I figured I would start a thread about Bishops since the level slow and need a lot of attention to level up.


I am currently running a party with a Bishop; I have a Mage and Alchemist and I'm using the Bishop for Divinity and Psionics.

I am casting non-combat spells after resting and cast a variety of spells during combat. (Water, Air, Fire, Earth, Mental and Divinity)

So far it has been working well, however I am starting to believe the Bishop would be better in a party where he/she was the only caster.

I have read about the "Trick" where you simply cast charm over and over for hours, (Charm-Rest-Charm-Rest) in order to raise the Mental/Psionics to max level but I decided against that for this run through, it seemed a little like cheating.

Any tips on this class would be greatly welcome.

You can do the same 'over and over' trick with Divine Trap (Divinity and Psionics) and Knock Knock (Wizardry and Alchemy).

You generally want to burn off your mana with non-combat spells (buffs especially) before you rest, and then re-cast whatever you actually use for the long-term after (since they'll have worn off by then). This goes for everyone though, not just the Bishop.

With a Divinity/Psionics focus the Bishop will probably serve better as a buff/support character than as a blaster; getting your hands on a decent range of spellbooks is the main challenge early on. Arnika has a reasonable starting set, but you'll want to visit Trynton and Crock (in the swamp) ASAP to collect others.

I do recommend getting the Bishop's alchemy to 15, even if it's not supposed to be a major focus. This will allow him to perform basic potion merging and train the skill up while your alchemist handles the higher-end mixing (and gets his skillups from that).

What else do you have in the party?

Hey Garran, along with the Bishop, Mage, Alchemist I have a Fighter, Rogue, Monk on the front line.

I put Vi to the side with a long ranged mele' weapon and miles in back, but I may get rid of him, I only have him around because I haven't been leveling my rogues pick pocketing. But to be honest miles is pretty useless in the back.

I was thinking if I had the same front line, or possibly Fighter, Monk, Samurai I could then go Ranger, Bishop, Gadgeteer in the back row doing ranged damage.

You'd probably be better off with a T-form arrangement with that mix of characters.

Put your melee characters in the left, right, and center positions and your casters in the rear position. This allows everyone in the left, right, and center positions to attack in front, and the casters in the back are protected from regular-range melee attacks. Since Vi has a long weapon she should be in the center position, allowing her to strike to either flank as well as forward.

You didn't mention why you believe the bishop is better in a party with less casters.

I had a similar party, with mage, alchemist and bishop with the same focus on Divinity for my bishop and it turned out pretty much as I expected. He would be healing and protecting the party members, and when there was no healing or curing to be done, he could throw in a few low power Alchemy or Psionic spells to help out, for practice if nothing else. Since my party was already magic heavy, stacking spells is always good, even at low power level. It might be disappointing to see an average 3 damage done to a few creatures, but when there are say 5 of them, that means 15 damage overall, consistently. No misses in swings or anything.

I started my bishop with Healing and Acid splash. In the beginning the only offensive spell he had was Acid splash and Web, which was fine, because I expected him to mostly be a Priest. When he reached Arnika I got an Insanity book for him which helps him increase Psionics. These spells will increase his skill in all 3 schools of magic. Of course, spells like Magic Screen and Armorplate helps to increase the Divinity, Earth and Divine skills a lot, and you will find more spellbooks as the game progresses.

The beginning is always the most frustrating in my opinion, because of the high chance of backfire/fizzle. To increase your odds, put points into Divine, Earth, Water and Divinity for a few levels. Then you can add 3/3/3 into Divinity/Alchemy/Psionics.

Easy, peasy 4 book monster Bishop:

I left Arnika with 400,000 gold and all four books (Wizardry, Divinity, Alchemy & Psionics) at level 60 or above. Yes, I did use a major exploit: If you enter qQM you can recast Light, Missile Shield, Enchanted Blade. Magic Screen and Armor Plate as fast as you can enter the keys.

This is a lot easier than it sounds if you have a gaming keyboard or the free program AutoHotKey. You set either one up to type: qQ(delay 1 second)M. The "q" does a quicksave, Q reloads that save, the delay is to allow for load time and the M recasts your last spell. Cast the spell you want to level at level 1, then trigger the macro. Repeat until you run out of mana then "c" to camp.

I entered Arnika With Wiz 22, Div 31, Alc 27 and Psi 27. This I did by using the exploit in the Monastery casting Light. The first step is to raise Alc to 30 by mixing Lt Heal and Mod Heal potions. Buy the Knock-Knock spell from Anna then go to the Bank Vault (under the Jail) and work on getting Alc to 50. Once you get to 50 mix Renewal Potions: Hvy Heal + Cure Disease which sell for about 4600 gold. Cure Disease = Hvy Heal + Cure Light Conditions. I made more than 400,000 gold in about 2 hours.

For Divinity repeatedly cast Divine Trap on the chest upstairs in He'Lei's upstairs room. Make sure you don't unlock it. Make sure that Div > Psi when you start or you raise Psionics instead. This works wonders for your Psionics guy or hybrid.

Do the exploit for Missile Shield for Wiz & Air. Enchanted Blade = Wiz & Divine. Armor Plate = Div & Earth. Unfortunately there is no easy way to raise Water.

Save your spell picks for levels 6 & 7. You can buy or find almost all the lower level spells. Missile Shield and Armorplate aren't available until later in the game so those were my only two earlier picks.

There you have it - a very wealthy Bishop with four books. It will take a number of hours to get there but it is time well spent.

Honestly if I was going to game the system like that, I'd just use an editor and save myself a bunch of time. It's substantially simpler.

I get a kick out of mastering single player games "out of the box".

I also have all my toons with stealth > 90. This adds 9 AC. This includes my Bishop, Ranger, Bard, Fighter, Monk & Samurai. This takes about two days in the Monastry.

Everybody's "horror" is the Arnika-Tryton Road. With my setup it is a trifle.