While I do agree with most of the postings here MPO is that people whom find this game too scary should just play a modern game like Mass Effect or Dragon Age because Wizardry was developed to challenge the people playing it.

What Garran said above. In addition your childish, insulting rant does not even seem to apply to anything I said. But you know where to send your apology for being so wrong in every post you made, though I somehow doubt you are that mature.
I don't think anyone here said W8 was "too scary" . It is pretty easy for me even when it does spawn a horde of higher level creatures but what many complain about is that we want our games to be GAMES...not a job we have to do. Those over-spawned hordes of creatures take a long time to deal with, often too long (and this from a long time hardcore, old school turn-based RPG fanatic.). The other issue is your rather bizarre assumption that people who Do think W8 hard will like FPS clickfest/twitch games or the crappy Dragon Age nonsense?!. Why?!

I had a small question seeing as that was one of the games I wanted to get into but was too afraid it would be too brutal. Wizardry 8 got many people saying it was too hard while others said it was easy. I watched a few videos of combat and thought it would be cool to have a smaller party than 6 for higher lvls experience whatnot. I should brush up and at least try that game (9.99, not much on gog). Would anyone recommend a race/class combo that would work for a 2 person party. The only thing I really wanted was to have 1 of the characters as strong and lvl up slow but is very powerful, while the other character is like a thief or whatnot that is decent in melee but outclasses enemies with higher lvls and skill.

So basically in Baldurs gate, a human paladin that lvls up slow but has many skills and is deadly with melee. Coupled with an elven thief who while not as strong as the pally, can lvl up faster and eventually outclass enemies with higher skill lvls and such. Is that possible in this game or should I just give up on the whole Wizardry series. I saw the older games but the graphics are enough to think Wizardry 1-7 was too archaic.

Could someone recommend me a few race/class combos that would work with if it works at all for the 2 classes?

Well I do like the other things you say about Dragon Age crap and absurdity of level scaling, so I'll just stop and attribute your ignorance towards me on general forum bulliness and trying to beat the other guy. I can appreciate that. I looked into the forums you mentioned and apparently that behavior is normal there.

Still think the scaling is no big deal in wiz8 and the game is overall easy to medium in the hardest difficulty. Can't understand people saying this is a hard game.

A dog (Rawulf) Bishop pumping Intelligence and Piety could partner up with a cat (Felpurr) Gadgeteer pumping Dexterity and Senses as this would give you one character to open traps/ doors and one slower magic build.

Understand that I don’t recommend a two person party over a full one (especially for your first time) but it’s your game m8.

I never said the game was hard though. My complaint was that I get bored grinding through hour long battles. I don't even like the first dungeon (Monastery) and wish there was a 'Dungeon Be Gone!' type mod. If you have played and beat this game 2 or 3 times before then the game doesn't really pick up until you get to Arnika IMO. The Monastery is fine the first time but gets old in replays.
I did not inject any "ignorance" of you into anything I said. I refuted your points directed at me and you retorted with insults and I have never attempted to bully anyone on the net. What a silly charge.

Different people of course have different preferences but going by what you said about your ideal Baldur's Gate duo, I would say to go with a Dwarf or Human or Dracon 'Lord' (they are like Paladins with dual wielding bonuses in melee) and a Fairy Bishop. The Lord will eventually be an okay healer but he is mainly a melee monster. The Fairy Bishop will start out slow and you will have to use the spells of "Knock! Knock!" (or whatever that open locks spell is called) and a few others to train your skill levels in all of the magic realms/schools.

EDIT: Later I would change the Bishop to a Ninja and get the Cane of Corpus.

I personally would never play without a full party but there are a LOT of people who prefer one or two PC games.

I'll chime in to support "use a full party" the first time you play. Small parties are playable, but you REALLY need to know what you're doing before trying them, and they won't necessarily result in faster combats. (Yes, your characters are more powerful, but you only have two of them, they can only do so much each turn, and they will lack some of the synergies available to full groups.)

In support of less than full parties, it can be argued that in most parties there are "dead weight" characters who have a disproportionally small contribution in battles compared to other party members. They achieve only a small number of kills, and provide buffs that could easily be obtained by other means. Such characters include a gadgeteer, for example, who is extremely weak up until the last third of the game, since the components for the strongest gadgets can only be found in tough, near end-game areas (Bayjin, Sea Caves, Rapax territory). Still, we keep them for fun, as min-maxing provides only so much entertainment. I prefer to have a full party and invent little stories and motivations for each individual character, which is greatly aided by the excellent voice system.

There are lots of mods for this game and some still being created. The community doing this can be found in the wizardry series at the Postcount forums.

The mods are all made using the cosmic forge editor created by Madgod. Which can be used to make a full blown mod with new locations, items, monsters and many other things or to just balance a few simple things to your liking.

The reason i mention this is that because of level scaling being the most complained about aspect of Wizardry 8
I am working on a mod that removes it.
Also many monster generators will either be taken out of the game, but not all, so as to make sure there is enough xp in the game to level up. But the ones left in the game will not generate so as to scale to your level.

Obviously other things will have to be implemented to make up for the loss of constant spawning which i will not go into, so as not to give spoilers. This is a big project, but i know i can do it having already made one mod called:
Rise of the Ancients (A Tiribute to Flamestryke)

For now though it's worth checking out all the mods at Snafaru's site. And come visit us at Postcount.


BTW. My modding name is DoddTheSlayer.

Agreed! The beginning is somewhat boring, mostly because you can't customize much and don't have "stuff". Do you use wizfast.exe? That makes the battles very quick and less annoying.

I often played with parties of 3,4 or 5 people to make the game harder. It does really make the game much harder, despite them being higher level. In the beginning its really tough, in one playthrough with 3 people it took me like 25 tries to beat Gregor. Problem is that your chars are basically done halfway through the game, so the fun of customization stops too early.
@Deathknight A 2 Person party would be pretty tough, especially for a new player, but if you wanna go for it, I would try some of the chars I have experienced to be absurdly strong. A rogue with bloodlust does quadruple damage due to backstab+berserk from the sword. A dracon fighter with staff of doom is extremely tough and does lots of damage,too. A elf Psionic with his area of effect condition spells would make the fights alot easier, he would make most enemies insane,asleep and whatnot, and can heal, too. Probably either Rogue/fighter or fighter/psionic. Rogue/psionic would probably not work, because the rogues stealth skill would not enable him to avoid damage when he is the only tank.

you can always download the "Cosmic Forge" and edit what ever you like in the game...

I always put in insane amounts of monsters to blow them sky high...
Its just me and I love doing that...

I never have "dead weight" characters in W8. Not even in my first play through did I have a character who was not pulling their weight. I think if you DO have such a character when creating normal parties then the fault is on [the player, not the game having too many party slots. And you think Gadgeteers are PCs whose abilities are easily had by other means?! The omnigun (blinds, paralyzes, kills using every type of ammo imaginable from arrows to shuriken), building massively buffing/debuffing/debilitating devices which run on stamina instead of mana..?

Gadgeteers are excellent throughout the game. Even ignoring the cosmetic appeal of playing such an artificer they probably do more for a party than any other class in W8. Engineering/building awesome devices, dealing with locks and traps, ranged killing, not bad in melee overall (depending on race).

Later on, yes.

In the early game their omnigun isn't particularly powerful (standard ranged weapons do better) and they won't have any devices until you've almost cleared the monastery (assuming a fresh party - imported parties may have faster access to better gadgets).

The awkwardness in the early-mid game stems mainly from the fact that they have to collect components to assemble their devices, they may be in areas that you can't reach until much later in the game, and even the parts you can reach are often spread across the map (so you have to do a lot of running back and forth to collect parts and then again to do the actual questing in those areas, or make do without the device as you clear the first area and only have it when you go to work on the second). This is particularly troublesome if you don't have a spoiler guide (or simply know where they are from having played the game before) to collect them efficiently.

The bard is much better off at the outset because the lute works wonders from the very first encounter and once you find an instrument, you have use of it - equivalent to the gadgeteer's devices at that point but half (or less) of the effort required to find it.

They're not useless by any means (and their Locks and Traps skill access makes the party's build options more flexible right from the outset - don't underestimate that!), but they're among the weaker characters at the outset and require more time to get their act (and devices) together than the rest.

I still include one in pretty much every party just for the theme (and comedy) mind you - I'm just not blind to the opportunity cost of doing so.

Loot does scale, albeit not everywhere. Quite some chests and drops have a level Sensor (which gets activated on the chest the FIRST time you enter that sector in the case of chests), so it sometimes is useful to hold back going into some sectors before you get a higher Level. Some equipments only show up after you reach Level 20

Here is a good place to check where you will find what drops you may find in chests and from Monsters (and pretty much anything you might want to learn about Wiz 8) : http://www.zimlab.com/wizardry/flamestryke/wizardry8/flamestrykes_w8.html

Reading all the posts really made me laugh. Most people complaining about level scaling act like they are supposed to be able to win every encounter. The only problematic I can find with the LS is the wrap around bug. For everything else, it is just common sense. If you happen to encounter enemies that are too difficult...RUN(past them, if you can or find a place to rest for a few hours, then try again).

So many people used to brute force tactics, it seems, that it can be difficult to realize how much value games that require judgement to play have. Wiz8 is one of the very few RPGs that fill that requirement. I have played many RPGs since the early 90s and I can say with confidence that Wiz8 is at the top of the list. To me, it is the best ever and the level scaling system they have employed is one of the reasons.