Help with party

[cpw]

I need a little help. I've played the start of Wizardry many times with different partys and I always hit a "bump" that makes the game to hard. I played a melee party for 25 hours only to find that my casters where too slow to cast defensive magic when the AI started putting casters in. That was the worst example but I always get to the point where "the grass is greener" and I start over with a "better" party
My current party is:
Dracon fighter (dual mace)
Rawulf Bard (dual daggers) (rawulfs have such good stamina)
Mook Rangerr (convienence and they sure kill alot)
Hobbit Gad (I hate seeing gadj. I cant put together and DS crossbows help)
Elf Priest (my attempt at a fast defensive caster)
Elf Bishop (my to slow to develope ofensive/defensive caster)

If I dropped the gad. I would drop the ranger also. the doubble shot xbow is what makes the ranger so good and later I think the triple shot would do the same.
Ive thought of changing the Priest for a alch. But I remember the pain of hitting my first group of tree sprites with no defences.
Any ideals for someone who does not train too much (Im easly bored with it)?
that may be the issue with the bishop 8)

[ 08-12-2005, 09:16 PM: Message edited by: cpw ]

[Sinteuil]

Your bard should be able to cover the priest magic protections, including soul shield if you're willing to lift a certain instrument from one of the RPC's (there's a trick to doing this, so let us know if you need a spoiler on it).

[William]

Originally posted by Sinteuil: Your bard should be able to cover the priest magic protections, including soul shield if you're willing to lift a certain instrument from one of the RPC's (there's a trick to doing this, so let us know if you need a spoiler on it).

well, I managed to pickpocket (yes, vs. 1.2.4.) it once, having no bard in the party of course. And I remember reading something like right-clicking on the sax, and dropping it in the party's inventory, but that never worked for me, so go ahead, spoil me for the fun of it, my current party doesn't have a bard either, gr. Wim Denie

[Gimli]

I think the sequence to get the Soulful Sax is to go to Saxx's inventory page; pick up the Sax and right-click it on to another character's portrait which puts it in their inventory; then pick up any item from the party's shared bag and put it into Sax's inventory (might have to then put it right back in the party bag or hold on to it, can't remember) - then go to the character's inventory sheet who you r-clicked the Sax to and have him drop it on the ground. Dismiss Saxx and pick up the now abandoned Sax. Same thing works for any items NPCs don't want to give up (Vi's Stun Mace for example). Saxx can also be killed for his Sax of course, altho it's not 100% that he'll drop it when he dies.

As for your speed casters, there were some threads about this a while back. Basically the two spells people seem to agree that you want to be able to cast ASAP are Element Shield and Soul Shield. Optimally you want to be able to put both up before anything else happens in round #1. So you just need to make one character for each spell, and make sure those two characters develop SPD/Snakespeed (and SEN also helps initiative). There are alot of options in terms of which classes you can choose to fill those two roles. IMO pure casters are more cut out for being the speed guys than bards, so I tended not to use the Bard for Soul Shield but rather for Haste. I like using Bishops as the speed guys and having them learn only 2 or 3 books each to keep the training aspect light to non-existent. But single class casters would work fine as well. Eye for an Eye is also great and doesn't require the speed as much, with your party it's something you might want the Gadgie to do alot after the 2 shield spells go up.

So to me your Priest or Bard could be the Soul Shield guy; the Bishop can be the Element Shielder (could also be the Ranger); and Gadgie can do Eye for an Eye.

[Sinteuil]

I haven't tried it Gimli's way, but what's always worked for me is that after right clicking the sax onto another character's portrait, simply take something out of the party's inventory and put it in Saxx's personal inventory. Then you can dismiss Saxx and keep his instrument without him noticing (and of course whatever you replaced his sax with to fool him will also be returned to you).

[ 08-13-2005, 01:20 PM: Message edited by: Sinteuil ]