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So two chars of different classes (uh, I'm guessing here, say a Fighter and a Lord) might have the same exact traits in special abilites (say, chance to hit with a sword) at time T but one will get better with practice and the other won't. Right?
Not really. Let me put it this way…
Both the Lord and the Fighter have many of the same “profession” skills. Fighting with swords, bows, shields, etc… The Lord, however, has one extra “profession” skill – Divine Magic.
The two classes have different “special” skills (this is the single skill in each class that carries a 25% bonus). For the Fighter, the “special” skill is Close Combat. For the Lord, it would be Dual-Wield. BOTH characters would have these listed as profession skills on their skill sheet, but they would only have a bonus in their own “special” skill.
Finally, each of those classes has different special abilities. The Fighter can berserk and regenerate stamina. The Lord can regenerate health. These are abilities inherent to the individual classes. You can’t put points into them at level-up, and they never change or get better.
So, if a Lord character had trained in Divine Magic, various weapon skills, and whatnot – and then decided to change to a fighter, this is what would happen:
The Lord would
keep all of his profession skills (including Divine Magic). However, he would only be able to improve the profession skills of a Fighter. He can continue to improve and put points into sword, shield, etc – but his Divine Magic would be frozen.
The Lord would
lose his Dual-Wield bonus. However, as a fighter, he would
gain a Close Combat bonus.
Finally, the Lord would lose his health regeneration special ability. However, he would gain the ability to berserk and regenerate stamina.
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Why do almost no people on this board talk of the cat-, dog-, and dragon races? Why do so many talk of all-faerie parties etc.?
It’s a matter of personal taste. I, for example,
hate using faeries. I also don’t care for hobbits or humans. My current party is: Rawulf (dog-person) Lord, Felpurr (cat-person) Rogue, Felpurr Ninja, Human (ick) Bard, Gnome Gadgeteer, and Elf Bishop. I almost always have a couple of Felpurr in my parties. I also frequently use Dracons and Lizard-men. I even have a friend who’s playing will an all-mook party. Whatever floats your boat.
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Is playing a Ninja still fun if you can't sneak around? Is it still useful?
The appeal of a ninja is that they play almost like an assassin-type character. What I mean is, a ninja can cause a critical hit (an “instakill”) with virtually
anything. Swords, flails, staves, knives, darts, shuriken, their bare hands… Whatever they’ve got, they can kill you instantly with.
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How does backstab work if you can't sneak up behind an enemy?
It’s calculated automatically. The better your stealth skill (and your dexterity/speed/level/etc), the more often you backstab.
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Last question: would I be correct in assessing this game as a really, really good hack-n-slash adventure with many rpg elements?
Sort of. I would actually compare it to Fallout, for example: The appeal of the game is the tactical nature of the combat, as well as the character creation and management (though I think Wizardry has a much better combat and character system, while Fallout has the better storyline and world).
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I'm curious about the comment that the world isn't large.
Heh. Well, Mage_77 did quite a good job defending me, so I won’t say much more… However, I think much of the game-length you talk about comes from the frequent combat, not from actual world-size.
It would be quite possible to walk from one end of the world to the other (say, from Arnika to the Rapax Castle) in about half an hour if it weren’t for all of the fights slowing you down along the way.