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"How Wizardry I HP are calculated"

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cj (4 posts) Click to EMail cj Click to send private message to cj Click to view user profile Click to check IP address of the poster
Mar-07-17, 07:16 PM (Pacific)
"How Wizardry I HP are calculated"
LAST EDITED ON Mar-13-17 AT 06:42 PM (Pacific)

LAST EDITED ON Mar-12-17 AT 03:32 PM (Pacific)

LAST EDITED ON Mar-10-17 AT 09:02 PM (Pacific)

LAST EDITED ON Mar-07-17 AT 10:02 PM (Pacific)

LAST EDITED ON Mar-07-17 AT 10:01 PM (Pacific)

I recently put together a pretty thorough description of how HP are calculated after each time a character gains a level, plus some big ugly tables to help you figure out what to expect as you gain levels. I'm not sure how many people even read this forum anymore, but I figure I might as well post it somewhere rather than just sit on it, so here it goes.

NOTE: The following is for the Mac version. I'm pretty sure it is also true for the Apple II version, but no promises. I'd love feedback on whether or not what I describe matches your experience.


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I’ve seen a few Wizardry related threads on HP calculation. Most are asking “Why do I just get one extra HP on a level gain so often and then suddenly see a big jump.” There have been a few attempts to explain how HPs are calculated, but most seem incorrect and/or are lacking details.

What follows is an explanation of how HP calculation works for the Mac OS version of Wizardry I, which I currently am playing again after a 10 year or so break. My only other Wizardry I experience is with the Apple II version 33 years ago, but I recall it behaving in a way consistent with the following (with the exception that Mac OS version always starts all characters with 8 HP).

One important thing to realize is that every time your character gains a level, HP are recalculated from scratch. You do not just get a single die roll, and that value is added to your current HP. If the recalculated HP is less than or the same as your current, then you get 1 additional HP. If you’ve changed classes, then expect +1 for a long time until you’ve reached high level with your new class. Change a lvl 13 priest to a mage, and you may need to reach lvl 20 or higher before you see an increase of more than +1.

The HP calculation for any given level is one die roll per level (die type determined by character type), plus a bonus per level based on your character’s vitality (the following stolen from http://www.zimlab.com/wizardry/walk/w123calc.htm):

- Vitality 3: -2 hit points per level.
- Vitality 4,5: -1 hit points per level.
- Vitality 16: +1 hit points per level.
- Vitality 17: +2 hit points per level.
- Vitality 18: +3 hit points per level.

The die type used are as follows:

- d10: Fighter, Lord
- d8: Priest, Samurai
- d6: Thief, Bishop, Ninja
- d4: Mage

So for example, a Fighter with Vitality 17 upon attaining level 8 would get 8 rolls of a d10 plus 16 (2 * 8) bonus points for having Vitality 17. An average d10 roll is 5.5, so 8 * 5.5 + 16 = 56 HP on average. I believe both of the above charts are correct, but can’t say I’m 100% certain. They at least seem to match what I’ve observed.

Having this info in hand, I found myself wondering after each level gain if my recalculated HP was good, bad, or average. Not something that’s easy to do in your head, although computing the average is fairly easy. I decided to write a program to simulate the HP calculation for any given character type and any given level of experience. Basically it simulates 1,000,000 rolls of the new HP and looks at the distribution to determine the odds of getting any given HP value. When doing this I decided to assume a vitality of 18 since that’s what our characters have most of the time.

I used the simulation to calculate the number of HP needed to reach various percentiles (if you don’t know what a percentile is, stop now and look it up). My goal for most level gains was to be at the 90 percentile, meaning there was only a 10% of getting that number of HP or higher. In order to do complete charts, I did every die type and every level from 1 to 20. I computed the number HP needed for various percentiles so I would have a good feel for “good, bad, or average”. These charts are below for your reference.

Now on to answering the question “Why do I get +1 HP on level gains so often, sometimes multiple times in a row.” The most common reason is you’ve changed class, and at your current level there is little to no chance of your re-rolled HP being bigger than what you currently have. The other reason is because a recent level gain gave you a really good HP recalculation, and now you are getting some bad ones. Here’s an example:

A lvl 8 fighter with vitality 16 has a 10% chance of getting 63 HP or more, so let’s just assume you got 63. This is a very good HP roll for a lvl 8 fighter. Now you attain lvl 9, and vitality goes up to 17. Now there’s a 25% chance you’ll get 62 or fewer HP (a slightly unlikely roll, but still common), so that means there’s a pretty good chance your HP roll will be 63 or less, and you’ll see the +1 HP gain to 64 (you always get at least 1 added to your HP). Now you reach lvl 10, and your vitality goes up to 18. If you get a good roll (90 percentile level), you will end up with 97 HP, a gain of 33! I’ve seen gains like this often, especially ones in the 20-30 range.

So in summary, good rolls followed by average or below average rolls usually end up with a +1, as do average rolls followed by bad rolls. On the flip size, bad rolls followed by good rolls can show huge HP gains.

Here are the charts for you amusement. For each die type that is rolled, you’ll see a header something like:

d8: Priest Samurai
lvl | min 10 25 50 75 90 99 max bns

That means a d8 is rolled for Priest and Samurai. The second line is the column header. Here’s what each column means:

- lvl: The level of the character
- min: The minimum possible roll (you rolled a 1 every time)
- 10: HP needed to reach the 10 percentile level. That means 10% of the rolls will be that value or less.
- 25: HP needed for 25 percentile level.
- 50: HP needed for 50 percentile level. An average roll.
- 75: HP needed for 75 percentile level.
- 90: HP needed for 90 percentile level. A very good roll. Only 10% of rolls will be the same or better.
- Max: The maximum possible roll (you rolled the max dice value every time).
- bns: The number of HP bonus points due to your vitality. I assumed vitality 18 for all these calculations. If your vitality is not 18, subtract the bonus from the various HP columns in that row, and add in the appropriate vitality bonus (if any).

Ignore lvl 1 numbers. Like I said, the Mac OS version always starts you off with 8. I recall the Wizardry 1 version being more of a true roll with the proper die, but it also might have been as described on http://www.zimlab.com/wizardry/walk/w123calc.htm:


d4: Mage
lvl | min 10 25 50 75 90 99 max bns
----+------------------------------------
1 | 4 4 4 5 7 7 7 7 3
2 | 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 14 6
3 | 12 14 15 16 18 19 21 21 9
4 | 16 19 20 22 24 25 27 28 12
5 | 20 24 26 27 29 31 33 35 15
6 | 24 29 31 33 35 37 39 42 18
7 | 28 35 36 38 41 42 45 49 21
8 | 32 40 42 44 46 48 51 56 24
9 | 36 45 47 50 52 54 57 63 27
10 | 40 50 53 55 57 60 63 70 30
11 | 44 56 58 60 63 65 69 77 33
12 | 48 61 63 66 69 71 75 84 36
13 | 52 66 69 71 74 77 81 91 39
14 | 56 72 74 77 80 82 87 98 42
15 | 60 77 80 82 85 88 92 105 45
16 | 64 82 85 88 91 94 98 112 48
17 | 68 88 90 94 97 99 104 119 51
18 | 72 93 96 99 102 105 110 126 54
19 | 76 98 101 105 108 111 116 133 57
20 | 80 104 107 110 113 116 122 140 60

d6: Thief Ninja Bishop/Wizard
lvl | min 10 25 50 75 90 99 max bns
----+------------------------------------
1 | 4 4 5 7 8 9 9 9 3
2 | 8 10 11 13 15 16 18 18 6
3 | 12 16 17 20 22 23 26 27 9
4 | 16 22 24 26 28 30 34 36 12
5 | 20 28 30 33 35 37 41 45 15
6 | 24 34 36 39 42 44 48 54 18
7 | 28 40 42 45 49 51 56 63 21
8 | 32 46 49 52 55 58 63 72 24
9 | 36 52 55 58 62 65 70 81 27
10 | 40 58 61 65 69 72 77 90 30
11 | 44 64 68 71 75 79 85 99 33
12 | 48 70 74 78 82 86 92 108 36
13 | 52 77 80 84 89 92 99 117 39
14 | 56 83 87 91 95 99 106 126 42
15 | 60 89 93 98 102 106 113 135 45
16 | 64 95 99 104 109 113 120 144 48
17 | 68 101 106 111 115 120 127 153 51
18 | 72 108 112 117 122 126 134 162 54
19 | 76 114 118 124 129 133 141 171 57
20 | 80 120 125 130 135 140 148 180 60 

d8: Priest Samurai
lvl | min 10 25 50 75 90 99 max bns
----+------------------------------------
1 | 4 4 5 7 10 11 11 11 3
2 | 8 11 13 15 17 19 22 22 6
3 | 12 17 20 23 25 28 31 33 9
4 | 16 24 27 30 33 36 40 44 12
5 | 20 31 34 37 41 44 49 55 15
6 | 24 38 41 45 49 52 58 66 18
7 | 28 45 48 53 57 60 66 77 21
8 | 32 52 56 60 64 68 75 88 24
9 | 36 59 63 68 72 76 83 99 27
10 | 40 66 70 75 80 84 92 110 30
11 | 44 73 77 83 88 92 100 121 33
12 | 48 80 85 90 95 100 108 132 36
13 | 52 87 92 98 103 108 117 143 39
14 | 56 94 99 105 111 116 125 154 42
15 | 60 101 106 113 119 124 133 165 45
16 | 64 108 114 120 126 132 141 176 48
17 | 68 115 121 128 134 140 149 187 51
18 | 72 122 128 135 142 148 157 198 54
19 | 76 130 136 143 149 155 166 209 57
20 | 80 137 143 150 157 163 174 220 60

d10: Fighter Lord
lvl | min 10 25 50 75 90 99 max bns
----+------------------------------------
1 | 4 5 6 9 11 13 13 13 3
2 | 8 12 14 17 20 23 26 26 6
3 | 12 19 22 25 29 32 36 39 9
4 | 16 27 30 34 38 41 47 52 12
5 | 20 34 38 43 47 51 57 65 15
6 | 24 42 46 51 56 60 67 78 18
7 | 28 50 54 59 65 69 77 91 21
8 | 32 58 62 68 74 79 87 104 24
9 | 36 65 71 77 82 88 96 117 27
10 | 40 73 79 85 91 97 106 130 30
11 | 44 81 87 93 100 106 115 143 33
12 | 48 89 95 102 109 115 125 156 36
13 | 52 97 103 111 118 124 134 169 39
14 | 56 105 112 119 126 133 144 182 42
15 | 60 113 120 128 135 142 153 195 45
16 | 64 121 128 136 144 151 162 208 48
17 | 68 129 136 144 153 160 172 221 51
18 | 72 137 145 153 161 169 181 234 54
19 | 76 145 153 162 170 178 190 247 57
20 | 80 154 161 170 179 187 200 260 60

Wizardy 1 Proving Grounds Hit Points HP Calculate Calculation
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