A few newbie-ish questions

[Tahnval]

I've been playing Wizardry 8 for a couple of weeks now, time permitting. A bit of nostalgia - Wizardry was the first game I played on a PC, in 1982 IIRC. A friend and I immediately tried to knock up something similar on our Spectrums 8-) The 48KB of memory proved a problem, unsurprisingly.

Anyway...brilliant game. It took me a while before I stopped having my whole party slaughtered by anything that moved, but then I got the hang of positioning. There are so many nicely done things in the game, it's a joy to play. My lizardman loner fighter cracks me up. He's so sarcastic. Nice touches and the game itself is very well done.

Questions:

1) Is the shield skill worth using? I think it might be worth training dual weapons instead - killing an enemy more quickly is an excellent form of defence, maybe better than another half a dozen points of AC.

2) Can people learn new skills, other than the ones for reaching 100 in a stat? If so, how?

3) How can I train my gadgeteer's Engineering skill, other than when she levels?

4) Is there supposed to be a monster in the pond in the swamp? It looks like a lair, but all I found there were some items. I even camped there, to see if something came back in the night.

5) What can I do with the android we have just repaired? He's joined us, but he doesn't seem useful. He doesn't look able to withstand attacks very well, given his very low AC, but he's obviously geared towards hand-to-hand combat.

6) Are portals just one per caster, or multiple? IOW, could I have one of my characters learn the portal spells and then set portals in various places and take the party to any of those places with the Return to Portal spell?
Finally, where can I get a Very Big Bomb to kill that Brute Hogar in Trynton that has wiped out my party every time I fight it? 8-)

[Scatter]

1) i run small parties, so i always go for as many swings as possible...yes, dual is great for fighters...there might be occasions where a shield gets you through, but i've never needed any.

2) Other than the skills available to your current class and Bonus Skills for maxing stats, you have to change class to get. Most of my parties train stealth that way; go Rogue or Ninja for a level and stay in a really long combat with something that misses you a lot.

3) Use the gadgets. There's a couple short-time buffs that if you keep them going will increase your skill fairly quickly.

4) Maybe later in the plot.....

5) i don't use RPC's, but among those who do is a consensus that RFS is one that is worth recruiting.

6) You can have only one Portal per caster, and whenever you want to change where that is, Set it again. But the previous will be replaced.

[ 11-11-2003, 12:49 AM: Message edited by: Scatter ]

[Loudhy]

Welcome to the board, Tahnval.

1: It depends on what you like. I always have a shield because in my imagination I like fighters with sword and shield. A shield often has special abilities and if your fighter is your tank than a shield can absorb many damage.
But you can also play with dual weapons or 2-handed weapons. As mentioned above : It depends on your game style.

2: No, they cannot learn new skills without changing profession

3: Use the gadgets you find during your travels . There is a special one you find early so the skill will rise quickly with it.

4: No, there is no monster but you can create a potion there ( don't want to say more )

5 :RFS-81 is a very good Monk without spells. If you need another good melee member he is great later one

6: Each caster can set his own portal so with 8 magic-users you can have 8 portals.

Greetings

[Scatter]

4) no, he's not described the oil pit. He's described what does become a lair later.

[Tahnval]

That's true. I found the oil pit, too, and what you can do with it.

[Wereboar]

1. A shield is better than just the 1-14 (usually 6-7) points of AC it provides. At high shield levels, when a monster has hit a player, you often get the message 'shield block' and get no damage. I think high shield skill reduces your melee damage by 30-50%.

Nontheless, i rarely use a shield with fighter-types. Only if i have a single front-line tank, and some waek characters behind it (small spell-oriented parties).
A i use a shield with priest, bishop, maybe bard.

7. Try to distract the hogar with insanity or hypnotic lure. Works quite well against this type of creatures.

[allstargoaly]

1. I go for the Dual Weapons (never liked Shield). You will find weapons that are awesome as SECONDARY WEAPONS (which means DUAL WEAPONS better be high, or it won't work as well)

2. Depends on CLASS/RACE AND PROFESSION. You can also DUAL CLASS (make a Fighter into a Ranger) but it is quite complicated.

3. As everyone else said, USE THE GADGETS or just simply raise the skill at LEVEL UP.

4. Yes ans No...

5. RFS 81 is a good RPC. Not when it comes to stats (except 100% Mental Resistance). But he goes a lot of places other RPCs won't go. You will find that out soon...

6. You got that one...

7. Try using/throwing a CONCUSSION POWDER(hopefully it won't backfire). Or casting a HIGHER LEVEL of sleep or paralyse.

[petertmorgan]

Originally posted by Wereboar: 1. A shield is better than just the 1-14 (usually 6-7) points of AC it provides. At high shield levels, when a monster has hit a player, you often get the message 'shield block' and get no damage. I think high shield skill reduces your melee damage by 30-50%.

Is the 'shield block' or 'HITS SHIELD' really different from the armor class bonus? What I mean is, are you sure that the times you get the 'HITS SHIELD' message is not just a reflection of higher armor class that a shield and shield skill give you? I suppose you might be able to tell by using a character with 100 shield skill and give him/her a buckler shield or dragon kite (for example). If the number of 'HITS SHIELD' is the same or close, but the number of misses is different (i.e. more misses against the higher AC dragon kite), then the 'HITS SHIELD' is its own entity separate from AC, otherwise 'HITS SHIELD' is just a reflection of those times that the somewhat higher AC made a difference between being hit and not being hit.

Edit: If I were to try this, I would take away all other armor so as better to see the effect.

[ 11-11-2003, 03:09 PM: Message edited by: petertmorgan ]

[Starfire]

I think the shield skill is worth having for characters like the Bard, gadgeteer and Priest or Bishop. In my current party my Gadgeteer uses a shield and her shield skill is not that high (only 3 points in it actually) but I have noticed a lot of enemies hit her shield and do no damage. This is actually the first time I've experienced this, I usually have everyone dual wielding for the extra damage the second weapon does, but for non melee'ers or those who spend a majority of time at ranged attacking, I think I'll start using the shield lol

As others mentioned, to train the gadgeteer's engineering have her use her gadgets in combat. I'm not sure if the skill goes up when she uses gadgets outside of combat? There is one gadget you will get in the upper monastery, have her use that a couple of times during each combat and you will start to see the engineering skill steadily go up.

At a certain point in the game the pond will produce something and give you a large amount of XP's. You will know when the time comes when you get to that part in the game. If you want to be spoiled on this, post back and I'll tell you about it.

The android RFS is a really great martial arts melee'er or staff & wand or polearm works really well with him as well. especially once he gains a few levels. He is the only RPC I have tagging along with me now. Also he has almost 100% immunity to mental attacks. I say almost because he has been driven insane on me a few times lol

A character can only set a portal to one place at a time, but you can change the place they have their portal set any time you wish. I have 4 characters in my party at the moment with portal spell, so I can set a portal to 4 different places. Hope that makes sense? lol

my experience with shields is that they are an even trade-off against dual weapons. in fact, early in the game a shield is better than dual weapons (due to lack of skill), and only later evens out.

(in fact, i'll go even further and say that two-handed weapons are an even trade against dual weapons and single weapon/shield combos)

each has its strengths and weaknesses which can work for both role-playing reasons (as loudhy pointed out) or synergistically with your characters other abilities (as in the examples starfire and wearboar pointed out).

if i were to summarise:

dual weapons:
...pros - more swings in total compared to single one-handed weapon, more damage in total compared to single one-handed weapon, faster weapon skill learning (if you have matched weapon types in both hands).
...cons - more misses (due to lower skills), attack and swing penalties (eg the same one-handed sword in your primary hand may get 1 more swings per attack without a dagger or other weapon in your off hand), lower AC due to no shield.

two-handed weapons:
...pros - massive damage for fewer swings, fewer skills to learn (so you get better faster)
...cons - lower AC due to no shield, tend to be slow due to initiative penalties

one-hand weapon with shield:
...pros - higher AC, fewer skills to learn (so you get better faster)
...cons - less damage in total compared to dual or 2H weapons.