The power of expert skills is such that reaching them is more important than other skills but what skill suits your character best depends on how you tend to use that character… for example my Dragon Valkyrie makes a v-line for both Iron Skin (Vitality) and Iron Will (Piety) at level 10 which makes her ni-on invincible however her actual melee damage (while still good) is less than your typical Fighter or Samurai class pumping strength or striving for Eagle Eye (Senses) which is far more important to classes that depend on range attacks.

I disagree with you on speed somewhat because I find it beneficial that my casters go after my melee and that Pie is something of a dead stat with hybrid (spell damage) classes because Mana recovery isn’t something that stresses me once I reach level 10 or so… there is no wrong answer and everyone has their favourites but each race | class combination will be predisposed to reaching certain expert skills and that’s the biggest influence on their overall performance ime.

Hi,

The party's going well. Have recruited Vi and Miles as well (Miles is dead and dont plan to resurrect him, so effectively seven members), everyones level 10 now,

The mook psionic is turning out to be effective but extremely delicate, have been investing 3 points in VIT from the very start but the char has just 49 hit points and armor proficiency is pathetic. How can I improve those stats or how do I shield him?

Thanks.

Casting Guardian Angel is a good way to shield lower HP characters; it's like a healing spell, except that you can cast it *before* the target takes damage. Your Lord can learn the spell at level 7 if she has 15 Divinity (buy the book from Lord Braffit), and there is a gadget (components found/bought in the Swamp/Lower Marten's Bluff) that you can use to stamina cast the spell.

Also, if you get Hypnotic Lure (either as a spell or via gadget), it would be wise to try out that spell; it can be very useful in some situations.

At level 10 my lizard psionic has 53 hit points and 97 Vit so your well within the ball park. the point of armour is to stop physical attacks and your psionic should be behind the other characters but magic and range attacks do get past them... only heavy magic users are a problem for me but what party buffs are up?

Do you plan to keep Vi or is she just temp?

p.s, its a bad idea to lug a dead Miles around... rez and and dump him.

Actually, not entirely true; there is an advantage, however minor, to having a dead character around:

If your entire party is blind, the enemies will disappear from the screen. A dead character can't be blind (in fact, if a blind character dies, the blind status can't be removed), so by having one, you ensure that you can always see the enemies. (I know that doesn't make logical sense, but that's how the game works.)

There is a disadvantage, however, I believe; if your created characters are all female, having a male RPC will cause problems for one Rapax quest. In this case, you will temporarily need to dump the RPC in order to continue past that part.

got that, but still the psionic keeps getting hit by ranged guys, its like everyone likes to target him :)
i plan to retain Vi.. mid range combat provides more firepower, only problem misses too often, place her in the central pocket where everything;s equally accessible
i think the games become too easy now.. and very little interaction is killing it... i will finish the game no doubt but playing other games in the meanwhile.. the statistical orgy was exciting for a while :).

I place her (as in Vi) on the side with two mace but mace and shield also works... are you holding at least two of the three items yet?

p.s, I'm playing Rebel galaxy right now so my game is on hold as well

While it's easy to overlook polearms for a fighter, they're actually a good choice, especially if you don't have Vi and/or another valkyrie in the party.

Aside from the fact that you can get high-end polearms early if you know where to look, the real benefit to the pole-wielding fighter is that they have far less trouble reaching enemies - which, especially beyond the first part of the game, like to sit just outside of close-quarters range to swing/shoot (and plant enemies will be doing this from the get-go). The pole-fighter, unlike the sword/mace-fighter, doesn't end up losing attacks because the only thing in reach died or require the party to give up initiative on a movement command so they can get in range.

But Wiz8 autoswaps, and you probably had a Gadgeteer early on make a double-shot crossbow (or even a triple-shot) for your fighter so they had something to do that didn't require the whole party to move. A triple-shot crossbow does pretty adequate damage with decent bolts up to nearly end-game. Sure, it's not impressive compared to what a fighter can do with a couple berserk crits, but it's not a waste of a turn either. I do like polearms, but a close-melee fighter isn't helpless at range unless you've made them that way.

One drawback of polearm fighters is that they can't use the Lance, which is the first really nice pole arm you get and likely the first weapon that has an instant kill %. (You buy it from Anton Rapax in Arnika, and I don't know why it's only usable by Lords and Valkyries, but not Fighters.)

Fortunately, the Stun Rod is still usable by Fighters, but you can't buy that until Lower Marten's Bluff.

You can have the "Shock Rod" from day 1 if you import a save with it but the fact is, Mace for Vi remains the only option at end game.

I haven't read the theorycrafting, so maybe mace is super-optimized, but if you've already got someone dual-wielding Mauler and Diamond Eyes, and have levelled Vi as a healer/support, she does just fine in the middle with a polearm. My current game is a little silly, but the party composition is such that Vi is on buffing duty to start then can pick off stuff from anywhere around the party so I never have to turn around or move XD

There really is no "only option" in Wizardry 8, because the way you set up your party can change just everything. That's probably why people still play it to this day, I wager.

[url= I ended up giving Vi a level of Ninja for Stealth, and she picked up like 30 points of Critical Strike. So every now and then her already solid damage output becomes quite nice indeed with a critical kill or two. No harm in that. And that 25% boost to polearms made her my prime damage dealer from about clevel 10-12 since I screwed up my Samurai ^_^ ][/url]

The Stun Rod is not the same as the Shock Rod. Stun Rod is clearly the better of those two weapons.

Also, thanks to the paralyze effect (which, unlike KO, nothing is immune to), the Stun Rod remains end-game viable.

(Plus, there's also that Lance that I mentioned which Vi, being a Valkyrie (rather than a Fighter), can equip.)

Fortunately, you can also have the Stun Rod from day 1 if you import a save with it. I rarely import a save without it, because with your group starting at level 5 you're quite likely to encounter Metallic Slimes in the Upper Monastery. Metallic Slimes are a huge challenge with your starter gear, but the Stun Rod eats them alive.

Well its only a Mild spoiler for people that have not played Vi to the end game;

[spoiler] It does not matter how you equip Vi because at the end she will always dump it and use her mace instead [/spoiler]

but yes play the game your way and more power to you.