Wizardry 8 - How we build a great party :) Playthrough + Tutorial / Guide + Let's Play Part 1

[@MrDoomey375]

I recently discovered Wizardry 8 and was intimidated by how much knowledge one might need up front to not mess up creating a character. This guide series has been incredibly helpful to give me a quick idea of how to make a specific class. Thank you so much for making these!

[@Retrofun69]

This masterpiece deserves a remake of the quality of the new Mario RPG remake.

[@ImmanuelCan]

Yeah definitely :)

[@darksavant3571]

Man. It's been a long time since you played wizards here last. It's nice to see again. I first found the channel with your first wizardry Letsplay. A couple of things I wanted to add. Strength on a gadgeteer is not a bad idea as the tools you can create are stupid heavy at times. And the gadgeteer can easily become overburdened. Sprinkling some strength here and there will help with that. As for the fairy ninja, I will agree that in general it is a late bloomer class. However, do not sleep on its throwing special attributes. If you can get a small collection of throwing weapons, It can become a very powerful early game tool to keep your party safe. With it's auto penetrate ability whenever a throwing weapon from a ninja hits it always deals guaranteed damage. This can both slowly chip away enemies that you might not be able to hit with the rest of your party effectively, or finish off enemies with lower health quickly. In the last couple of years I have actually subscribe to the idea that the cane of courpus actually weakens the fairy ninja, and that utilizing it's thowing weapons is a more powerful weapon that should be considered. Using the cane as a more tactical weapon against more powerful entities. As always, it is great to see the return to wizardry.

[@ImmanuelCan]

Great to have you back! Ninja-Wise I want to give it the hard test: Is full Cane really AS good? I just want to showcase the "legend". Gadgeteer my opinion always changes. For now I'll go relatively standard :D I don't expect to go beyond two fully maxed attributes anyway. We'll see how it all turns out. Training the Ninja with staffs early on will be hard, but you never know. Let's be surprised :D

[@normanred9212]

Wizardry 8 deserves a remaster

[@ImmanuelCan]

Absolutely! 100%. Even 200% :)

[@silentgamer944]

First thing comes to my mind with possible remaster to include: Give dwarves a chance to use axe weapons well! :D (esp. one handed ones with shield way)

[@drchaos2000]

the great thing about this game is the complexity of party building... personally i would call everyone who makes a BEGINNER party with a ninja and a bishop insane.. but i guess it works

[@ImmanuelCan]

Yeah it's the magic here.. anything works as long as it kind of makes sense :D

[@Pink000h]

Just finished Might and Magic 8 and it got me craving other games like it. This has been a great series! Any chance of there being a text guide for party creation/character developement?

[@ImmanuelCan]

I have something in the works :) There is also my guides playlist from general party composition to attributes to formations to deep character guides: kzbin.info/aero/PLwfViAw_vAvIkn3uco-_AMyXPNN_gugi2 Some things are also on my blog page www.thoughtfulgaming.com :) I want to add more though... maybe that party guide :) Always wanted to do that in text form as well.

[@RobBCactive]

Welcome back, hope you had a good holiday!

[@ImmanuelCan]

Thank You, man :) Took time to breathe through and prepare for winter lol. Welcome back, too :D

[@RobBCactive]

@@ImmanuelCan durchatmen? In English breath through would have to be transitive eg) To breathe through a snorkel while lurking under the water

[@ImmanuelCan]

Ahh yeah alright, just get a bit of fresh air and prepare for all the weird crises looming around :D

[@connykomen4237]

my 2 favourite frontline and back line combo. best dmg dealer= mook fighter with giantsword and bow (if you dont close gap) With a good bow he does also descent dmg (STR, DEX, SPEED, SENS, HP) best allround killer= fairy ninja with cane of corpus (takes some time, but end game highest 1 shot (even bosses) potential) (DEX, SENS, SPEED, STR, HP) best magic user= fairy Bishop with dmg (wizardry, alchemy , divine) (SPEED, INT, PIETY, HP) if you can cast your buffs first, u wont loose any fight) best buffer healer= 2nd Bischop (Divine, psi, alchemy) (so u have all 4 spellbooks coverd)(SPEED, INT, PIETY, HP) 2 fun picks fist monk= untouchable and crit combos. wearing only clothes and bear knuckle fghter. (DEX, SPEED, STR, SENS, HP) or ranger with scouting is noob friendly. If you want a close combat killer also mook (giant sword), but is the least insta kill potential of all crit classes. (DEX, SPEED, STR, SENS, HP) or rogue back stap combos and good lockpicking. (but i tend to break open all chests with my warior or bishop magic) (DEX, SPEED, STR, SENS, HP) or a gadgeteer or bard: i believe gadgeteer > bard . Bard has haste all but with good bishop or priest u have to... Gadgeteer has better spells and game. Bard is more easy option. (INT, DEX, STR, SENS, SPEED, HP and for melee's pick woman! stamina regen accoires!

[@ImmanuelCan]

Love your suggestions :) In a next playthrough will make sure to look at this for another inspiration. Mook Giantsword Fighter is excellent, I totally agree! Also have arrived at the point where I want a mook ranger with Giants Sword in the back row. :)

[@frogmoth]

Nice, back to the roots... I have to come back to this game too.

[@ImmanuelCan]

Yay :D It's just the gift that keeps on giving! What's your party? :)

[@frogmoth]

@@ImmanuelCan Well, i did only one proper playthrough (although i din't finish it, the game is looong). Your early vids were a great help in understanding the systems and i was able to create a party that was functioning quite well: Mook Fighter, Dracon Samurai, Hobbit Gadgeteer (i liked it better than a Bard), Gnome Ranger, Faery Psionic, Human Bishop (i didn't like the Priest in an early try, so this was a win/win. I was especially happy how this character turned out, as a noob i mean). I tend to spend a lot of time thinking about a new party in this kind of games and nowadays i tend to forfeit starting a new game altogether most of the time ... Btw: have you thougth about playing the earlier games too? I always find the thought of playing through the whole trilogy quite appealing, but the time this would cost (not to speak of the frustration tolerance i would need)...

[@ImmanuelCan]

Hey hey, great to hear you're playing around with it and having fun :) Party looking very good! The earlier games.. I've looked into them. I've tried them. But the UI makes me rage after a while, it's a pain to play for me. The game in there is good but UI is the one thing that often makes or breaks a game for me and in this case aaaahhhh :D Still, Wizardry 8 never gets old for me :D

[@frogmoth]

Yeah, I've tried to get over that hill too, it sometimes is brutal with these old games. But Sir-Tech was a great studio anyways that had to close way too soon. I find it interesting that there are some overlaps between W8 and my alltime favorite game Jagged Alliance 2 (the voice-acting, the composer, Brenda Romero, although i'm not sure how far her involvement in JA2 went).

[@ImmanuelCan]

Jagged Alliance 2 is another one of these all-time-greats but I was never as much into it as into Wiz8 :D Maybe I should play that again, too. Brenda Romero surely did a great job in both of the gems. I trusted her too in that PDX crime game which was.. oh well... oh nooooo :D But these games stay forever!

[@taomahNEGEV]

The fewer the better. Character creation and party management are the best parts of this game. Your Dracon with the minus Resistance modifiers will suffer a lot. I'd rather pick a Felpurr any time. I'm excited about the Don fight.

[@ImmanuelCan]

Yeah I just want to try new combinations often, and it's not too bad with the Dracon, it's no Lizardman at least :D Felpurr are also great for most physical damage dealers, good choice! Don is always a risk / reward :)

[@mylesik3660]

I am beginning this series and I feel like waching the whole thing. I like your party composition. I would recommend to put one point to senses when it's at 30. Otherwise you will get to hit penalty.

[@ImmanuelCan]

Hey there and welcome :) Feel at home! So you recommend Senses 31? I have this series mostly recorded but the production is still ongoing, so it's unlikely I'll change much, still I might do another run one time next year and for that I'll definitely note down your tip, thank you!

[@filipkos9905]

Man, I remember your channel from years ago! Watched and digested all Wizardry 8 content! Inspired me to go for a run, still have my old save. Definitely subbed and excited for this run :) My current party: Hobbit Samurai - Swords, Dual Wield, Critical Strike Human Lord - Mace & Flail, Close Combat Faerie Ninja - Staff & Wand, Dual Wield, Critical Mook Monk - Staff & Wand, Stealth Gnome Gadgeteer - Modern Weapons, Engineering, Ranged Combat Elf Bishop - Every School of Magic ((:

[@ImmanuelCan]

Heya and welcome back! :) Great party! Couldn't build it better myself! How's your run going? We're gonna go at a quick snail's pace of a video every second day. Have fun watching and happy gaming!

[@larsg.2492]

Your theory of 'characters attack from top left to bottom right' held true up to the first fight. 😂 Unless you run some mods that change it, initiative order should still be linked to the speed stat and an action modifier.

[@ImmanuelCan]

It is not a theory. If you play turn- based and move-wait-attack, attack order is determined like I describe.

[@larsg.2492]

@@ImmanuelCan That's the best hook ever. I'll have to keep watching and see if it ever comes up. 👍🏻

[@ImmanuelCan]

Yeah it's a very specific case, but it can be important in that case to get your buffs first, and then have people attack, for example. Mostly relevant in the first round when order is most important.

[@Setzer777]

It's been about 20 years since I last played this and I was recently playing the Skullstone demo on Steam and it got me itching to play games like Wizardry, Might & Magic and Legend of Grimrock, so I decided to load up Wizardry 8. Do you recommend using any mods and if so which ones?

[@ImmanuelCan]

Hey there! There are a couple of great mods, most notable one is "Flamestryke's Mod" but a lot of the old mods you can find on the "zimlab" site, but there are also a lot of new modders active with small scale mods now. For me, I usually play Vanilla as I cannot get enough of it and think it's really great :) Might and Magic and Legend of Grimrock haha, might get back to these one day as well :D

[@changliu1789]

Mighty and a magic has 678 combination mod now u can travel all three worlds

[@TooLatePeople]

I can tell you wanted to call your gadgeteer "Darkie" =)

[@ImmanuelCan]

Heh :D

[@nebdar4340]

Should be interesting once we get the cane. I Never tried for a faerie ninja myself, do you plan on just giving her weaker staffs at first for training or relying on ranged crits until we get to the rakuza?

[@darksavant3571]

The starting fairy staff is actually really strong, with its 50% sleep effect it can take away enemies turns, keeping The party safe and allowing it to do more damage on average than it reasonably should. It is a viable weapon for a long time, maybe even up to the point we get the cane.

[@ImmanuelCan]

I'll stick to sticks, if I can, two of them, for as long as needed :)

[@TheDarkmore]

So strange that after so many years and so many hours spent in W8 the party creation and play style is so different for each player and it shows how great his game is that it works with very different strategies. In short I disagree with everything stated here! XD

[@ImmanuelCan]

Haha cool to hear :D What are your parties like?

[@TheDarkmore]

@@ImmanuelCan I like to play "exotic" challanging stuff like 6 mook psionics, but for a casual play the most efficiently and very powercreep for me is 1 priest, 1 mage, 4 fighters (4 mooks with giant swords or 4 dracons with dreadspears), 4 fighter destroys everything, the casters are there just for buffs and teleport.

[@ImmanuelCan]

Yeah fighters are the only class you need apart from a few buffs and teleports :D but I wanna give a party that is.. variable, and beginner-friendly as in you can have a look at most mechanics of the game. That's why we have that much variation. I can see the efficiency in your power group though, very much! And exotic is fun, ofc :)

[@falconercyrus5584]

Thanks to designers (Sir-Tech) this game could be finished with very different parties :-) Even with this "bunch of schoolgirls" ;-)

[@shodan2002]

I always have difficulties with the stats when they level up sometimes I forget what stats I should improve for each class

[@ImmanuelCan]

Yeah I understand that, I keep an open office document for that in case I forget, with my level up strategy outline :D

[@mynameisstepon7860]

Already wait for this again

[@ImmanuelCan]

Aaaand here we go again :D

[@mynameisstepon7860]

But do you ever do Wizardry 6-8 as trilogy?

[@ImmanuelCan]

I try again and again and maybe one day I'll magically be able to live with the 6-7 UI (UI is my pet peeve and real dated UIs make me... rage :D ) but I have the games and I try to get used to the UI from time to time :D

[@mynameisstepon7860]

Understandable Especially keyboard only controls on Wiz6

[@Scarpwoodflatpipe]

How to Build an OP party ...just go with One Fairy Ninja..thats it

[@ImmanuelCan]

True, but this is for beginners to intermediate level :) Experts like you need no help building their party, your skills are good enough to beat the game solo!

[@taomahNEGEV]

You'll suffer until you get the Cane of Corpus.

[@netuimeni1799]

wasting points into speed.

[@ImmanuelCan]

There is still the big Speed question :) I won't invest much in it. There's still people who swear by speed and some who don't want any of it at all.