character who begins as a bard; it is not otherwise obtainable in the game.>A starting piety of
>16 will give an additional
>+1 mana regeneration, 18 will
>give an additional +2.
Almost right. Starting piety of 16+ AND vitality of 10+ gives +1 to mana regeneration; starting piety of 18 AND vitality of 15+ gives an additional +1 (i.e., total of +2). -- From MG's editor.
>Race has nothing to do with
>mana regeneration.
Not quite: Lizards have a -1 (down to a minimum of 1) and Faeries have a +1 in all six categories.
>what does a mana regeneration
>of "5" mean? How often
>do you get 5 mana
>back?
My experience in Bane (but I suspect CODS is similar, if not identical): each hour (essentially, 60 keystrokes, although some categories of keystrokes/clicks do not count, such as during battles or while in the character review screen), each character regenerates up to their mana regeneration number in each of the six areas. Thus, a character with regeneration rate of 3-3-2-2-3-2 will recover 0-3 fire mana points, 0-3 water . . . , etc. When your characters camp, they rest for 8 hours (if uninterrupted), so they go through this regeneration 8 times. (Note: in Bane, at least, this recovery is phased, so the same character can regenerate mana six-times as fast by shifting positions within the party. However, most people are not interested in playing such an anally-retentive strategy.)
>The only other initial class note
>that seems relevant is that
>thieves get large bonuses to
>some thieving skills during the
>early levels, so it is
>very helpful to have a
>pure thief in the early
>game.
Nah. According to MG, every class has its own "special skills" that the computer will automatically allocate some skill points to upon level up. Yes, the thief's special skills are skullduggery and legerdemain, (1) other classes have comparable experiences with their own special skills, and (2) it isn't really a "bonus," at all: these are skill points that the computer allocates for you, instead of allowing you to allocate them. I'd much rather make the choices myself.
>Another question. I have read a
>lot of hype about faerie
>ninjas,
Just because of the infamous Cane of Corpus. If you want to murder an innocent mouse(mostly-innocent? how about, "less guilty than OJ"?) once or twice (!!), you might as well take along a future-ninja-faerie (or two). Otherwise, don't worry about it. They certainly aren't necessary to complete the game.
>but also a lot
>of suggestions to start them
>off as thieves or alchemists
>(or both) to work up
>some of their skills before
>becoming a ninja.
Primarily because in order to start out as a ninja, the faerie must be created with 21+ bonus points - a difficult roll.
>My question
>- how much do your
>starting stat bonus points matter
>if you are planning to
>change class?
Depending upon the class you want to change to, and how long you are willing to wait, a great deal. Distribute your bonus points to pave the way for your change to the next class (which, ideally, is one of the "elite" classes, with lots of required minimum stats, so you don't "fall" very far).
>For >example, if I start a
>faerie thief, who at level
>5 gets the stats to
>become a ninja, and then
>levels as a ninja to
>level 3... is there any
>difference between that level 3
>ninja and a faerie who
>started as a ninja from
>creation and became level 3
>(assuming the faerie ninja was
>created with minimal stats)?
Quite a few differences, actually, some of which are implicit in what we already discussed: (1) for the nominal price of 7,200 experience points, your thief-ninja will have four more levels worth of skill points than the pure ninja; (2) the thief-ninja will also have more hit points, although so far, as a ninja, he has only been earning 1 hp/level, and that will continue until he reaches level 5; (3) the pure ninja will have a slightly higher mana regeneration - specifically, in 3 of the six areas (I forget which 3, but probably fire, air and earth, as these are the areas favored by the alchemical classes), the pure ninja's regeneration rate will be 1 point higher than the thief-ninja's, assuming everything else (starting piety & vitality) is equal; (4) you may spend HOURS trying to roll up the pure ninja but only minutes to roll up the thief-ninja. I think that about covers it.
>I have also read that when
>fighters are hit they receive
>double damage. Is this confirmed?
>Is there anyway to fix
>this?
A confirmed bug that MG's editor will fix. For MG's editor, visit Snafaru's website: http://www.iosphere.net/~eric/wizardry/
Llevram also maintains a link to Snafaru on the software specialties homepage: http://www.softwarespecialties.com (look under "Favorites"). It is polite to give thanks for all three gentlemen for their contributions.
>Before reading anything I had planned
>on making the following party,
>without dual classing:
>
>fighter fighter thief priest mage mage
Did anyone else just have a flashback to their Proving Grounds party(ies)?
>At this point, I'm considering the
>following:
>
>samurai valkyrie thief/ninja priest bard/mage mage
Basic, well-rounded, do-able. (Actually, just about anything is do-able. Someone once completed the game with a solo thief, without class changes, although I expect it took a while and there were plenty of reloads required in the early stages.) You lack a psionic class, but by most people's reckoning, that isn't much of a deficit.
>Given that mana regeneration is
>dependant only upon starting stats
>and class (is that correct?),
>it may be beneficial to
>start the samurai and valkyrie
>as pure casters and immediately
>class change them. Even the
>thief/ninja would benefit from starting
>as an alchemist and changing
>to thief immediately. Is this
>a bad idea because it
>eliminates initial stat bonuses, which
>could mean, for example, less
>hit points for the tanks
>because their stamina will take
>a long time to get
>back to what it might
>have originally been?
The basic trade-off is as you note: hit points vs. mana regeneration. The pure casters will begin with 1/2 to 2/3 the hit points of the elites. That means more deaths (more reloads) in the early game, but it ceases to be relevant after a few class changes and level ups. However, the same can be said for mana regeneration rates: because of the number and availability of mana-regenerating fountains (among other things, like rechargeable mana stones), you won't want to rely upon your regeneration rate to recover mana. I'll admit that I always try to negotiate high regeneration rates for my imports from Bane, but this is not at all important for the game play.
>I'm curious - do class
>restrictions on equipment only apply
>to the current class?
Correct: with the exception of cursed items put on during a previous class, only the character's current class determines the weapons and equipment that can be equipped. (Okay, there are also gender and race restrictions for some items, but I don't think anyone was confused, here.)
>Finally, is there any reason not
>to class change the priest
>and mages to elite classes
>at level 10? The mage
>into another samurai for example,
>and the priest into another
>valkyrie.
Shucks, I wouldn't wait that long, but that's just me. Changing to a samurai, the character will require more experience for each level; changing to a valkyrie, the character will actually require less experience per level. (Is that, like, affirmative action gone awry?) Both characters will gain access to much better weapons and armor. Because of a class change, they will have more skill points, hit points, and spells than if they didn't make the change. Until they regain their former level, they will not be able to cast spells at as high a level and they will have less resistance (resistances are level-dependent). If you are trying to role-play something, you might be breaking the bounds of your story but, no, there really isn't any reason not to make this change. Depending upon how long you wait to change class, by the endgame, you will notice NO negative differences between the class-changed character and the unchanged character. (Even their levels will be the same, because the experience points required for the lower levels are trivial compared to the experience required for levels 12 and higher.)
>Is there an online manual I
>can read to review the
>basics of the game before
>it arrives in the mail?
Not that I am aware of, which means you may be stumbling around a bit as you try to figure out the really basic things like how to camp, how to cast a spell, how to inspect, disarm or open a chest, how to unlock a door, etc. However, you can learn a lot of these things through relatively simple trial-and-error, and the rest, you can get answers for here.
>Thanks a lot for any input!
Welcome (back) to our world.