Wizardry VIII

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Sun Jun 13, 2010 2:12 am

I'm considering replaying it, with this party: Lizardman Fighter, Draconian Samurai, Halfling(female) Bard, Human Valkyrie, Monk (race not decided) and Faerie Bishop. I'm also picking up a Rogue and a Gadgeteer as NPCs.

I'm not sure about the Monk yet: Should I pick a Ranger instead? Overal, I was more impressed with Monks. I know there's an NPC Monk, but he lacks spellcasting, which I like. If I pick Monk, which race should I pick?

Also, I used to rely on Jandrall's Wiz VIII site, but it's down. Does anyone have another source with all the number crunching?

Thanks in advance!

Gilliatt · Post by **Gilliatt** » Sun Jun 13, 2010 11:49 am

I don't know if it will answer your questions, but that's the place I go for informations about the Wizardry games:

Wizardry | Prepare Yourself for the Ultimate in Fantasy Games | Wizardry

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Sun Jun 13, 2010 12:32 pm

I got that website. While it has good maps, it lacks the "crunch" of the numbers.

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Sat Oct 09, 2010 8:50 am

A bit late but here's a useful site, and here's another one.

I've been experimenting with a solo character recently, here's a few observations.

If you start with just one character it's murder, if not impossible, the level of monsters thrown at you is just too high. I bumped into Metalic Slimes almost as soon as I entered the Monastry at 5th level.

On the other hand if you start off with a complete party and immediately get five of them deadified it's a whole new ball game. It's as if the game has a safety switch which tones down the level of opposition to enable your sole survivor to reach safety and resurrect the rest of the group. This safety switch is switched off in some areas, Arnika, Mountain Wilderness and Bayjin etc.. I have been able to play through to the point when I just need the Destinae Dominus prior to assaulting Rapax Rift. I have the Chaos Molirim, Astral Dominae and the Serenity Helm. I've also rescued Sgt Glumph and given the coordinates to Z'ant. The T'Rang and Umpani want me to destroy each other, but I'm considering rescuing Rodan and Drazic. My problem here is that I need to do a lot of XP farming first, and in most areas all I'm running into are low lifes, and in the 'No safety switch' areas, me and my Elemental Lord find it very tough going, I keep having to hit and run (return) back to Marten's Bluff, tedious. I'm still far from convinced this is rally doable through to the end.

There's an amusing glitch I discovered whilst experimenting. If you start with a full party and use a game save editor to set everyone else's hit points to zero the game can't figure out if they're dead or not. As a result the party still shows up, but dimmed any unmoveable, on the formation screen, but the deaders are represented by skulls. However you can't resurrect them, but here's the killer. If your live character is in the centre circle, and you have a deader in each of the other segments nothing can touch you with short attack weapons. This cause the monsters to keep retreating, then charging again, then retreating, ad infinitum, or at least until you've killed them all. Missile users and magicians can still get you though, of course with 100% magic resistance (Magic Screen+Elemental Shield+Soul Shield) and Missile Shield they don't do much damage to you (still does some, no such thing as 100% in this game).

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Sat Oct 09, 2010 10:21 am

Thanks for the links!

mtl1969 · Post by **mtl1969** » Wed Nov 17, 2010 9:29 pm

Wizardry 8

I played this wonderful epic game back in 2004, and I cannot stress enough the need for ranged players. I cannot count the number of times the enemy was out of melee range and I only has a couple spellcasters. Go with the ranger and you will have a bowman for ranged attacks who can also use a sword. I also has a valkyrie that was proficient with a staff weapon which gives some more range as well. I simply loved this game and remember defeating Werdna the mad overlord in my very first computer game wizardry in the eatly 80's. Good luck and good hunting.

Michael

Scottg · Post by **Scottg** » Fri Nov 19, 2010 12:54 am

Here is a guide I posted on another forum quite some time ago..

http://www.ironworksforum.com/forum/sho ... hp?t=45921

Note that it is NOT like other Wizardry 8 guides.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Fri Nov 19, 2010 9:07 am

Thank you! Your link had a link to exactly what I was looking for: the contribution of each stat.

doady · Post by **doady** » Tue Nov 30, 2010 6:14 pm

mtl1969 wrote:I played this wonderful epic game back in 2004, and I cannot stress enough the need for ranged players. I cannot count the number of times the enemy was out of melee range and I only has a couple spellcasters. Go with the ranger and you will have a bowman for ranged attacks who can also use a sword. I also has a valkyrie that was proficient with a staff weapon which gives some more range as well. I simply loved this game and remember defeating Werdna the mad overlord in my very first computer game wizardry in the eatly 80's. Good luck and good hunting.

Michael

Valkyries should be use polearms, not staves.

You don't need a ranger for ranged attacks. ALL your characters should be equipped with ranged weapons, for more damage and more skills development.

Fighter, lord, valkyrie, samurai, bard should be equipped with bows.
The ninja should be equipped with thrown weapons in BOTH hands (daggers, shriuken, darts, etc.).
The magic specialists should be equipped with slings.

All characters, except the fighter, should also be able to do a crazy amount of long-range damage using magic, gadgets, or instruments. So the ranger is not a necessity. I think gadgeteer is a better option than a ranger for a ranged specialist anyways, unless you really need that melee power...

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Tue Nov 30, 2010 6:36 pm

Rangers do have the ranged criticals which no one but Ninjas have. Sparkle has saved my bacon more than a few times with her instant kills.

Ranged weapons for all is definitely a must though, this is even more important if you are using mods like Dodd the Slayer's. The game has two types of protection, one for melee weapons and one for ranged weapons, and the latter is far weaker and easier to penetrate.

PS I really recommend the Cosmic Forge editor, you can get it through here. for one thing it allows you to edit the NPCs so they will go everywhere with you, which gets rid of one annoyance. Vi Domina should still be left where you find her though, she really is an annoying wench at the end of the game, and the editor can't help with that. the editor actually allows you to level Urq and Tantris up so they are actually viable RPCs too, and you can even make RFS-81 useful, by turning him into a Gadgeteer for instance, or making him 'human' so he can cast spells.