Wizardry The Wizardry Series Thread

[LarryTyphoid]

I'll get out of this castle one day.

 

[CHEMS]

I have these Wizardry games sitting on my library but never played them. What am i missing on?

 

[Butter]

I have these Wizardry games sitting on my library but never played them. What am i missing on?

Some of the best OLD SKOOL dungeon crawlers ever.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

I audibly laughed when I typed in "snoopcheri" at a particular encounter in the Wiz6 castle. Did not expect that to work. I feel like my notetaking is more diligent than most, so I wonder how many people had to go through this game with a cluebook.

 

[CHEMS]

I have these Wizardry games sitting on my library but never played them. What am i missing on?

Some of the best OLD SKOOL dungeon crawlers ever.

So i installed and played a little bit and you're right. This game's a true gem. Even though it's dated, the combat system feels fresh and fun. Did a party with a gadgeteer, fighter, lord, psionic, alchemist (i already jewed the shit out of the games economy with him, much like you can do in Aidyn Chronicles), and a samurai cat of course. Had to install a mod to speed the combat though, it was too slow.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

The mines in Wiz6 are killing me. I've had to mark each staircase alphabetically to avoid getting lost when constantly switching between floors. Before, my characters were making rapid progress, but the experience growth seems to have reached a plateau. This is especially bad because my ranger has been dead weight for a long time now and I've been wanting to switch him to a mage, but his intelligence is two points off the mark. Random encounters consist of me dumping all of my spell points into group attacks to end them as quickly as possible, and then resting 3 times to recover. I could probably make more use of debuffs like Terror or Itching Skin, but these seem like they're of limited usefulness.

 

[Decomposing]

Is it better to keep a pure Thief or is Ninja a better all around upgrade? I have heard Ninjas can't do lockpicking/trap finding as well as a Thief but I assume the benefits of a Ninja far outweigh that? Just wondering because it looks like getting a Ninja is a bit of a headache in terms of requirements. Meta knowledge is much appreciated.

 

[gman42]

Is it better to keep a pure Thief or is Ninja a better all around upgrade? I have heard Ninjas can't do lockpicking/trap finding as well as a Thief but I assume the benefits of a Ninja far outweigh that? Just wondering because it looks like getting a Ninja is a bit of a headache in terms of requirements. Meta knowledge is much appreciated.

In which game specifically? Wiz8 is the only game where they gave the thief some fun abilities and weapons that make him worthy to go through the whole game with. In pretty much any of the other games, it's really hard to find a good niche for the thief because they're lousy fighters with mediocre armor and HP, but if you stick them in back they're doing next to nothing.

 

[gman42]

The mines in Wiz6 are killing me. I've had to mark each staircase alphabetically to avoid getting lost when constantly switching between floors. Before, my characters were making rapid progress, but the experience growth seems to have reached a plateau. This is especially bad because my ranger has been dead weight for a long time now and I've been wanting to switch him to a mage, but his intelligence is two points off the mark. Random encounters consist of me dumping all of my spell points into group attacks to end them as quickly as possible, and then resting 3 times to recover. I could probably make more use of debuffs like Terror or Itching Skin, but these seem like they're of limited usefulness.

Have you considered a Bard instead? He'll learn Mage spells and only requires 10 INT. Plus you won't have all your other attributes drop like a stone like you would with the mage having no other base requirements (in general, switching to a basic class like this is a bad choice for this very reason).

 

[Decomposing]

In which game specifically? Wiz8 is the only game where they gave the thief some fun abilities and weapons that make him worthy to go through the whole game with. In pretty much any of the other games, it's really hard to find a good niche for the thief because they're lousy fighters with mediocre armor and HP, but if you stick them in back they're doing next to nothing.

Wiz 5 but this pretty much answers that lol much appreciated!

 

[octavius]

In Wiz 8 how does skill progression work?
In 6 and 7 some skills, like the weapons skills, increased by use, while others could only increase by spending skill points.
It's kind of nice to know beforehand, but I couldn't find anything about in the manual.

 

[Desiderius]

The mines in Wiz6 are killing me. I've had to mark each staircase alphabetically to avoid getting lost when constantly switching between floors. Before, my characters were making rapid progress, but the experience growth seems to have reached a plateau. This is especially bad because my ranger has been dead weight for a long time now and I've been wanting to switch him to a mage, but his intelligence is two points off the mark. Random encounters consist of me dumping all of my spell points into group attacks to end them as quickly as possible, and then resting 3 times to recover. I could probably make more use of debuffs like Terror or Itching Skin, but these seem like they're of limited usefulness.

Those pieces of limited use add up.

 

[Desiderius]

In Wiz 8 how does skill progression work?
In 6 and 7 some skills, like the weapons skills, increased by use, while others could only increase by spending skill points.
It's kind of nice to know beforehand, but I couldn't find anything about in the manual.

Steam forum dudes go into this at astonishing length.

Everything advances with use but the higher the governing stat(s) the faster it advances. Combat stuff goes (much) faster when you hit (so to hit bonuses are important, as are maluses to enemy AC), spells not so much, so fizzling big buffs before rest keeps them rising. Big thing is you don't have multiclassing to generate extra skill pts.

I've found a "rich get richer" approach to work well, where I put skill pts in weapon skills (and use skills that start with points) to increase hit chance which makes them rise faster which increases hit chance etc.. Pretty important to get Omnigun to suck less ASAP (as is getting Impaling Stones from Umpani early). Poison is a debuff.

 

[gman42]

In which game specifically? Wiz8 is the only game where they gave the thief some fun abilities and weapons that make him worthy to go through the whole game with. In pretty much any of the other games, it's really hard to find a good niche for the thief because they're lousy fighters with mediocre armor and HP, but if you stick them in back they're doing next to nothing.

Wiz 5 but this pretty much answers that lol much appreciated!

They did at least add bows and extended weapons in Wiz5, so that's better than nothing for a back row thief. IIRC the formula for trap disarming chances in the old games was AGI*6% for thieves and AGI*4% for ninjas, so it won't be awful if you switch, especially considering your agility will have to be 17+ at that point anyway.

 

[Desiderius]

Wiz 8 basic approach is to choose Stats based on what Elites you want to unlock, then skills based on those stats since they'll rise a lot faster. But some classes are locked into some skills so need to be careful.

Mook makes good Bard since no Speed skills, but Modern Weapon needs Speed so Felpurr better for Gadge for example. Gadge wants Eagle Eye so SEN will be going up raising Ranged Combat naturally, opening up pts for Locks and Traps. Etc...

 

[Lukifell]

Thief is actually pretty good if you’re playing ironman, or at least not reloading after every botched chest, which is how you should play a game like this, unless you’re like ten or something

 

[octavius]

I decided to use my imported party in Wiz 8 after all.
Spent quite a bit of time deciding on class changes, based on their stats and gear. The only powerful weapon transfering was the Spear of Death. Apart from that the only items of note were five Bard instruments and four Ankhs of Life.

My party from Wiz 7 were two Samurais, one Ninja, one Lord, one Valkyrie and one Monk.
I decided I need to develop a Priest ASAP (to get Cure Poison and Cure Disease) and I also needed a Bard to use all those nice instruments. A Ranger also sounded like a useful character, and there was a Bow in the first chest, so I ended up with this:

Rawulf Lord -> Priest
Felpurr Monk -> Bard
Mook Samurai -> Ranger
Fairy Ninja
Dwarf Valkyrie
Elf Samurai

Maybe I should have changed the Elf Samurai to a Mage to get more magic power?
Eventually I want to develop a Bishop and a Gadgeteer as well.

 

[HereticGuy]

What is your opinion about Wizardry 8 vs Wizards & Warriors? I remember something like David Bradley wasn't on Wizardry 8 but he developed Wizards & Warriors.

My first David W. Bradley game was "Dungeon Lords" at 2005. That game made my brain run away through my nose, so I was cautious any game has Bradley name on it.

 

[Red Hexapus]

Why not use Grid Cartographer or something similar?

Because Grid Cartographer costs money and only runs on Windows. Like I mentioned a couple of pages ago, I'm gonna develop an alternative that runs on Linux in school (can't be too hard, just need a program that puts squares together for my purposes). I have to do some gay beginner's Python class for awhile before I get to the good shit and I release that. Until then, I'm gonna be a fucking MAN and use pen & paper like it's 1981.

I call bullshit on that, it runs on Linux without any issues
https://gridcartographer.com/download/unix.html

 

[Carpincho Pampeano]

How's the gog version of wiz 6? i've been wanting to go through with the 6 7 8 trilogy for a long time.

 

[Strange Fellow]

I decided to use my imported party in Wiz 8 after all.
Spent quite a bit of time deciding on class changes, based on their stats and gear. The only powerful weapon transfering was the Spear of Death. Apart from that the only items of note were five Bard instruments and four Ankhs of Life.

My party from Wiz 7 were two Samurais, one Ninja, one Lord, one Valkyrie and one Monk.
I decided I need to develop a Priest ASAP (to get Cure Poison and Cure Disease) and I also needed a Bard to use all those nice instruments. A Ranger also sounded like a useful character, and there was a Bow in the first chest, so I ended up with this:

Rawulf Lord -> Priest
Felpurr Monk -> Bard
Mook Samurai -> Ranger
Fairy Ninja
Dwarf Valkyrie
Elf Samurai

Maybe I should have changed the Elf Samurai to a Mage to get more magic power?
Eventually I want to develop a Bishop and a Gadgeteer as well.

The hybrid classes are generally geared more towards combat than casting, so not having a pure caster outside of the priest means it'll take your party a long time to get to do offensive magic. You can get by perfectly well without it, though. It really is true what they say about Wiz 8, any party works. Also keep in mind that class changing generally sucks, as a class changed character starts with the new class at level 1, but with the XP requirements of their real level. Excepting a few powergaming tricks, it's not worth it.

Also, just in case you're not aware, I STRONGLY recommend getting the mods that speed up combat, Wizfast and Wiz 8 Enhancements. They're absolutely essential.
https://www.zimlab.com/wizardry/
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/wizardry-8-enhancements-a-call-to-arms.79581/

 

[Dorateen]

My first David W. Bradley game was "Dungeon Lords" at 2005. That game made my brain run away through my nose, so I was cautious any game has Bradley name on it.

D.W. Bradley is a genius developer, and should not be evaluated by Dungeon Lords, where perhaps he was losing his mind at that point. But his Magnus Opus is Wizardry 7, with the prior two Wizardry titles also being very good.

Wizards and Warriors is a fun crpg with outstanding dungeon design. Those locations are better than the dungeons in Wizardry 8.

Spoiler

 

[Poseidon00]

I think i'm finally going to beat Wiz 8 this time. The monk is really carrying me in the beginning before I have solid gear. Investing his points into psionics and letting his combat increase on its own. Already good enough at lvl 9 for consistent crowd control via psionics, and multiple hits per round unarmed.

Is there any way to start with one of the different scenarios? If I beat it and come back i'd rather not do the standard "new party" path again.

 

[octavius]

Also keep in mind that class changing generally sucks, as a class changed character starts with the new class at level 1, but with the XP requirements of their real level.

Hmm...I didn't know that last part. Still, I guess it will be worth it to develop a Priest and a Bard quickly, and later change them to more combat focused classes. I assume the Bard can still use the Music skill after class changing?

 

[Strange Fellow]

Also keep in mind that class changing generally sucks, as a class changed character starts with the new class at level 1, but with the XP requirements of their real level.

Hmm...I didn't know that last part. Still, I guess it will be worth it to develop a Priest and a Bard quickly, and later change them to more combat focused classes. I assume the Bard can still use the Music skill after class changing?

Yes, but it can't be raised further at all. Still, it's one of the few cases where a class-change can be beneficial, as instruments aren't restricted by class. Generally this is only done after the Music skill is nearly maxed out, allowing access to all the instruments. If you do it sooner, you'll miss out on the late-game instruments, some of which are extremely good. The Bard is an amazing class from beginning to end.
As for the Priest, he won't make a good physical fighter as he'll have pitiful HP and unoptimised stats. If made into a Bishop, he'll start training in the other schools from scratch, so he'll be lagging way behind everyone else in the party, as well as the level of enemies you're likely to be facing at that point. You'll never get access to the high-level spells in other schools. If you wanted a healer who can also do attack magic, starting out as a two-school Bishop is much better and won't lag behind nearly as much, if at all.

Also worth noting is that the Valkyrie is a very decent caster in her own right, as buffs and healing are often cast outside of combat and can be allowed to fizzle, which means that Divinity is much easier to level than the other schools for a hybrid. Valkyries are also good enough fighters that you can spend all their skill points on magic and leave the physical skills to level by use.