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Wizardry seriesHow's this front line sound?(5 posts)(5 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted September 05, 2025
Thinking of the front line for the party for my planned upcoming playthrough/

Normal difficulty, but no Element/Soul Shield. (Don't like how those spells affect game balance. Still planning on letting enemies use it, though modding it out is technically possible.)

(Back line is magic focused, with Psionic, Alchemist, and Bishop)

* Elf Valkyrie, STR/INT. Naturally a good tank, and the race and attribute choice should make her more resistant to those nasty mental realm spells. Also considering Mook for Giant Sword use, at the cost of expert skills coming later.

* Dwarf Bard, STR/VIT. The idea here is to get high Stamina, and also to take advantage of that Iron Skin boosting armor, stacking it with with dwarf damage reduction. Downside is that Iron Skin doesn't appear until level 16.

* Dwarf Bishop (originally thinking of a Priest variant here), INT/VIT. Int gets me Power Cast (at level 16, which is late), and we again get dwarf damage resistance + Iron Skin stacking at level 16+. Won't be doing good damage until later. (Worth noting that both Power Strike and Reflextion can be obtained at the same time at level 31, if extra power leveling is done.)

How does this front line sound?
Posted September 05, 2025
back / front line is a concept that is not the only setup for W8.

As we can see ingame - there is a circle.
And enemies can often and easily encircle the party.
So the vulnerable characters will quickly end up exposed and technically act like 'front line'

Inside the monastery, where one can often sleep & move with their backs to a wall or even a corner, encircling by enemies can be somehow mitigated.

Yet that is not guaranteed across the game exploration.

Re-think the party placement.

think:
front
right
left
middle

OR:
front
right
left
back
middle

NOTE:
placing characters on the sides (left, right), narrows the reach of the hitters (who should be placed in front)
So if enemies become unreachable, you must select walk/run (if you don't move, just turn around, it will not take virtually any time, so none of your characters will lose turn or be postponed)

Yet, really vulnerable characters shall remain in the very center (middle), and at least 3 outer areas shall be populated. Melee critters are extremely dangerous, as characters like psionic can be downed after few hits.

Assuming, I got your concept right, then your party goes as follows:
Valkyrie, Bard, Bishop, Bishop, Alchemist, Psionic.

I would, simply following the rules of 'safety first', focusing on the most vulnerable characters, place them in the circle like this:

Front : Valkyrie (heavy melee hitter)
Right: Bard (support / tank)
Left: Bishop (tank who can cast, but also bash)
Back: Bishop (same as above, but can focus more on magic attributes, less on defensive/melee)
Center: Alchemist, Psionic (just hurl spells like drunk)
Posted September 05, 2025
avatar
Gattz13: back / front line is a concept that is not the only setup for W8.

As we can see ingame - there is a circle.
And enemies can often and easily encircle the party.
So the vulnerable characters will quickly end up exposed and technically act like 'front line'

Inside the monastery, where one can often sleep & move with their backs to a wall or even a corner, encircling by enemies can be somehow mitigated.

Yet that is not guaranteed across the game exploration.

Re-think the party placement.

think:
front
right
left
middle

OR:
front
right
left
back
middle

NOTE:
placing characters on the sides (left, right), narrows the reach of the hitters (who should be placed in front)
So if enemies become unreachable, you must select walk/run (if you don't move, just turn around, it will not take virtually any time, so none of your characters will lose turn or be postponed)

Yet, really vulnerable characters shall remain in the very center (middle), and at least 3 outer areas shall be populated. Melee critters are extremely dangerous, as characters like psionic can be downed after few hits.

Assuming, I got your concept right, then your party goes as follows:
Valkyrie, Bard, Bishop, Bishop, Alchemist, Psionic.

I would, simply following the rules of 'safety first', focusing on the most vulnerable characters, place them in the circle like this:

Front : Valkyrie (heavy melee hitter)
Right: Bard (support / tank)
Left: Bishop (tank who can cast, but also bash)
Back: Bishop (same as above, but can focus more on magic attributes, less on defensive/melee)
Center: Alchemist, Psionic (just hurl spells like drunk)
I don't really like using non-default formations.

For example, I don't like having asymmetrical formations where someone is on the left and someone else, with a different build, is on the right. Except maybe if changing formation mid-battle.

And I don't like mid-battle formation changes mid-battle because the mechanic does not gel with phased combat (and I don't use continuous). They really should have made formation changes during the command entry phase take effect immediately (and disallowed them during the command execution phase in phased combat).

Also, the back Bishop is a caster focused build (Elf, INT/SPD, will have lower HP than the Alchemist).

Also, I'm planning on having the Alchemist throw bombs and the Psionic use Artifacts; those two roles may overlap some later, particularly in situations where gaps in their spell lists cause issues.
Posted September 05, 2025
Position change commands will come into effect at the end of turn when issued while the turn is still runnin,
so as soon a chr is substancially hurt i command to move

btw, sometimes i like to keep the front quadrant empty, if chrs get disabled, someone can occupy it and block acces to the injured, unless enemy has extended reach
Posted September 06, 2025
I have been through two different party formations, both have 100%ed the game:

MDP: Front (Bard), Left Flank (Gadgeteer), Right Flank (Priest), Center (Alchemist, Psionic, Mage). Make sure your back is to a wall (early, when it still matters). Later on, your MDP will be so powerful that you can fight out in the open.

Balanced Party: Fighter and Rogue up front, Valkyrie on Left Flank, Ranger on Right Flank, 2 Bishops protected in the center. This is largely the same, only overall tougher characters (back to the wall matters even less).

I have never seen a formation work (or done one), where you have 3 characters up front, and 3 behind them, due to swarming enemies. Somebody has to protect the flanks.

Edit: I may be missing something here. Perhaps you are talking about having nobody up front, 1 character on the left flank, 3 in the center, and 1 on the right flank? This still means that a caster will be hit in short range combat (assuming a normal party, where at least 2 are full casters).
Post edited September 06, 2025 by RChu1982
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Wizardry seriesHow's this front line sound?(5 posts)(5 posts)
(5 posts)