rogue: I guess a party wouldn't be complete without a character such as this

- Mook psionic: insanity is awesome, nuff said

They are level 15-16 and playing on normal it's already too easy. The party I made seems to be of the cookie cutter kind, so you might want to try out something more exotic for some challenge. Right now I'm blazing through most enemies and I'm thinking of upping the difficulty level. As I understand it the beauty of the game is to make some non-conventional builds and see see how they develope throughout the game.

Unlike most modern games Wiz8 is simply huge, so make sure ou have enough time to play it. I've probably put at least 30 hours in it and I think I only finished about 60% of it, though a lot of that time was spent in battles.
 

DefJam101

Arcane
Joined
Nov 11, 2007
Messages
8,047
Location
Cybernegro HQ
Just installed Wizardry 8 a little while ago, have been playing it for a bit. It's actually pretty fun. Basically the first 'dungeon crawler' game I've ever played, and I got a few questions:

1. On the easiest difficulty, how difficult is this going to get? Should I be all set as long as I pay attention and don't make stupid mistakes, or do I need a carefully designed party and perfect planning to survive?

2. Is there any real dialog/storyline, or is it entirely just running around murdering as many people as possible until you level up or see the end credits screen? Been about an hour or two and my ship crashed on some fuckoff planet conveniently next to a dungeon of some sort. I went inside, found some bats and shit, and so far have no idea what's going on. Are there story parts in between these long combat/dungeon sections? Towns? Etc.

3. Is there any way to check for traps? I had to reload back a bit because this chest exploded and kicked the shit out of two party members. Does search mode automatically check for these or do I have to do something else, first?
 

Black

Arcane
Joined
May 8, 2007
Messages
1,872,791
I just got to Megaton, messed with the bomb and no one even cared. What the fuck.
 
Joined
Dec 29, 2006
Messages
372
If you like dungeon crawlers, this game is made of awesome.

1. I've always played it on the normal difficulty, so I can't say how much easier the lower difficulties are. However, on normal, I managed to make it through a significant amount of the game with only a three-member party (I quit before finishing), and without resorting to any real power tricks.

Wizardry 8 was designed quite well, and any group of classes should be able to make it through the game. The main thing to keep in mind with your characters is to focus. If you spread a character's skills and attributes all over the place, they won't do well later.

The enemies do level scale some, but there are restrictions on how they scale (its not a simple 1:1 ratio). There are enemies that will be extremely difficult; if you find some, you're probably in the wrong place. Its usually a good idea to right click on enemies, and figure out their level relative to you, although that's not always a great indicator. As I recall, Hogars are pretty low level, but can take out a party member of higher level in a single combat turn.

2. There is a storyline, and there's some pretty cool stuff going on with the different factions, but this mostly takes a backseat to the near constant killing. Even the towns are flooded with enemies. Make sure you have the utility that speeds up combat (Wizfast, I think). It will make long combats much less tedious.

3. I haven't played in a while, but I'm pretty sure some window pops up when you try to open a chest that's locked and/or trapped, giving you some options about what to do. You'll need someone good with the traps skill (whatever its called) or someone with the appropriate spell (Divine Trap?) to first figure out what the trap is. Then you need to disarm it.

I also believe some containers (like coffins) can be trapped, but you aren't given the opportunity to check for traps.
 

cardtrick

Arbiter
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
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Maine
DefJam101 said:
Just installed this game a little while ago, have been playing it for a bit. It's actually pretty fun. Basically the first 'dungeon crawler' game I've ever played, and I got a few questions:

1. On the easiest difficulty, how difficult is this going to get? Should I be all set as long as I pay attention and don't make stupid mistakes, or do I need a carefully designed party and perfect planning to survive?

Not too difficult -- play on normal for a more satisfying experience, even your first time through. The game is remarkably well balanced and is an impressive example of level scaling done right. The game really shines with strange parties, and most fights that seem impossible at first can be won with a change in strategy. Perfect party planning is definitely not necessary, although much of the fun of the game is in planning your party.

DefJam101 said:
2. Is there any real dialog/storyline, or is it entirely just running around murdering as many people as possible until you level up or see the end credits screen? Been about an hour or two and my ship crashed on some fuckoff planet conveniently next to a dungeon of some sort. I went inside, found some bats and shit, and so far have no idea what's going on. Are there story parts in between these long combat/dungeon sections? Towns? Etc.

Actually, yeah. Two towns, two faction basecamps, and assorted minor settlements. No peaceful areas, though -- expect to fight in town. (Although you should be safe in houses, and the townsfolk will come to your assistance in any fights.) Actually, this game has choices & consequences to put most modern RPGs to shame, including a main plot that allows siding with one of two factions and even playing them against each other in a really satisfying double agent experience. The dialog and the voice acting are fun in an over the top way. (If you've played Jagged Alliance 2, the voice actors in the game are pretty much the same, and the hammy quality of the acting is similar. The plot is a space opera, and the VA work supports that.)

DefJam101 said:
3. Is there any way to check for traps? I had to reload back a bit because this chest exploded and kicked the shit out of two party members. Does search mode automatically check for these or do I have to do something else, first?

Search mode doesn't check for traps, it checks for hidden items. (Although on your first time through the game, I would suggest bringing along a ranger, who will automatically search for you. And who is also a pretty kickass warrior, especially if he/she's a Mook.) Traps will be automatically checked based on your partie's highest skill level in "locks and traps" when you try to open a locked chest. You can boost this with the Divine Traps spell.
 

Nael

Arcane
Joined
Dec 12, 2005
Messages
11,384
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Indy
cardtrick said:
Actually, this game has choices & consequences to put most modern RPGs to shame, including a main plot that allows siding with one of two factions and even playing them against each other in a really satisfying double agent experience.

Don't forget that you can also set up an alliance between the Umpani and T'Rang ;)
 

SkeleTony

Augur
Joined
Aug 17, 2006
Messages
938
DefJam101 said:
Just installed this game a little while ago, have been playing it for a bit. It's actually pretty fun. Basically the first 'dungeon crawler' game I've ever played, and I got a few questions:

1. On the easiest difficulty, how difficult is this going to get? Should I be all set as long as I pay attention and don't make stupid mistakes, or do I need a carefully designed party and perfect planning to survive?

I never played on the easiest setting in any of the Wizardry games I played to which that option applied(7 and 8 only?) but I never had any problems in 8 on any play through with any party composition(though I never tried anything TOO wonky like an 'all fighter' set up or some such). Carefully designing your party is a lot of fun IMO but not necessary. You can get through the game without such micromanaging.

2. Is there any real dialog/storyline, or is it entirely just running around murdering as many people as possible until you level up or see the end credits screen?

I never really cared much how 'plotty' my CRPGs were but if you are into that sort of thing Wiz 8 is pretty decent. It is NOT a 3D Net hack or some such. Basically BOTH types of gameplay are rewarded.


Been about an hour or two and my ship crashed on some fuckoff planet conveniently next to a dungeon of some sort. I went inside, found some bats and shit, and so far have no idea what's going on. Are there story parts in between these long combat/dungeon sections? Towns? Etc.

Don't go straight into the monastery/dungeon. Beast up on those crabs outside first. Swim around a bit and find all the chests and crap outside THEN head inside and tackle the monastery-dungeon.

3. Is there any way to check for traps? I had to reload back a bit because this chest exploded and kicked the shit out of two party members. Does search mode automatically check for these or do I have to do something else, first?

I never got into rangers myself and never had any problems with traps but I don't remember what the skinny is with search mode and traps.
 

Xi

Arcane
Joined
Jan 28, 2006
Messages
6,101
Location
Twilight Zone
Something fun to try. Make a single character, put the game on easy, and see how far you get. Pretty fun. ;P

My last attempt was with a Lord. I didn't make it out of the monestary(Forgot to save!) but had he survived just a little longer, he would have no doubt been level 10-12 wearing all the best of gear I found. Pretty fun, and it's even plausible to pull off, but it takes a lot of save/reload frustration at times. Hehe, Wiz8 is RPG gold if you are willing to give it the time to grow on you. Fantastic experience!
 

Shannow

Waster of Time
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Sep 15, 2006
Messages
6,386
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Finnegan's Wake
When you try to open locks you should get into a lock opening menue. There should be something like a "check trap"-button. (Below the lock picking stuff, iirc).
Some of the trap symbols will be indicated. Choose the trap type to resemble the indicated trap components. Then you can try to disarm the trap.
The game is challenging on Normal but a balanced party should be able to get through if you accept that not every region is accessible by a low-level party ;)

Have fun, it's a nice game.
 

android

Novice
Joined
Apr 1, 2004
Messages
78
I would say that planning is quite necessary. When I played the for the first time I thought I already finished a handful of other rpgs, so this one won't be too hard, but I was a bit wrong. There are the basic character classes and the advanced ones that combine more professions (i.e. spellcasting fighter). I started with the advanced ones and almost made it to the end game, but not knowing exactly how to plan and advance my characters, they didn't really show their full potential. Now on the second run through I chose the basic classes and read some tips on levelling, needless to say they are unstoppable (and fun) now in the end game.

The key to character development, as it has been said, is to concentrate on the given class strengths. For example a fighter should get maximum Strength and Vitality from the beginning and train it to reach 100 as soon as possible. Then a new power skill opens up that can be trained. Also always use spells and train other abilities.
 

DraQ

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Chrząszczyżewoszyce, powiat Łękołody
1. It should be perfectly manageable even on hard, with way sub-optimal party, though some tactics will be neccessary. Feel free to play with any party you might desire, though it pays to have all the roles covered.

2. Dialog is basically TES-esque topic system, with full VO for every of the few NPCs you can speak with and ability to punch in your own keywords. Story is present, but don't expect to learn anything useful that soon. You're in Wiz8's equivalent of DF's Privateers' Keep.

3. Characters do tell you if the container is trapped, but the definition of "trapped" is somewhat strict and doesn't include, for example, a coffin filled with gaseous byproducts of decomposition.

Edit:
Whutz ur party??!1
 

Relayer71

Liturgist
Joined
Dec 23, 2006
Messages
538
Location
NYC
Make sure you focus on using crowd control/effects spells on enemies (and defensive spells on yourself!) - unlike most games these seem to be highly effective in battle in W8, moreso than focusing on purely damaging spells.

It can change the game from frustrating (especially with the amount of enemies you will sometimes fight) to enjoyably challenging.

Great game by the way, too bad they don't make them like this anymore :(
Always loved the dialogue system used.
 

DefJam101

Arcane
Joined
Nov 11, 2007
Messages
8,047
Location
Cybernegro HQ
DraQ said:
Whutz ur party??!1

No fucking idea to be honest. It's basically a bunch of furfags running around hitting people in the face with swords while some egotistical loser sits back and paralyzes/sleeps everyone in sight. I'm pretty much done with the top floor of the monastery now as far as I can tell. Not much time to play today, but it's been lots of fun. The atmosphere is very cool already, the dungeon actually feels like a dungeon, not just a random sequence of hallways. I've never been a "OMG, SPREADSHEETS!" type of gamer, but this has been pretty damn enjoyable so far.
 

Thrasher

Erudite
Joined
Jan 17, 2008
Messages
1,407
I finished my first playthrough a month ago. I thought the character development system was near perfect.

I would have preferred more story and less repetitive combat. But, the variety of tactics keeps it fun for a long time.

I definitely second installing the speed utility to accelerate monstrously long turned-based combat sequences (imagine 15-20 enemies at a time).
 

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