Wizardry The Wizardry Series Thread

[Zboj Lamignat]

As always, most of those "how things work" revelations regarding Wiz8 are bs if only because, as you have mentioned, levels play a huge role. And crit builds in Wiz8 are super unreliable and always vastly outperformed by raw damage. That's why if you want it, you should go for both. Like staff monk, for example.

 

[grimer]

wish there was a mod for 8 that allowed you to dual wield frontier phasers like in 7 since ranged weapons can actually get additional "swings" now and would've made for a sick ranger build

 

[TheDeveloperDude]

but I don't think there's any class that's unworkable, unless you intentionally fuck yourself out of equipment by creating a faerie fighter or something.

Solo faerie fighter play

 

[TheDeveloperDude]

I do not understand 2 things in this video,
1. How does he avoid the combat, slipping through the monsters?
https://youtu.be/TjmVjSX1gcA?si=AzIdaGOswoshb-K-&t=1010
2. Why is he repeatedly pressing combat start - end, start - end?
https://youtu.be/TjmVjSX1gcA?si=xXbDdl7S4gDPgzvg&t=2235

 

[Jack Slash]

I do not understand 2 things in this video,
1. How does he avoid the combat, slipping through the monsters?
https://youtu.be/TjmVjSX1gcA?si=AzIdaGOswoshb-K-&t=1010
2. Why is he repeatedly pressing combat start - end, start - end?
https://youtu.be/TjmVjSX1gcA?si=xXbDdl7S4gDPgzvg&t=2235

There is a decent explanation and more examples in this GOG thread with tips on Iron Man runs.

To quote a couple of examples:

Fang and the boomerang shuriken can be looted from the temple without ever fighting anything by combat running from the entrance to behind a post, behind a post to both stairs to the loot, then from behind the stairs on the left to around the corner to the mummies.

On that note you should abuse combat run. It allows you get a visual on mobs without triggering actual combat, and it also allows you to put up an element shield, soul shield, and haste before the mobs can act.

So you just avoid the combat entirely by triggering it before the mobs act, then ending it outside of the enemy field of view (around the corner, behind a post, etc.).

 

[TheDeveloperDude]

I am trying this solo lizardman fighter. It is difficult. And I do not understand, in this video Gregor is usually defending and rarely attacking 1-2 times on expert difficulty. Now I am playing on normal difficulty and Gregor always attacks me 3 times. I am Level7.
https://youtu.be/nK4k4K9npZ8?si=Dq0jEHrGlQg8HoVl&t=1063

 

[grimer]

finally completed my playthrough of 6-8. was disappointed bela didn't recognize my party until i gave him the ring even though we travelled the galaxy together after 6. ascension peak and rapax castle were such a slog that i had to force myself to get through them even though i really like the combat in this game. i understand that they increased the encounter rate drastically to make these areas seem dangerous and discourage rest spamming (which i never did btw - completed the game on day 20) but players can just use the portal spells to rest somewhere safe anyway. imo they should've just placed more difficult encounters that don't respawn (e.g. a few more fights against armies of rapax/savant robots that don't respawn or bosses like the gorrors in 7/hall of the dead guardians in 6). rapax castle felt like a nice homage to the castle in 6 though with its cult theme and symbols of horned creatures (goats/rapax) as well as all the keys and secret passages.

insane ramblings about the lore (contains spoilers)

the ending felt contrived to me as with a few other events in the game (e.g. how the astral dominae is obtained). i was expecting the dark savant to be werdna instead lol. would've been cool to tie up the series like that. also how the fuck did dracula and xorphitus manage to steal the cosmic forge in 6 without the 3 artifacts? i know they hadn't come up with those yet but they probably could've retconned it by saying phoonzang attempted to take it with him or something. otherwise, it implies that those two know of another way to gain access to the cosmic circle but somehow phoonzang, who possesses all knowledge of the universe, doesn't. according to the manual in wizardry 6, they learned of its existence from a demon that they killed in another realm. was that one of bela's parents? iirc both him and rebecca are half-demons but rebecca is the daughter of the queen (demon) and the vicar. but then someone in wizardry 8 (marten i think) says that bela is the descendant of a cosmic lord so was that the "demon" they killed?

i think speed might be overrated for spellcasters. i prioritized increasing it to 100 asap along with intelligence for my bishop to unlock snake speed early and start training it but there were still plenty of enemies faster than her. granted she was on blue encumbrance for most of the game which incurred a slight penalty to initiative but its hard to avoid with her low strength and all the items you pick up (especially ammunition for ranger/gadgeteer etc.). by the end of the game, she was unencumbered, had the snakeskin boots equipped (+10 speed, +20 snake speed) and even increased her senses to like 70-80 for even more initiative bonuses and some enemies on ascension peak were still faster. this was on normal difficulty btw and i assume enemies are even faster on expert. i ended up just relying on chameleon and initiating combat around a corner to cast element/soul shield before moving into their line of sight which was useful for training earth magic on my ranger too and managed to increase it to 95 at the end.

 

[luj1]

i actually liked 6 more than 7 or 8

 

[TheDeveloperDude]

If I have a dagger +4 initiative, is it faster equipping that when I cast a spell? Or the initiative of the equipped weapon does not count at spellcasting?

I have a 6 psionics party. Can I recruit Myles and Vi? Or that is cheating?

 

[OndrejSc]

 

[prayerupondeafears]

I have finished all of 6-8 through one party. It did feel an actual journey through all these games, and seeing how time and technology evolved through them. I was going to rank all three games, but that would be unfair as they all had their all interesting quirks and details to them. However, the peak for me was 7. That game is so unique with the pseudo-open world at the time, and all the faction relations. It offset the emptiness and desolation of the cities, and made the world feel alive, but dangerous to traverse. It had some of the hardest challenges Bradley ever threw at me, but I resolved them by going somewhere else and continuing to progress, and I never really grinded at all until the last area before the Savant fight. It has the most brutal difficulty curves, but I enjoyed it for challenge. Bradley turned me into a masochist.

8 was also very good, and I liked the flexibility it had with difficulty, ensuring that if you messed up a build or something you can still progress no matter what. Some of the dungeons were not up to par with those of 6/7 like Mt. Gigas and the mines, but it felt like they were focusing on an overall experience rather than smaller, confined dungeons. I felt disappointed a bit with the factions, as there was less variety and less interesting encounters you could do in 7. It mostly felt like they were quest givers instead of the illusion of living, breathing creatures. The combat was a little below that of 6/7, due to the jankiness of the movement (I kept bouncing of enemies when I went at them at an angle, and Trynton NPCs would block the passages annoyingly enough). Movement was still cool because it added another layer of strategy with positioning and not getting surrounded by many enemies. I did feel it could be expanded more than just funneling in enemy by enemy through a chokepoint.

6 is the most primitive, but I definitely started to enjoy it more after I left the mines. The Temple of Ramm was absolutely brutal, and I did find myself grinding a bit, but that is the only part besides the beginning I did that. I was about to give up, but I eventually got to the end. Retrospectively, I do see it as a solid basis for which 7 expanded on it.

I am glad I went through all of these. I am going to give 1-5 and maybe some of the JP spinoffs a try sometime, and see how they compare.

 

[grimer]

I have finished all of 6-8 through one party.

what was your party? i'm always curious to see what other people played with

I felt disappointed a bit with the factions, as there was less variety and less interesting encounters you could do in 7. It mostly felt like they were quest givers instead of the illusion of living, breathing creatures.

i felt the opposite here because in 8 you can actually have a conversation with npcs and ask for their opinion on various things including events from the previous games.

 

[OndrejSc]

Imagine when GPT is incorporated into Wizardry IX, you'll be literally able to ask anything.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

Trynton NPCs would block the passages annoyingly enough

Those bastards made me enjoy pickled trynnies.

 

[prayerupondeafears]

I have finished all of 6-8 through one party.

what was your party? i'm always curious to see what other people played with

I felt disappointed a bit with the factions, as there was less variety and less interesting encounters you could do in 7. It mostly felt like they were quest givers instead of the illusion of living, breathing creatures.

i felt the opposite here because in 8 you can actually have a conversation with npcs and ask for their opinion on various things including events from the previous games.

For my party
Wiz 6:
Human: priest -> lord
Felpurr: bard
Dracon: mage
Lizardman: samurai
Dwarf: ninja
Mook: ranger
Wiz 7:
Human: lord
Felpurr: bard -> mage -> priest
Dracon: mage -> alchemist -> ninja
Lizardman: samurai
Dwarf: ninja
Mook: ranger -> alchemist -> monk
Wiz 8:
Human: lord
Felpurr: priest
Dracon: ninja
Lizardman: samurai
Dwarf: ninja
Mook: monk -> alchemist

You can tell I abused a lot in 7 for my spellcasters, otherwise it was very minimal class switching.

I do like that feature of 8, where the keywords are displayed and you can ask them anything. That was a nice improvement from the previous games.

 

[Desiderius]

Trynton NPCs would block the passages annoyingly enough

Those bastards made me enjoy pickled trynnies.

Just rest for a click and they move along.

 

[Desiderius]

As always, most of those "how things work" revelations regarding Wiz8 are bs if only because, as you have mentioned, levels play a huge role. And crit builds in Wiz8 are super unreliable and always vastly outperformed by raw damage. That's why if you want it, you should go for both. Like staff monk, for example.

Critical Strike is for small parties where you have many high HP foes outleveled and need to dispatch them quickly.

Basically all the Nip classes are better the smaller the party.