Just started my first play through of this game and I am very pleased with how well it plays. This game has aged very well.

What should a noob be aware of for a enjoyable first time play though?

Expert skills are gained if you raise a stat to 100.

Pure casters (except Priests) and Bishops will want to max out their Intelligence in order to get Power Cast. (There is a one-time event that gives everyone 5 Intelligence; there are no other similar events in the game.) Other characters may want different expert skills, such as Power Strike (100 Strength) for example.

If you get enough experience to reach level 6 while still in the Monastery, do not take that level up; otherwise, you will start fighting enemies that can inflict disease, which can permanently harm your characters if you don't have the means to cure it. Instead, wait until you leave the monastery to do this.

Status ailments (like sleep and paralyze) are actually useful in this game; do not neglect such spells. (I happen to really like the Noxious Fumes spell, which combines damage and status effects into one spell with good targeting.)

Thanks! I will keep that in mind. I have
Ranger,
Valkrie
Fighter
Alchemist
Mage
Rogue

I feel that more spells would be nice but when the baddies get close they and go down quickly.

Mook or Dragon Bard would give you some music magic with the option to change into fighter later

The rogue? Gaditeer or Bard can unlock things but a ninja also gets spells... This brings us to spell schools. You have Ranger and Alchemist which use the same school (as does Ninja). You also have a Valkrie (devine) and Mage so the school you are missing is psyonics

No haste, sane mind or soul shield will make some areas much harder but this party can still win the game

Actually, Valkyrie can eventually learn soul shield and sane mind (though not until level 15 at the earliest, while a Priest, Psionic, or Bishop would be able to learn those spells at level 11).

Also, Bard gets haste.

I've played for about an hour and intend to finish it. I've hear so much hype about Wiz 7 though, and I really like to play RPGs for their story too. I'm worried taht if I finish Wiz 8 I will then feel up for trying the very dated looking Wiz 7. Would it be interesting uncovering the plot of Wiz 7 if one has beaten Wiz 8?

And how important are mods? To be honest I hate doing that kind of stuff, but if its important like it was for PS:T and Arcanum I'll do it.

What about resurrecting dead comrades in one's party? It took me many tries to successfully vanquish the gigantic spider (Gerod?). Somebody always died. Something always would go wrong. The major spell fizzled, bomb fumbled, sleep backfired, or somehow the game understands that I've got an easy win on my hands and makes 4/6 miss the gigantic spider. Someone always just barely died before killing him and I didn't know what the situtaton is with resurrections.

I read on howlongtobeat that the game is like 100 hours on average... wtf! I was really on the fence about starting with Wiz 7 but these games are apparently enormous and I'm not sure I can get down like that with both of them.

Methods of reviving characters:

1. Resurrection powder. There is some that you can find, I believe, at the top of the waterfall in the Lower Monastery (accessible even before killing Gregor). You can buy more later. (I think they might even be buyable in the Lower Monastery.) This is probably your best option at the moment.
2. Scroll of Resurrection. These are rarer and more expensive than the powder, and require 35 Artifacts and can fizzle even then. For this reason, it is best to sell any you happen to find and use the money to buy Resurrection Powder.
3. Amulet of Life. Can't get this for a while, and it has the same problems as the scroll, except that it is cheap for the number of uses and can be recharged by selling and buying it back.
4. Resurrection spell. Not available until level 14 at the earliest, but the cheapest method once available. (Cheap enough that, if you have a Valkyrie with this spell (requires level 18), you might even consider falling off a tree (which will kill the rest of the party) as a shortcut (but save first).)

Unlike previous Wizardry games, resurrection can't fail (unless the spell fizzles, but you can keep trying), and there is no penalty for being revived. In fact, if a character gets drained, it may be cheaper to let the character die on purpose and then revive her.

Hmm.. I think I picked that item up at the waterfall. I do have a small number of unidentified items and some of them are powders if I remember correctly. Artifacts I think is the skill related to that. I don't have anyone witht that leveled up.

Do people's scouting abilities or artifacts abilities stack? I don't fully understand the skills yet but if say there is a sword I can't identify unless my artifact skill is at 12. Do I need to get one char to 12? Or can I level up two people to level 6?

you need one character to have 12

Artifacts does not stack; in the example you gave, you need one character with 12 Artifacts. Artifacts tends to grow fine on its own, and there is a spell to identify items (your Valkyrie can learn it at level 7 if her Divinity is at least 15 before gaining the level, or you can use a spellbook that can be bought from a merchant in the town you will likely be in at that point).

I haven't ever used a party with multiple rangers, but my guess is that the game just checks each Scouting skill separately.

Also, you don't need to identify powders to use them. In fact, I believe it may actually be safe to try to use your unidentified powders on your dead character; if the powder doesn't revive, the game won't let you use it on the character, with the character giving her "illegal action" speech.

Edit: You *do*, however, need to identify spell books before you can use them. Fortunately, this isn't much of a problem because the Book of Relics, which teaches Identify, is easily buyable, and purchased items come identified.

You'll want the fast exe. Combat takes ages once the HP go up and the groups get bigger. That can be sped up with a mod. You don't need it but I'd recommend it anyway. It is a quality of life change, especially later on. The saves are compatible iirc.
Besides that you can play mods to get more and different content but don't need to.

I severely limit my 50+ hour RPG intake now. I thought about playing earlier Wizardry games too, but I just don't have that kind of time. So I'm sticking with Wiz 8 alone, and I'm happy with saving hundreds of hours I can dedicate to other things.

Oh yes, and I absolutely agree with the last post. Get the fast combat thing. That will save you massive amounts of time.

How does one ask characters to leave the party?

I've left Arnika to look for some other settlements. I made my way North to the wilderness and that was pretty damn difficult. I fought that big horned beast with around 450 hp or somehting. He was going to kill me the first time and miraculously my Archer hit some critical arrow for an instant kill. My jaw dropped. I get cheated on my spells backfiring and fizzling so much i didn't think things like that happened. I had 2 deaths on my way to an Umpani base camp tho. I resurrected my Mage and I've left Myles dead. Now that I've completed a training course I was just going to recruit Sparkles or Saxx but don't know how to kick folks out of my party.