This is my first time, since this game came out, that I have created a Valkyrie. It's an exciting time, when she maxed her Divinity skill (coincidentally, this is the time, hanging out in the Monastery, that she got her realm skills to 98 (minus the Mental realm, which is almost useless in combat; Charm, Divine Trap, Identify Item, Sane Mind).

This is open for discussion, but the "best" build seems to be a Female (gender locked), Human, Valkyrie. This is because, like the Bishop, there are many attribute requirements, some of which may not be that beneficial to said class.

She would be the last in my party to max 4 stats (Strength, Dexterity, Speed, and Senses, at level 31). However, with her highest stat sum, she would wind up better than all other Valkyries (if you don't count Powercast; Intelligence is such a worthless attribute by itself).

The slow progression of Divinity is because she kept her Piety skill at base (55).

Intelligence is only for specialist casters, because it's almost worthless on its own (Powercast might not make up for the -4 caster level penalty for hybrids, particularly on Ascension Peak, when magic drops off).

Piety isn't as useful for Bishops as it is for the specialist casters; They can (potentially) get all 101 spells in the game. This is debatable whether most of them are useful, but picking spells (even if you will never use them), gives more Spell Points to each realm. Also, Iron Will is less useful, as they probably have all realms maxed, and have good base resistances. The Valkyrie can max all realms, and gain +10 resistance to each realm (with Element and Soul Shield as a supplement).

Vitality is debatable, with the Valkyrie's skill bonus in Polearms. She would be best as a flank, or back-line character, with her extended-range Polearms. Iron Skin would be less useful of a skill than a front-line character, and even then, there is always Body of Stone (70% Damage Resistance at max).

If intelligence is such a worthless stat, you might consider a race that has below average intelligence. Specifically, it might be better not to look at overall stat sum, but rather stat sum not counting intelligence.

In particular:
* Dwarf has the same stat sum as human, but additionally gets damage resistance.
* Dracon is only 5 points less than human, but you get a breath weapon. (Make sure to raise Senses to 31 early.)
* Lizardman is 5 points better than human here. Just mind the racial disadvantages,
* Rawulf is also 5 points better than human. But it doesn't have to, seeing as how the most important Priest spells don't target resistance, and the boost still helps non-attack spells.

Also, attack magic only drops off temporarily in the teens, and again if you go past endgame levels. If you just go to endgame levels, attack magic is still quite powerful. What's the relevance for a Valkyrie? Or as part of an extended range front-line, which can be rather handy when fighting enemies that themselves use extended range attacks, or if you kill the enemies in melee range before the round is over.

The Valkyrie is quite powerful, early on, hitting hard, even in the Monastery, with her Halberd hitting for decent damage (better than what the Ranger can equip).

Her lack of attack magic, compared to other spellbooks, is still apparent. Lightning and Whirlwind are limited by thrown range, Falling Stars is inferior to Earthquake (but costs less mana). On the plus side, she does get Instant Death and Death Wish (long range).

The other races seem to suffer in one way or another; Particularly, in the Speed and Senses attributes. I just checked Flamestryke's site, and it doesn't seem that any other race compares to Humans (if you only count Strength, Dexterity, Speed, and Senses).

I agree with you, on Divinity and Alchemy casters; Their spells are good defensively, without needing Powercast.

Enemies that use extended-range attacks are, thankfully, few and far between (early on, King Crab). Later on, Savant Minion in Arnika. You should plan your party so that all six characters can hit enemies in front of the party.

That's not really true for Alchemy. For defense, you get:
* Element Shield, but mages also get that spell
* Body of Stone, which is only single target and not really needed by the time you can cast it at a decent power level

(Alchemists do get some healing, but lack both Heal All and Restoration, the two healing spells that become important at high levels, and Heal Wounds without Power Cast is a bit weak at high levels if you have fighter-types in the party.)

The Halberd isn't guaranteed in the Monastery. 5-18 with full Strength bonus and infinite ammo is nice, but it only works at extended range, has an initiative penalty, and doesn't grant any extra swings.

The Tripleshot Crossbow, on the otherhand, is actually obtainable in the Monastery (though not something most players will be able to, but you might given your excessive powerleveling). It grants 2 extra swings, deals 5-11 per hit (using quarrels that are bought from Burz, assuming he's still alive (that is, you didn't kill him for another try at a Light Crossbow), and can hit at long range (albeit with a significant accuracy penalty)). Only half strength bonus, but still useful. (There is, of course, the problem of stamina usage.) Oh, and while a Valkyrie can equip it, a Ranger gets their primary skill bonus to it, and can instantly kill if you get lucky.

Of course, this is all theoretical, seeing as nobody's going to bother to get Engineering up to 70 in the Monastery, but rumor has it that there's a player of this game here, on this forum, who will actually level up to 20 or so in the Monastery.

Worth noting that I consider defensive and healing options to be different, and of the spells you listed for Alchemists, only one of them is a defensive effect; the rest are healing. (In particular, Cure Poison/Disease are rarely used during combat; you can usually just wait until after the combat (avoiding the turn cost), use a potion, or even (for poison; I don't recommend it for disease) ignore the condition until it disappears.)

So, Alchemy is decent in healing, but doesn't offer much in defense.

(Also, keep in mind that there's plenty of game before level 11, and you can't learn Body of Stone as a spell at that point.)

As far as armor goes (not counting the Eastern classes, like the Ninja, Monk, and Samurai, which I don't have experience with, and probably have their own special armor):

Heavy Armor: Fighter, Lord, Valkyrie

Medium Armor: Ranger, Bard, Gadgeteer

Light Armor: Rogue, Priest, Alchemist, Bishop

Rags/Robes: Psionic and Mage

You can clearly see that the Fighter, Lord, and Valkyrie will get the best armor from Ferro (and the Ranger and Samurai, without Stealth skill, will get the Infinity Helm). This is fair.

All status effects wear off, with time, except for the 3 Ds: Death, Disease, Draining. I wouldn't recommend saving after these occur. With the way that I play (being overlevelled), these typically don't occur, but if they do, there is always reload.

Note that reloading isn't scum; It's a feature of the game. Look at the many bugs with W8, with the holes in the map, which can lead to party wipes. Look at the Umpani obstacle course; One slip could cost you your whole party. Look at an unfair monster spawn, which you couldn't hope to win (early on). Look at grinding for items (level 2 Holy Water spellbook from the Savant Orb, which has a 25% chance to appear). Look at grinding for *Light Swords* and *Light Shields*, from the Buccaneer Ghosts. Look at grinding Rapax Corpses for Staves of Doom, which are like FF1's Masamune, in that anybody can use them, and they make even casters good at melee combat.

The only one whose cure is urgent is disease, as it can cause permanent stat/hp loss if not treated (a mechanic that, honestly, feels out of place in Wizardry 8 due to the absence of any similar intentional mechanics, despite such things being present earlier in the series).

Death isn't that much of an issue, certainly not enough to warrant a reload at mid to high levels. Other than preventing action, there's really only 2 practical problems with this condition:
* A dead character doesn't get a share of the XP. For combat XP, other characters get more, so if it's not always the same character who dies, it's not too much of a concern.
* If the entire party is dead at the same time, it's game over (and, on iron man, I believe your save file is deleted). Generally, this is only going to happen if you are clearly outmatched, or if you get extremely unlucky. (Or if you're trying to solo the game, in which case significantly less bad luck is needed to trigger game over.)

Draining isn't a problem, as long as you don't level up while drained (bug apparently makes the HP loss permanent). Hence, you can wait to cure it. Furthermore, curing it isn't quite as hard as it may seem:
* If you have someone with 50 Alchemy, you can make a Renewal Potion just by mixing a Heavy Heal potion with a Cur Disease (made from Heavy Heal + Cure Light Condition IIRC). You have probably used this recipe before to make money, but it has this practical use as well.
* You may not be able to cure it with a spell, but it turns out that this status can't coexist with death. So, if you just get death inflicted on the character, then remove the condition, you can cure draining with just a spell (or with a fairly common item that's cheaper than a Renewal Potion, or even with a buyable charged item).
* Worst case, use the fountain by Lord Braffit, but it can only be used a limited number of times. Many of those reasons to reload are either outright bugs, and of the rest, I tend to consider them to be design flaws. I really don't like it when there's non-repeatable random drops in this sort of game, particularly when items aren't available any other way (and this isn't how the series has historically worked; in the older games, you could just keep killing top tier enemies until one decides to drop that Muramasa (by far the strongest weapon in Wizardry 1, and it's not even close) you've been looking for).

Unlike FF1's Masamune (and FF2's for that matter, since it doesn't penalize spellcasting even in the original version, whereas most weapons do), the Staff of Doom has some significant downsizes. Also, the Staff of Doom doesn't outdamage the weapons that fighter-types are using late game (though it's good enough to be a viable option, but more for its other effects), unlike the FF1/FF2 Masamune. Except for hybrids getting significantly better SP regen than characters who've dedicated their whole lives to spellcasting.

Actually, why exactly 31 points in senses early in the game for dracon?

Having 30 or lower SEN gives you -1 to hit.

To get +1 to hit, the amount of SEN needed is really high (at least 70, I don't remember exactly).

31 SEN avoids the hit penalty, and involves almost no investment; therefore, any Dracon who uses physical stats, doesn't need SEN for a class requirement, and isn't heavily investing in SEN should put the stat at 31.

Note that this also applies to Lizardmen, since that race also starts with 30, and gets the same benefit from going 31.

I thought the senses thing was a myth. It definitely doesn't show-up in the in-game display. And the data-miners seem to agree that it has to be lower for the minus one to start.

Also, there was an empirical test of various weapons at about level sixteen wherein staff of doom was stronger than any other melee weapon for a fighter. Also, at that point, dread spear is stronger than giant's sword. The latter gets better, but it's a massive stamina drain, and that has to be accounted for. One would have to test it, but I wouldn't be surprised if triple-shot is better than giant's sword for a significant portion of the game.

Infinity helm makes sense, you'd have to be dense to not see it. (Or not deal in practicalities, a terrible trait for a developer. Even worse for a designer.)

A lot of wrinkles in games don't bother me. In fact, I prefer them. But, I'm a systems-fan who enjoys Stone Soup and Daggerfall. The former replaced hunger with a timer, based devs. Then they made running out of time only reduce max hp... potentially until you only have a single hp. Adorable.

Worth noting that skills and stats do matter. Even at that level, a character with low skill might not get that extra attack, especially in a pathological case like Mage 15->Fighter 1; with only one attack or swing the Giant's Sword will outdamage the Dread Spear (though the Staff of Doom might still be decent if the character actually used staves before class change). Worth noting that, for a Valkyrie the test would favor the Dread Spear, while for a Samurai it would (theoretically, since the Dread Spear isn't an option) favor the Giant Sword.

There's also the issue that the Dread Spear does not have a chance of completely disabling the enemy, whereas the Giant's Sword can KO, and the Stun Rod (one of my favorite weapons) can Paralyze (as can the Staff of Doom).

Worth noting that the Tripleshot Crossbow is also a heavy stamina drain.

Because I feel like it, here's some theorycrafting for an unrealistic (but possible) situation, one that may give some different results.

The character is a level 1 Mook Valkyrie with starting skills. Since this is an apprentice build, Strength is at the racial minimum, which is 50; this is quite convenient as it means no modifier here. (Note that high STR favors melee, while low STR favors ranged and whips; this is even more so for firearms). We shall assume the character gets only one attack and swing by default. This situation can be made to happen by replacing a character with a new Valkyrie after getting the items in question.

So, here's what we get when we do the analysis here:
* Staff of Doom: 7-27 = 17 average damage. +4 to hit does help here (as this is before accuracy becomes a non-issue fore fighter-types).
* Giant's Sword: 9-33 = 21 average damage, +2 to hit. But this provides +5 STR, so there's a 10% damage bonus, putting the average at just over 23 (but note that there's some rounding here, so around 23).
* Dread Spear: 11-23 = 17 average damage. +2 to hit. Works out a bit worse than the others, since SoD gets higher hit, and GS gets more damage. (The +2 initiative bonus is not anywhere near enough to give that extra swing.)
* Tripleshot Crossbow: 2 extra swings (huge at such a low level), but -1 to hit. Lightning Bolts (strongest buyable ammo for this weapon type) is 10-30 damage (average 20) per hit, and +4 to hit. So, we get 60 damage, which blows the other options out of the water. Even with plain quarrels (5-11 = 8 average damage), we get 24, which still beats out that Giant's Sword.


Don't forget what happens in Daggerfall if you're a werewolf and you don't feed.

Incidentally, what tends to bother me more in terms of systems is missable stats, something that (except for disease and the Trynton fountain) Wizardry 8 avoids. One problem I have with Wizardry 6-7, for example, is the base miss chance mechanic. Or, SaGa 2 has a mechanic where, at 999 HP or more, a human or esper can't gain any more HP, but at leas than that, the human or esper can still gain the full random amount of HP if an HP increase is rolled.