I recently bought this excellent game and am having a bit of trouble starting out.
To cut it short i die way too much and need a bit of friendly guidance on how to stay alive in combat.

Also:

Is there any advantage to having a small or large party?
What would be the best mix to have?
Are any classes better to have than others and what are the definates?

Any help would be appreciated.

cheers

For a lot of good tips read the Beginner's Reference by ScottG which can be found stickied on top of the Wiz8 forum, or here

Thank you

Hi there Margawr, welcome to Wiz 8! (sorry about spelling)

I recommend a full party at first. Have at least 2 healer types like a bishop or priest. You will need some good fighter types like lord, fighter, etc. I like bards and rogues, too. Here are some good sites with tips:

http://wiz8.web1000.com/

http://www.geocities.com/shau185/index.html

http://www.iosphere.net/~eric/wizardry/

http://www.flamestryke.com/wizardry8...trykes_w8.html

[ 11-01-2004, 10:49 PM: Message edited by: Ziggurat ]

I had a hell of a time starting out, myself. Even on easy, with a party I thought was very well balanced. Ranger, fighter, priest, bard, samurai, valkyrie (all races that had pretty good bonus points for the particular profession, I wanted it easy). I ended up running away from most fights by level 8, and reloading a lot from losing most/all of my party because the monsters were just too strong.

Anyway, point is that I leveled up immediately whenever anyone had an opportunity, and the monsters did as well - and my skills were too low to keep up with the new mob strength. So now I go, level 4 or 5 and stop leveling and finish off the monestary and get to arnika, level to 6 before entering because you'll get better stuff from chests and merchants as far as I know. Spend some time in arnika leveling skills up into the 50s for your primary skills (weapon skills for fighters and magic/sling for casters)and you're probably good to go. Just try to avoid leveling up your characters until you are actually ready for tougher monsters =)

[ 11-02-2004, 01:06 AM: Message edited by: Ferret Druid ]

Balanced? Quite melee-heavy, i'd say.
You lacked offensive magic. On level 5, a mage can have group attack spells in 4 realms (fire ball, shrill sound, whipping rocks, magic missiles). This helps a lot in upper monastary and arnika road.

Thanks for all your help guys.
I started again last night with a party of Six.
Rogue, Fighterx2, Lord, Ranger, Mage and found it a little more easy.

I actually made it to Arnika and have levelled up most charachters to 8-9.

Thanks again

I think for your first game it's best to go with a 6 character party, that way you can try as many different characters as possible.

Definate characters you would want are a priest and mage to make sure you've got a good mix of offensive & defensive magic. Probably best not to go with a bishop as they are slow to develop and work better in smaller parties. Psionics & Alchemists are less useful than Priests or Mages, you could maybe choose a Monk or Ranger if you wanted someone to cast these spells.

I would suggest something along the lines of 2 specialist casters, a bard for their instruments and rogue abilities & 3 melee types

I think my first party was Priest, Mage, Bard, Valkeryie, Monk & Samurai which worked very well. Ranger is also worth considering because they automatically search which is good in your 1st game when you don't know where the hidden items are and they can also mix potions which is useful if you need money.


As for combat tactics, if you find yourself overwhelmed by weight of numbers, use spells that will disable the enemy allowing you to concentrate your attacks on those that still pose a threat before you mop up the rest. Spells like Sleep, Web or Paralyze are available early on & great for this. Also, use the terrain to your advantage, don't stand in the middle of a room to fight where you can be surrounded but instead stand in a doorway where on a couple of monsters can attack at once and they can't get to your spellcasters standing at the rear.

Hope this helps a bit [img]smile.gif[/img]

I think for your first game it's best to go with a 6 character party, that way you can try as many different characters as possible.

Definate characters you would want are a priest and mage to make sure you've got a good mix of offensive & defensive magic. Probably best not to go with a bishop as they are slow to develop and work better in smaller parties. Psionics & Alchemists are less useful than Priests or Mages, you could maybe choose a Monk or Ranger if you wanted someone to cast these spells.

I would suggest something along the lines of 2 specialist casters, a bard for their instruments and rogue abilities & 3 melee types

I think my first party was Priest, Mage, Bard, Valkeryie, Monk & Samurai which worked very well. Ranger is also worth considering because they automatically search which is good in your 1st game when you don't know where the hidden items are and they can also mix potions which is useful if you need money.


As for combat tactics, if you find yourself overwhelmed by weight of numbers, use spells that will disable the enemy allowing you to concentrate your attacks on those that still pose a threat before you mop up the rest. Spells like Sleep, Web or Paralyze are available early on & great for this. Also, use the terrain to your advantage, don't stand in the middle of a room to fight where you can be surrounded but instead stand in a doorway where on a couple of monsters can attack at once and they can't get to your spellcasters standing at the rear.

Hope this helps a bit [img]smile.gif[/img] </font>[/QUOTE]Thanks for the reply Randall.

How do you mix potions with te Ranger? Does she need to be at a higher level?
I currently have a ranger at level 8.

It depends on your Alchemy skill rather than character level, once it hits 15 you can start mixing your first potions & mixing them then helps increase your alchemy skill further. Not all of them are profitable though so keep an eye on the cost of what you are mixing and what you can sell the result for.

To mix them, just click on a potion, click on merge and then click on the potion to mix it with. If the potions can't be merged then you get a message saying they can't be merged but if the message says your character cannot merge these items it means your Alchemy skill isn't high enough so try that combo again later.

[ 11-02-2004, 09:03 AM: Message edited by: Randall ]