Wizardry The Wizardry Series Thread

[Hobo Elf]

Everyone knows that a full party of Bards is the way to go.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

Must haves:

Psionic:

Mental status attacks are extremely, extremely nasty in this game - probably the most potent tool in the enemy's arsenal from midgame on. Psionics are immune to them, can cure them, and have a multitarget buff that increases resistance to them. Don't be caught without these things. Aside from that they're one of the 4 dedicated, specialized casting classes and they do magey stuff. Direct damage, some minor healing (available from L1 for what it's worth), a couple decent full party buffs, powerful but inaccurate mental status attacks.

Intelligence, Peity and Senses are the most important stats. vitality and speed are okay. Strength and dexterity are your dump stats, they don't do shit for a psionic. Faerie is probably the best race for them, while Mook, Elf, Felpurr and Dwarf (...) ain't bad either.

Fighter:

Classic tank, and there's a front row to put him in. Damage is inconsistent due to berserk but averages out to "pretty good". Needs high strength, dexterity and vitality, speed's also nice.

Lizardmen and Dracons are recommended by the game as fighters but ignore that. They are weak to mental attacks, which is a horrible weakness to have. Better to instead pick a Mook or a Hobbit (yes, those short little fuckers with hairy feet. They are amazingly effective fighters - almost on par with lizardmen and dracons in terms of raw stats and without the awful weakness.) Mooks are better tanks (thanks in part to mental resistance) while hobbits dish out more pain.

Fighters blow at dual wielding, so skip that skill... specialize in your weapon of choice and maybe shields (sword and board style and 2H weapons are reasonably balanced with each other). Swords are the easiest weapon type to find good weapons for, but if you're using a samurai your fighter would have to compete with him for the good swords, so consider a different weapon class in that case.

At least one of Bard or Gadgeteer:

These classes use items to cast spells. Good ones. There is quite a bit of overlap between the items the two classes get (powerful multitarget healing, decent attack magic, mediocre status, strong, similar buffs), so it's not so essential to take both classes (though it's not a bad idea either), but you want one. They also have limited thief-type skills, and there's an awful lot of them for an actual thief to spread his points around, so picking up some of that slack is valuable.

Both classes need strength (for lugging shit around - their items are kind of heavy, also they take stamina which strength boosts), intelligence and dexterity, and don't totally neglect vitality. I like gnome and human best for races, hobbit and mook are also worth considering.

Aside from these essentials the classes are pretty well balanced so just cherry pick advice in this topic while vaguely trying to balance your party. A few things to keep in mind are that you can recruit up to two party members if you don't mind diluting your experience a bit. A competent Valkyrie and a trashy thief are available very early, a very good monk is available somewhat later, and a good ninja is available in the lategame. None of the other RPCs really stand out.

 

[Castanova]

I'm still chugging along (slowly). Did Arnika, visited the Umpani Base Camp, and now I'm in Trynton. My suggestion is not to take a Bard since you can just recruit Saxx at the Umpani Base Camp. Between my Dracon Fighter and my Samurai wielding Bloodlust, I'm grinding up baddies like cake. Game is significantly easier now than it was when I started.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Saxx is poo. I'd rather not waste a good party member slot on a mediocre bard. I'd rather take my own bard and then get a good party member like Vi or that robot.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Saxx is poo. I'd rather not waste a good party member slot on a mediocre bard.

Not to mention a sudden kick to the balls when he decides to leave

I'd rather take my own bard and then get a good party member like Vi or that robot.

I'm currently doing a second replay, and even though I really wanted to get henchmen other than Vi and RFS-81, I still ended up taking them, they are just TOO awesome

 

[DraQ]

Not to mention a sudden kick to the balls when he decides to leave

This.

they are just TOO awesome

They are just too reliable, as well. Vi only leaves for Bayjin and Rapax, RFS only for Rapax away camp.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Vi only leaves for Bayjin and Rapax, RFS only for Rapax away camp.

Fortunately, there's always set/return to portal :D

 

[DraQ]

Vi only leaves for Bayjin and Rapax, RFS only for Rapax away camp.

Fortunately, there's always set/return to portal :D

And "Hold this giant silver nugget/pile of plate armours and let's run around for a while".

 

[Black]

Must haves:

There are no must haves in Wizardry.

 

[Jasede]

Must haves:

There are no must haves in Wizardry.

 

[DraQ]

Must haves:

There are no must haves in Wizardry.

 

[Castanova]

Fuck, Saxx leaves? God dammit. No way to hold on to him? I've already got Vi. Who should I get to replace Saxx, the robot? Who's the fucking robot??

 

[DraQ]

Fuck, Saxx leaves? God dammit. No way to hold on to him?

Almost all the RPCs have some areas they won't enter. There are methods to keep them (portals, unconsciousness), but they will be adversely affected by that. At best, they will be fucked up stat-wise, won't allow you to dismiss them and generally whine a lot and gods, they can be annoying. There is at least one RPC that may even attack the party.

All in all it's best to make your party as self-reliant as possible and treat RPCs as welcome (XP-sucking ) addition, rather than integral element of the party.

I've already got Vi. Who should I get to replace Saxx, the robot? Who's the fucking robot??

You'll learn.

 

[Nael]

Must haves:
Fighter:

Classic tank, and there's a front row to put him in. Damage is inconsistent due to berserk but averages out to "pretty good". Needs high strength, dexterity and vitality, speed's also nice.

Lizardmen and Dracons are recommended by the game as fighters but ignore that. They are weak to mental attacks, which is a horrible weakness to have. Better to instead pick a Mook or a Hobbit (yes, those short little fuckers with hairy feet. They are amazingly effective fighters - almost on par with lizardmen and dracons in terms of raw stats and without the awful weakness.) Mooks are better tanks (thanks in part to mental resistance) while hobbits dish out more pain.

Fighters blow at dual wielding, so skip that skill... specialize in your weapon of choice and maybe shields (sword and board style and 2H weapons are reasonably balanced with each other). Swords are the easiest weapon type to find good weapons for, but if you're using a samurai your fighter would have to compete with him for the good swords, so consider a different weapon class in that case.

While, like others already said, I agree that there are no must haves in Wizardry games that is good advice on fighters.

Halflings are surprisingly awesome fighters. Hell, my halfling rogues are better "fighters" than my actual fighters. So in essence my advice if you want easy mode would be to go with at least 2 halfling rogues, and 1 tanking fighter (Mook), and then pretty much whatever the fuck you want.

 

[Wyrmlord]

I'm still chugging along (slowly). Did Arnika, visited the Umpani Base Camp, and now I'm in Trynton. My suggestion is not to take a Bard since you can just recruit Saxx at the Umpani Base Camp. Between my Dracon Fighter and my Samurai wielding Bloodlust, I'm grinding up baddies like cake. Game is significantly easier now than it was when I started.

And I presume it will remain easier.

As far as Wizardry 6-7 goes, these games end up quite easy once you sunk your teeth into them completely.

It's the starting ordeal of the player which counts.

 

[Jaesun]

I remember once having Sax in my party... in a LOL I'll add Sax in my party then let him die and get his FUCKING AWESOME Instrument!

 

[Andhaira]

In Wiz8 does putting pts in dual weild for a ninja count towards unarmed combat? I'm focusing my ninja on stealth and critical strike and ofcourse throwing stars. But I want something for melee comabt and was wondering if I should go unarmed and use dual weild with that, or should I pump daggers and go with sais?

 

[DraQ]

Does putting pts in dual weild for a ninja count towards unarmed combat? I'm focusing my ninja on stealth and critical strike and ofcourse throwing stars. But I want something for melee comabt and was wondering if I should go unarmed and use dual weild with that, or should I pump daggers and go with sais?

Unarmed doesn't use dual wield.

Also, obligatory :banandharia:.

 

[Azrael the cat]

If your ninja is a fairy (and ONLY if it is a fairy), you will definitely want to boost your staves skill. You'll spend most of the game wondering what I was on about, but eventually you'll see.

 

[DraQ]

If your ninja is a fairy (and ONLY if it is a fairy), you will definitely want to boost your staves skill.

This. Staves, dual wield and possibly some extra weapon skill like sword, dagger or mace&flail.

 

[coldcrow]

Only to realize that you are playing Ironman and a certain shady character doesn't drop it this game.

 

[Andhaira]

I don't want the corpus cane. Also I am not a fan of faeires (though faeirie mages are cool)

So I guess I should dual weild throwing stars only then with the ninja? I guess I will still pump his unarmed skill since I really dont want the ninja to weild anything. Though how long before you get sais in the game? (its been years since I played wiz 8)

 

[sirfink]

You can dual wield throwing stars! A lot of people don't know this. Actually, any two throwing weapons giving you more attacks and more chances to insta-kill. So yes boost up dual wield. Ninja's a really point-starved due to all the skills you want to increase, but you might consider something besides martial arts for melee combat. You can dual wield staves (some are 1-handed, including the corpus cane). Nunchukas are also cool to dual wield.

 

[Andhaira]

How soon can you get sais?

 

[Jasede]

The Corpus Cane drops so rarely you might as well ignore its existence unless you're one of these retards who reload ten times to get it.

Ninjas are /shit/ in melee in 8 otherwise; a much, much better idea is to train their Dual Wield and Throwing as everything thrown by a ninja gets a critical kill boost AND auto-penetration, making it by far more effective than any melee. The Wizardry 8 Ninja is no longer as good in melee as his brothers from 6 and 7 and 1-2-3-5 - he is a throwing specialist and should be used as such for full effect. He who wants unarmed melee is better off with a Monk.