[sloucho]

The short answer is this:

The bishop started out as an alchemist and had portal at level 11. All the others got the spell at level 15.

The long answer is this:

My first time through the game, I found it difficult to believe that 'hybrid' classes were only 4 spell levels behind their specialist spellcaster counterparts. I wasn't surprised when my ranger learned 1st level spells at 5th level (4 levels behind an alchemist), but I was surprised when he could learn 2nd level spells at level 7. I figured 2nd level spells would come at level 8 or 9 and 3rd level spells would drag even further behind (say level 12 or 13). As soon as I figured out that my hybrids were trailing my specialists by only 4 levels, I started over without any rogues, fighters, bards, gadgeteers (or any other non-spellcasters I've forgotten).

So when I got to level 15, I expected all of my hybrids to be able to pick up the portal spell.

BUT NOT ONE OF THEM COULD LEARN IT because I had been neglecting their magical abilities to focus on combat. My valk in that game cast armorplate and magic screen once/day and maybe a few healing spells; my samurai cast missile shield, x-ray, detect secrets, shadow hound, and enchanted blade once/day, but she almost never got around to throwing fireballs because I was so focused on getting up her sword/dual weapon/critical strike/close combat skills.

That's when I discovered this board. And the most helpful piece of information I found was in the 'sticky' folder at the top of each page. I've pasted it here for ease of reference, but it comes from Alex Meduna, not me:

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k, i'm posting this here as Sazerac suggested...
it's off the official wiz 8 boards, but i'm posting it here cuz these boards are better ; ) and you all might find it useful.

"I don't think this is exactly a spoiler, but if you'd rather not know, then stop reading, NOW! I'm not out to give away all the secrets, just trying to ease the confusion about this.
To become eligible to learn new higher level spells for your class, you have to meet 2 requirements: 1) minimum level in *THAT* class (not overall), and 2) minimum skill, for *THAT* spell's spellbook & realm.

1) Minimum Level requirement:

Pure Caster Classes: Mage, Priest, Psionic, Alchemist, Bishop
Hybrid Caster Classes: Monk, Ninja, Ranger, Samurai, Lord, Valkyrie

Spell Level .... Min. Class Level
................. PURE .. HYBRID
1 ................ 1 ....... 5
2 ................ 3 ....... 7
3 ................ 5 ....... 9
4 ................ 8 ...... 12
5 ............... 11 ...... 15
6 ............... 14 ...... 18
7 ............... 18 ...... 22


2) Minimum Skill Requirement

To calculate your effective skill level for a given spell:
* Take your highest spellbook skill (Wizardry, Divinity, Psionics, Alchemy) that the spell in question appears in. Important for bishops or class-changed characters, since many spells appear in multiple books.
* Add 10% of your *natural* skill in that spell's realm. This doesn't include temporary skill bonuses such as those from iems.

Spell Level ..... Min. Effective Skill Level
1 .................. 0
2 .................. 15
3 .................. 30
4 .................. 45
5 .................. 60
6 .................. 75
7 .................. 90

It's not as complicated as it sounds. Example: A mage, a pure caster, must be level 5 AND have an effective skill of 30 to learn Fireball, a third level Fire realm Mage spell. If he has 30+ skill in Wizardry, he's all set. He could also qualify if he has, say 28 in Wizardry and 20+ in Fire skill (10% rule).

Hope this helps...

-----signature-----

Alex Meduna
Wizardry 8 Lead Gameplay Programmer/Designer
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Once I got this info, I started the game yet again. I worked on my hybrids' fighting abilities for levels 1-4, but once they got spells, I never allowed them to take a whack at anything until they were OUT of spellpoints. I didn't give them a lot of spells, but I made a point of energy blasting, mind stabbing, acid splashing, and wounding my way through the beginnings of battles. In no time, I was getting through fights without ever nocking an arrow or slinging a sword. I have thrown fireballs at rapax (which is a pretty useless thing to do) just to help increase my samurai's wizardry points.

Unlike more conventional combat (where you can set the battle to continuous and take a quick shower), IT WAS A TEDIOUS PROCESS! But hey, I'm an autistic sort of guy.

I used the 'l' key (for 'last spell') 6 times at the beginning of every round. (Eventually, I changed my settings so that F1 subbed for my 'l' key just because F1 is easier to find.)

Unless you're a nut for improving your stats (as I happen to be), it may be too tedious a process for you. But since you need a 60 in wizardry for your samurai to portal (or, say, a 57 in wizardry and a 30 in air magic), you would have to wait until level 25 to get it if you intended to get the points simply by dumping them in at every level up and never practicing your skill.

If you didn't like the long answer, I hope you got what you wanted from the short one.

C-ya,
Mike