Ok, I wiped my HD recently and wizardry 8 was the first thing I reinstalled. I wanted to go with a new party formation this time as the last party I had was a little lopsided. My fighter killed everything and didn't leave alot in range for the rest to hit. Anyways, I plan on sticking my lizard fighter out front, dual wielding swords and maces and using a shield on the big guys in the beginning. In the middle I have a ranger, gadgeteer, and ninja shooting everything in sight. In the back is a bard and a bishop casting boosters and the odd damage spell. I figure with decent pickpocketing and working the rangers alchemy up to decent levels I can afford to make crossbows for the ranger and bard. In the last party, I got ironskin, but it hardly advanced since my fighter was using shields. Hopefully with him being the only guy in the front IS will fly up pretty quick. Anyways, I plan on picking up Vi and RFS monk later for Melee support. Lemme know what you think,

Cornbread

"Ok, I wiped my HD recently and wizardry 8 was the first thing I reinstalled"

Brilliant move!! Your new HD is all set to go!

Your party sounds like a decent mixed Melee-Ranged type, but I'm not an expert. I usually play Magic-Heavy parties (specialist casters, Bard, etc.), but your party concept sounds really fun, too!

Go for it.

With proper development, that party will have no trouble at all. You may not even need both Vi and RFS.

<center>Nightowl2</center>

Yeah, I gotta find something to distract me from getting pissed off at Windows XP. Damn thing doesn't recognize any of my old drivers. Anyways, It is alot of fun so far, I ran out of shurikens pretty fast, but got that first sling and use that to raise throwing with my neeeeeenja. I am still trying to decide if I wanna go melee with the bard later on or keep it going with missles. I Like the idea of 2 triple crossbows, but I gotta find something to do with bloodlust whenever I find a better sword. I just hope I don't have any ammo problems down the road with all these missle users.

Cornbread

FWIW I usually put ranged specialists like the Ranger and Gadgeteer (and Ninja if I want to build up Throwing & Sling) in the back, and put the casters in the middle. Ranged shooters in the back row don't turn forward when they shoot (though they do if they use a melee weapon), so they're still facing backward in case something moves around to/sneaks in from the back. Also, the Gadgeteer is usually holding a shield, as is the Ranger until the Giant's Sword shows up. They're just as effective at shooting from the back row as from the center, and they're a much better rear guard than the caster types. Also, most caster types will be carrying a Staff (or maybe a Bullwhip), so they can still "reach out and touch someone" from the center should you be so inclined.

I suspect that in a relatively magic-light party like this ("magic-light" in the sense that the focus is pretty clearly on hitting, throwing, and shooting for damage rather than casting damage spells), you'll find that the Fighter is still doing most of the killing. The shooters & throwers will get the occasional Instant Kill, but otherwise they won't be generating hundreds of HP of damage per round; your Figher will be.

If you have two triple crossbows, ammo for them may become a problem. I recall how fast my own team went through bolts (arrows?) with those things. Whoosh!

But it sure was fun!

<center>Nightowl2</center>

Yeah. What I did was start buying Hunter Quarrels from Anna as soon as I reached Arnika, and squirrel them away in Antone's treasure chest. In the meantime, I used the much-more-plentiful plain Quarrels while the shooters' skills were coming up to the point where they could actually hit something. By the time I had Triple-Shot crossbows and was facing higher-level enemies, I had over a thousand Hunter Quarrels in stock. Likewise with Ferro's Lightning Bolts: they're the best crossbow ammo in the game, so buy them every time he has them.

I did the same thing with Musket Balls from Burz and Kunar; I left the Monastery with something like 300 Musket Balls, and picked up several hundred more from Kunar in various visits. Although it turned out that Musket/Blunderbuss ammo wasn't really a problem: the characters that can use those weapons are also primary melee types, so they typically only used their ranged weapons a couple of times per combat. In contrast, a high-level Ranger in the back row can go through 50+ bolts in the course of a not-all-that-long engagement.

Of course, you don't want to try to *carry* several hundred each of bolts, arrows, and balls; use the T'Rang teleport to get back to Arnika, or stash the spares on the floor in the teleporter room.