Wizardry 6 Party Planning

Wizardry 6 party looks quite a bit different than in previous games. Wizardry 6 marks a new generation with new races, new professions, a new magic system, and a new skill system.

“There are things you must know.”

Wizard

What is new?

Mouse support is ON by default but you can turn this off and use the keyboard exclusively as well. You will also find a hot-togglable difficulty setting in Game Configuration. Use the Level setting to scale difficulty and XP gain per your needs.

There are now 11 Races with unique resistances and some with abilities. There are 14 Professions with varying access to skills and weapons. Each Profession has statistic requirements and each Race has specific starting statistics. It is possible to make any race profession combination at charcater creation if you are awarded enough Bonus Points.

The new Skill System consists of 10 Weaponry Skills that raise by using the weapon but you must have at least 1 point to equip. There are 6 Physical Skills and most raise with use as well. Scouting and all 8 Academia Skills only raise by spending bonus skill points when leveling up.

The new Magic System consists of 4 Spellbooks each associated wih an Academia Skill. Raising the skill gives access to higher level spells in that Spellbook. Each Profession has access to 1 or 0 Spellbooks and if you change Professions you will remember spells you have learned.

Character Generation

You can take a few paths to reach your character and party goals.

Path 1: Play the starter party of six characters that is already created.

Path 2: Make 6 of your own characters with Race and Gender of your choosing. Each character will get a random number of Bonus Points that you can allocate to to obtain access to one of the 14 professions. You may or may not get the professions you want due to minimum statistic requirements for each profession.

Path 3: Spend some time making multiple versions of each of your characters until you get enough Bonus Points to access the starting professions that you want. It is possible to make any profession with any race if you get enough bonus points. I have spent considerable time making characters and the maximum bonus points that I have seen is 26.

Path 4: Start with a profession that you have enough bonus points to qualify for and allocate the leftover points on statistics in preparation for a profession change later in your career. As you level up, hope that you get the right statistic raises to quality for the next profession you want.

Statistics

Statistics cap at 18 during character creation and during level-up. The real maximum value is 20 but the only way to reach it is using items that permanently boost a statistic. While these items can be used to help reach statistic minimums for a profession change, it is more efficient to use them only on a final profession after a natual 18 is reached.

Strength affects Weapon Damage Bonus, Stamina, Carry Capacity.
Intelligence affects skill bonus in Thaumaturgy, Alchemy, Theosophy.
Piety affects skill bonus in Theology, Theosophy.
Vitality affects Hit Points, Stamina, Carry Capacity, Mana Regen, and Scouting skill bonus for a Ranger.
Dexterity affects Weapon Hit Bonus, Max Swings per Attack, and Skulduggery skill bonus for a Theif.
Speed affects Base Armor Class, Max Attacks per Round, Initiative
Personality affects reactions with NPCs
Karma affects more than you think, don’t settle for a extremely low karma.

Selecting a Race and Gender

Gender effects little but does have some impacts to know about. Female characters will have STR-2, PIE+1, KAR+1 and only Females can be Valkyries. Gender adjustments may impact the amount of Bonus Points required to reach professions you desire.

Race effects Starting Statistics and therfore the amount of Bonus Points required to reach professions you desire. It is possible to get enough bonus points for all Gender/Race/Profession combinations during character creation. Race also imparts Special Features for a few select races. Race also affects Resistances which is shown in the table below.

Faerie     Nimble[-2 Evasion AC], Mana Affinity[+1 Mana Regeneration], Frail[-33% Carry Capacity]
Lizardman  Mana Aversion[-1 Mana Regeneration, minimum 1]
Dracon     Acid Breath[grants ability Acid Spray]

Human      Lifeforce(+20%)
Elf        Hypnosis(+20%)
Dwarf      Poison(+20%), Magic(+15%)
Gnome      Magic(+15%)
Hobbit     Poison(+10%), Magic(+10%)
Faerie     Paralysis(+25%), Missiles(+25%), Psionic(+25%), Lifeforce(+25%), Magic(+25%)
Lizardman  Cold(-20%), Acid(+10%), Psionic(+25%)
Dracon     Cold(-20%), Acid(+10%), Psionic(+25%)
Felpurr    Cold(+20%), Paralysis(+20%), Missiles(+15%)
Rawulf     Cold(+20%)
Mook       Cold(+15%), Magic(%25)

Selecting a Profession

The initial profession defines starting equipment and mana regeneration. While it is possible to upgrade your equipment, it is not possible to drastically change your mana regeneration after starting a character. A character that starts as a Mage will always have more mana regeneration than a character that starts as a Fighter regardless of the current profession. Any character can boost their mana regeneration by +1 if they have a Vitality of at least 16.

Profession Change

A character’s profession can change during the playthrough, find the option in the Edit menu item while viewing the character. Profession change becomes possible when a character meets the minimum statistic requirements for the new profession. It is possible to change to a profession that you were in the past. You can build some robust characters like a Theosophy casting Thief with Music skill, a Kirijutsu infused Ranger, or a Ninja that knows every spell, or a Hide to Backstab Fighter wielding a 2-hander.

Profession Change does NOT modify:

• Hit Points (HP)
• Stamina
• Already Known Spells
• Realm Spell Point (SP) totals
• SP Regeneration
• Already Known Skills
• Inventory
• Karma
• Gold
• Age

Profession Change DOES modify:

• Statistics are reset to minimums for new Profession
• New Profession Skills are learned at 0 level
• Resistances are recalculated per new Profession
• Finally, Character Level is reset to 1

It may seem like a throat punch to have your level reset to 1 but it is a boon actually. Consider that you will zoom through the early levels in just a few fights and each level raise is another opportunity to allocate skill points and to pick new spells. Just don’t change profession for the whole party at once, stagger them so that the high level party members can carry the low levels through the initial fights.

Profession Details

Click or Tap the Profession Row for more details

Character Transfer

It is possible to transfer your Wizardry 6 characters into Wizardry 7 and then into Wizardry 8. The result of these transfer often times will strip some gear, stats, experience levels, and spells. The purpose of this power reduction is to balance with new parties starting at level 1. The results of transfering characters can also vary based on the endings that you receive in the previous game.

Some but not all gear will transfer to Wizardry 7, see the Gear Database to know exactly which gear can successfully transfer to the next adventure. As for Skills, you will retain all known skills that you learned through Profession Change! So your Mage that used to be a Bard will still have the Music skill, albiet with a reduced starting value. As you level up in the next game you will be able to add skill points to Music skill even though you are not still a Bard. This preserves the excitment of developing robust multi-profession characters that stay robust when transfered to the next game.

Attribution

• Official Classic Manual is here.
• Cosmic Forge is a great resource. It can be found here.

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