[DinkumThinkum]

On mixing potions to raise Alchemy skill: if you mix them one at a time, the skill appears to go up faster than if you mix them in batches. I.e., if you mix a stack of five potions with another stack of five potions, the game apparently counts that as just one skill use, not five seperate uses.

I didn't keep careful enough track to swear to it, but that's how it seemed to work for me.

That also seems to apply when identifying items: one at a time raises the Artifacts or spell skill faster than identifying a stack of items all at once.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Personally, I never bothered with any class changes in Wiz 8: late in the game, I'd rather have an alchemist who can cast high level alchemy spells than a mage who can cast low level alchemy spells and low level wizardry spells.

I can see class changing as being useful if you're playing a small party for extra challenge, since that lets you make a wider set of skills available to your party. But with a full-sized party you should have enough character slots to cover all the skills you need without needing to swap classes.