Any of you W8 players, that have been playing W8 since it appeared, how many of you are real men/women? How many of you grind the Monastery until you're able to r@pe the monsters on Arnika Road?

Let me answer you with a counter question: Do you reload?

First of all. the phrase "real men/women" isn't really meaningful, and furthermore could be considered offensive to some, depending on the context. (Also, not everyone is a man or woman.)

Secondly, using the term you put an @ sign in is not a good idea unless you're actually talking about said subject, in which case you definitely need a content warning. With that said, I would argue that this actually happens in Wizardry 8 (think Al-Sedexus).

For the record, these days I like to leave the Monastery at level 3 (makes Gregor harder but Arnika Road easier), and I like to reload, as I find that it's more fun when I can afford to use risky strategies and reload if it doesn't work out.

Yes one may want to reload specific battles to test new strategies faster,
but i played the game too often to not have an idea what degree of risk encounters allow,
ofc sometimes the rng just hits the fan and the playthrough is lost,
but on the other side the feeling to "really" win the game is far better,
(as the 1st reload is imho the admittance of defeat)
perhaps not so much in imo easy Wiz8 vanilla but at least in hard mods,
or think of JA2 1.13 on insane+ where chance to get through is below 50%.

Note i have no issues to run away from monsters if party is not yet strong enough,
or bypass encounters in narrow terrain,
not hard as the party moves further than nearly all vanilla monsters, except for a few flyers.

I play a wide range of themes and party compositions
have left Monastery and entered Arnika w zero XP pts,
or stayed til XP for lvl 11 but holding back all lvls,
and brought a solo fairie psionic to lvl 20+ in the rapax skeleton cell ...

That's not the way I see it.

The way I see it, reloading is part of the game.

(Incidentally, I do reload on character death early or draining. Once I get cheap resurrection options (Amulet of Life, Resurrection as a spell), I will generally try to revive the character during the fight instead of reloading.

(Also, I've played Wizardry 4, and there's no way you're going to get through that game without reloading.)

That is definitely not the case.

And with this post, my respect for you has dropped drastically.

Well, I apologize if I have offended you. I won't change your views, and you won't change mine. Let's just agree to disagree, and keep the topic about the game. Agreed?

leave Monastery for the raod to town = if i import a W7 save then i tend to be around level 10 but if i start fresh [which has been years] then level 4 is the sweet spot

i have played all lizards, all dragons and all 'little people' runs which were the hardest but in general i like an well rounded party [melee, ranged, spells and locks] which can handle whatever the game offers up

I'm offering a balanced, expert party of: Fighter, Rogue, Valkyrie, Ranger, and two Bishops (one Divinity/Wizardry, which gets all buffs, and the other, Alchemy/Psionics, which makes money for the party, and messes with enemies' minds).
The melee is handled by the Fighter, Berserking with dual weapons up front, the Rogue, Backstabbing with Dual Weapons up front, and the Valkyrie and Ranger on the flanks, hitting from extended range with their Polearms. The Bishops' melee isn't important until later, until they can get Staves of Doom, hitting from extended range.
The range is handled by the Fighter, Rogue, Valkyrie, and Ranger (ranged crits), using bows and crossbows. The Bishops' ranged attacks with slings isn't going to be a factor until way later in the game.
The magic is handled by the two Bishops, getting their spellbook and realm skills good in the Monastery, before Arnika, when I have to worry about friendlys "helping" me in battle. This could be supplemented with the Valkyries and Rangers magic, but they are more suited to melee and ranged attacks, and will worry about their magic later (no Powercast).

Let's be honest. dtgreene is a Karen. She hates men, refuses to make male characters into her parties, and refuses my offer of ceasefire. I can't reason with her.

+1

+1 to me, or +1 to dtgreene, the wicked witch of the west?

What did I do wrong? When did you grow up? If you were born before 2000, you grew up in a world where there were only two genders. What changed? Now, we have to cater to this new generation, these kids, born with Smartphones in their hands, with multiple genders? I want no part of this.

I grew up when people were still convicted as criminals for being gay,
and while enjoying life as hetero i tried to keep an open mind my whole life.
As dtgreene phrased it: "could be considered offensive" to which i agree,
it may hurt some people, It doesn't matter whether anyone can understand why.
It may habe been ok on a political board, here its imho not.