Creating a Party



One of the most challenging parts of the game is preparing to play it. If you create the wrong party, you will find yourself dying frequently or continually running out of gold to keep your party alive.

Wizardy 6 comes bundled with six default characters to get you started. This is wonderful if you enjoy a horrifically challenging game. Two fighters, a thief, a priest and two mages aren't going to be the most powerful party you can design.

It is completely possible to beat the game with almost any party, even a party of two, but the difficulty ramps up very swiftly. Although, my playthrough with two fairie ninjas was a very satisfying experience.

A party with the best chances of success takes careful planning and repetitive creation. In my opinion, a party consisting of three hybrid-fighters (Lord, Valkyrie, Samurai, Monk, Ranger or Ninja), a bard, a priest and a mage has the best chance for survival. Other spellcasters, like Psionics and Alchemists, are useful, but not versatile enough to be used alone.

Which species is selected isn't as crucial. Although some races are more attuned to certain tasks than others, that doesn't mean you can't create a small army of Fairies. Just expect to have very little health to survive your experience.

Start the process by choosing the CHARACTER MENU from Master Options, then CREATE PC.

What you name each member is up to you. The name can easily be changed, and it will likely take several attempts to create the characters you want, so keep them short (a single character will do) and rename them later.

The CHARACTER RACE screen will come up next. Depending on the race you choose, you will be awarded bonus points depending on the profession you choose. In the end, the race doesn't matter as much as the profession you choose, but each race will require more or fewer bonus points depending on what they excel at. If you would rather play the numbers game instead of enjoying the challenges of exploring, please explore page 14 of the manual for a table that provides the the bonus points per race when each profession is chosen.

Next, you will choose the SEX of the character. Once again, it doesn't matter too much what sex you pick. While females tend to require more bonus points for warrior-type professions, they also get access to one of the best fighters, the Valkyrie. It doesn't mean you can't create a Female Lizardman Bishop, but it will take some lucky rolls in the next step to do so.

At this point, the game rolls your BONUS. This roll is completely random and is often the reason many gamers give up on creating a party from scratch. I've spent hours trying to roll a perfect 24 for each character. Do yourself a favour and accept a good roll and don't strive for the perfect roll. Although, you do need a good roll to pick your PROFESSION and still have points left over to make them useful. If your roll is too low, you won't even see the profession you are trying to achieve.

If you don't see the profession you want, pick a Fighter, quickly dump your points into whatever you want, then choose to discard your character and start the process again. You will need to do this several times, which is why I recommend you to stick with a short name at first. Try to be patient, and you will eventually build the party you are looking for.

Once you finally get past the PROFESSION screen, you can dump the remaining BONUS points into the stats of your choice. For fighter-type characters, I recommend you to deposit as much as you can into the STR stat. Strength controls the damage you do, and your base STR is also used to calculate your carrying ability. Please note, that getting more STR later doesn't mean you can carry more later; only your starting strength affects how much you can carry. INT is important for Mages and PIE for Priests.

Once done, you will roll for KAR. Truthfully, you will notice very little difference between a high and low Karma roll. A few characters may behave more or less friendly, but it isn't anything that will make or break the game.

Next, you can pick your PORTRAIT. Other than representing each character at a glance, this has no meaning in-game. Feel free to choose what you want. Maybe your Fairie looks like a dragon, and your ninja dresses like a Bard. It's completely up to you.



One of the final screens will let you distribute your SKILL points. If you got any, that is. Much like your BONUS points, this is also random. Assigning these points now, and after each level, are one of the most critically important parts of the game. You may be tempted to blow 18 points into the Sword skill for your fighter, but it will be a waste of points. Why? Well, that is going to take some explaining.

The skills are split into three categories: WEAPONRY, PHYSICAL, and ACADEMIA.

Weaponry skills can be increased easily by simply attacking with a weapon of that type. If you only use a sword in combat, by the end of the game, you will easily reach 100 skill points in the Sword skill without spending a single point on it.

Physical abilities can also be trained, albeit more difficultly; these require the use of a special ability to level. Some physical skills need a small base to be useful, though. For example, a Skulduggery level of 10 is the minimum requirement to pick a simple lock successfully, but from there, you can increase the skill be picking all the simple locks. The same can be said for Scouting and Legerdemain. One member of your party should have at least 10 levels in these skills as soon as they can. The remainder of the physical abilities can be increased naturally by hiding, playing music, or casting spells.

Academia skills are where most of your skill points need to be placed. Artifacts need a base level of 10 to be useful but will increase as you identify items. Mythology will develop as you go, Scribe will increase as you use scrolls, and Kirijutsu will improve as you strike a critical attack. Compared to Weaponry and Physical skills, these still go up very slowly so spending skill points on these will still be needed.

Alchemy, Theology, Theosophy and Thaumaturgy will NEVER increase on their own. The magic-based professions will automatically distribute a few points into these skills whenever you level up, but if you don't spend points of your own, you will find yourself casting very weak magic throughout the game. The higher the level, the better spells you can learn.

If you are creating a non-spellcasting character, the creation process will end here. Spellcasters will have one final option - the choice of starting spells. While these will be the weakest magic the character can learn, they are not useless. As you gain levels, you will be able to cast stronger versions of these spells by choosing the level, depending on your total magic points for the magic type, making them powerful enough to use at the end of the game.

You must choose useful spells from each magic type as early as possible. You automatically get additional spell points for active magic types at each level. This means the earlier you activate each magic class, the more points you will have to cast later spells. While concentrating on a single type of magic, like Air or Fire, may be desired, it will leave you highly unbalanced, and with very few magic points later in the game.

After you successfully create all the party members you desire, just add them to your party in the order of strongest to weakest. The formation you chose is very important; the first two members will receive the most physical attacks, and the last two will only be subject to magical or ranged attacks. This formation can be changed at any time, but the starting formation will be critical in surviving the first few encounters.

 

Please note, this is only the first step. As you play the game, you will need to carefully build your character to guarantee each one stays useful and alive. Save frequently and spend your skill points carefully at each level. If you don't get a good skill roll when you level, restore your last save and try again. Also, use your abilities frequently as possible to build your weaponry and physical skills. Don't be afraid to spend the first few levels just hiding and playing music, then running away to build those skills up for later use.

 

© 2024 CrimsonTear.com All rights reserved.