For those who don’t know, the phrase “Sin Publica” means “Without Politics”. This is one article that will be devoid of political comment or commentary. If you are of the political bent, feel free to skip over this article. Please note I’m not a frequent blogger… as a matter of fact as you can see, this is my first article in MONTHS.
Anyhow, this is going to go through a playthrough of an old game called Wizardry 8. It’s the third game of a particular story series starting with Wizardry 6: Bane of the Cosmic Forge, followed by Wizardry 7: Crusaders of the Dark Savant. All of these games follow several items in particular and the Ascension go through the process of becoming a cosmic lord, a being akin to a god:
1) The Cosmic Forge – a pen which if anything is written with it, it becomes true
2) The Astral Dominae – the key to life itself
3) The Chaos Moliri – the key to change
4) The Destinae Dominus – the key to knowledge
However, before we begin, we need a characters. Since Wizardry 7 is pre-Windows XP and Wizardry 6 is Pre Windows 95, it will be a little harder to play a game from that far back, unless you decide to REALLY go retro, and bring the characters through both games. Ergo, we start as (mostly) clueless adventurers who end up on a spaceship. Also, please note my choice of characters may not be the same as what others may use. I will however go through as someone who has been through a fair deal of the game.
Now there are a number of races, among them Human, Elf, Dwarf, Gnome, and Hobbit are the most familiar to people. The exotic races are Mook (think wookie but have better speech patterns), Rawulf (anthropomorphic canines), Felpurr (anthropomorphic felines), Dracon (yeah, like a dragon), Faerie (small and with butterfly wings) and Lizardman (not a creative name, but effective).
There are several pure classes: Fighter, Mage, Priest, Psionic, Alchemist, Rogue, and Gadgeteer. They are pure as in they really don’t branch outside of their classes that much, if at all. Also here is the Bard, though it is in many ways considered a hybrid, it’s a pure due to XP requirements. XP requirements of pure classes are typically smaller than hybrid classes. Since I’m not going to make use of Music or Gadgeteering, or any pure class in general, these classes will not be included in the party.
There are several hybrid classes. Lord (Fighter/Priest – Mace/Dual Weapon focused), Valkyrie (Fighter/Priest Polearm focused), Samurai (Fighter/Mage Sword Focused), Ranger (Fighter/Alchemist Range Critical Specialist), and Monk (Fighter/Psionic Martial Artist Specialist). XP requirements for these classes are higher than pure classes. Many of these classes are in consideration.
There are two classes called “Elite” classes. They are the Ninja (Rogue/Alchemist Throwing Weapon Specialist), and the Bishop (Caster Class Hybrid). They have the steepest XP requirements since they can become absolutely deadly at higher levels.
After looking at the races and classes I’ve made the following decisions, for role-playing and aesthetic purposes:
The first support character will be a Mook Ranger. Mook for aesthetic and role-playing purposes, and Ranger since the other classes he is good for are pure classes (Psionic, Gadgeteer, Fighter, and Bard). He’ll need help with speed, or a healthy senses boost to aid in initiative.
Since I have eliminated all other casting characters, the Bishop will be the sole caster. Alas, since gnomes are poorly distributed in points, they are out of the running for the Bishop. The choices are Human, Elf, and Faerie. Faerie are the best spell casters of the bunch, bar none, but they are poor when it comes to equipment. We’re not worried about carrying requirements for a bishop, but we would like some nice equipment to be available. Humans are good as hybrid characters, scarily so, but we’re trying to limit the number of humans in the party to maybe one. Ergo by process of elimination, we will choose the Elf, solid caster, and not quite as fragile as the faerie.
This leaves four other characters. There should be at least two main line fighters. The best choices for primary main line fighters are Fighter, Valkyrie, Lord, and Samurai. Secondary choices would be Monk, Ninja and Rogue. Rogue and Fighter, being pure classes are out.
The Valkyrie can be obtained as a recruitable player character (RPC) very early on in the first city we come across. This must be taken into consideration.
Each member of the party will be an original class. RPC’s can double up if need be.
One of the best aesthetic RPC’s is an android monk. He has no latent psionic ability but can become a hand-to-hand destroyer. He’s in the late part of the early game to early part of the mid-game.
Samurai can make use of an armor very early on in the first dungeon, the monastery, and come with two swords to begin the game. And the Samurai RPC starts out very weak.
The Lord RPC doesn’t come until much later into the game. Neither does the ninja RPC.
After all is said and done, I do like Samurai. Critical hits are really good. If we want dual-wield, the Lord is the better choice. Another polearm would bring out a Valkyrie.
The frontline fighters will be a Rawulf Valkyrie, and a Felpurr Samurai, which make four.
The fifth will be a human ninja, more critical goodness. There, we have our human.
The sixth is a choice between a Lord and a Monk. Since the Monk has another casting ability possible, we’ll take a Monk. That will be a Faerie. We’ll make her a staff monk since hand-to-hand might prove dangerous.
So our six characters will be –
1) Rawulf Valkyrie
2) Felpurr Samurai
3) Faerie Monk
4) Human Ninja
5) Mook Ranger
6) Elf Bishop
Gameplay to follow.