"Power Bishop" and Alchemy

[how786]

Greetings all.
I am new to Wiz 8. One of my party members is following a "Power Bishop" guide. The guide suggests, among other things, pumping up Alchemy and choosing spells from the Alchemy school. Problem I'm encountering is that I do not see an icon when I level up for Alchemy spells. I see Fire, Earth, Air, Water, Divine and Mental.
I think I'm not understanding something here.
Could one of the experienced players help me out?
I'm level 4 or 5. Still in the monastery.
BTW, what might prevent my Bishop from casting Charm on Burz?
TY
How786

[SecretMaster]

Well if your talking about schools of Magic that alchemy use, pump points in earth, water, air. That is where the majority of their spells are in.

[how786]

Thanks SM
How

[Scatter]

Ooops, careful! there are two ways of classifying magic in Wizardry. One is Spellbook or School (once in the amnual referred to as "mastery") These are: Wizardry, Alchemy, Divinity, and Psionics. All spells fall into one or more of these, and are cross-categoried by Realm. or Element (Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Mental, Divine) When the "power bishop" guide refers to Alchemy, they mean to pick spells in the Alchemist Spellbook, as listed in the last four pages of Appendix One of your Manual. Within the levelling screen, you can't tell what Book a spell is from, only the Realm. Spellbooks you learn spells from do say what Book(s) they are from.

Having built more than 30 Bishops myself, i recommend NOT following that guide, though, as Alchemy can be brought up very fast by mixing potions...much easier to keep Wizardry ahead so it gets all the points when you practise Knocking. (alternately, you can take a level as Mage to Knock Wizardry up once your Alchemy has got over 85 or so)
The main reason to be careful about Charming Burz is that you must keep your Divinity higher than Psionics so you can use Charm and Divine Trap to practise Divinity, and wait until you can learn Mindread to work your Psi up. (otherwise it's a lot harder to practise Divinity) Divine Trap works for practising Divinity better than Charm, too, so that's another reason, though not important.

Another reason for not following that guide is that it recommends picking spells when levelling. I much prefer to pick ONLY the first two (usu Bless and Heal) and READ BOOKS for the rest, until you get to the spell levels that have no books. Otherwise you'll need one level more for each spell you pick (that has a book) before you learn all the spells in the game.
And if the Chest on the Beach has no Book of Terror, keep starting the game over until it does...there's another spell you can learn early without wasting a pick.

[Ferret Druid]

Unless you are planning to stay a bishop I'd suggest not even picking the first two spells, and tough it out through the monestary without them.

And I thought upon leveling, the spells included a description of what school they are used with if you right click on them - Mage, Psionic, Priest, Alchemist (Wizardry, Psionics, Divinity and Alchemy respectively).

[Scatter]

heh, yah, forgot about that. Almost everything in the game explains itself if you right-click.

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

Hold down the control key in your inventory screen!

[Wolfie]

Originally posted by Scatter: Another reason for not following that guide is that it recommends picking spells when levelling. I much prefer to pick ONLY the first two (usu Bless and Heal) and READ BOOKS for the rest, until you get to the spell levels that have no books. Otherwise you'll need one level more for each spell you pick (that has a book) before you learn all the spells in the game. And if the Chest on the Beach has no Book of Terror, keep starting the game over until it does...there's another spell you can learn early without wasting a pick.

** Spoiler Warning **

To add to what Scatter has already said, if you want your Bishop to learn all the spells, you're going to need the save up lots of spell picks, 25 of them to be exact! Since you only get one extra spell pick each levl up, that's a lot of levels for a Bishop!

How many spell picks to save for each spellcaster profession is detailed under the "Spell Facts" section of the web site quoted in the signture below.

Happy power building!

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