I would have made sense to start this during the nascent era of the party, but second best time to plant a tree.

Ever since I tried out the original default party of Final Fantasy, I have preferred martial heavy parties. I usually build balanced parties when learning a game, but unbalanced parties are often more fun. But, I also like versatility. Like the strength rogue without fighter build in Neverwinter Nights. Rawr. But a party of spell-casting warriors in Wiz8 is intriguing for more than one reason. Magic is strong in Wiz8, so strong I'd prefer not to deal with the tedious challenge that is a non-magical party. Especially on expert, which, despite it sounding terrible and lazy on paper, just works. But, hybrids—and ninjas, depending on one's lexicon—have slow, slow magical development. This allows one to get—most—of the magic which "trivializes" the game. Of course, if not shooting for powercast or eagle eyes, end-game is going to be relatively boring and, possibly, the biggest difficulty spike. But, hey, TANSTAAFL.

So, I'm doing a run with all Dracons (female, because, why not?) One of each warrior with a spell pool. Well, pools; Wiz8, after all. Anyway, I'm enjoying this party—well, as much as I can enjoy Wiz8—and I'm done messing around with builds. It's dex/str, spd/vit for these lovely ladies. And, all sticks, which means staff for the samurai. And I'm going to stick with it, or abandon this game. Of course, I just finished a game that was part of my first GOG order—No one asked, but Defender's Quest. So, no promises. The party is ordered as Daris the ninja, Belit the monk (no ê allowed), Valeria the ranger, Helen the samurai, Agnes the lord, and Sonya the valkyrie (with a y, not a j), because, why not? The stealthers are using the magical portrait, while the helm eligibles are using the warrior one. (I love that fur.) [Kindly 2, aggressive 2, cunning 1, burly 2, intellectual 1, and laidback 1 respectfully.]

I play combat games for the story, how could you tell?

So, the monastery wasn't that interesting. Except for the free spear in the starter chest, nice. But no halberds in the coffins, oh well. And only two resurrection powders—scam. Also, the ninja couldn't open the "hard" lock, but we forced it. Should have used the knock picks for artifacts xp first. The road was easy, lots of ants. There was that trio of crimson poppies, but dracon breath is fabulous.

The party is almost ready to leave Arnika, level eight, and the sammy still has the most kills. Cool beans. The monk is hot on her heels. The vault guardian was easy, even beat it without healing. Just aggressive use of the formation ring. (That's dumb, and I don't recommend it.) Managed to get a holy water book, which is cool, because it's actually useful, and I wasn't planning on picking it up early. All character have at least twenty points in their book skill. Sadly, Antone wasn't carrying any awl pikes, but the team has enough polearms, so it's okay. The ninja and ranger are waiting for better ones than a spear, though. The ninja has thirty-two points in L&T, just for reference. The lowest weapon skill is thirty-five. And the highest artifacts, mythology, and communications skills are twenty-three, twenty-two, and eleven. The first is the ninja, the latter two are the ranger.

So, just need to dump off the junk I'm lugging around before I go. I may or may not update this page. But I should add this party to the level fifteen communal dump on Steam when I get there. Or I may just flake because this game doesn't have a rodent race for player-generated characters. I guess I'll just have to play Wizards & Warriors, Legend of Grimrock II, and Grimoire: Heralds of the Winged Exemplar. Beast race power! Rat chatter intensifies.

So, I've finally left Arnika, with over thirty-five thousand gold in my coffers. Increased that to forty thousand and some change via heavy heals and Burz. A battle with some giant spiders highlights how a lack of reliable magic screen is painful. Going back through the road shows how much better it would be to have x-ray. Oh well, I was able to run from the level ten brigands, only took five rounds, and no one took damage. The characters have school skills in the low twenties, so they're not getting level three spell picks until level ten, and the wait for elemental shield to get strong is going to be a pain, but I'll bet the game will be smooth sailing from there.

How could I forget about Jettatura – Scenario I: The Relic of Archaic Madness? Sure, it's just a Proving Grounds clone with some extras, but rats... Still weird that I only know of blobbers with full-party creation and rat races. But, I don't think I'll go with all rodent parties. Archaic Madness and Heralds have random rolls and multi-classing concerns, with the latter also having bonus race-class synergies. Grimrock has the favorite food mechanic and skull collecting minotaurs. And ratlings in that Bradley game have terrible encumbrance, even more so if female. Also, Grimrock and Wizards & Warriors have some cool races like the aforementioned minotaur, as well as insects, boars, and elephants. Although an all rhattu party does seem viable, I'll probably do an all beast race party in Heralds, but might do a mix in Wizwar. I'll have to think about it, but my Grimrock II party is now one of each non-human race, and it seems good.

There are some character builds I like, but it can be hard to fit them in, and not all options are good options. Sure, I could have a throwing ninja, but I might need to build around that. Well, I went with a throwing weapons rogue in Grimrock II, but that's a fine choice, especially on normal. A lot of heavy weapons user would probably be great in the end-game, but Grimrock II is a game with a steady difficulty curve, so one should build for power through-out, and good heavy weapons take time. So, two heavy-weapon lizard alchemists would probably be better than what I'm doing, but that seems like over-optimization. [I should find that throwing weapons build I once saw for Neverwinter Nights. Might be good for easier modules, but it only takes off in epic levels, like most of the interesting gimmick builds. But, I should try it out someday.]

I wouldn't be playing this Wiz8 party if I wasn't for gimmicks. Plus, I like overcoming weaker builds than sheer power options. And I could cobble together some interesting weaker builds into a party, this strong theme is nice, even if it is just six stick-fighters with the possibility of scribing every spell. So, like Neverwinter, I'll use throwing as convenient, but not build around it. But, the races really don't move my soul, and the drawbacks of all dracon parties don't harsh my mellow. Well, for a melee party, that is. And that's the thing, this isn't the only way to build an all hybrid party, it's not even the best. Probably still isn't even if we forbid repeating classes. But, if I really wanted a challenge, there are better options. Because I'm neither looking for power nor challenge. I'm looking for pragmatic flavor. Well, that's the point of it all, not very interesting, but it sparks joy. And I managed to express some of my displeasure towards Wiz8, nice.

Next time I play Wizardry 8, which may very well be with 5 full casters, I'm going to try and do without that spell or Souyl Shield. (Will use Magic Screen, however.)

(Currently, I'm replaying Saviors of Sapphire Wings, with a magic heavy party (though I have some physical offense to save MP on easier fights), and I'm attempting to do it without a Paladin, and hence with no one to tank the damage the enemies can deal out. Fortunately, bosses die quickly to magic in that game; one died before the first round was over.)

Play like a man, like I'm doing! All-Human, 3 Male, 3 Female (equal representation). By the time I leave the Monastery, I will be ultra-powerful.

Saviors of Sapphire Wings has neither, though it allows reclassing everybody but the main character. (Stranger of Sword City has full party creation (though the main character is special and can't be removed), but no rat races.

Incidentally, I prefer my non-human animal races to be based on non-mammals, like Lizardman (based on lizards) and Dracon (probably based on lizards, but perhaps they could be compared to dinosaurs?). Or there could be races that aren't like either, like RFS-81's race. (Too bad RFS-81 isn't like a SaGa 2 robot; that would have been interesting, but would need a lot of special code and balancing just for him.) Why should I play like a man if I'm not one?

I often like to choose builds that I find to be mechanically interesting.

Some pragmatism is involved, depending on the game. For example, in the SaGa 2 remake, I think my favorite party is a 4 robot party, for a few reasons:
* Humans and Espers gain stats very slowly. Too slowly, actually, to the point where, for a good portion of the game, it's best to choose options that don't depend on stats to be effective, or to choose your actions for stat growth rather than combat effectiveness and use your other other characters win battles for you.
* Monsters can be effective, but they're hard to use effectively without a guide; robots don't have this issue.
* Unliike in the original SaGa 2, it's possible to get magic circuits to make robots into spellcasters, though of course other builds (like agility robots) are still effective. I have a feeling that, in the time that you spend before you reach the monastery, I could probably compete the game from the start if I chose to do so. (Counting only playing time here.)

I'm still in the process of clearing the fog of war from the northern wilderness, but I noticed my samurai was the first to gain her second attack. The rest should follow shortly. Still in the awkward stage of development, where both spell and blade leave a lot to be desired.

More games should have anthropomorphic arthropods. I want a moth-man race! Also, there is an odd lack of bird-men, but I guess that's because flight, but, hey, plenty of awesome flightless birds. Oh, and I once found a cool fantastical illustration of a village of shark-men. More beast races of any kind, I'd say. Of course, some RPGs have some rarer races, but then they are mechanically dubious. Look at the half-salamander of Knights of the Chalice II. Cool concept, but probably the worst race in the game! Kobold is actually one of the best, which is rather interesting.

I've looked at some possibilities, and I think I'll go mostly wolf in Grimoire, one of each race in Jettatura—with the not hobbit as the purse who stays in town—, and a mix of races in Wizwar. In the last, I'm thinking two of each caster and one of each other starter class to begin with. Heralds I'll try one of each caster save thaumaturge, a berserker, metalsmith, ranger, and a thief. With Archaic Madness, I'm hoping two fighters, a priest, a thief, a druid, and a bishop is fine.

I prefer flavor, since most RPGs I play lack mechanical depth. The best depth is typically spells, which—save, perhaps, battlefield control—is often boring. And, of course I like battlefield control; I love traps. Traps can be physical and/or magical. And ones that are more than—or not even—damage are even better. That being said, part of why I like generalists is that building them is, often, more complicated. But not when they are hot garbage, that's no fun. Well, it can be, but not if it just means elongated tediousness. I'm far too lazy for that noise. But, to better understand me, know that I love skill-monkeys in games with gameplay-oriented skills. Like a 3e Rogue.

Healing is also interesting, particularly in a high attrition game where you need to balance emergency combat healing (where healing costs a turn and may be less efficient (in terms of MP cost) versus non-combat healing (when there's no turn cost and you can use the most efficient healing spell you have to conserve MP). In SoSW, you can't make a true generalist, but I've found that you can take Healer or Alchemist as your main class, a fighter-type class as your sub class, choose the Champion's Soul for dwarf-like stats (high STR and VIT), and put the remaining points into MYS or LUC to make your spells effective.

My Alchemist/Samurai has Assault Slash 1 (physically attack a group for free) for easier random fights, and Chemical Cloud (spell that does lots of non-elemental magic damage) for boss fights and problem enemies.

By the way, I've found that I don't like tank builds, as I don't like the resulting gameplay style. I've found that I prefer reactive rather than pro-active gameplay. (That may be one reason why Crystal Project's combat doesn't satisfy me quite as much as it should; if you have a good enough strategy, victory is basically guaranteed.) Stranger of Sword City Revisited's Freeman class is basically this; you can't even add a character of that class into your party! (And the class isn't available to the main character.)

In the time that I have been grinding the Monastery, making the early sacrifice, most players could have completed the game. But they wouldn't be as fully powerful as my party, as I'm creating a balanced party, with equal representation to males and females, with 6X Humans. Sure, it's boring, but the stats don't lie.

Consider a Human Rogue with 100 Strength, Dexterity, Speed, and Senses by level 28. He then has time to max out said 4 expert skills by end-game easily, and will wind up with good Intelligence, Piety, and Vitality. Though I digress, I seem to be in the minority here. I'm a perfectionist, trying to max out my stats as best as possible (note that I've played exotic races, and the +/- to stats is a mixed bag).

So, are you the sort of player who, in other Wizardry games, would level up your characters into the triple digits?

(Unfortunately, I believe you can't do it in the new Wizardry 1 remake, as XP is capped just below 10 million, so even a thief can't quite get to level 50.)


In any case, I'd say the farthest I've gone with stat maxing is, in the Dragon Quest 3 remake (GBC, tried with SFC but ran into a bug when you create too many characters in the fan translation), I'd farm intelligence seeds and give them to the main character. The main character has low intelligence (and hence low MP), but is the only one able to get the two most powerful, but also most expensive spells in the game. So, I'd just farm INTseeds and feed them all to her, then on reaching 255 intelligence, one level up and she'd likely have 500+ MP. This actually does make a difference, since there's that party-wide full heal spell that costs 62 MP, and there's a turn limit for the post game superboss, so having to heal less often helps.

Full disclaimer:

I grew up with W8, Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction, and Morrowind as a PC gamer (I was 19 in 2001). I used to play W8 (to the topic), as the standard builds, picking non-Human races so that I could max said expert skills as quickly as possible.

This changed when I tried to create an Iron Will party, as all Humans. I failed, as the non-casters couldn't get 100 to all resistance, and I noticed that my melee characters were significantly weaker than a normal build.

This is when I realized that, with enough effort, an all-Human party could have the highest stat sum possible, and it never stopped. This, of course, means that Humans will gain expert skills a bit slower than more specialized races, but overall, they would come out on top.

Note that this is part of a self-imposed challenge run, where I am forced to pick Humans, then grind their skills to max.

Grinding as challenge reminds me of scheming to avoid work.

Healing is the standard, but not unique, method of resource management. But I prefer it as consumable.

I like OW tanks. I'm not sold on MUD-esque tanks. But I have a mix of likes: heavy armor, shields, throwing weapons, hammers, explosives, traps, consumables, weaknesses, religion-based classes, skill monkeys, the sheer power-fantasy of turning one's body into the "ultimate" weapon/armor, and, naturally, strength.

I've cleared most of Northern Wilderness. It's fun to run into emeralds slimes and not be able to laugh at their feebleness. I've stopped at UBC because I don't like dealing with changing my refresh rate but am too lazy to fix the issue. Also, Space Wreck showed me how much I don't like talking to NPCs in vidya. The obstacle course is fun though, and it requires less reflexes than the typical hell road trek—ha!

I'm the reverse. I prefer it as a character ability, so that it's something that a character has to get good at, not something that just anyone can carry with little/no build investment.

(Says the person who is planning to make a CRPG where every item, including basic weapons and spellbooks, has durability and needs to be repaired. But then again, I'm planning on allowing certain characters to substitute MP for durability for certain items.)

(Also says the person who prefers to have respec available, but whose planned CRPG won't have it, as it doesn't fit into her design (no skill point mechanic).)

I actually find it hard to get myself to use consumables, even when the situation is favorable.

Like, in Saviors of Sapphire Wings, an Alchemist can use Item Training on an Explosive to cast a powerful single target attack spell 2-4 times (depending on level) in a single turn at the cost of only one item, yet in my current playthrough I only ended up doing so in the anti-magic underwater dungeon.

Final Fantasy 5 is more or less what a game needs to be like for me to really use consumables. Thing is, with the right ability, consumables can be *really* powerful, like letting you cast 3rd tier attack spells when you only have 2nd tier spells (killing bosses in one or two broken rods), or being able to full revive a character well before that ability would normally be available.

Oh, and next time I decide to play the 3D remake of Final Fantasy 4, I need to try not to be stingy with Ethers in the Magnetic Cave and the Tower of Zot. (Your only real caster has late game spells (this is in the midgame), but not much MP, and there isn't a non-item method of restoring MP during that section of the game, which is probably my least favorite part.)

As a side note, I prefer religion-based classes, if they exist, to not be the primary healers.
Final Fantasy 1 PSX, on easy mode, level 99 Monk. Damage is as follows:
* 8000+ to most enemies.
* 6000+ to late-game bosses, including the final boss, who "only" has 4000 HP.
* 3980 (exact) to flans, less if the flan is asleep or paralyzed
* (Above figures are without Steel/Haste/Giant's Glove)
* With 26 Giant's Glove uses, plus Haste, to a Frost Wolf (0 defense, doesn't flee), exactly 50,976 damage, (This helped me work out the damage formula.)

It's still not the sort of thing that belongs in an RPG.

At least it's possible to complete the game without joining the IUF, and hence without doing that obstacle course.

Counterpoint: item skill(s) that scales consumable power.

I prefer when clerics aren't heal-bots. Buff-bots that show why magic is both better and worse than martial is classical.

I don't see why a game that asks the user to out-maneuver moving objects in general has no place for a section that asks the user to out-maneuver different moving object. But, maybe that's just me? Lock-picking mini-games are significantly worse. (Although, that's the best part of Hillsfar. Well, as I remember it, at least.)

I like having a heal-bot, or someone who can function as such, but I actually prefer that character to not be religion-flavored.

Speaking of healbots, the SaGa 2 remake lets you literally do that. Just give a robot some magical circuitry (you don't need much because of how powerful the healing staff is in the remake) and some healing staves and you now have a robot who can heal effectively (but nothing else unless you give the robot something to attack with). Later, you can get a Full Cure tome which doesn't need magic circuitry to be useful, but it's rarer and has fewer uses (but provides more HP when equipped).

Aside from that point, the game doesn't require out-maneuvering moving objects. Furthermore, if you fail to outmaneuver enemies, the result is what you'd expect in an RPG; the game enters turn-based combat.

On the other hand, that one obstacle course plays more like an action game, and the penalty for failing to outmaneuver the objects is a party wipe, with no chance to use RPG mechanics to save your party.

That does help things. Saviors of Sapphire Wings does this, and Final Fantasy 5 has abilities that allow the use of certain consumables, or allows them to be used in new ways.

One drawback of having consumables is that then the player can stock up on a large number of them, which can make it too easy to get through longer dungeons; just buy a bunch of healing potions and use them for healing. Whereas, if you're using magic to heal, you won't have as many casts of the spell during the dungeon, and often the resource is shared with other types of magic.

I don't know if you've played Final Fantasy (1), but if you have played the original version of that game, remember having to buy 99 healing potions, one at a time?