Wiz 6 gets a lot more manageable upon gaining level 2. Also, make sure your using your Bard's lute in every fight and basically every round. It will put monster groups to sleep, which prevents them from acting and greatly increases your hit chance and damage.

Another tip, it might take awhile, but you want to have pretty high bonus stats for your characters. 18 is kind of the sweet spot of being not too difficult to get, but providing a great boost to their effectiveness.

The bonus stats, however, are really more about being able to switch into a different class. Switching classes will reset your stats to the race or class base, but you gain skill points upon each level up and retain your hit chance and everything, so it is a good idea. I think the common advice for new players is to switch at about level 5, so invest the bonus points so you can switch without worrying about your random stat gains on level up. This can also allow people in your party to pick up spells, which is always a good idea, or things like Ninjutsu and Kirijutsu, which are very useful abilities.

It's worth noting though that the stat reset will likely prevent you from switching more than a couple times unless your gaming your level ups for the bonuses you want.

You should also definitely, definitely multiclass your casters. You get to choose more spells and have more mp for casting, and increase your skills at each level up. It's kind of funny, you can get 10 levels in mage or priest, switch, and get 10 levels in priest or mage before a Bishop will get to level 11.

If you don't want to bother, switching isn't really required, but definitely get high bonuses and use your Bard!

There's no "need," no. Hence why this was in the last line of my post:
"If you don't want to bother, switching isn't really required"

Not switching won't lock you out of content, or leave you with a dud party, or hamper your enjoyment of the game. It is, however, incredibly helpful, and can help swing the balance of difficulty in favor of the party.

Also, cluebooks hardly ever document the most beneficial game systems or tactics in oldschool RPGs; it's been this way in pretty much every WIzardry or Might & Magic game made.

Great tips! And that last one is GOLD! I have been using the amulet in the early part of the game for high-hitpoint targets. Gregory was a real pain, but this really helped to whittle him down.

Yeah selling any item with charges to a vendor will recharge it to its maximum. You'll lose a good bit of money in the transaction, but you'll be absolutely swimming in cash soon enough anyway. Just remember to leave at least 1 charge in everything and you'll be fine. Being aggressive with your item usage also helps raise your Artifacts skill faster, which is enormously useful. Note that it doesn't work with stacks of magical items like Icicle Stix, only single items with multiple charges.

Here's one for Wiz 8!


Eliminate your front row in your battle formation.

Put your mages in the back row, where they are now easier to protect. Then spread your team as you see fit in the middle three positions.
Your mages, may be more vulnerable to reach attacks, but you can now bring all of your party's melee skills to bear at once on any opponent in front of them.

This can speed up battles considerably, and reduce threat levels at the same time.

For Wiz 8, pole arms are very good weapons for any fighter class.

1) Since they rely on only one skill, you reach multiple attacks more quickly than you do if you're dual-wielding a sword and dagger.

2) They do better damage than almost all other weapons, and the weapons that do better damage are all unique and not available until late in the game (Bloodlust excluded),

3) You can equip everybody with Dread Spears just by spending a few bucks, whereas the better weapons require killing things to get them. A competent player should be able to pick up his first Dread Spear by 10th lvl, which is a distinct advantage.

4) Since pole arms have extended reach, everyone can fight in melee without having to move around in the tactical formation. This increases their chances of getting a stat boost, since they don't need to switch weapons for out-of-range opponents.

It's almost cheating, really. But weapons in this game generally suck (unique items excepted), so if you want to maximize your damage output at the earliest levels possible, pole arms are the way to go.

-- Mal

A characters encumbrance has impact on stamina loss.
Items in Patry inventory count less than in character inventory or when equipped.
Stamina level has impact on attack and defense during combat.
Weapons/ammo/items etc with high weight suck stamina during combats,
require more stamina replenishing magic during longer combats, instead of dmg spells etc.
Characters using weapons with weight above 6.0 lbs will loose the option for an additional swing
(you get additional attacks/swings with appropriate values in inflicted skills/attribs)

When you decided to move the party during combat,
you can change the target for physical attacks and spells until you click "Finish Move":
Select the character and click on the new target for physical attacks.
For spells r-clicking on the spell symbol aside the character portrait lets you retarget the spell.

Spells with the square symbol can be cast against enemies out of view.
Select spell and power, then hit "N" repeteadly to cycle through the available targets.
Note that friendlies will become hostile if you cast non benvolent spells at them,
the x-ray spell can help to avoid that.

Besides the tactical options, most "square spells" are ideal for training, i.e. rising skill points very fast,
cast them again and again against some hostiles that are encaged in a room.

More tips for W8:

- Magic Nectar potions are plentiful in the second half of the game, so use them liberally.

- If you have a Gadgeteer, save any crossbow you find early in the game. For some reason, they're quite rare, and you need three of them for the powerful triple crossbow.

- It may be difficult to find a good bow for your Ranger. Bela sells the most powerful one, and he can be reached fairly soon into the game. Make sure you have lots of money!

- The T'Rangaporter is the best spot for the "Set Portal" spell. Another good one is in the upper caves of Mt Gigas, as you'll be visiting that area multiple times.

- The Soul Eater is susceptible to paralysis caused by missiles (Mystic Arrows, Medusa Stones). This makes combat against this terrible creature trivial.

I find the base (shops) of Mt Gigas a nice ‘set portal’ because that gives me an modern ammo vender and I can return to Marten’s Bluff using the spy’s escape portal for quick return to Z’ant or even to go see Crock… the balcony [take the lift up] behind Ferro is another favourite ‘set portal’ location later in the game.

- Bishops should focus on no more than two spellbooks at one time

- You should decide on what every character will be doing most of the time, that is how he's going to kill monsters, and then push for that expert skill. Melee characters will want Power Strike, ranged characters will want Eagle Eye and offensive spellcasters will want Powercast.

- the Speed stat is useless for everyone as long as you have one character who can hast Haste, which would be the psionic, monk or bard. Virtually the only exception is a character who can cast Soul Shield or Elemental Shield early in combat and who may profit from unlocking Snakespeed. If you got that route, also push Senses on that character.

- You will encounter stronger monsters as the average of levels in your party rises

- You can level up one level at a time by leveling up once, then leaving the advancement screen by pressing Esc. Your modifications will not be undone no matter what the text box says.

- Do not leave the Monastery with a higher average level than 4; once you're outside, you can level up (as long as you don't rest on Arnika Road). Also do not be put off by the difficulty of getting to Arnika; it's easily the most difficult part of the game.

- You can start the game with a character only to get their specific starting equipment, then replace them with the character you really want in the party; i.e. you may start the game with a Valkyrie in your party to get a spear, then replace her with a Ninja/ Ranger/ Fighter specializing in polearms.

- You will NOT be able to use a lot of gadgets/ instruments in combat before running out of stamina. Potions and spells will help you there later but not at the start.

- As soon as you hit skill level 15 in Alchemy, you're basically unlocking a gold cheat, as it costs less to buy a light heal potion and a medium heal potion to mix than what you get by selling the resulting heavy heal potion.

Uhm, no. You can cast-rest-cast to grind just fine. You can test that early on with spells like Light, Enchanted Blade, Missile Shield, Stamina etc. There are some conditions though. Persistent spells like Enchanted Blade DON'T raise your skill if you cast them while you already have them in effect; the spell needs to wear off first, then you can cast it again for skill gain. Spells like Stamina or Heal Wounds need to actually replenish health/ stamina points, casting them on a rested character does nothing.