I'm just venturing under water for the first time, and these critters (death rays and brother rays and such) keeping kicking my posterior all to heck. Any suggestions on what's the best way to deal with them, and the psionic critters I've seen roaming as well? My team is about level 15 or 16 I think, and consists of one samurai, one fighter, one valyrie, one bard and two bishops (plus two whining and complaining tag-alongs - Myles and Vi - who are only along to carry stuff for me). Help??

there are three useful and relatively low level magic defense spells that your bishops should have by level 15 or so; Soul Shield, Magic Screen and Element Shield which are all 4th level spells.

Magic screen can be cast outisde of battle so you should have it up once you get into the water. this is a general anti-magic spell.

Soul Shield and Element Sield can only be cast in combat so you should try to get them up in the the first round. soul shield will protect the party from the psionic attacks of things like psi sharks. the rays either cast psionic spells or water realm spells (can't remember) which is where the element shield protection comes in handy. i seem to remember other rays which didn't cast spells but relied heavily on missile attacks so having missile shield up in advance (it too can be cast outside of combat) might also help.

more generally, if you have saved recently before going into the watery sections then you could try playing from the reload. the random monsters vary each time you enter the new area so you could try saving just before entering the water section and then hoping for a less tough group.

Insanity or turncoat are the spells I am most afraid of in Wiz8. Once a fighter gets insane, you either need a fast caster (at least faster than the fighter) with 'sane mind', or you have to run away (or stay and watch the fun when your fighter attacks the rest of your group). Soul shield and magic screen protects a little, but be prepared to run, unless you have a fast caster, or another fast character with a ring of sane mind.

a little trick that works with characters gone insane is that you can still order them into defensive mode for the following rounds. that way they won't/can't attack other members of your party while still insane.

unfortunately it doesn't work with turncoated characters 'cos you've no control over them at all.

Dunno if you would have it yet, but eye for an eye [also available as a potion and gadge item, come to think of it] is great fun against the psi critters: have had as many as 7 of 8 die in a single round when one of them tried to death wish my party...

Remember: right clicking on an opponent once you have decent mythology will give you a list of its resistences: very handy for figuring out what spells will have the best effect.

If I remember right, death wish and death cloud were the best 'first strike' spells against them. If you are playing a typical party made up of both casters and fighters, you can also use the casters to keep the fighters going [or keep the enemy off balance with silence, insanity, etc.] and let the fighters do the acutal damage.

Oru