Hi,

Can't believe I found this board! Nice to see there are still people who appreciate the old RFG/Wizardry games - it ain't all about framerates! I've played through BOTCF several times and am now doing it with a super high-roll party (thanks MadDog!) so I can import into Wiz7 and Wiz8.

My party is:
Elf Lord
Felpurr Ninja
Felpurr Monk
Felpurr Samurai
Faerie Mage
Faerie Priest

Level 10, just arrived at the Isle of the Damned. I've been reading on the board about some fun tricks to do, especially in the endgame, that involve changing professions so all party members can hide (with Ninjutsu skill). Of course, I'd also like to play a party where everyone has Kirijitsu skill too. So I tested it out, not having changed professions before, changing my Lord to a Ninja. Problem is, all his base stats were reset - not to the original values rolled for the character, but rather to the (not as good) base stats for any character entering the new profession. I know this is by design and I can deal with the level / experience hit, but it would make more sense to me to drop the character to their originally rolled base stats (just because they changed profession, doesn't mean they got slower and stupider to start with at the beginning!).

So is this really a good tradeoff just to get Ninjitsu and Kirijitsu for everyone? It doesn't seem like it because I'm losing base stats and would have to play my characters back up to the minimums for their original professions, then lose them again when I switch back the Lord, Mage, Priest and Samurai?

Thanks!!

• Plan Carefully,Scary, 07:42 PM, Oct-08-06
  • RE: Plan Carefully,PrinceOfOrange (Guest), 00:40 AM, Oct-10-06
  • RE: Plan Carefully,rbrown, 02:24 PM, Nov-09-06

It's all in the planning.

Also, if you're going to change class to acquire certain skills (the most common being ninjutsu, the second being kirijutsu), you're much better off doing it early in the game. As it is, you've accumulated ten levels that you're now going to "throw away" with a short jaunt through the ninja class (as that gives you both skills you want) only to change (or revert) to something else.

As you've noticed, when you change class, your attributes drop to the racial/class minimum, whichever is higher. They don't go back to your original numbers. (Life's like that: you live within the parameters of the game; if you really don't like it, you'll just have to hexedit.)

You plan your class changes to make use of this fact. For examle, ninja is a very good transition class, as it has requirements for every attribute but one (personality). Thus, a ninja can change class to a samurai, ranger, valkyrie, etc., after only a few good levels.

Lord is one of the hard classes to transition to, as the only other class with a comparable personality requirement (bard) lacks any other overlap with the requirements for lord. You might compensate by making your lords hobbits. I usually deal with it by making them felpurrs. (The other solution is to skip the lord altogether, and take a valkyrie, instead.)

Plan your final classes. IMHO, to make optimal use of the prime, guaranteed equipment, you want a valkyrie, a fighter/lord/valkyrie, a samurai, and a bard. There is some good ranger equipment, too, but the class is only so-so for the end game, and the equipment isn't THAT good.

Also think of what you want to import to CODS (and ultimately to W8). Each character can only import one "prime" item, such as the Avenger, Fang, Elven Bow, Muramasa Blade, Cat O'Nine Tails, Bushido Blade, etc.

Finally, again imho, pure casters don't make good end-classes. If you don't want to mix spell schools, make your priest a valkyrie or lord and your mage a samurai or bard.

Thanks Scary, good advice! I haven't played around with mixing classes too much and I definitely think I'm too far in now for it to be a good idea (I've since cleared the River Styx and most of the Hall of the Dead). So, next time! I usually come back to this game every few years and will try it then.

I definitely wish I'd played a Valkyrie rather than a Lord, they seem comparable and the Valkyrie is more flexible. Plus, I have a Maaened's Lance that I can't do anything with now...unless I convert my Priest to a Valkyrie (Faerie Valkyrie, hadn't thought of that...).

So many choices, so little time!

~p

When I was playing Wiz 6 seriously, I put together a chart of races and professions. By careful selection of race and initial profession, and by carefully choosing the class you switch to, you can minimize the impact of class-changing. For example, fairy bard to ninja to monk to ninja. Or Valkyrie to samurai to valkyrie. Try to avoid monk to valkyrie, there is too much overlap in the psionic-priest spellbooks. The same goes for mage-alchemist.

You can also boost your stats by "using" ankhs and other stuff to boost strength and speed to 20 AFTER you make your last class change. It won't all transfer to Wiz 7, and Wiz 7 doesn't all transfer to Wiz 8, but something is better than none.