Wizardry The Wizardry Series Thread

[Reality]

I think that Russian Roulette thing that Biogoo did on youtube was pretty cool. I kind of wonder if a reclass every* level joke charather would work to similar effect, but it would probably end being more annoying than fun.

*Level 2 in every class before being allowed to get level 3 in any one class, and so on.

 

[Dungeon Lord]

Wizardry 8 - Heatwave trap has triggered
138 potions are destroyed
Who shall compensate my damage?

 

[SausageInYourFace]

So, I was thinking about finally attempting my Wiz7 playthrough, because I know if I don't do it now with all the time on my hands I'll probably never find the time and patience to finish it.

So far, I have just been fucking around a bit with my characters, refamiliarizing myself with the systems and trying to learn the (pretty clunky) keyboard controls. I still got the basics of the system down but I was wondering one thing:

I imported my old Wiz6 crew, they are all level 5 now. I was wondering if it's a good strategy to just run with these guys for now or if I should respec a couple of them immediately. Not sure what's the more optimal approach here, it bugs me that I have no Thief and I would like to have a Bard also. Do these level 5 classes even make reasonable XP during the beginning of the game? One of the things that also makes it more complicated is that if I turn them now, they can not use their imported weapons anymore.

Kinda wondering what's the usual way to go about these things.

My crew atm:

Rawulf Lord
Rawulf Valkyrie
Felpurr Samurai
Fearie Ninja
Dwarf Monk
Elf Bishop

Kinda thinking about turning the Samurai into a Bard and the Fearie into a Thief. I should also probably turn the Bishop to a Mage sooner than later but I don't want to right away because I need his magic at the moment.

Any suggestions? Not looking to powergame by the way, just want a chill playthrough really.

 

[octavius]

Tough choice.
You need prestige classes to wield the imported weapons, but prestige classes level slower and gain less skill points, which again means longer time until you can cast vital spells like Cure Poison and Cure Disease.
So maybe a mix? Which weapons have you imported?

 

[SausageInYourFace]

My Lord has The Avenger sword, my Bishop has a Holy Basher, my Ninja a Bushido Blade, my Monk the Death Spear, my Valk has Meanads Lance and the Sam has Murasamas Blade. Some of these seem to have special powers but I didn't invoke them upon equipping because I wasn't sure what they did.

Just from exploring New City a little I notice that a couple of the fights are pretty tough even for my important team, so I have half a mind of just keeping them in their classes for now.

 

[octavius]

IIRC, the Muramasa was very powerful, the Avenger less so, and the Lance even less so, while the Death Spear was nothing special. Don't remember about Holy Basher and Bushido Blade. My instinct would be to convert the Bishop or Monk to a Priest to get those healing spells ASAP.
The Valk already level quite fast for a prestige class, so she's a safe bet to keep along with the Samurai IMO, and probably the Lord too.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

What about Thief/Bard for chests and doors? Can I just use the Ninja or substitute magic?

One more stupid question: I notice that my Bishop and my Samurai have single digit vitality (7 & 9) as opposed to around 15-20 on the others. I suppose I didn't pay enough attention to deaths in Wiz6. Is that going to bite me in the ass in the long run or not that big of a deal?

 

[octavius]

It's not as VITal as in Wiz 1-5, since there's no chance of permanently losing characters to botched Resurrections (you can even cast it during combat).

Anyway, this very useful Abandonia post by an astute autist should answers most of your questions about the game mechanics of Wiz 7.

 

[Reality]

The last time I played Bradley Wizardry I remember taking two Mages: One as a no reclass guy who took till level 12 to get his first level 5 spell - the 2nd mage went lvl 7 Mage > lvl 7 Priest > lvl 7 Mage > Lvl 7 Priest for the SAME amount of experience points, and had every spell for both classes. He had about 30 more HP too, which was nice for not dying to enemy fireballs and stuff.

Starting the game with a newly created hybrid party would annoy me because of the slow spells, but the import bonuses should solve most of the problems - Having all the instant KO import weapons is nice, and imo the Lord/Valk should be good to go - 90% of the time I only care about Dispel Undead / Silence / Cure Poison from Priest magic anyway - it's mostly the Samurai who I expect to suffer in your group.

As far as Magic on Doors and Traps - I think that Wiz 7 splitting skill points into physical/academic lets you put "forced" points into the skill, so it's less awkward for hybrids to level than in Wiz 6 which always makes me feel like I'm taking away from your bard's thaumtrgy / ninja's kirijitsu. On the other hand Knock Knock is kind of a simpler option all around, especially by the time Chests start having Fire Bomb and higher Traps.

 

[Dungeon Lord]

Deathstalker mod 3.0
At the Rapax Rift somehow Myles got angry with me and left my party. HLL attacks me as well. Why?
He is a gadgeteer and he was skilled only in locks and traps.
na, this is "great".

 

[gman42]

Wasn't there also some Wiz6->Wiz7 bug where the imported level 5 characters have some nerfed stats where the game behaves as if they're lvl 1, then it all reverts to normal once the characters gain a level? If it seems impossible I'd grind easy battles to get everyone up to lvl 6, and then see how they look.

 

[Grauken]

The Cosmic Forge editor has lots of bug fixes for both W6 and W7, wouldn't play the games without them

 

[cvv]

What about Thief/Bard for chests and doors? Can I just use the Ninja or substitute magic?

You absolutely don't need Thief if you have Ninja with lockpicking.

Also my experience in Wiz7 was always much better with a new party. The imported one always felt way too OP in the first 1/2 of the game. Plus ofc it renders almost all loot pointless since you only start finding better gear than what you've imported in the very endgame. Your call.

 

[Dungeon Lord]

Deathstalker mod 3.0
At the Rapax Rift somehow Myles got angry with me and left my party. HLL attacks me as well. Why?
He is a gadgeteer and he was skilled only in locks and traps.
na, this is "great".

I have recruited Madras, Level 8 Gadgeteer. He has 24 lock skill. Because he is afraid of the Rift, he has only 4 lock skill. It's great, isn't it?
And now .. let's grinding! I will have been lockpicking for a week!

 

[SausageInYourFace]

Since the idea is to play through all the Wizardry games with the same party, I'll stick to my imported guys. I don't mind them being strong, I figure the game is hard and long enough as it is. Unfortunately, the Ninja has no lockpicking for whatever reason, trying to substitute with spells for now but I can't really cast the spells often at a high level. I guess that won't be a problem for long tho.

For now, I have respeced the Monk into Priest and the Bishop into Mage but I might respec the other characters too, eventually, since the skill point gain seems to be reeeally slow going.

Done with the New City for, onwards to Orkogre castle we go!

 

[cvv]

Since the idea is to play through all the Wizardry games with the same party, I'll stick to my imported guys.

That makes sense, altho when I did that I remember just starting every fight and then holding ESC. Fighting was incredibly boring for 3/4 of the game with the uber-godly weapons you import.

Also two tips for imported parties - make sure you don't use up all the charges on your Diamond Ring and that you import it to Wiz8, there's an interesting lore titbit tied to it. Also make sure you get the Elven Bow and import it too, it's the best bow you can have in Wiz8. Makes the grindy fights with Rapax so much more bearable.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

I don't even find combat that boring, maybe I just suck.

Unfortunately, I didn't bring a Diamond Ring apparently. Not sure why, my Wiz6 playthrough is too long to remember what was connected to it. I have a 'Ring of Stars' tho.

 

[cvv]

Ring of the Stars is standard, you have to jump through some ridiculous loops in W6 to get the Diamond Ring. I don't even believe anyone can get it without reading the guide so yeah, no wonder you don't have it if you're going blind.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

So what is the benefit of the Hands & Feet skill is as opposed to using a good weapon?

 

[octavius]

Higher chance of criticals, maybe?

 

[SausageInYourFace]

It is a mystery, as far as I can see, it doesn't say anywhere in the manual or clue book what hands & feet really does.

 

[Strange Fellow]

It counts as dual-wielding, doesn't it, so it has a higher chance to trigger a critical. Also, while it might not be better than a good weapon it will be better than a bad one. I got good mileage out of it in 6 and as far as I got in 7. At least you can rely on it never having to be replaced, so you'll never fall behind the curve carrying a subpar weapon because you haven't found an upgrade of the right type.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

The Cosmic Forge editor has lots of bug fixes for both W6 and W7, wouldn't play the games without them

Thanks, just got around to applying all the patches. Somehow forgot about even though I used it for Wiz6.

It has a long list of modifications too, are these recommended. It gives detailed technical explanations what the mods do but no reasoning why they do it or why one should apply them.

 

[Grauken]

It has a long list of modifications too, are these recommended. It gives detailed technical explanations what the mods do but no reasoning why they do it or why one should apply them.

It's really up to you, the descriptions give you a pretty good idea of what they are about. If you're really not sure start playing without them and once you played a bit you get a good feel for whether you want these changes or not (because some are not reversible, although you can just keep a copy of your game files in a different folder to play it safe).

 

[cvv]

It has a long list of modifications too, are these recommended?

Yes, most of them. There's a mod that adds some extra areas but last time I played I found them unfinished and super lame so it's up to you. I think there's one that makes you recover all mana during sleep. It makes the fighting completely pointless once you get the mass destruction spells like Asphyxiate or Nuclear Blast because then you just queue up Nuclear Blast, hold ESC until everything is dead, sleep, replenish all mana, rinse and repeat. Magic in W7 is balanced by the fact you can only replenish mana with magic food.