I just got to Arnika with the following party:

Lizardman Fighter
Dwarf Samurai
Hobbit Rogue
Elf Ranger
Elf Bishop
Faerie Mage

The Rogue can be switched to among other, Bard or Gadgeteer. The Ranger can be switched to Bard as well.

I'm mainly considering switching the Rogue because of the Bard/Gadgets items I've been finding - probably not a good reason. But so far the Rogue hasn't been the most productive member of the party, though I've heard he turns into a high damage dealer eventually?

Any advice?

Changing class into Bard or Gadgeteer is not a good idea. When you change class, the character will start at level 1 in the new class, but the levels add for purposes of determining what spells, instruments, and gadgets you can use. Given that XP requirements increase exponentially (even at high levels, unlike earlier Wizardries), this is not a good idea.

If you *really* want to play with instruments or gadgets on your current playthrough, your are better off replacing the character entirely with a new one. If your party hasn't reached level 10, you can expect the new character to be only one level behind once the rest of your party has leveled up.

(This leads to an intersting strategy I might try at some point: Start with a mage (who will learn Enchanted Blade and Missile Shield as soon as possible), and then replace her with a bishop in Arnika, after buying a few spellbooks for the new character. (If you do this, save early spellbooks for your Bishop.)

What is the reason for learning Enchanted Blade and Missile Shield ASAP? Are they that helpful early on? Neither my Bishop nor my Mage learned those yet.

BTW, is there a limit to how many spells a character can learn in 1 spell school? If so, is it possible to replace already learned spells with others?

Enchanted Blade and Missile Shield are nice because they are long duration spells. You can cast them after resting and they will last a while. With Enchanted Blade, your attacks will hit more often, and with Missile Shield, many of those knives and other missles enemies throw at you will miss. The Priest spells Armorplate and Magic Screen are similarly important.

(Note that each of these spells only needs to be known by one character, but having another character learn and cast it can be good for practice. Also, casting these spells at unsafe power levels isn't a bad idea; if you are successful, you will benefit from the higher power level for quite a while.)

There is no limit to the number of spells a character can learn. You only get one spell pick per level up, but you can learn most spells of 5th level or lower from spellbooks. (In particular, note that Enchanted Blade and Magic Screen are buyable from the priest in Arnika, so at this point you may want to get the spells there.) One strategy is to save a Bishop's spell picks until she gets 6th level spells so that she can learn all the spells around level 25 or 26. (The downside is that your Bishop will be much weaker in the short run; hence my idea of starting with a Mage and replacing her with a Bishop either in Arnika or after buying the Missile Shield spellbook in Trynton (but before answering the riddle).) I wouldn't advise doing this if you are not yet familiar with the game, however.

Thanks for the info! Just went broke buying various spells in Arnika :)

If you have 15 Alchemy, you can mix Light and Moderate Heal potions to get Heavy Heal potions (IIRC) to make some extra money and practice your Alchemy skill.

Good to know! My Bishop's alchemy is only 13, and she's quite a ways from the next level up, so I'll just keep that in mind for now :)

Is that the Merge Items button that will do this?

I believe it is indeed the Merge Items button. That icon is also used to make gadgets (if you have a gadgeteer) and in at least one spot you need to merge two key items to continue.

Properly developed rogue (str/dex than speed and meanwhile maxing stealth) will soon outperform fighter in terms of damage per turn. You'll find an amazing sword for him in Arnika. So imo you shouldn't change anything in your party - you'll find bard and gadgie rpcs later who, besides doing exactly the same things "yours" bard/gadgie would do, also add a lot to the game's immersion. Definitely worth taking and you'll be able to test all this junk/instruments you have.

Hmm, I haven't been concentrating on his STR/DEX too much, but I can start now. I also haven't put many points into his Stealth. How do you "train" Stealth besides at level up time?

To train stealth, enemies need to target your rogue. That's really all there is to it.

Note that, as your Stealth gets higher, enemies will be less likely to target the character with the skill, so make sure your other characters have good hp/armor.

One strategy (that I do not recommend) that some players have used is the following:
1. Start the game with a solo rogue.
2. Get into a fight.
3. Keep defending until your stealth skill gets really high (90+). (This will take a while.)
4. After the fight, continue as normal.
5. Enjoy the fact that enemies will no longer bother to attack you...or get frustrated at them defending all the time.
6. At level up, change to a different class.

What happens is that the enemies won't attack you, so you don't need to worry about dying. However, the enemies will be defending all the time, and defending actually has a noticeable effect. As a result, battles will take a while but won't be threatening. I think you can see why I would not recommend the strategy.

It is really because of this sort of thing that I personally prefer to avoid classes with Stealth. Locks and traps can be handled decently by a Bard or Gadgeteer. (Why do Bards get that skill anyway? That has never made sense to me, even back in AD&D. That skill makes perfect sense on a Gadgeteer, however.)

Anyway, I personally advise not going out of your way to train Stealth; it will rise high enough on its own.

Bards have it in D&D because when they were first introduced, the path to becoming one required that you start the character as a Thief, dual class (class switch) to Fighter after a few levels, and then dual class AGAIN to druid and bard. Aside from requiring several extremely high stats in the right places (which was very rare if you used the stat die rolling honestly), this essentially meant that it was a human-only class, since humans were the only ones allowed to use the dual class mechanic, while "demihumans" (everyone else - elves, dwarves, halflings, etc) used the multiclass (several classes at once) one.

To be honest you don't need to do anything besides putting in stealth 3points every lvlup. After maxing dex to 100 you'll unlock another similar skill (reflection) which is also worth few points every level. Both of them level nicely on their own when you fight (and you fight a lot in this game).