While I am not yet through with W7 I just wanted to give W6 a peek. Now it doesn't even offer the option to start the game with a single character but apparently needs two. Is that how it is? Is there a workaround? Also: does anybody have experience with smaller parties in W6?

You could simply get excess party members killed and use their bodies for carrying quest items.

In W6 you can't drop quest items so you need quite some inventory space for them. Load your W6 saves from the end of the game and check how many items are undropable.

Probably most difficult will be getting from level 1 to level 2.
The most powerful solo character in my opinion would start with a roll of 26 as a fairy mage with 18 str and vit and end up as ninja after many class changes. But a roll of 26 is unrealistic without modifying the character creation algorithm.
With a roll of 18 a dwarf priest should be better.
But any starting race/class combo with enough carrying capacity and power to reach level 2 should work. A dracon would have an easier start.

I guess I don't want to drag a corpse. If I am not mistaken starting off with two is already somewhat too ambitious since I do not know the game at all so far. It is just that I'd like the idea of playing a party through all three games and I'd really want to end up with a solo, at least in W8.

Since you mention class changes: is it about the same supermove it is in W7?

Yes.

The one major difference is that you get the same amount of skill points, regardless of class, and you can put all of them (except those pre-spent on primary skills) in Academic skills if you want; you don't need to spend them in the other categories. This makes class changing less necessary but more potent, if you know what I mean.

One other difference is that certain classes level faster even at high levels, so choosing a faster leveling class as your final class is a good idea. Of note, Valkyries level up very fast (faster than Priests and the fastest of any spell casting class), keep getting magic and spell points, and can fight well due to being a hybrid. (Maybe they're too powerful?)

A solo game would be far easier than a normal game with a party of 6.
The game wasn't made with "all stealth"-parties in mind.

Getting the first level ups with a few save and reloads won't be very difficult and afterwards you can simply hide in shadows and kill the helpless opponents with spells without becoming visible.

If you are soloing Wizardry 7 now you've already noticed how broken, unchallenging and boring most battles are because of this, this applies even more to Wizardry 6.

There's no point in spending many hours exploiting an obvious game design flaw without getting mentally challenged, playing a balanced party of 6 without reloading at level ups will offer a far better gaming experience.

Indeed Stealth is more of an exploit in W7 and apparently in W6 too.
Maybe I try something else. Like the a balanced party without Stealth, perhaps with a Valkyrie.

In any case thank you guys!

I would consider it an exploit in Wizardry 8 as well, particularly if you solo with a class that gets Stealth, and especially if you spend time to raise it to 90+. It also makes encounters tedious, as enemies will keep defending, making it harder for you to damage them, and making it so that there is no danger. Even worse, you can't turn it off!

At least in Wizardry 6 and 7 you can choose not to hide. You could, alternatively, consider the following self-imposed rule:
No casting spells, using items, or breathing while hidden. Physical attacks are allowed (assuming they can result in you being seen) as is defending, but not doing most other actions. (I would allow running away while hidden.)

As long as you don't have more than 2 characters with stealth in the full party it's not an exploit since there's always someone visible in the front row to be targeted with attacks and spells.

What happens when all the visible characters are killed?

Wiz8 monsters that dont "see" stealthed charaters are nevertheless aware of their presence
and can still attack them with aoe effects or group targeting spells, even if all party members are stealthed.
May also apply for ranged physical attacks but thats impossible to confirm 100% by mere observation.

A monsters level and its senses value compensates stealth.
For instance late game encounters and bosses in mods like Dodds, White Wolf and Reforged are nearly unaffected.
Stealth does not work "perfect" even if skill is 125+ and opponents have quite low lvl&senses.
To switch it off create an item with a stealth penalty, it can be higher than the stealth value of the characters,
the game appears not to make characters "more visible" or gives a negative AC.
But this would also remove the AC bonus for characters with much lower HP base than regular close combat classes,
so you may want to add several items with armour bonuses equal to what actual steath skill would provide.
Also take care that the anti stealth items do not occupy a slot where you could place a better item.

btw there was the attempt in the russian ultimate mod to remove stealth
by taking the skill from all classes(without compensation;)
and giving all combat related items like weapons and armour a stealth penalty,
which also required to remove skill bonuses from some items.
The bosses senses values made me think the mod creator did not take into account
that an imported character may come with 20 stealth and not use any armour or weapon :D
( i still got 5-10 % "is defending" from enemies with high lvl)



"What happens when all the visible characters are killed?"
Than stealth shows its full effectiveness(or effectvity?) :D
If you dont resurrect the others during combat and this happens quite often(intendedly?;), another effect comes into play:
Average party lvl counts versus aoe and group target spells or effects, and its based on the alive members.
This allows a exploit useful in some mods with quite tough random encounters,
go in with five lvl 1 and one stealthy uber PC in order to get lower entries from encouter table.
You could also adjust the lvl of a fresh hired NPC to the rest of the party that way.

Then 4 characters have to be resurrected after the battle with permanent vitality loss. Not worth using.

They don't *have* to be resurrected after the battle; you could play through the rest of the game with two characters dead.

Also, the Ankh of Life apparently exists and is invokeable. I don't know how it works in Wizardry 6 and 7, but in Wizardry 5 you could have a dead character invoke it to revive a character *without* any aging or vitality loss. (It is actually capable of curing any ailment, including the "LOST" ailment, making it possible to have living characters with 2 Vitality (because they were revived after dying of old age) or that are level 0 (because they were destroyed by level draining).

Does anyone feel like testing this in Wizardry 6 or 7?