Starting Over Ideas?

[MasterPooBaa]

anyone care to comment on if these are good idea's or not?
NOTE: in all cases i import parties from wiz7, so from the start
they can automatically level up to level 5.

IDEA 1. boosting spell casting of hybrid characters.

instead of importing my usual collection of lord,samurai,ninja and
monk, i instead import the pure spellcaster exquivalent of each
(priest,mage,psionic,alchemist), level them up to 4 then at 5 switch
them over to lord, samurai etc.

PRO'S: Spell points from the start, more spells at the lover levels
(specially between levels 7 and 12 wich seems to be the hardest)
CON'S: loss of HP, lower weapon stats

IDEA 2. Stealth for all
Take my imported party, level them up to 5 to get spellpoints and
healing, go away and earn enuf exp for a level jump to 7, return to
the beach and crabs, change classes to ninja or something that has
stealth, practice stealth on the crabs till it gets to 75+, then
switch back
PRO'S: uh derr. stealth for all, specially my samurai who seems to
get knocked around ALOT. (big recipient of guardian angel)
CON'S: the allready weaker hybrid spell casters essentially lose a
level of casting ability

so are these good ideas? or do they suck

[Avenstar]

Try a party of 3 or less members and no RPC's, it greatly increases the challenge. Stealth training a 6 man party is just overkill. With stealth training, by early midgame chain classes will be pushing 30+ AC. Even 20 is enough to avoid 90% of blows. While your training stealth, equip everyone with a shield and max it at the same time. My Bard with only moderate AC equipment has 42 AC with the Light Shield and Armorplate.

[otter]

i suppose it depends on your imported parties. Mine all had 100 in all skills (i class-rotated a lot) so they imported with 20's all round (except magic, which depends on class and is lower)
I found it more successful to run most hybrids without changing class (except for stealth, which i trained by making their 5th level Rogue, so they didn't have to earn as many XP to get level 6).
It's not at all overkill to have everyone at 100 Stealth; i've experimented, and it's a lot harder to sneak past mobs if even one has less. I like being able to sneak into the Waterfall and get the Staff o'Doom at L8.
I also imported some spellbooks and almost always started with a Bishop, so that took care of magic needs in the early game.
If you import the Sai, Cornu, Ench Wak, Winter Wand, etc. they help the start too.
My favorite 4-char party was Bishop, Sam, Nin, Monk, not that much unlike yours. I didn't like Lords and Valk's, most of the time it takes them noticably longer to learn anything (low Int) and i'm a practise monkey.
You can practise magic right up to 100 as soon as they get spells.
I did run an all-hybrid party, Valk where you have Lord, and just didn't use magic much at all right away. (Valk and Psi took Charm and, just because it's possible, i had them Charm Burz until they had 100 in Divinity and Psionics, respectively) You can kill everything in LM and sneak past or run away from everything on the way to Arnika without any magic at all, and once you're there you can buy and practise spells til you max your schools and one or 2 realms.
Another thing i like about Arnika is the help you get killing stuff. If you got stealth, the mobs chase the patrols instead of you!

[zlandar]

On a side note, is there any difference as far as treasure drops or the ending if you play on expert or iron man level? Or do the monsters just come with more hp's and hit harder?

[MasterPooBaa]

well i was very careful selecting stuff to import, so they are fairly well kitted out to begin with

lord has enchanted broadsword, stilletto, greatbow, and +8 body armour

samurai has also +8 body armour but only the greatbow, normal katana and wakashi.

ninja has 2 lots of 100 shruken for ranged, and dual nunchakas for close (15% K.O. chance)

monk comes with +1 robes and the mystic spear. this weapon does ALOT of damage.

so ill thik ill take the suggestion of switching to a rogue instead.

oh yeah, im trying to play ONLY on hardest level. goin ok so far.

think one of my biggest gripes was that there is no pandora's wand in wiz8. i sooo wanted to import that.

[otter]

Zlander; the goodies are the same no matter the mode.
MPB; Yah, Mystic Spear is one of the best imports. I miss the Kobold Wand as well as Pandora's...there's a real lack of good secondary weapons in W8. Who are you changing to Rogue?

[MasterPooBaa]

well change to rogue to build up stealth alot...
and specifically rogue as it takes less exp to go up another level to switch back.
but coulda choses any one of the professions that have stealth really.

and my poor samurai really lost alot of ommph with the removal of that pandora's wand... wonder why it got removed.