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In the description this game is decribed as "Wizardry-like" and that seems to be true - I felt almost at home in the character creation - all the classes and stuff I know from Wizardry 8 is here.

There is one thing, that seems to be a somewhat unfortunate game design decision - the class selection. Why can't one just pick the class of his hero, e.g. a "Lord" or "Samurai", and the needed points are adjusted automatically? Instead you need to reroll the bonus points first over and over again, because half of the classes need more points than others amd can't be picked right away.

Most rerolls are below 10 - one time I hit 35 and could have picked Lord, if I hadn't rerolled again too fast. So - give up and pick a fighter, or keep rerolling? This is just a sad beginning. Oh well, the monsters in the dungeons will pay for this....
Post edited April 08, 2015 by ralfkorrek
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ralfkorrek: There is one thing, that seems to be a somewhat unfortunate game design decision - the class selection. Why can't one just pick the class of his hero, e.g. a "Lord" or "Samurai", and the needed points are adjusted automatically? Instead you need to reroll the bonus points first over and over again, because half of the classes need more points than others amd can't be picked right away.
I agree that this is one of the downsides of keeping too true to the Wizardry roots. It is still possible to start with a character of any class. I've played it quite a bit on Steam and one of the things you need to do is create new characters and power level them and switch characters out at different phases of the story. That's a bit of a pain, too.

On the bright side, I seem to recall that with Wizardry you had to go through multiple pages and couldn't just "re-roll".

This one also suffers from the issue that if you change your class then your stats reset to your race's default.
When you start the game, you can choose between creating new characters and using the prefabricated characters (or a mix). But while new characters start at level 1, the prefabricated ones are level 4 (and have much better equipment) - quite a difference I guess.
Is the purpose of providing level 4 characters to let players choose a difficulty level? Like: Using all 6 level 4 characters is "easy", while using none is "very hard"?
Is the first dungeon survivable for a level 1 party (played by an average player)?
Or is the level 1 party to be considered "standard" for an average player, and the level 4 party is supposed to help beginners get familiar with the game?
I know it's my choice, and I can experiment with different parties myself, but I would appreciate it if someone who knows the game could give me an idea what to expect.
I think the idea is to help people understand the basics, once people understand them they can create their own party and go from there. If you bleed Wizardry you can probably skip them and just create your own party from the get go, but for us mere mortals they're a good primer for the game.
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ralfkorrek: In the description this game is decribed as "Wizardry-like" and that seems to be true - I felt almost at home in the character creation - all the classes and stuff I know from Wizardry 8 is here.

There is one thing, that seems to be a somewhat unfortunate game design decision - the class selection. Why can't one just pick the class of his hero, e.g. a "Lord" or "Samurai", and the needed points are adjusted automatically? Instead you need to reroll the bonus points first over and over again, because half of the classes need more points than others amd can't be picked right away.

Most rerolls are below 10 - one time I hit 35 and could have picked Lord, if I hadn't rerolled again too fast. So - give up and pick a fighter, or keep rerolling? This is just a sad beginning. Oh well, the monsters in the dungeons will pay for this....
It's due to the game using the system from Wizardry 1-5 and like in those if you don't get the bonus points to allow you to start a character with a prestige class(Lord, Ninja, ect.) then you have to re-roll . As annoying as it maybe at least they added a re-roll option in this game since in the original Wizardry's you had to go through character creation from start to finish first and if you weren't happy with the results you had to do the whole process over again which was tedious as hell.
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Greywolf1: Is the first dungeon survivable for a level 1 party (played by an average player)?
As a lv1 party there are big chances that your first enemy encounter might be your last, so you need to save every so often. Defeating smth like 3 Mork Cricketers (in multi-row encounter) is harder than impossible at lv1.

Journey to lv4 is quite fast though, so premade characters don't really give you that much of an advantage. Personally I prefer having my own fresh characters (with minimum age, good stat rolls, etc.) than higher level premades, it feels more rewarding this way.
thanks
There's a spot on the last level of the first dungeon that has a guaranteed big XP encounter. It's a couple of steps from the quest item, after a bunch of doors. It's a great spot to power-level new characters if you want to experiment.
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ralfkorrek: There is one thing, that seems to be a somewhat unfortunate game design decision - the class selection. Why can't one just pick the class of his hero, e.g. a "Lord" or "Samurai", and the needed points are adjusted automatically? Instead you need to reroll the bonus points first over and over again, because half of the classes need more points than others amd can't be picked right away.
In the early Wizardrys, while you could get some of the high-requirement classes right away if you rolled well enough, the main intention was for you to start on one of the lower-requirement classes and change into the higher ones when your characters develop the necessary stats trough leveling-up. I assume the same principle applies to Elminage too. (I just bought it today, so I'm not entirely sure.)

This entire approach to stats stems from Wizardry 1 trying to emulate the Dungeons and Dragons of it's day which operated on a "roll your stats and base your character on that, what you get is what you get"-approach. Since playing a singe-player CRPG and playing a table-RPG are very different things most video-game RPGs have since done-away with this concept. Elminage presumably only have it for authenticity and for the handful of weirdos (like myself) who prefer playing these type of games like that. At-least it made rerolling much easier for the rest of you.