Game News Wizardry 6-8 Released on GOG

[cvv]

That sounds a bit more like Wiz6/7 mechanics...

Hm, haven't played Wiz8 for ten years. I assumed the crappiness of Bishop is a constant.
I might've perpetrated and act of misinformation though

 

[TigerKnee]

Bishops are broken in 8 IMO and almost makes most of the "pure" mage classes obsolete.

The only disadvantage is that they are really terrible early game but if you are willing to sacrifice A BIT of late game power then level 1 Mage -> level 2 Bishop fixes that problem and is just about the only useful class change in the game (for a 6 men party).

Oh and I guess if you're new to the game it's really easy to frag up their skill distribution by spreading out too thinly (a weakness which they share with Ninjas). But as long as you just focus on 2 schools you should basically do fine. It's probably the only time I would intentionally use the Psionics spell school - as a supporting school to another one (it really doesn't stand alone very well IMO)

Don't listen to any nutter who tells you to go 4 schools and grind like crazy as a Bishop, by the time you finish doing that you might as well beat the game.

 

[Black]

I found playing with "impure" classes such as samurais, alchemists etc to be more entertaining than pure classes. It sucks shit early when you can't even cast x-ray but later it's more rewarding.

 

[TigerKnee]

Alchemists aren't impure at all. They're like the purest form for the Alchemy spell school.

There sure is a ridiculous number of impure Alchemy using classes though. Weird.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Alchemist is a pure class

About bishops - they have a potential to be op and indeed make pure casters obsolete, but:

- they basically require cheese/grind to develop properly and that's something I personally dislike
- highest exp requirement
- they have awful class specials, worst in the game imo
- they require books, books, books and then more books, before you can buy them books, they suck

 

[TigerKnee]

About bishops - they have a potential to be op and indeed make pure casters obsolete, but:

- they basically require cheese/grind to develop properly and that's something I personally dislike
- highest exp requirement
- they have awful class specials, worst in the game imo
- they require books, books, books and then more books, before you can buy them books, they suck

Like I said, use 2 school bishops. They're significantly less grindy and you don't need to "book" as much. Highest EXP requirement sucks I guess but on the other hand it's more time to up your skills before level scaling kicks in, if you ask me.

As far as crappy class specials go... sure, I guess? But if the basis of comparison is Bishop vs Pure Caster specials then... it's not really looking that terrible (Whoa, 5% more resistance to all elements! Immunity to mental status ailments? If only that was on my Lizardman Fighter instead!)

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Well, the pure caster specials might not be anything great, but at least they have a sweet bonus to their respective schools. And I think that psionic's inherent resistance is quite cool, as he will always be able to cast souls shield or sane mind (unless he gets outright killed, which admittedly can happen:p). Bishop gets bonus to artifacts... Tantamount to bard's communication bonus.

 

[DraQ]

That sounds a bit more like Wiz6/7 mechanics...

Hm, haven't played Wiz8 for ten years. I assumed the crappiness of Bishop is a constant.
I might've perpetrated and act of misinformation though

A grave one, yes.

Bishop has bloated XP requirements and sucks serious balls in early game but 2-school bishop quickly becomes competent at casting, effectively allowing you to cram two casters in a single slot, while 4-school bishop may retain his suckiness for quite a while and may require some rigour from player (holding onto spell picks) but will become yor one stop magic shop.

I even played an unorthodox build - a Dracon 4-schooler. Not particularly fast to develop, and I never even achieved powercast (because I scrapped the party to restart with similar one recently - also with this guy), but once I started buying books the dude started to get pretty powerful.
My reasons for following build were following:

1. I like dragons (duh).
2. Dracons have acid breath, compensating for his near uselessness early on (few spells and not a lot of SPs, meaning casting once or twice and then just hanging in the back) and turning him into one stop AoE shop. I think he amassed the largest bodycount of the entire party at least for the first several levels. Acid breath also makes character relatively unhindered by cursed weapons, because the character retains ranged capabilities even when out of spells.
3. Dracons makes for a much sturdier casters than it's usually the case meaning our bishop doesn't get killed by stray projectiles, AoE or miscasts, which is quite important for party's one stop magic shop.
4. Dracon will probably fare better when he has to stick staff in someone's face. Staff as in "Staff of Doom" for instance.

An extreme slow-burner - first 3 levels spent getting out of negative character points, then 13-14 levels to merely unlock powercast, but if I'll ever try to solo Wiz8 with a 4-school bishop, this is going to be my build.

BTW: What happens if you have a solo Mook in Arnika or when you take Marten's Idol while soloing?

 

[Black]

Yeah, my alchemist was a bad example, I meant classes like samurais, ninjas, monks etc.

 

[Mangar]

So, anyone else ancient enough to remember these?

 

[octavius]

So, anyone else ancient enough to remember these?

Still have them, some even filled out.

 

[Al3xand3r]

I just got to the tree city and frame rate tanks whenever a couple groups interact up in the high walkways (bugh 2 atm or whatever). Any ideas? Like, it happens if two patrols have to pass through each other in opposite directions, or sometimes if I initiate battle with some enemies and friendly AI happens to be around. It even just crashed for me while fighting some tree sprites. I encountered similar situations in previous areas, fighting maybe three groups of enemies alongside friendly AI patrols, and it didn't cause this.

Edit: I tested again different things, it was the sound device. I was testing RAD 3D audio since it said it functioned but it causes that issue. I reverted to Miles 2D audio and it's been smooth like previously since.

Those Leaf Sprites (or whatever) are murdering me if they surprise me in combat!

 

[DraQ]

Keep your magic screen up when walking around. Cast elemental shield ASAP when in combat.

 

[eric__s]

So, anyone else ancient enough to remember these?

Ahaha, oh man, awesome find.