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Hello to everyone,
This is my first post in this great forum, although I've already read quite a bit here. I am a part-time Wizardry player since number 6 (bane of the cosmic forge) which I completed together with my wife. Even my eight year old son is an enthusiastic fan of Wizardry 8.
After messing around with some parties I recently decided to start an all melee party just to get another taste of the game. It consists of a human lord, a human valkyrie, a dwarf monk, a felpurr samurai, a hobbit thief and a lizardman fighter. They run around leaving the front open and occupying the centre and both flanks, thus all being ready for close combat. Yesterday they reached the upper monastery at level five. Although the party makes fun and growing them up is quite exciting, there are some flaws, where I'd like to receive your suggestions/comments.
1. no cash cow:
There is no one with access to alchemy in my group, thus mixing and selling potion is not possible. I have to live with what I've got, but sometimes I'll want to purchase that fine but expensive piece of armour/weapon. The only other way to get a little something I can imagine is raising the thief's pickpocket skill. Burz comes to my mind, because he just goes yellow (neutral) if my thief is not successful. By this I could also raise the diplomacy skill I assigned to my valkyrie in order to make Burz happy again. I hope continuous tries will not influence my faction rating with the trynnies.
2. no possibility to identify items in the early game:
My group has a bag full of items with a big question mark on each of them. Identify (the spell) will be available at lord/valkyrie/monk level 7 earliest, and with the pathetic number of spell points and mental skill it will take ages to identify my inventory: cast identify - spell fizzles - rest to recharge spell points - cast again ... (ad nauseam). The artefact skill of all party members is very low, thus it is of no help either. I am reluctant to assign any skill points of any of my characters to the artefact skill, because there are so many other skills to raise. Instead I hope to raise it by using bombs frequently later on. With low cash, there is also limited access to identify scrolls.
3. vulnerable to status ailments:
Ok, I have a couple of potions "cure lesser conditions", I just purchased from Burz three "cure paralysis" powders, but the spells will be available at character level seven earliest. Is it correct, that the likeliness of being nauseated/slept/paralysed/blinded... is based on piety and/or vitality? If yes, I have another problem with this party, because I am not raising these attributes on level-ups for any of my characters beside vitality for the dwarf monk (iron skin for even more damage absorption). At the moment, a bunch of little spiders is able to paralyse 5/6 of my groups!
I am trying to co-evolve the magic abilities of my hybrid spell casters right from the beginning, but this is quite hard, because I cannot solely focus on raising intelligence/piety as controlling attributes; STR/DEX/SPD/SEN also require attention. I am aiming for protection/cure/buff spells (damage is dealt by melee, of course) and especially spells which can be casted outside a battle for training purposes. Magic screen, soul shield and elemental shield will be first priority when available, because of the low magic resistance of my group.
Which RPC should I recruit for my group? Madras comes to my mind, firstly to make use of all the gadgets I will have found when I meet him and secondly to increase the ranged firepower of my group (double/triple crossbow). With that group the usual choice Vi/Myles/RFS-81 doesn't make sense to me, I have tanks/meat shields enough myself. Maybe it is in the spirit of my party to not include Madras or anyone else, otherwise it isn't a pure melee group any longer.
Thank you for your patience to read this lengthy post.
Ralf
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