Wizardry 8 Party Planning

Wizardry 8 party looks similar the party in Wizardry 7, in fact you even have the option to import a party from 7. There are some rule revisions and a new Profession. Wizardry 8 is the final chapter in the Dark Savant Trilogy. If decide you want to start in Wizardry 6 instead, check out Party Planning.

“There are things you must know.”

Wizard

What is new?

Personality and Karma attributes are removed and newly added is Senses which governs skills like Scouting, Close Combat and Critical Strike. Attributes values are now 1-100 instead of 1-20.

Skills have been reworked. Now each skill is governed by a Primary and Secondary attribute in addition to the skill level. Each Profession is a specialist in one skill. The Gadgeteer is a new profession which specializes in Modern Weapons. The Bard no longer gets spells from the Mage Spellbook.

Swimming and Climbing are removed completely. Diplomacy is replaced with Communication. Oratory has been replaced with individual Realm skills that govern fizzles, backfires, and spell points in that realm. Modern Weapons is now a Weaponry skill available to multiple professions. Engineering is a new skill available only to the Gadgeteer. There are Expert skills which unlock for a charcater if an Attribute is naturally maxed out at 100. Check out all the changes in the Skills Database.

The Party Formation is new and replaces the generic front row back row. Now there is Front, Rear, Left-Flank, Right-Flank, and Center. Also added is the ability to move around the formation during combat which presents real tactical considerations. Additonally, all characters can dynamically switch between a Close Combat and a Ranged Combat weapon so it is worthwhile to plan for both on all characters.

Skill development and profession chance is reworked. It is no longer possible to change profession to fast-level from 1 repeatedly and max out your skills. Now every successive level takes a progressive amount of XP to advance even if it is a new profession. Further, you may only advance the skills of your current profession. For example, a Bard with Music 60 that becomes a Gadeteer will forever have Music 60, unless they go back to Bard profession to raise Music higher.

Gettings Started

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: Import your party from Wizardry 7 and your characters will start out with enough XP to level up to 5 right away. To do this, you need to find your SAVEGAME.DBS in your Wizardry 7 folder and copy it to \Saves\Import in your Wizardry 8 folder. In Wizardry 8, start a new game and select the 7->8 Icon. More assistance: Starting in Wizardry 6 | Starting in Wizardry 7

Path 3: Make 6 of your own characters with Race and Gender of your choosing. There are no more randomized bonus points. You can now make any Race/Profession combo that you want however some combinations will result in a Attribute Debt that must be paid back at future level ups before you can select attribute allocations of your choosing.

Formation Planning

The party formation consists of 5 spots and each spot can hold up to 3 characters. As you move your party blob around the game world characters stay in this formation. The spots are Front, Center, Back, Right-Flank, Left-Flank. The foes occupy a “6th Spot” which is outside the ring. Melee foes will intend to surround your formation because they all want to attack.

Short weapons can only reach adjacent occupied spots but they can reach through a spot if it is empty. Extended weapons can reach through one occupied adjacent spot. Long weapons and flying foes can reach to any spot.

Backing your formation against a wall or into a corner will help limit the foes abiity to surround you. If you are backed into a corner then your back row is the safest spot but if you are surrounded then the center spot is the safest spot assuming all non-center spots are occupied and your foes does not have Extended weapons.

In combat, you may take a Move action to rotate and move the formation but this will allow the foes to act first. You may also move your characters around inside the formation — this does not allow the foes to act first but it will not take effect until the end of the turn.

You will create 6 characters but you will also find recruitable player characters which you can add into your party to suppliment your party design, check out more here: Wizardry 8 Hirelings.

Character Creation

Race defines base attributes and Profession selection is gated by attribute minumums. Characters get 60 bonus points at creation and that pool is used to qualify for Professions. Any combination is possible but some combinations incur an Attribute debt that must be paid back with the first few level-ups. You must spread any remaining bonus points among at least 3 attributes at creation.

Characters get 6 bonus points per level-up and no more than 3 can be added to a single attribute. As the character develops, Expert skills are learned if attributes naturally reach 100 — not counting buffs or gear. See the Skills Database for Expert skill details.

Changing Profession later in career does not reduce attributes.

Wizardry 8 Party Planning Tool

Character and Party Progression

It is very helpful to practice your skills as often as possible while adventuring. Use Spellcasting to raise Academia skills so you can read more spell tomes and learn new spells. Use Spellcasting to raise Realm skills so you can cast spells at a higher power level. Earn XP but delay raising character level until you have built up your skills.

If your Average Party Level outpaces the Level of the Skills and Spells you are using, your overall power will fall behind the power of of the foes you encounter. This is most notable on Expert difficulty. You cannot rely on Skill Points from level-up only.

Attribution

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

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