Building Hybrid Characters

[Malach Cha Movis]

Hi everyone,
Just came online. I've been lurking for a couple of weeks until my membership was approved. I have to compliment everyone! The posts that i've read have been interesting informative and entertaining.
I've been especially attracted to the posts here and on other links that are concerned with dual classing early and temporarily. The suggestions to start a Bishop as an Alchemist for one level, or change a Bishop to a Mage at level 2 and back again, were clever and imaginative.
I was wondering if the idea would hold true for hybrid classes like the Samuri and the Ranger. Would there be any advantage to switching a Samuri to a Mage at either level 2 or 4 and then back again (Ranger>Alchemist>Ranger as well)?
I'm building a party consisting of a Samuri, Ranger, Priest, Bard, Gadgeteer, and Bishop. Would any of these characters benefit from switching to a Rogue, to train up a Stealth ability?
Finally one last question, B4 i quit u all for a while. Should I place the maximum allowable skill points into pickpocketing for my Bard, or is it no longer worth it? If not where should i put them?
I played 'Crusaders' for a little bit. The story was fascinating but I hated to train swimming and other such obstacles that seemed to have no other purpose, other than to frustrate the player. Besides I could never get past the entrance to the Ratkin empire. Then again I didn't have a source like Ironworks gaming.
8 seems much cleaner with more tactical variety.
That's it for now. I'm looking forward to playing 8 for the next few months(i'm slow), so I'll being 'seeing u again (and again and again).

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[EEWorzelle]

Hey Malach!

There are some great training techniques and others can speak to them.

I just thought you should have a piece of bad news regarding "Should I place the maximum allowable skill points into pickpocketing for my Bard, or is it no longer worth it? If not where should i put them". Unfortunately, Pickpocketing can be kind of tough. The latest revision of the game made it a lot tougher than it was before, athough some have reported success, by practicing on those that don't matter a lot first. Also, it seems that every Vendor has some item which, if lifted from them, and you try to sell it back, they will recognize it. If you save beforehand you can experiment.

The good news is that you don't need any training techniques to Powergame with Wizardry 8. Character development is so rich that your tenth game will be played much better than your ninth, which will be played much better than your eighth, etc. Players here such as Wereboar and Katero have made certain aspects of the game a fine art. It's lots of fun.

Oh, and train if you wish. Fun is the only rule.

Stealth and Shield are common to train (plus magic in some cases) but if you have any characters with high Stealth, they will get targeted less than your non-stealthy and maybe weaker characters. With shield, they are still targeted a lot and attacks are often wasted against the shield, pretty cool. Even though shields are powerful in this game, however, most players prefer to use Dual or Two-Handed weapons for most Fighter or Hybrid fighter types.

[Ziggurat]

I starting my bishop as a thief twice now and it seems to pay off. There is no reason you can't do it later: start as a bishop then go to rouge and back again later. But the Stealth skill helps at the beginning when the bish (or other dual-class) is weakest in points.

[Malach Cha Movis]

Thx EEWorzelle and Eggurat for your replies.
To u2 and anyone else:
Does it pay to switch to rogue for one level for characters like a Mook ranger and a Samuri and if I do so, is it considered uncouth?
For a Bard, 5 or 3 pts into music is obvious. If I decide that putting points in PP is impractical or unamusing, where should I put the remaining pts? Shield seems like an interesting possibility. Any other suggestions.

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[Ziggurat]

I am trying your suggestion. I converted my lev 11 Samurai to rogue to get Stealth and will switch him back later. After a few battles he is up to 9 in stealth, but he has a long way to go to reach the next level (in Mt. Gigas). Will let you know how it goes. I never have taken a Sam all the way, they just don't seem to be worth it. Maybe with some stealth it will work better. He gets hit more than most other chars so far, and his 2nd weapon is next to useless (small sword).

[Malach Cha Movis]

hi Ziggurat,
Sorry i misspelled your name. I don't know if it's any good to switch to a rogue for one level for a ranger and a samuri. That's why i was asking. It would seem though that if one were to do so, one should do it as early as possible and then train it by battling a weak opponent. That is if one wants to power game, i guess. Otherwise it would seem that it would take too long to do, and one would be spending alot of time with a class that isn't the primary one.
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