Replace existing char?

[Ziggurat]

I flirted with replacing my Valk with a Lord, I hadn't developed her as well as I liked. She won't get her only uber skill, Power Strike, until she is lev 21! She's at 15 now in our four-party of intrepid adventurers. I sometimes opt for an even distribution of attribute points (except for piety, which I barely boost), but this strategy of development has its drawbacks...

Anyway, I started the process just to see what would happen, created a new char, and a message came up saying do you want to lose your old character forever?!! I felt if I said yes it would not let me restore the game to the old character. If I try this, can I restore the old games with that character?

I shouldn't be doing this at this level but I was curious, having never tried it. On second thought, I won't try it this game but might in a later one. Is there any fun in starting a new player from scratch with all the goodies partway through the game? It would be similar to Wiz 7 except the only carry-over would be the goodies. Maybe keep them alive through the early levs thru protections and formation as they zoom up in levels? What level is good for the switch? I realize you have to buy all your armor back, does that mean what the one char is wearing or for everyone? I have $250K but alot of good stuff, too.

Anyone who has tried this, I want to know if this is a legitimate option having value in a game. Or is it some kinda lark for first timers?

[ChaosTheorist]

Replacing a character can be done at any time. You "lose" only the character; anything s/he was wearing/carrying gets moved into the party inventory, so you can give it (or as much of it as applies) to the new character.

The new character starts out at level 1. It sounds like a big deal (and the manual takes the same tone) to introduce a new level 1 character into a party with some experience under its belt, but that isn't necessarily the case. For example, the amount of XP required to take a hybrid-caster character from level 12 to level 13 will take a non-magic-user character from level 1 to level 11. And the non-magic-user would actually get to level 14 before the hybrid! The real issue, as you suggest, is keeping the "newbie" alive through the first few levels' worth of combat.

The issue of buying starting equipment is really only significant when replacing characters very early in the game, when you haven't found enough of the right kind of goodies to equip the new character. Or when you're bringing in
a character of a race/class that uses specialized equipment that you can't readily get any other way, like the Faerie Gossamer Gown robes or Ninja garb. If you're bringing on a character that can use stuff you've already got, either in inventory or in use by the outgoing character, there's no need to buy starting equipment.

One specific technique regarding equipment is when you want to run a Faerie Ninja. Ninja characters start out with the Ninja garb--unless it's a Faerie; Faerie characters of all classes start out with the Gossamer Gown clothing. So starting a Faerie Ninja means you won't have Ninja garb until you get to Crock's. To fix that, start with a human Ninja instead. Then, right there on the beach, as soon as the opening sequence is over, replace the human Ninja with a Faerie Ninja. Or, wait until you get 570 gold; then, when you do the replacement, you can choose the "buy starting equipment" option, you'll have the standard Faerie's starting Faerie Stick, dagger, Faerie Dust, and potions (along with a useless-except-to-sell set of Gossamer Gown clothing). In either case, your Faerie Ninja gets Ninja garb from the start. If you find a good Ninja-useable weapon (like a Bo) in the chest on the beach, buying starting equipment may not be worth it.

The "gone forever" refers to the game from that point forward; you can always load up an older save-game with the previous character (except when playing Iron Man, of course, where there are no older saves).

Tryng to "level out" attributes is pretty much never the way to go; make floggers better at flogging (STR+DEX) and casters better at casting (INT+DEX/SEN/whatever); SPD is pretty much always worth raising if you can't find better places to put the points. For hybrids, it usually works out better to bring up their melee-oriented stats first, then bring up INT and whatever else their casting ability uses.

WRT your Valk's stats, yeah, that's a little late to get Power Strike. Any time I build a Valkyrie (human), she starts out with STR=58, so Power Strike becomes available at level 15. But why replace her now? She's 6 level-ups away from Power Strike; the burliest new Lord you could build (a Lizardman--not really the recommended race for this class) would be 11 level-ups away from Power Strike. Plus, the Valk consistently has better weapons than most everyone else through at least the first half of the game. I'd just chalk this one up to experience.

[Cornbread]

I am thinking about swapping out my bard for a remade bard. Now that I have the helm that give +20 int, music isnt such a big deal. I wanna start jacking str up to get powerstrike, something the bard I have now will probably never get. Music flies up pretty fast, and I dont worry about lockpicking since I have a gadgeteer too. Ill try it and see what happens. Most guys are only level 12 now anyways, so I dont think I will lose too much.

Cornbread