Its interesting to see the different party builds people use, thanks guys

Lord- Human
Samurai-Felpurr
Valkyrie- Faery
Ninja-Dracon (Mortal Kombat Reptile XD) option: hide (sneak attack) or breath attack (in your face)
Psionic-Elf
Bishop-Gnome

I know she can use the Mystery Ray and a Flamethrower for range attacks and doll armour with the spike boots should give her the equivalent of medium armour but what will she use in melee... Just out of interest?

Definitely a spear i.e Maenad's Lance. I am a small Faery and like to poke monsters.

The Spiked Spear is a decent polearm usable by faeries, and the Maenad's Lance is even better.
Alternatively Light Sword/Ivory Blade and Sprite's Dagger/Canezou, though that would be better suited for a Lord.

I like this one:

RFS-81
Dwarf Valkyrie
Human Ninja
Elf Alchemist
Elf Bishop
Gnome Psionic
Faerie Mage

Everyone uses an extended weapon, they can cast portals, summon 4 elementals, stack area spells, and they are less vulnerable to mental attacks.

Valkyrie
Developed as a fighter mostly. She maxed STR and DEX for a very high To-hit. The Cheat Death ability and damage absorption for being a Dwarf somewhat make up for not increasing VIT until later.

Ninja
Pretty useful to have around. I abused the auto-penetration ability early on when it was most useful, and then he naturally became the thrower in the party, using all those potions and powders that you find/buy along the way. He was the only lockpicker and learned how to use a Polearm and Alchemy. With so many skills, I had to ignore Stealth, so he was vulnerable like the rest of the casters. Increased DEX and SEN because they are controlling attributes to many skills and SEN unlocks Eagle Eye, which I wanted.

Alchemist
Great caster. Good for both support and offense. Became a good thrower as well. Increased INT and SEN each levelup.

Bishop
Focused on Divinity and later on also Psionics and Alchemy. He wasn't as good as a pure priest of course, but good enough. The stat choices INT and PIE means that the initiative was poor, but that can be a good thing. Iron Will should mean he has a higher chance to shrug off effects better, which suits a priest.

Psionic
Has immunity to mental conditions which can really come in handy. A few spells like Ego Whip and Psionic Blast sticks out as well. For convenience I increased Mythology 3 points each levelup since it started high and because she was increasing INT and SEN anyway (controlling attributes to Mythology). This made Mythology max out very quickly. High SEN means high initiative as well, so Soul Shield is up quickly.

Mage
Does a lot of damage, especially in early-middle part of the game, compared to other classes. The extra resistance is a nice bonus as well. I increased Artifact skill for her to be able to use item charges or read a scroll when spell points run out or on special occasions. Staff of Doom safely goes to this character. With Speed maxed the mage should be faster than most creatures.

My current party, after much consideration:

Fighter (dwarf)
Monk (human)
Ranger (mook)
Gadgeteer (hobbit)
Mage (elf)
Priest (rawulf)

Analysis at level 12:

I've decided against Bard since it's a boring class, so I still don't have access to the Insanity spell. The first half of the games wasn't too difficult despite that. The fighter is my main tank and damage dealer. I've noticed that he deals much more damage with a polearm than with a sword, despite his skill with the former being only at 30. I'm struggling to find a better sword for him than Demonsting. The Monk is only now coming into her own – with multiple attacks, her damage per turn is on par with the Fighter, with the added chance of instakill (made some really tough fights trivial). The Ranger is my main archer with criticals (also chance of instakill) and utility character with constant searching, monster detection, and some rudimentary alchemy. Lately he's been firing off two arrows per attack. The Gadgeteer was mostly using the lighting rod, which has now been replaced by the port-a-potty as a staple gadget for all situation. The omnigun is also useful in easier battles. She may not be the most efficient in terms of damage, buffs or number of kills, but she sure is the most fun from the roleplaying perspective. The Mage has been concentrating on debuffs and disabling spells, since mid-range direct damage spells aren't terribly useful. He can paralyze entire groups of enemies, lower their defenses, and later he will inflict major damage with high-level nuking spells. The Priest is, well, a buffer and a healer. She is responsible for protective spells, and is invaluable in long battles of attrition, where the health and stamina of other characters needs to be constantly replenished. I've been building up her close combat skills as well, but she still misses 70% of the time and deals very little damage even when she hits.

Conclusion: I could perhaps do with a bit more brute force. Perhaps one more melee specialist instead of a caster. The Priest was supposed to step into those shoes, but she's failed me. Still, it's a balanced and fun party. No great difficulties so far.

You mean the Ebon Staff? The tree creatures in Trynton didn't drop the necessary component. Maybe they've respawned so that I can try again, but my Priest is skilled in maces and flails, not staves and wands.

This was the first gadget I assembled. However, I dislike the Terror spell. It doesn't work on strong opponents, and it makes weaker creatures run away, prolonging the battles unnecessarily. I'm much more partial to the sleep/freeze spells for crowd control as they not only prevent enemies from running, but they also make them easier to hit and damage.

I believe the tree spirits will respawn, yes. (I don't know if creating a safe zone affects that though.)

If you want your priest to play as a melee basher then the staff is a better option than maces because of the reach - he can stand in the front row and reach distant enemies or in the middle/back row and reach the melee enemies from behind cover (depending on how durable he is/how dangerous the enemies are).

Terror is ideal when you get a mixed group that includes tough melee enemies. For example, my L8 party got a mixed group of juggernauts and acidvines on the Arnika-Trynton road. The juggernauts were mainly an issue because of how long it takes to kill them and the acidvines weren't much of a threat by themselves but would definitely cause problems while dealing with the juggernauts, so the gadgeteer simply kept the juggernauts using the Sir Robin maneuver while I did a bit of weeding.

(Terror works a lot better against tough enemies when the Gadgeteer uses it because it'll be cast at a far higher power than any proper caster can manage in the early game.)

Nowadays I use Cosmic Forge to turn off the RPCs refusing to go to certain areas thing. I get to attached to my party and don't like juggling members in and out. Having said that my favorite party builds come in a few flavors. Below is probably the most used for me. I also hate playing humans in my fantasy RPGs. Bores me to tears being stuck with humans.


*Dracon Samurai - Criticals and sword skill, decent racial stats and the breath weapon can occasionally come in handy early on.

*Dwarf Fighter or Lord - Superior melee/tanking (for fighter) or great melee + healing assistance (and dual wielding bonus). Dwarf only because I can't stand humans and furries but occasionally will go with Lizardman instead.

*Vi (human valkyrie RPC) - Long range melee/polearms, decent healing/divine assistance and a special ability that occasionally saves me from having to reload. Plus she is valuable in the end game ...

*RFS-81 (Android Monk RPC) (usually have Miles until I get him) - I hate monks but having the robot (it's not really an "android") with it's great melee damage output is cool.

*Elf Female Bard - Bards kick ass, pure and simple. The instruments are VERY handy and this build makes for a good archery fighter and can hold her own in melee. Female because of the endurance necklace.

*Mook Gadgeteer - Gadgeteers are indispensable. Not just for the gadgets you can build themselves (which are a tremendous boon!) but the insta-kill / insta-disable omnigun will make him a leader in kills total. Also a great lock picker/trap disarming guy so you don't have to waste space with a rogue/thief.

*Gnome Alchemist - Make great healers, money makers and debuffers.

*Fairy Bishop (will be switched to ninja at higher level, just after I get the Cane of Corpus)- Fairies have too many advantages for caster classes to not have one. Faster mana regen, higher 'dodging' bonus to AC, start with fairy wands and powders etc.

I don't bother taking any straight 'mages' because direct damage spells suck in W8 and the alchemist & Bishop handle everything else better.

A bishop is does not become as strong as a mage in combat until much later. It's always lagging behind in development 1-2 levels if not more because it doesn't get 25% bonus, needs more experience, and usually it focuses on other schools of magic at the same time. You will need to cheat to make it better in combat.

The alchemist on the other hand is very good, but it doesn't have all the spells that you would like in some situations or progress slower in some areas. That's why I like both the mage and the alchemist together.

I don't think direct damage spells is necessary to survive or anything, but in my experience they do reliable damage and often more damage, because the monsters are often nicely grouped up together. It's also satisfying to watch them all go down in one round when you know that a "brute force approach" would take much longer.

Spellcasters may not be as powerful as fighters later in the game, but I think they dominate the beginning-middle part of the game.

1. *
2. Felpurr Samurai
3. Felpurr Ninja
4. Dracon Bishop
5. Mook Ranger
6. Mook Gadgeteer

* Number one varies between Mook Fighter, Rawulf Lord (which also can take spot Nuber 2), Dwarf Valkyire or (in my "supercritical" setup) Dwarf Monk

The Dracon Bishop might seem odd, but that way s/he survives hell a lot more damage and is far more useful at the beginning. And if he is out of mana he can still breathe acid on the ennemies. Also by midgame, his resistance penalties are gone and with Iron Will also very resistant to effects. Add Iron Skin and you got yourself almost a tanking wizard

Seeing that 100% of you play with full party is interesting for me since i tested my last mod entirely with a 3 man party.
My party for playing is always.

1 Human Fighter
2 Human Bishop
Add to this the occasional help of an RPC for uber battles

Thats it. So i must test my mod with a full party to make it playable for everyone, and have testers to use all the professions i hate so that nobody is left short.
I noticed that there is a lack of good stuff for ninja's and monks, especially in the clothing department.
Does anyone here think they have enough in the way of skills to compensate for this ? Or could they do with more ?

All wizardry fans are welcomed to to postcount wizardry series forum where we are always looking to give the fans a new wizardry experience.

Um... what class is that?