I'm familiar with the DOS version of the game, where your spell points are replenished as soon as you exit the maze. In this game, you have to spend time in the inn to get them back. Is that consistent with the original Apple ][ version of the game?

I believe it is consistent with the original.

What isn't consistent, however, is that, according to the description, it ages you a week. In the original version, it did not, and in some other versions, it only had like a 1 in 7 chance of aging your character a week.

(Worth noting that I don't recommend the DOS version because of a bug that makes stats far more likely to drop at level up than they should; I've heard of young characters dying of old age as well as integer underflows happening via typical gameplay.)

I know it's consistent with the NES port on that regard -- you had to nap at the inn for healing spells. I spent many a time going "step into dungeon, burn all my heals, walk out, priest/bishop nap on the cots because free, repeat as needed until healed and ready to roll" on that one.

:-/ If trying to rest and recover and I get the message that I'm unable to do so because of missing XP. I can only rest a character that is able to level up...

You recover SP when resting for free, even if it doesn't level you up.

On the other hand, I believe paying for a nicer room to rest in does not allow you to recover SP. (Worth noting that paying for such a rule is the sort of thing that experienced Wizardry players never do, except sometimes in speedruns; it's a trap option.)

I'm playing the DOS version of the game right now and the only way to get your spells restored is to stay at the Adventurer's Inn. What DOS version are you referring to? This is the second time I have heard about a bug that causes stats to drop in the DOS version. I'm glad that's a bug, and not part of the game, because it's driving me nuts. Maybe I'll try the Apple II version at some point. Having your party members being constantly downgraded at level up is nuts.

Stats are supposed to drop occasionally at level up. The intended mechanic is that each stat has a 75% chance of changing, and if it changes, there's an (age/130) chance of the stat going down instead of up. Special cases are that a stat that's 18 won't increase and is unlikely to decrease (1/6 of normal chance), and that if Vitality drops below 3, the character will "die of old age" and become LOST. (Yes, this means that, if you get absurdly unlucky (or if you're using save states to force this to happen or something), a young character can die of old age, as long as the character's age isn't somehow 0 or negative.)

In general, if the character is relatively young, your stats will increase over the normal course of level ups, and you'll have all 18s at higher levels.

In the DOS version, stats decrease far more often than they should, which means a couple of my claims no longer hold:
* Young characters dying of old ate is now something that can reasonably happen through normal play.
* Your stats aren't going to tend to all 18s, causing it to be much harder to change to Lord or Ninja.
* There's also been reports of stat underflows in this version. They can happen in the Apple 2 version, but that's incredibly unlikely if the character isn't exceptionally old. (NES version, I believe, imposes a 3 minimum on stats other than Vitality, and Vitality has a minimum of 2 (in case you somehow cure the LOST condition).)

Edit: Of course, this is assuming you're not playing the remake, or you're playing the remake with random level-up stat increases ON.

I knew the stats could decrease when you level up, but I figured something wasn't right that it would happen constantly. I may have to try the Apple II version or the NES version. Thanks for the confirmation.