Hi from a "new" newbie

[Fiend of the 9 Worlds]

Ok, you won this time... :-D But i'll be back soon!!! >;-D

[Fiend of the 9 Worlds]

But hey, a little edit can save my back... just look up.

[Ziggurat]

I don't go for editing. It spoiled Morrowind for me.

[Fiend of the 9 Worlds]

Editing the forum is easier then editing the game... it took me only a few seconds to change fighter/ninja/thief/lord/mage/priest/alchemist/psionic's level from 50 to 500... :-D

[Gadgeteer Tom]

OK, one other thing that I think is worth it - someone help me out because I really am not sure if I am talking about the correct area...I think it's the Mountain Wilderness... locate, repair and recruit RFS-81, unlike most other NPC's He'll follow you just about anywhere - and he can be developed into a very mean fighting machine (since he has no magic abilities to develop, he can focus on throwing and bashing - best to keep both of his hands full with secondary weapons as much as possible (eg; throwing knifes and surikens - or even split up whatever you've got - before giving him a sling [when you run out of other stuff to throw]).
Besides, I like his 'personality'...

[Ziggurat]

He's at the mine tunnel shack. You get there from the swamp or Marten's Bluff. And I agree, he's the only RPC I (sometimes) use.

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

He won't go to the Rapax away camp; I speak from experience!

[Riftmaker]

Just thought I'd add more opinions on those fights. I love Wizardry, been playing for like 10 years, ever since I bought wiz7 after it came out.

Originally posted by Tyros the Demon Slayer: 1) The Battering Hogar in the Northern Wilderness. Maybe someone can tell me if all the goodies he's guarding are actually worth it? Still haven't beaten him yet.

IMHO, you can skip the battering Hogar until you are sure you can beat him quite handily. Otherwise he's not worth the risk. If you're intent on trying to kick his ass, Siren's Wail is handy. Paralyze also works well on Hogars...sorta. Once he's got one of those, he usually won't attack, and you can kick his ass.

2) The Oak Saplings off of the anti-magic area in Trynton. I've figured out how to beat back the toxic clouds, but they always seem to take out my spell casters with Crush spells before I can do anything to them. Even with a Faerie mage.

These guys are fvcking hard if you're below like level 12 or 13. There are 2 MUST HAVE spells before tackling these guys. Magic Screen and Element Shield. If you don't have those, you will more than likely perish in approximately 3 or 4 rounds. Siren's Wail also works really well here, as it incapacitates them for at least 3 rounds if they get affected.

3) Any encounters with Leaf Sprites in Trynton. Doesn't even matter if I try to run.

Element / Soul Shield and Magic Screen. If you have those, you will be mostly impervious to their spells. Melee combat only with these guys, as Eye for an Eye will just reflect spells back at you. The only time they are hard is when they decide to mass Whipping Rocks you or something like that.

4) Cultists/ Highwaymen on the Arnika Road. I even got them once just after completing the Monastery -- my guys couldn't have been that tough.

If you get Cultists that early, run. Run very very fast. They're quite rare though, so you shouldn't have to worry about them too often. When they start showing up more often, you'll have the necesarry magic protection spells to deal with them. As for the highwaymen, Siren's Wail

5) The Rattkin. Not the breeders -- those are beatable. But I always seem to run into Rattkin Goons and others right after clearing the Rattkin Breeder room.

Best thing you can do is wait until you are of high enough level to beat the goons. Either that or manouver yourself so that you only take on 1 at a time (I think there's only 1 place in the entire rattkin base where you can do that though). Snipers are easy.

6) Moraxes in the Cemetary Dungeon. Only beat the three of them once, and then because two of them had spells fizzle on them in the same first round.

Protection spells, and abuse the system Open the door so that you only see one of them. This will force the other 2 to advance into your melee range, so you can squash them. Guardian Angel also works wonders on your weaklings here.

Bonus: one chest has wrecked my party so many times it's not even funny. How high a Locks/Traps should you have before trying the chest with Don Barlone?

To guarantee success without getting slaughtered around 70 ish.

[Scatter]

You can drag the Oakies into the no-magic area and whomp them where they can't cast.

There are many places on the Ratt Tree to drag Goons so they're only one at a time--almost any T intersection where there's a "trashcan" blocking half the corner...

[Riftmaker]

Originally posted by Tyros the Demon Slayer: 1. I typically try a six-person party, adding whatever characters I can recruit. More often than not, I do Monestary - Arnika (picking up Vi and Myles) - Trynton (trading Madras for Myles) and, if I survive that far, the Swamp. In the swamp, any sort of encounter can typically be problematic, although my guys are normally L9 or so by then. I've been to the Bluff once, and wandered (by mistake) in the SE Wilderness once. While I ran from and survived a certain encounter there that I gather is well-documented, I still met my end at the hands of a bunch of other magical types.

Six people is good, but you really should hold off on picking up NPCs unless you're going to keep them, otherwise the EXP they earn is just going to be wasted on them. Get someone who will pay their divedends.

Spend more time creeping and levelling up before advancing to new areas. What you should really do is:

Monestary -> Arnika -> Return to Monestary -> Arnika -> Explore all of the Road -> Trynton

Hell, I even did the cemetary dungeon before Trynton. After Trynton, I would stay away from the Swamp for a while, instead going to the Northern Wilderness and Umpani Camp. Maybe even stop by Bela if you have the cash It's all about knowing what the difficulty ratings of the areas are...if you wish to know them, we can help you out.

2. What I've done a few times, is instead to do Monastery, N. Wilderness, Umpani (picking up Sparkle and Saxx), back to the N. Wilderness. If I don't mess with the Hogar, I go back to Arnika, and then try to make it to Trynton (or sometimes do the cemetary dungeon). Those are the games when I rarely survive long enough to hit the Trynton fountain etc.

You really need to skip the Cemetary dungeon until you have Soul Shield. You will get slaughtered in the Cemetary dungeon without it. Again, skip NPCs you aren't going to keep. They just suck up valuable XP. You really should consider just creeping (to borrow a term from WC3) to gain a few levels.

3. I've never had my characters actually hit level 11 -- some of the non-spell casters have hit L10.

See above

4. Typical party: Dracon Fighter, Human Valkyrie, Human Bard, Hobbit (or Felpurr) Rogue, Human (or Dwarf) Priest, and Elf (or Faerie) Mage. Sometimes I go with one primary spell caster, a bishop, and then a bunch of secondary spell-casting types (Samurai, Lord, Monk, Gadgeteer, Bard). I gather, from what I've read so far that this latter approach can be problematic because it greatly slows down your access to the important protective spells (element shield, soul shield, are there others?)

That's a nice balanced party. One thing to remember is that you really need to have a bard to survive, especially with no reload option Mage and Priest get the most important protective spells, the ones I can't live without. I think your problem is just that you aren't of high enough level before you advance to a new area.


Thanks again -- I appreciate any and all thoughts. [/QB][/QUOTE]

[ 09-09-2004, 01:09 AM: Message edited by: Riftmaker ]