Even though I will pick up the npc monk later in the game, that npc doesn't provide spells. One of the most important spells to me has been insanity, used by my female monk. I'm going to go with a Bard, Gad, Fighter, Ranger. Bishop, and Alchemist. But the Alchemist and Monk? --- which one? Does Alchemist obtain insanity spell, quickly? I'm not familiar with the Alchemist at all. Thanks for help.

• RE: Monk or Alchemist,Foxfire (Guest), 12:05 PM, May-12-03
  • RE: Monk or Alchemist,gator, 12:19 PM, May-12-03
    • RE: Monk or Alchemist,Wintersteel (Guest), 03:42 PM, May-12-03
      • RE: Monk or Alchemist,Blacklash (Guest), 05:19 PM, May-12-03
• RE: Monk or Alchemist,Blacklash (Guest), 05:07 PM, May-12-03
  • RE: Monk or Alchemist,Blacklash (Guest), 05:14 PM, May-12-03
    • RE: Monk or Alchemist,guest, 01:42 PM, Sep-09-03

The alchemist never gets the insanity spell. It is a psionic only spell.

Since you've got Ranger and/or Bishop to take care of alchemy, I'd go with the monk.

Just some other things to consider.

The Bishop and Bard also get Insanity. The Bard covers most of the good Psionic spells.

So you have Alchemy (Ranger/Bishop) and Psionics (Bishop/Bard) covered twice.

Wizardry is covered by Bishop.
Divinty is covered by Bishop.

Given how much is on the Bishop's shoulders, the Bishop should concentrate more on Wizardry and Divinity.

So I would either take a Monk to for melee. Or I would take another Bishop for a more magic heavy party. Either way you get three characters with Insanity.

If you have only one Bishop, develop his alchemy first. This will allow him to start mixing potions and powders to create better ones. The excess items can be sold for more gold than it cost to buy them ( and if you find the ingredients it's pure profit). An alchemist can't be silenced, so you may want to take that into consideration. Bards will find the Siren Wail (Insanity) first. The Chaos Drone (Pandamonium) can be found in the SE Wilderness. Pickpocket the Soul Sax from Sax at the Umpani compound and get the Mandolin of the Magus at Marten's Bluff and you will be just about set. Good luck.

Lastly, I totally disagree with the guy who said "if you only have one bishop, develop his alchemy first." The simple reason: Your ranger, along with your bishop, will get alchemy spells. Your bishop is the only one who will EVER learn wizardry spells, given the makeup of the rest of your party that you outlined. Wizardry spells include some of the best attack spells, so you'll want them, or you'll feel like all your bishop does is be a wimpy doctor. He learns everything, but does so more slowly. Make his picks count. Just my opinion.

I personally wouldn't go with either the alchemist or the mond. As said by someone else further up, the bishop and ranger will both learn your alchemy spells for you (bishop faster, but ranger is a better fighter and will scout hidden items for you, even while running). I wouldn't bother with a monk, since RFS-81 is a monk, and he's more than enough. I have the exact same party composition as you, except for my last character. I chose a dwarf lord. Good fighter, gets to wear good armor and use good weapons, but also learns priest spells, to suppliment your bishop and ranger. Vi Domina, rpc valkyrie, will also learn priest spells, but slower. More muscle up front is always a good thing, in my opinion. Eventually, your bishop will have killer spells that affect entire monster groups. Additionally, your gadgeteer will have some awesome devices at his disposal, also affecting entire monster groups. Your bard and gadgeteer will eventually do as much of your healing and group attacking as any other characters. The other characters should just be brutes. I'd pit my party against just about any other party out there. Whether far away, or in close, they deal out some serious damage, hehe...

Oh, plus I almost forgot. You seem to love the insanity spell, but keep this in mind. The further along in the game you get, the more magic resistant your opponents get, and the more magic they will use on you. If insanity is a spell you use a lot, then it becomes even more important down the road to protect yourself against it. I have 3 characters, my dwarf lord, elf bishop and bard, who can cure insanity. Believe me, that's way more important to me, because when my party becomes insane, that has to be my first priority. If my fighter, ranger, monk, or lord becomes insane, it only takes one round of them attacking each other, and multiple characters are biting the dust. I do more damage to myself than the monsters will ever dream of doing. Plus, magic resistant/using monsters may be dealt with using magic, to some degree, but nothing will save your butt more often than being able to run right up into their faces with hulking big dudes wielding cold, hard steel... End it fast, done.

After going through game 4 times, I like the female human monk. She has CH, close combat, train to throw powders & bombs. Helps out my Bishop and Bard with spells. Such as haste, eye for eye, silence when large group in which to control. The Monk you get later in game can't help with spells and by that time if you start to train in throwing (good luck), since you have been training your spell capable and throwing Monk from the start of game. She was great also in throwing stones and close combat. The stone throwing trains her to throw bombs, so they don't come back in your face. Besides helpful spells at end of game, she can really smack a monster in close combat very well, and with a possible CH, be it throwing a stone with a possible CH, and helpful spells and powders and bombs. I didn't realize how much I missed her what I substituted her with another character.