MrRichard999
Yep. I make it my duty to slaughter them alllll. so far not a one of the 3 different adventurer groups i've massacred has left behind anything better than a shitty Headband.
Shackleton
go back and re-read the party I'm using. I'm using a super classic, super "optimized" party that is front-loaded for melee damage and survivability for the beginning portion of (this Wiz) game; the same type of party composition works on any Wiz-clone / dungeon-crawler:
front row consists of:
- (race is irrelevant) Soldier class unit using the best 1h sword + the best shield currently available to me, w/ plate mail and shit
- (race is irrelevant) Sword Master class unit using a 2h War Hammer, but is squishier than the Soldier due to not having armor class points from a shield; also the Sword Master class is very obviously meant to be the BARBARIAN class, as it is a class that cannot equip heavy armor but is one of the very few classes that specializes in using 2h weapons.
- (Thief-race character) Priest class unit using a Mace/Flail + 2nd best shield available + heavy armor (though not plate); although this guy is in the front rank he rarely actually executes a melee attack. the reason he is in the front row is because Clerics (Priests) can equip medium to heavy armor
and Clerics/Priests also get access to Shields so that means Wizardry clerics (unlike Elminage: Gothic clerics) are ready-made to stand in the front row and deflect blows due to their Fighter-like Armor Class... if the Encounter is going well then he will just spam a low-key melee atk, but otherwise while the Soldier, the Swd. Master, and the rest are fighting/receiving dmg this guy is casting DIOS every turn.
now for the back row:
- in the back row we start with a (race irrelevant) another Soldier class unit, this guy however is using an M-range spear. This means he can fight from the back row and deal roughly the same equivalent DMG that the sword + shield Soldier and the 2h hammer Swd. Master deal to the enemy. being a Soldier class (i.e. a Fighter) his A.C. is naturally excellent and is only limited to the loot you've found. This is the point in a Wiz party where some people would cry foul and exhort me/you to feature a diverse group or whatever, and have every class/race represented: that is entirely up to you. There is absolutely nothing wrong with using 2x or even goddamn 3x times the exact same character class (3 fighters up front, cleric/mage/thief in the back, hehe); the whole point is to later class Change both of the soldier units into something else like a Lord (or whatever the Lord-equivalent is in Chronicle) or a Samurai-equivalent, etc.
- then my Thief using a short-bow. I did not pick the Thief-race for the thief and instead chose the race that says in the description is suited for warriors/soldiers; i made the thief a Saddaqamqa-whatever because thieves do only 2 things: a standard melee atk and disarming chests. In this Wiz game they took away the Thief ability to Hide in Plain Sight which is a real crime, so during char-creation I picked the saddaq race for maximum STR/VIT attributes and then distribtued accordingly and basically built the Thief exactly like you would build a Fighter (Soldier/Swd. Master). his contributions w/ the short-bow so far have been perfect, not too much but more importantly always enough dmg to validate his existence. I do admit that running w/ an anti-Thief Thief makes every chest a possible party wipe but i'm used to this kind of tension. The single most important stat in a dungeon crawler utilizing Wiz-clone mechanics is VITALITY, and i always make sure every one of my chars has as much VIT as possible so they can get as many Hit Points as possible during those extremely crucial first 4 or 5 level ups.
- finally my Mage, since his atk would be useless and since dressing him up w/ robes/etc doesn't make any real difference A.C. wise I have long taken to just rolling through these games w/ Mage-types completely naked. This guy just casts either Katino or Halito every single round, and if the encounter seems guaranteed then he just Parries instead of wasting a spell.
all told thats 4 melee attacks, of which 3 are from "Fighter" classes, and the other melee atk is from a front row "Cleric"; the other two characters are the thief shooting arrows every round or alternating with using potions of dios on the party members when needed, and the Mage spamming katino/halito.
Most people are satisfied with only having 3 melee attacks per turn by using the traditional Fighter-class 1/Fighter-class 2/Thief-class and in the back using the traditional Cleric/Mage/Bishop. This means that this party i just described only has 3 concrete dmg melee atks when a round starts, as the back row Cleric's melee contributions will be wholly dependant on whether or not you find M-range weaponry for Clerics in the game (in Elminage: Gothic for example there aren't; however they did this on purpose in order to make it harder as the previous Elminage games all feature M-range Maces/Staves for Clerics); the mage will be doing the same thing he/she does in my group and the bishop is, as always, completely useless except only for convenience and identification.
truth be told i want a Bishop in my Chronicle party though, but i can't figure out how to roll one during char-gen. I'm starting to think the Bishop-equivalent character class needs to be "unlocked" in some way first.
What I would normally do during a regular Wiz playthrough is turn 1 of those Soldier chars into a Samurai, and turn the other Soldier guy into a Lord or a Valkyrie, and then I would switch the Mage to a Cleric once he/she masters all of the Mage spells and then probably do the same vice-versa thing with the Cleric, i.e. turning him/her into a Mage once all of the clerical spells are learnt. However sometimes you can get lucky with good level up rolls and that Cleric might qualify for a Samurai or a Lord or a Valkyrie class in which case there is no reason whatsoever not to change into one of those.
the goal w/ the wizardry Thief is always the same one: eventually turning him/her into a Ninja class equivalent, and/or failing that turning the Thief into whichever magic-user class you want once your original Mage or Cleric masters their spells, and then switch one of THEM into the new party Thief.
i don't know how viable this pretty normal/traditional Wiz approach to a basic party will go in Chronicle as the classes are quite different but some general things I always hold to be true: "jack of all trade" classes such as Rangers and Bards tend to be worthless. They don't quite scratch the itch, so i prefer using "basic" classes for the beginning portions of the game(s) and then mid-game (or sooner) have almost everyone change into an Advanced class.
I'll fix that. Also, awesome job on reporting that!
I might knock it back to 3 times a second actually, that cost me a lot of gold!
