Manshoon 
Join Date: October 25, 2002
Location: Gilbert, Az
Age: 73
Posts: 234
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Welcome back CT! I missed your posts.
Excellent advice by both of you, and I agree with almost all of it with the glaring exception of your advice, Sultan, about the Priest.
Intelligence is very important for a Priest. There is absolutely no challenge in making that character good at buffs, healing, etc., but with Powercast (Intelligence = natural 100) those Spells are more effective plus the attack Spells, which are few in number but very strong, do not die out later in the game (when enemy resistances become high).
The Priest Spell Banish, usable against Demonic monsters, is particularly strong in your party (with Powercast) given that you have 3 that can cast it. Spells that damage all of the enemies, or all in a group, evenly, are best when cast by several of your characters.
In addition to Banish, Falling Stars (with Powercast) can do a lot of damage per round when your enemies are large in number.
Death Wish (with Powercast) can also be very effective for your fighting party (two Fighters and a Rogue makes it that) because it can thin the number of enemies you are facing, which means there are that many fewer to damage you before the Fighters and Rogue get around to killing them. Very effective.
So, adding it up, Powercast adds about 10% directly to all of the Priest Spells of all types. Add to that the fact that the Priest's Attack Spells remain effective with Powercast and not if you do not have Powercast. However, since, as Sultan said, the Priest has few Attack Spells, let's estimate that at only another rough 10% of effectiveness.
This is how I reach the estimate that a Priest without Powercast is only 80% as effective as one with it. That might be generous, given how powerful they can get with Powercast, but the Priest is such a powerful character that even that 80% can make them a jewel in your party. Even if their Attack Spells are useless and their buffing and healing not as powerful, they are still great!
Now, on the other hand, look at the alternatives. The Priest will never be a great fighter. Fair... perhaps even good, but never great. Nothing you can do with the Priest's fighting Skills can improve their effectiveness even close to as much as Intelligence and Powercast improve it. Having developed a Priest in over a dozen parties, several ways, this is not even a close call. Actually, developed well, the Priest can get all the benefits of Powercast plus pretty good fighting skills (the key being to start that development early). Lots of players don't like the Priest or thinks it weak. I have never found any player examples, however, where a player develops the Priest to full strength and still thinks he or she is weak. Any character can be strong or weak in Wizardry 8, depending upon how they are developed.
An 80% effective Priest is a great character. A fully effective one, with Powercast, is just that much more. If for role playing reasons you do not want to give your Priest Intelligence, by all means be free and go for what you wish, but your should know, as an alternative you can consider, that Intelligence, because of Powercast, is the most important Attribute for a Priest in Wizardry 8, as measured by their Spell effectiveness throughout the game. It ought to be Piety, but it just doesn't add up that way in this particular game design (unlike many other games where Piety/Wisdom is absolutely vital for Priest/Cleric characters).
The point CT made about not putting points into Magic Realms at level-up, that Sultan agreed with, and I also agree with depends on controlling attributes. What makes that most true is when Intelligence is high, since Intelligence is the Primary Controlling Attribute for the Magic Realms. Piety is the Secondary Controlling Attribute, however, so raising Piety while leaving Intelligence alone might be almost as good, or perhaps even as good (players do not know for certain). If those Magic Realms are allowed to grow slower than they potentially can, by not pushing Attributes appropriately, then those Realm Magics will not grow fast enough on their own, without level-up points, even if heavily used.
Bearing on this last point, there was an objective measurement (by DraconFighter) on the VN boards recently with Music (the Bard Music Skill), observing that by making Dexterity (Primary) = 100 and leaving Intelligence (secondary) = 55 (155 total), that Music rose just as fast to the top (96 at the same place in the game in both cases) as when Dexterity and Intelligence were both brought to 90 (180 total). While this is an objective observation, it is not proof of anything, but merely evidence in favor of the theory that the Primary Controlling Attribute is more effective than the secondary, or perhaps even that there is an extra Bonus (besides opening the Expert skill) when an Attribute reaches 100.
Gee, this one ended up more strongly worded than some of my posts. I hope its definiteness is not due to a bad mood, but there is very little conjecture here, it's just simple measurement of Priest Spell effectiveness with and without Powercast. The Priest should not be slighted in this respect, he or she benefits from Powercast as much as any caster does (although other types of single school casters are only about 40% as effective, later in the game, in their spell casting without it, according to player measurements).
[ 10-09-2003, 12:50 AM: Message edited by: EEWorzelle ]
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