I have always heard that bishop was the hardest to develop, I'm curious why did you choose to further handicap this character for the switch.
What have you played in the past as far as difficulty level?

I'm curious were you party is and how its going now if you can give an update.

The handicap isn't that severe if you don't wait too long to do the switch. The thing is, experience requirements double for the first 10 level ups, so in the time it would have taken for a Bishop (from the start of the game), your new bishop will only be one level behind. That difference becomes even smaller as you level up. (Note that, after level 11, XP requirements only increase 20% per level.)

In terms of magic skills, they are easier to practice at higher levels when you have more SP and can get mana stones to easily restore your SP. Also, after a while, the difficulty settles down to more reasonable levels, allowing you to afford to use your weaker spells to practice them without worrying about having characters die.

My previous playthrough I played on Novice. In the past, I believe I have played on Expert, but that was years ago, and sometimes I just want to have fun without getting too frustrated.

As for my party as it currently stands:

Samurai: Feels a bit lacking. Not doing as much damage as I would like, and the instant kill chance feels a bit low. Her spellcasting isn't that important at this point (but note that the Infinity Helm exists, though I haven't gone through the Rapax areas to be able to buy it). Against low HP enemies with Thrown range attacks, her breath attack is useful, but it doesn't seem to be improving further.

Priest: Disruptor Mace has a nice Paralyze chance. Doesn't get as many attacks as I would like, but they do decent damage, especially since she has Power Strike. Once she becomes a Lord, I plan on giving her a Hammer as an off-hand weapon, and giving her a couple Stilettos as an alternate option and seeing how well those work. (Can physical instant kills work on undead? I know magic instant kills (such as Quicksand) do not.)

Bard: Doing well. I prefer the Frigid Fiddle to the Arresting Aria because it's more reliable and can hit enemies I don't see. Dulcimer of Mending is of course useful.

Gadgeteer: Maybe not the best combat character, but the Port-o-Potty (Noxious Fumes) is handy, and she can cast Detect Secrets and X-Ray easily outside of combat for effectively 0 cost thanks to gadgets. Getting the Lazurite Stone without having to fight the Sorceress Queen is doable; just enter combat mode out of sight, walk (or run), grab the stone, and then escape before your move ends. Enemies can only spot you at the start of a combat round once combat has started. (Chameleon is another possible option.)

Alchemist: Already has Power Cast and Snake Speed. Doesn't have Toxic Cloud yet (that spell needs higher power levels to be useful), but has been effective with her other spells. I have been taking advantage of her high Speed (and Snake Speed) to have her heal injured characters.

Bishop: Has become quite decent. Has access to 4th level spells in 3 spellbooks (Alchemy excluded), and can cast some of them at decent power levels. (Still has to practice some realms, however.) Now that I have reached all the spellbook sellers except Ferro, she has a large selection of spells. Also, thanks to Artifacts, she can use accessories to cast Heal All and Resurrect if I need to, and thanks to my Bard's high Communication, I can have Lord Braffit recharge them for free by selling and buying the amulets. The inability to cast 5th level spells at this point doesn't hurt her that much; she wouldn't safely be able to cast them above power level 1 anyway.

Interesting Loadout.

Thanks for sharing more details and your perspective on how there progressing.

I am thinking of rolling up a new party just to be ready if I need to scratch the itch to play.

Just changed my Priest into a Lord.

Her new skills are still low, but she has already scored an Instant Kill with a Stiletto.

By the way, anyone know how much Critical Strike you need to get a 10% Kill chance with a weapon that doesn't provide anything on its own?

Also, Haste backfires are annoying when you are trying to raise a skill dependent on Speed. (Does anyone know whether that backfire checks Fire or Water resiatance?)

Just looked through some older threads and found this one. If I remember correctly, Critical Strike skill has a 0.0004 contribution per skill point to the chance of a critical strike attempt, i.e. you would need 250 to get 10% Kill chance. If this were true, 100 Critical Strike would only give you a 4% Kill chance, which means that weapon boni are extremely important.

Of coures 10% Kill doesn't mean that you kill 1 in 10 monsters instantly. It just triggers sort of a dice roll (1 in 10 times you strike a blow) taking into accout your and the opponent's level.