Wizardry The Wizardry Series Thread

[Paula Tormeson IV]

What's hard for me to get into Wiz6/7 is trying to make a strong party while coming up with own ideas for character builds instead of reading up some walkthrough. I know now it is important to plan ahead for class switching and to have 20+ bonuses. Anything else?

Well, I'm going to beat these games without intial 20+ bonuses, at least (edit: except I did get some such bonuses). I may switch classes at some point, but I haven't made any such plans.

My fairy ninja already has 17 strength anyway, even though he started with 14, so the initial abilities perhaps don't matter THAT much, at least if you have good karma (i guess). (Not to mention he has 90 points in hands & feet, and close to twenty in kirijutsu, and plenty in ninjutsu ... at lvl 6.)

 

[Ammar]

I am aware that it is in the manual, but I've never had an attribute decrease when playing the game. If it's Vitality that's dropping my first guess would be that the character died and got ressurected.

 

[mondblut]

Never ever saw an ability decrease at levelup in Wizardry 6 or 7. Since it's vitality, that's clearly the case of dying, not leveling.

Of course, your stats are reset back to race+class default once you swap class, so use that huge bonus you've got for your infant class wisely.

Ability increases are highly random, as are skill bonuses. The later are strongly influenced by class, though - as a warrior-type you'll be casually getting 10+ for weaponskills but much less for physical and mental (academia?), rogue-types excel at physical and pure spellcasters naturally at mental skills. As for growing with use, the exact algorhythm is hard to tell, but I can assure at least weapon and magic skills do eventually reach 100 if you use them heavily even if you didn't invest a single point in them at levelups after unlocking them. Same for swimming and climbing. Several skills, however, apparently do not build with use, or simply lack enough opportunities to do so.

 

[Mackerel]

Rolling for hours is a good idea...
A better idea nowadays is to use a program called "Mad God's"somethingsomething editor. You can probably find it with Google. It allows you to hack the character generation to dramatically increase your chances of a "good" roll. You will roll only 17-28 or such using that hack. I do not consider it cheating since you'd normally end up rolling for hours on end hoping for a 20+ roll anyway.

I think it's called Mad God's Cosmic Forge editor, I used it when replaying Wiz7 last year. Would have been nice to have that option way back, I remember making up lyrics for the music that plays during character creation, after hearing it so much.


It's 19/21 bonus points required for a male/female Faerie Ninja if I recall correctly.

 

[Paula Tormeson IV]

WTF have I been writing here? Gee, I really should sleep more.

 

[sirfink]

I didn't realize you lost Vitality from dying/resurrection. Kinda hard not to die when you've got 1 hit point at level 1! And here I thought that Amulet of Life you get at the beginning was quite handy.

 

[Mangoose]

Thanks for the advice. I hope I bookmark it well because first I have on my list Avernum 6, KotC, maybe Wiz8 (because the party banter sounds appealing). Also have some MoM (i think IV to VI or something?) from the GoG sale.

 

[Paula Tormeson IV]

I've had some other things to focus on, so I haven't been playing anything for the past couple of days, but...

What are the skill limits in these three Wizardry games? I would recall someone said something about 100. But my lvl 6 fairy ninja already has 90 in hands & feet, so hopefully that's not the limit in Wiz7 at least.

 

[Fowyr]

What are the skill limits in these three Wizardry games?

100
And you lost most of the skill after transfer from Wiz6 to Wiz7.

 

[Paula Tormeson IV]

What are the skill limits in these three Wizardry games?

100
And you lost most of the skill after transfer from Wiz6 to Wiz7.

Are you allowed to keep all of your equipment?

I think there's a mod for Wiz8 that raises the skill cap. Or maybe it was some other game but ... does anyone know of a similar mod for Wiz7, something that would also let the monsters gain higher skills to keep the balance?

 

[Fowyr]

Are you allowed to keep all of your equipment?

No, you keep one or two random items for each character. And Diamond Ring. I remember reloading like mad to save several parts of mantis armor and Psi Crystal.

I think there's a mod for Wiz8 that raises the skill cap. Or maybe it was some other game but ... does anyone know of a similar mod for Wiz7, something that would also let the monsters gain higher skills to keep the balance?

But really why? When you reach 100 in arms&feet take nunchakas or wakizashi. Grinding one skill all the way to over 9000 simply retarded. You find weapons better than arms&feet pretty fast. Spear of Death, No-Dachi (if ninja may use this) and more...

 

[Paula Tormeson IV]

Sounds reasonable. Thanks.

 

[Jasede]

I believe when you import characters you import 20% of what that skill was into 7, same from 7 to 8. So if you had 100 Kirijutsu in 6 you start with 20 in 7, which is helpful. There are some new skills and some consolidated skills, you determine them by means of the mean, if I remember right.

As a small piece of advice, you can choose to import specific items to 7 by stripping your party of everything but the items you want to try to import. Every character gets at least 1 item, in addition to the ones that always import. I also think all potions import always, and scrolls. I wish I remembered this a little better to give some more clear advice. 8 is a bit more harsh when it comes to stripping items, but this general advice still applies, I think.

Having some strong weapons at the start of 7 is very helpful as the game is tremendously difficult compared to 6.

 

[sirfink]

Just finished Wiz 6 and imported into Wiz 7. Everyone's level 5. Skills (most of which capped out at 100) are at about 33-35. You keep 3-5 items, including some of the good stuff. Mostly armor and jewelry, it seems. I don't think you retain any of your weapons.

Wiz6 was fun, overall. My biggest complaint is that every dungeon, every wall, every door in the whole game is the same gray bricks. Forest, swamp, ancient Egyptian pyramid, you name it. It's all gray bricks. Which makes it easy to get completely lost.

 

[dr. one]

finished the game as a kid on Amiga without a walkthrough in about a month.
iirc i mapped everything.
replayed it about 5 years ago in Dosbox.
great game.
quite interesting story, solid character development, battles and puzzles of just the right difficulty, relatively nonlinear progression in each of the main areas.
since i didn´t know jackshit about powergaming, underestimated party rolling, never switched a class etc., the game got pretty difficult in later stages and i usually won the hardest battles with just a fighter standing.

Wizardry 7 took me about 9 months btw

 

[Mangoose]

Is it cheating to look at maps online or do I have to be good and map my own maps?

 

[sirfink]

Go ahead and look at maps online but it doesn't do you that much good. The mines are a real bitch. Even with maps you find online it's difficult to keep track of where you're at, especially as the entire game is the same gray brick walls. The mines have 30 staircases or so on 4 levels. Holy crap did that suck. Well, still a fun game but the mines were torture.

 

[Paula Tormeson IV]

If the maps include quest-item locations, then that's certainly cheating.

I think it will actually be more difficult to keep track of where you are if you use ready-made maps, since they don't show where you've already been. If you map the dungeons yourself, you're guaranteed to know where you haven't been, at any rate. Just remember to add your own notes.

And as the manual says, "Mapping can be an important, enjoyable and interesting pastime." :D

Actually, I recommend reading that part in the manual, as it gives a good example of how mapping should be done.

If you were adventuring in wild dungeons irl, you would probably have to draw your own maps complete with notes as well.

 

[Mangoose]

Okay okay self mapping it is.

What are the "necessary" classes for a party?
Is a Thief necessary for Skulduggery or are the other classes (Bard, Ranger, Ninja) good enough?
How strong the hybrid types in their spellcasting, such as Ranger with Alchemist spells?

 

[sirfink]

Skullduggery is pretty important. I never bothered with Knock Knock or Divine Trap spells, so I'm not sure if those could substitute skullduggery. Probably not.

What I found was that many skills, including combat skills, go up through use. So just fighting with a sword increases sword skill pretty rapidly. No need to put points into those skills.

Magic skills, however, never seemed to go up through use. Kirijitsu (the instant-kill skill for Ninjas and Samurai) also never goes up through use. Never! In other words, put all your level-up points into those skills. That way, a Samurai, Ninja or any of the hybrid classes can become awesome spellcasters who also happen to be more capable of combat than a pure spellcaster. My party was pretty much all hybrid classes and they did quite well.

 

[sportforredneck]

Have played the game the entire life, only have beaten it twice. It is a game I have an endless fondness for.

And magic skills do go up through use, and if I remember, Kirijitsu also does, but not very much, since it would only go up extra if you get a lot of criticals.

 

[Paula Tormeson IV]

Knock Knock

Knock Knock has been the surest way of getting doors open in my experience.

 

[Mangoose]

Hm I'm thinking about a party like this:

Valkyrie
Samurai
Monk
Ninja
Priest
Mage

I'm trying to have options from all four spellbooks with emphases on Mage and Priest spells.

My concerns are:
Is the Ninja good enough at Skulduggery?
Do the Monk or the Ninja have any ranged damage capability (as one of them would have to be 4th and thus in the back line)?
Do I have too many elite classes for a starting party?

Edit: Just realized that the manual is wrong and Valks start with Pole & Staff skill. So I could put her as the 4th and still hit from the back line. However, that means the other less armored fighters are getting hit. Are the three Asian classes strong enough to tank?

 

[Calem Ravenna]

Is the Ninja good enough at Skulduggery?

The ninja has a decent amount of skill points if I recall correctly, but you'll have to invest them in a lot of skills. Unlike the thief, a ninja doesn't get free points in skulduggery each level (talking about wizardry 7 here, no idea if those bonuses are in wiz6, haven't played it much).

Do the Monk or the Ninja have any ranged damage capability (as one of them would have to be 4th and thus in the back line)?

They can use shurikens, most bows and slings. Monks can also use crossbows. For attacking from 2nd row you can also use stealth or give the monk a staff - there are some really strong ones later on.

Are the three Asian classes strong enough to tank?

Monks and ninjas have ridiculous AC once their ninjutsu reaches high levels. I think it goes even lower than fighters/lords/valks in best plate. Not as many hit points though.

Samurais are quite crappy in this regard. Late game chest and leg armor is strong, but they have a very limited choice of gloves, boots and helmets. They have a nice amount of hit points, but still less than lords or fighters.

 

[Jasede]

Personally, I regretted having a Samurai at the front on my 6-7-8 playthrough. He was sort of a glass cannon- unlike the Monk and Ninja who held their own in 6/7. He felt more sturdy in 8 but I still don't quite recommend the class. It's hard to make him both a good spellcaster and melee fighter in 8, but maybe that's just me. Especially my Valkyrie did everything he could, at range, with better AC and with more helpful spells. I really do like Valkyries in these three games, though.

By the way, if starting 7 with your party from 6, you might not want them all to be elite/hybrid classes like I had (Sam/Mon/Nin/Val/Ran/Bis). It made 7 very very difficult for me to start out with, since they felt less good at melee than the pure classes and their spellcasting needs a long time to come into its own. Then again, maybe 7 is just that difficult at the start no matter what.