The only way to make people use consumables is to mandate consumable usage, simple as, and, even then, those who have a true aversion will simply skip the game. Even if the system is too heavy-handed, the game can still be popular. Oblivion and Breath of the Wild sort of make my point. It's easy to find complaints about the two games' weapon durability systems, but both games are wildly popular. I, personally, tend to only stop using consumables when a game is easy, though. So, my thought is that consumables have to make the game easier, even if just a slight edge, or only the truly dedicated will use them if they're not mandatory. Which suggests that a game has to have challenge in the first place. So then, it follows why consumables are so often neglected by developers. It's extra work for a niche audience.

Yes, cure poison is usually worthless, the potions can be useful in the monastery, especially if one brings along a mage or psionic. Especially since heal potions are part of alchemy money-making, and a cure poison is far less valuable than resurrection powder. Thing is, if built for, bombs and powders are actually quite powerful, allowing the use of some spells at higher power level than a caster can use at certain levels. However, the game doesn't tell the player how much skill in throwing & slings is required to reliably use such items, some bombs are very limited in number, and backfires can be devastating at low levels, discouraging their use.

I think that the difference needs to be smaller than "slight". In particular, I think it needs to be something like Final Fantasy 5's situation, where breaking a rod could allow you to win early boss fights in a single turn. Contrast this to Wizardry 8, where there aren't really any items available that would make Gregor or the Arnika Road trek significantly easier.

Also, for whatever reason, I think I may be more inclined to use consumables is if it's a special ability rather than something everyone gets by default. Using FF5 as an example, I'm thinking of how Ninjas can throw scrolls for powerful magic attacks, and Chemists can learn an ability that allows them to mix many powerful effects.

Also, reliable availability is a concern. I need to be able to get them easily, and without spending too much money. (As I said, consumables in Sir-Tech Wizardry games, including Wizardry 8, are overpriced.)

Thing is:
* In the early game, there really isn't room to build for bomb and powder usage, and the supply of such items is limited. Furthermore, they don't feel powerful enough to be game-changing in the early game.
* In the mid-to-late game, you don't need such items.
* There's still the problem of consumables being way too expensive in this game (excluding Resurrection Powder, which you sometimes need (and which is, for some reason, cheaper than Resurrection scrolls despite being easier to use), and Magic Nectar, which isn't that expensive). When such an item is so expensive, you have to weigh the decision of using it to gain a benefit in the current fight or selling it for money that would give you a longer term benefit, and the short-term benefit of using them just doesn't feel significant enough for them to be worthwhile.


In Oblivion, though, you don't need to interact with the durability system. Just make your character a mage (and don't choose the Atronach birthsign), perhaps with a bit of Conjuration for when you do need physical attacks, and you won't need to worry about weapon durability.


Also, as implemented in Oblivion and its predecessors, weapon durability doesn't really feel meaningful:
* Weapons have high enough durability that they don't wear out in the short term.
* Repairing weapons is easy enough (particularly in Morrowind/Oblivion) that you don't need to worry too much about weapon durability long-term.
* More powerful weapons have more durability. Hence, the main gameplay advantage of having durability, the fact that you, as the player, now need to decide whether it's worth the cost to use your fancier weapon in any given encounter, is lost.

If you're going to do weapon durability, it should be more like Fire Emblem or SaGa 1/2 (+3 remake), where using more powerful weapons is in fact more expensive, and you can't dodge weapon durability so easily. (And, in SaGa 2, people who don't like weapon durability can just avoid putting humans in the party.)

Let's let it suffice to say that there's a reason that there is at least one player—that I know of—who sells one resurrection powder to buy out Burz's stock of stink bombs.

That was rude of me, TES weapon durability is more like a hunger system than a consumable one. I.e. it's about being properly prepared. Morowind did it best—for a variety of reasons—but, in Oblivion—if not circumnavigated—it's constant and incessant busywork.

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An illustration of how absurd the skill boost of expert is: I had a party consisting of a dracon mage, a dracon alchemist, a mook priest, a felpurr monk, a felpurr ninja, and a dracon fighter who, at level ten, achieved more than ninety points in the relative book for both the mage and alchemist, and forty-five for the monk. And, that was with only pumping book skills on the specialist casters up to thirty-six before the bonus.

Not very enthused with martial arts, sure the knock-out is nice, but the damage is meh if not hard focused. The monk only manged one attack and two swings for both attacks, the ninja only one, one. Also, I think the more I play, the more I overvalue extended weapons. Polearms, in particular, are just too good for most of the game.

Thing with martial arts is that the skill level matters more than most, so it feels like you really do need the primary skill bonus that a monk gets to get unarmed combat to work well. A ninja or a former monk just isn't going to do enough damage for it to be worthwhile. (Well, a fighter who is a former monk/ninja could make it work well with the berserk attack option, but while it's going to be strong enough (assuming you switched classes when skill was high), it's not going to be as powerful as other options that are available to the fighter.)

The benefit of a martial arts ninja is higher k.o. faster. Which is not much. It's better to use a nunchaka, or two. Very good for the monastery, though, just not really worth putting points into outside of fun.

Let's see. A ninja has the melee options of: martial arts, maces (No diamond eyes, but yes mauler. Also whips, but without shield. A reasonable off-hand option if going for dual wield, too.), swords (Can use a *light* *sword*, heh, and enchanted wakizashi. Bushido blade is a late-game option, albeit worse than what other classes get. Ultimately, a no-dachi would be the way to go early on.), polearms (Quite good.), staves (Staff of doom, hayai bo, and the fairy meme weapon. Another dual option, but, usually, not worth dual wielding.), and daggers (LAWL).

So, a lot of hopes and dreams. If not willing to grind skills, or scum drops, staff of doom or dread spear are probably the best options. The effects of a stun rod might be worth it, despite the downsides, though. Maces aren't a bad option, and the k.o. is good for, potentially, faster melee skill ups for the whole party. Swords work, even if much weaker than maces. (The damage should be similar to polearms, actually, but close range.)

Martial arts gives the best off-hand weapon for ninjas, if the skill gets high enough. Even at max with bonus, the main hand is weaker than other classes' swords, which is sad for monks. The real bonus is, no dual wielding penalty, and faster access to three swings. It's no wonder why many give monks staves or spears.

Anyway you cut it, dual wielding requires too much focus. Sure, it allows for some really high dpr, but fighter... Can be great for smaller parties, though. Although, I understand why people dual rogues.

Lords can also be quite good for dual wielding, as they can use the Diamond Eyes, and their primary skill bonus to Dual Wielding means it doesn't take as much work raising the skill for the benefits to outweigh the penalties.

(Also, Lords can use the Hammer, which is a good training weapon to use as an off-hand mace before you get Diamond Eyes.)

I managed to get Snake Speed to 100 for all 6 characters in my party. Don't ask me how. Now to track down Light Swords and Light Shields!

And Light Spells!

Well, the spells are a lot easier to get than the swords and shields, at least. (You probably already have them.)

Yes, by now every caster has completely filled their spellbook. There are only 36 or 37 spells for each one, so no need to save spell picks (some of the useless ones can be bought in Arnika). I was actually considering a two Bishop party (one Divinity/Wizardry, and the other Alchemy/Psionics). They both complement each other nicely. The Mage has strong fire, water, and air realms, and the priest has strong fire, earth, and divine realms. The Alchemist has good elemental attacks, and the Psionic has a strong mental realm that makes up for the Alchemist's non-existent mental realm.
However, with my quadruple blast from the Priest/Alchemist/Psionic/Mage (and the Bard and Gadgeteer can help out later once they find their items), that may be more powerful in the end. Consider that these six characters represent the two fastest experience tracks in the game, so they will level quickly, and be a higher level by end game. It's all perspective, there is no perfect party.
Regarding dual wielding, I find that Fighters and Rogues are the best, due to their high damage output. The benefits definitely outweigh the downsides. Rogues, pretty much hands down, should always dual wield (are there any good two-handed weapons for them, besides the Staff of Doom that anybody can use?) Fighters can take maximum advantage of their KO% and double damage from berserking with dual wielding, making it a better choice IMO than Polearms. Shields are near useless for the Rogue with high stealth, and shields for the Fighter are unnecessary, IMO, when he gets THE best hit points and armor in the game.
Bards and Gadgeteers should go Sword and Shield (they are only average at melee fighting, and as tier 2 warriors, will unlock more swings and attacks later than a Fighter and hybrids). They can't use Maces and Flails, so no Diamond Eyes in the off hand. The best they could probably get for the off hand is a Stiletto, though its damage isn't that good, and I don't like relying on kill%. The penalties for dual wielding don't justify that small benefit, IMO.
I don't use hybrids that much, because I find that they tend to have a lot of attributes to worry about, and they level up slower than the more specialized classes.

Even if you like hybrids, consider that Powercast will be affected by their -4 level to cast, as hybrids. Any of them (Lord, Valkyrie, Ranger, Ninja, Samurai, Monk) would probably be better going the way of the non-casters (Strength, Dexterity, Speed, and Senses maxed first).
Most everybody agrees that Piety and Vitality are mediocre (and are retroactive, meaning that you get the same hit points, stamina, and spell points investing in it later, rather than earlier), and Intelligence is only useful if you plan on getting Powercast (most hybrids can cast just fine without it).
My point stands.

Thing is, even though their effects are retroactive, it is still better to boost those stats early or not at all.
* Early in the game, low HP can be a serious issue. Later on, in practice, you have more HP than you need.
* The same apples to SP, but there's also the fact that the effect of Piety is additive with the effect of known spells. Therefore, if you know a lot of spells, the SP boost from Piety doesn't matter as much. This is especially true for Bishops.

The funny thing about Vitality (if anybody knows anything about the HP_mul chart, just look it up on Steam), is that it benefits the Fighter the most, who doesn't need the HPs, and benefits the Mage the least, who really needs it.
Iron Skin is something that's very situational, if you have no casters to protect the character up front with Guardian Angel, Body of Stone, Bless, etc. It's great in that one circumstance, if you can max it, to get 30% damage resistance, basically for free.
However, I have discovered that the Alchemist's Body of Stone spell, combined with Powercast at 100 skill, will give 71% damage resistance (I checked during battle). Combine that with the 30% damage resistance from maxing Iron Skin, and you have 101% damage resistance. Would an enemy hitting you heal you, at that point? Probably not, as I'm guessing 100% damage resistance is the max. So you would be immune to physical damage, at that point?
But, I digress. Physical damage isn't likely to kill anybody end-game, or even mid-game (even my Mage has over 100 hit points).
Going off on another tangent, Piety is only really useful for specialist casters (Priest/Alchemist/Psionic/Mage), who only have 36 or 37 spells, unlike the perfect Bishop with 101 spells, and a ton of spell points. These casters could really use the stamina, spell points, and Iron Will that comes with maxing Piety.
Note that my Mage, with her starting resistances at 25, combined with her 5% profession bonus to all resistances, combined with power level 7 Magic Screen (+35 resist all), and Iron Will maxed (+25 resist all), and maxing all magic realms (+10 resist all), gives her 100 resistance to all realms. The other casters will need the Cloak of Many Colors for that.
In my third tangent, Intelligence is completely worthless, except that it helps skills go up faster (which can be fixed by grinding). The only hard benefit is that, above 80, Intelligence gives Mental realm resistance at a 2 to 1 ratio (2 hard points in Intelligence is a 1% Mental resistance). Twenty hard points in Intelligence isn't worth a 10% Mental realm resistance, IMO. This can be easily fixed by Magic Screen and Soul Shield. The only benefit of Intelligence is if you want Powercast, completely worthless for a Fighter, Rogue, Bard, Gadgeteer, or hybrid that doesn't care about magic.

Worth noting that this is not true in the rest of the series. In any other Wizardry game (barring 4, since that game is different and doesn't have character creation), Vitality's HP boost is determined only by your Vitality and level, so mages who get low HP per level will see a considerable benefit.

My point still stands. Vitality isn't that important for anybody, considering that it's a sliding scale in W8. Just keep it at average.
Non casters go with Strength/Dexterity/Speed/Senses.
Casters go with Intelligence/Piety/Speed/Senses.