Warning: You may use this file for your own personal use, but to claim that you wrote it...well just kind of sad that that's your life, and you want recognition so badly that you have to steal FAQs from other people and claim it as your own. Anyhoo.... This Faq is designed to show the strategies and intense thought processes that underlie any good wizardry party. It assumes you have an idea of how the wizardry system works. If you don't you can still get a lot out of this FAQ, but I'd suggest rereading and learning about the class system. Update ver 1.3: In this version I've fixed some spelling errors and made a small change to one of my characters. Table of Contents: I. Class time, children II. Skills III. Making life easier for yourself IV. Party Strategies V. Review and closing Statement I. Class time, children Let's do a brief rundown of all the characters of Wizardry 7. The snide or praising comments I make are purely my own opinion. Don't get upset because I don't like your Lizardman Bishop. Also the races I chose were based on an assumption that you will not be changing their class: Class: Fighter Good races: Dwarf, Lizardman Spellbooks: none Usefulness: Very beginning Grade: C What keeps the fighter from being completely useless by midgame is only the fact that he starts off on faster footing than other elites and hybrid characters. He has very little experience requirements, allowing him to excel in the beginning of your adventure. But he doesn't improve at all after that initial surge. Hybrids can cast amazing spells, attack for similar damage, hide in shadows, etc. Switch him to a lord or Samurai later on, and you'll have a powerful character. Class: Mage Good races: Elf, Faerie Spellbooks: Thaumaturgy Usefulness: Through Mid-Game Grade: B The great redeeming factor about mages is the power of mage spells. they get the good ones so quickly that early on they are just powerhouses, able to destroy enemies at will. Later on their more powerful spells kick butt too, but the thing is, once they run out of steam, there's not much else a mage can do. He becomes a liability with low hit points and weak armor. Switch him to a samurai, or even a bishop later on. Class: Priest Good races: Rawulf, Gnome Spellbooks: Theology Usefulness: Beginning Grade: c- Priests are good at healing! So good, (dun dun) So good (dun), I got heal wounds, and sta mi na. (Horns!) Yeah........and then they got absolutely nothing. When you take a priest you have to plan to switch classes with them. A priest turned to a lord or Valkyrie is a good idea. It gives them a great boost in theology. A bishop is possible too, but I would do that only to switch to a mage based class soon afterwards (*cough Samurai *cough). A samurai who can cast both priest and mage spells could be a lot of fun! Class: Thief Good races: Human, Felpurr Spellbooks: None Usefulness: Very Beginning Grade: C+ Well let me start off by saying that I take a thief in EVERY party I make. And for one excellent reason. Thieves are the best at skulduggery. In the very beginning, you need someone who excels at this skill. A thief gets bonus points to it, whether or not you put points into the skill. He can also hide in shadows, which means any class you switch him to later will be able to as well. And he has the least experience requirements of all the classes!! All that being said, after you get his skulduggery up, SWITCH HIM! SWITCH HIM NOW! GET TO THA CHOPPA! Oh...sorry.....anyway, these dudes are atrocious fighters, and they don't cast spells, making them useless outside of opening chests. In my opinion Lords and Samurais are good choices, because neither of these classes has ninjutsu, and the thief will only complement them. Class: Ranger Good races: Felpurr, Elf* Spellbooks: Alchemy Usefulness: Midgame (And then not even so much) Grade: C- Rangers are good at sticking to the backrows and firing bows. They can only wear light armor, so it's best to keep them out of range of the enemy. The ability to hide in shadows and cast alchemy spells is very cool. Their scouting ability is unmatched by all. So you may ask, why did this dude give the ranger a C-?? Cause besides the scouting, the ranger is a wimpy version of a ninja. Unlike the ranger, the ninja excels greatly at hand to hand combat, which ultimately is more powerful. The ninja hides in shadows too, and casts alchemy spells. Bows require ammunition, and when they're firing so many rounds, it's easy to use it up. It gets heavy to carry so much ammo too. The only reason they would be good, is if you're making a transition to a ninja. Otherwise I'd blow them off. Class: Bard Good races: Felpurr, Hobbit Spellbooks: Thaumaturgy Usefulness: Through mid game Grade: B- The nice thing about Wizardry 7 is that no class is permanent. And that's a very good thing when it comes to the Bard. Early on the bard is great! The Poets lute, casting sleep over and over again really pushes you through the first couple of levels. They can hide in shadows, which is also great cause eventually you'll wanna change them to someone else, and that someone else will now have it. They can also cast mage spells which is excellent on top of the instruments they get. I would go as far to say that you don't need to take a mage, just let a bard handle it! But around midgame the bard will peak on everything he can do, and he's about as poor of a fighter as the thief. Switch him over to a fighting character,and smile as your new Samurai hides in shadows, and cuts the bad guys in half while singing a jaunty tune! Class: Psionic Good races: Mook Spellbooks: Theosophy Usefulness: All game....ahh who am I kidding..... Grade: F# Ok...here's the deal. Psionics have a big problem on their hands. They are a jack of all trades. They have a little healing, but not enough to be truly useful. They have some good offense, but a mage or Alchemist has much better offense. They have some good unique spells, but nothing that is so pressing. They don't have any special skills that can be transferred to another character when you switch either. In short there is absolutely no real reason to make a psionic. A monk gets the psionic spells soon enough, and...is actually good with them. Class: Valkyrie Good races: Human, Dwarf Spellbooks: Theology Usefulness: All game Grade: A- Valks are pretty cool. They don't get as many hit points or hit as hard as fighters or Lords but their experience requirements are halfway between the two of them. In the beginning of the game, you'll have a priest spell casting fighter. She's on the top tier of hitting, but not as strong as a lord. She has less experience requirements than a lord does however, and can be a great asset in the early game. By the endgame however, you'll see a difference between the two classes. Hit points and damage output most importantly. And theology isn't exactly the deadliest of spellbooks. Not a huge deal, but someth to think about. Either way, I would say they are one of the few classes that keep up their usefulness all the way through the endgame...if at the bottom of the food chain. Class: Bishop Good races: Elf Spellbooks: Theology, Thaumaturgy Usefulness: Mid to endgame Grade: C Bishops are horrible in the beginning of this game. The need to split points between theology and thaumaturgy ensures slow growth in both spellbooks. Not to mention the fact that they have the heaviest experience requirements in the game, tied with the ninja. They can cast spells from both books in the end, but with a little clever thought, you can have almost any character do that. Switching a priest or mage to a bishop in midgame does have it's uses however. Imagine a female mage, almost at the top of thaumaturgy, switching over to a bishop. Now she'll learn the higher level mage spells, as well as beginning on priest spells. Then, once you're satisfied with thaumaturgy, you can switch the bishop again to a valkyrie and finish off theology. This is where Bishops shine, as transition characters much like the ranger. Just don't start the game with one....you'll regret it. Class: Lord Good races: Rawulf, Human Spellbooks: Theology Usefulness: Mid to endgame Grade: B The Lord. A mighty warrior, a tough warrior, and a healer all wrapped into one class. While they are slightly overshadowed by the Valk early on, the lord will begin to shine later on in the game when he becomes more powerful and skilled than his female counterpart. He can use most weapons and armor. The downside of the Lord is that he doesn't progress as fast as a Fighter or Valkyrie. He has very high experience requirements, which slow down his growth which includes the acquistion of powerful priest spells. Also, while priest spells may be good for healing, the lord has almost no offensive spells, not a huge deal for him, but something to think about. You might want to create a fighter or priest first, then switch to a lord later. Class: Alchemist Good races: Elf, Faerie Spellbooks: Alchemy Usefulness: Through midgame Grade: A- If you can take only one specialized caster in the beginning, make it this guy. He has GREAT offensive and defensive spells. Alchemy is by far my favorite spellbook. It has so many great healing and damaging spells, that you have something like a mini bishop. Like the psionic he's a bit of a jack of all trades. But unlike the pionic he's got a ton of important curing spells which will be important early on. His deadly cloud spells and asphyxiation ensure many a dead enemy later on in the game. And.....he can't be silenced. Come again?? YES IT'S TRUE!!!!! Once he peaks however, like a mage he has low hit points and AC. Switch him to a ranger, or if you can, to a ninja. They also can't be silcenced and you can do other things with him. Class: Samurai Good races: Felpurr Spellbooks: Thaumaturgy Usefulness: Mid to Endgame Grade: B Samurai are great. They can slice through the enemy, get many attacks, and they have the kirijutsu ability! These dudes can even cast mage spells. Pretty good stuff. But...I wouldn't start with one. For one, they have a lot of good stuff going on for them, perhaps a little too much. You must sacrifice the awesome mage spells, or kirijutsu for a while, or raise both at the same time, which means they will grow even slower. They also have the second largest experience requirements, next to the Bishop and ninja, so they won't be overly powerful for a while. But the biggest problem for an early game Samurai, is the lack of suitable weapons and armors for them. If you're willing to wait a bit and switch a fighter, thief, mage, or bard to Samurai, he'll get a great head start, and have some decent armors and weapons. More than one Samurai can be a problem however, due to competing for said weapons and armors. Class: Monk Good races: Felpurr Spellbooks: Theosophy Usefulness: All Game Grade: A+ I know what you're thinking. You're thinking hold on a second, Monks have the same experience requirements as Samurai, have kirijutsu and a spellbook too, and you're giving them an A+ and an ALL GAME usefulness rating?? what the hell man?? Let me break down to you why they are my favorite class. First off, if you take a monk you never have any need for a psionic. Theosophy increases by itself with a monk, which helps you along while you're trying to get it to 100. Second, a monk cannot wear most armors in this game, so there's no need for him to find any, or compete with other monks for armors. Third, they can hide in shadows allowing them to raise their AC and do double damage. The rule of slow progress that affected the Samurai does not apply to the monk, because they are deadly efficient with their fists right from the start. Kirijutsu can wait a little bit with them, while they work on their spells. Or you can ignore theospohy completely and raise kirijutsu instead! There really aren't very many critical psionic spells, which can help you sleep better at night. All in all they are efficient right from the start. Their low HP doesn't make them great tanks like a fighter, but hiding in shadows helps offset that anyway. Class: Ninja Good races: Felpurr, Dracon, FAERIE!!!! Spellbooks: Alchemy Usefulness: Mid to Endgame Grade: A- Ninjas are the ultimate badass. Able to use many weapons with deadly precision, the ninja will eventually be your biggest killer. Kirijutsu, Ninjutsu, Alchemy, and the greatest weapon in the game if you've chosen a faerie as your race. They don't need any armors throughout the game, as they start with their best. They can't be silenced when they cast heal wounds, or asphyxiation. They will crush the enemies beneath their tabi boots!! BWAHAHAHA......um...oh yeah and a few other things that bring you back to earth. First of all the ninja has the highest experience requirement, tied with the bishop. this means they are gonna take a LONG time to develop. Second, having Alchemy and kirijutsu sort of creates a problem. Both are incredible skills to crank up, especially on a dude that gets lots of attacks. But with the ninjas high experience requirements it takes an eternity to get them both up there. You may have to sacrifice one for the other depending on how high you intend to level up your characters. By the end of the first time I beat W7, my characters were only level 30. If you spread the points out too much, you may find yourself with kind of a subpar character. One route to take is to create an alchemist with the intention of switching to Ninja later on. He'll have a great boost to Alchemy, and then you won't have to worry about ignoring kirijutsu. I think all character classes in this game (with the possible exception of the psionic) have their uses. But ultimately at the end of the game the only classes you want your characters to be in are the elite classes. (Lord, Samurai, Monk, Ninja) Valkyries are also just at the bottom of being acceptable. Why? Lets break this down: Rule A: Always have your characters increasing their spell points Not a big deal considering all characters with the exception of the Fighter and thief can cast spells. Rule B: Always have your characters be versatile There are MANY situations in this game where you will need more than one character with the important spells like armorplate, enchanted blade, heal wounds, etc. Having all elites ensures a plethora (what iz a plethora??) of spellpoints. Rule C: IN THE END THERE SHOULD BE NO SPECIALIZED CASTERS! I can't stress this enough. Even having a bishop in your party at the end is a waste of space. When they have no spells to cast, you basically have a wasted slot where another lord or valk could fit in. You can beat the game with one, but why?? While of course any of these rules can be broken, this guide is here to make your life easier. But if you're a masochist, hey who am I to judge. Take your solo party thief and try and beat the game. See if I care. II. Skills To me these are the reason you want to switch classes so often. You can create these super powerful classes with all sorts of different skills for each character. The character customization system in W7 is probably the best I've seen in any RPG. I'm gonna run through only certain ones here, that are VERY important or give you ideas on class switching: Skill: Swimming Type: Physical Classes: All Usefulness: Essential You need to swim in this game. It's so easy to rank this skill up but in the beginning you must put at least ten points in here, otherwise your characters WILL drown. After ten it's just better to have them swim for practice. Skill: Skulduggery Type: Physical Classes: Thief, Bard, Ranger, Ninja Usefulness: Essential Another essential skill. In the beginning it's difficult to crank this up due to the need to put points into swimming. This is why I recommend taking a thief early on, because a thiefs skulduggery goes up by itself, and he starts with points in it. Skill: Ninjutsu Type: Physical Classes: Thief, Bard, Ranger, Monk, Ninja Usefulness: Nice to have The ninjutsu skill allows your characters to hide in shadows and do double damage to the enemy. If all of them are hidden, spellcasters can't even mass target your party. If even one character is visible the spells like fireball and magic missile will work. In short, if you're not going to get all your characters ninjutsu, don't bother switching classes just to get the skill. Skill: Scouting Type: Physical Classes: All Usefulness: Depends If you know you're gonna cheat then don't bother, your guide will tell you everything you need to know. If you wanna get through without cheating, then definitely pump this skill up. It'll help you find that piece of puzzle you're missing. Skill: Artifacts Type: Academia Classes: All Usefulness: Really nice to have This helps you identify all those ? items that you get. It doesn't do much more than that, but to me that's enough. In the beginning you can put some points into the skill, but once you start getting unidentified wands with charges on them use those and save your points for spellbooks and Kirijutsu. Through their use, the artifacts skill goes up by itself. Skill: Mapping Type: Academia Classes: All Usefulness: Really nice to have Well, here's the thing. You CAN get through the game without putting a single point into this skill, but it just makes life so much easier. Put at least 30 points in here. After that you can decide if you want to go for 70. At 70 mapping skill is maxed out. Skill: The spellbooks Type: Academia Classes: Alchemy: Alchemist, Ranger, Ninja Thaumaturgy: Mage, Samurai, Bishop, Bard Theology: Priest, Valkyrie, Bishop, Lord Theosophy: Psionic, Monk Usefulness: Collect em all! Try to have all the spellbooks covered in this game. It's very easy to do and your party will be that much more powerful for it. you can have Samurai that cast priest spells, Valkyries that cast mage spells, and monks that cast psionic spells!.......wait....oh. It's not essential to have your characters play with more than one spellbook, but switching classes for these purposes assures a large choice of spells, and a HUGE pool of spell points. In short there's always great reason to switch class for new spellbooks. Just remember that unless you find a book, you can't learn any spells from the old spellbook. This is why bishops are a great transition character for Theology or thaumaturgy casters...A priest that changes to bishop can now finish out his theology spells while learning mage spells. And once they've finished with priest spells, they can change to a Samurai, have a full book of priest spells and finish learning mage spells. Skill: Kirijutsu Type: Academia Classes: Samurai, Monk, Ninja Usefulness: Oh yeah... If you don't like critical hits, you ain't an american. (Hauks Loogie and spits). This skill is great, and criticals go nuts later on in the game. You don't need to get ALL your characters with it, but it's definitely nice to have on a few of them. Just make sure they don't go crazy. K? K. Skill: Diplomacy Type: Academia Classes: Lord, Priest, Bishop Usefulness: Depends It should be noted that any character with a personality above 14 can get this skill. In WiZ gold this skill is useless. in the original version, it really depends on your style of playing. I never found it to be all that useful, and I would definitely never switch a character just to get it. III Guidlines: Making life easier for yourself. When I say make life easier for yourself, What does this mean? This means take a thief in the beginning to open chests. Those chests are hard to disarm, especially in the beginning. A Thief's skulduggery increases whether or not you put points into it. Another impressive thing about the thief is that he can hide in the shadows so any character you switch him to afterwards can also utilize this AWESOME skill. A bard can also help out A LOT in the beginning. In fact I take him instead of a mage. A bard has unlimited sleep spells right from the start and can hide in shadows, so whichever character you change him into, (Samurai perhaps??) he will be able to hide AND play music. Have every character learn ninjutsu. This is really not a requirement, but certain later enemies that are VERY tough, will be much easier if they can't see your party. Artifacts and mapping are two great skills. Part of the reason I like taking a fighter and thief in the beginning is so I can devote points to these and not feel guilty about excluding kirijutsu, or the spellbook. You have all game to build those up, and plenty of class changes to help with it, why not put some points into these? 10 points into mapping allows you to map walls. The more points the merrier, but I'd try getting at least 10-30 points into that skill. You can stop at 70. Artifacts you should try to get to 100, but you can help it along by using unidentified wands and things. Have at least one character who can cast heal wounds in the beginning. This is NOT a suggestion. Without one of these, the beginning of the game will be close to impossible. Priest, Alchemist (recommended), or psionic (not recommended). K thanks bye. Psionics can seem useful at the start but you'll quickly realize they are like a jack of all trades, and a master of none. A monk can easily take over their position. Priests are a similar matter. Priests are a master of their trade, and a jack of none (see what I did there??) The problem is that once theY're done healing, there's really not much else they can do. A Lord or Valk fits in much better. This being said, you need a monk, valkyrie, or Lord in your party right from the start. The reason being is the great spell known as Silence. A level 7 silence will make a few certain fights in Munkharama MUCH easier. A Fighter, Valk, or Lord up in front helps a lot in the beginning. They will take more damage than other characters, and dish out a good amount as well. Keep in mind while Valkyries take less experience, Lords deal more damage and get more hit points.... IV Party Strategies. A good wizardry party is a mix of skills, spells, and rock and roll. Well maybe not so much rock and roll. They work together as a team, complimenting each other. A party of six fighters, will not last in this game. What is most important however, is your personal preference. Have fun with the game, don't get hung up on the "rules" and whatnot. In honor of this, what I'm doing in this section, is breaking down my current wizardry party, and showing you why I did what I did, rather then telling you how to do it. Character 1: Female Rawulf Fighter/Ranger/Ninja/Lord This is a perfect example of one of my cardinal rules. Always keep in mind what you want to do with your character and plan it out. For example you may want to make a gnome mage, turn him into a bard, and then a samurai! But keep in mind his speed will drop dramatically when you change him from a mage to a bard, and it will take that much longer for him to establish the minimum stat requirements for a Samurai. You may instead want to take a felpurr for his great speed. Anyway I digress, back to my character. You may wonder why I take a fierce warrior, and make her a ranger first. Well I set this character up with the ability to scout, and rangers get great bonuses to that. She'll learn mapping skill while a fighter too. Most importantly, she'll learn ninjutsu. So by the time this character is done, she'll be a Lord that can hide in shadows and cast alchemy spells. Not too shabby! She'll get kirijutsu as well, but I say focus on alchemy and theology first. The reason being is that we allready have 4 other characters who have kirijutsu, and the lord allready hits hard. Kirijutsu is just not necessary here. Character 2: Felpurr Monk Nothing too crazy here. I love martial artists, and Monks get the silence spell pretty early on, along with heal wounds and others. I put points into theosophy first and then into kirijutsu. The reason being is that I have no other psionic. And anyway, You'll be with these characters for a while, plenty of time to raise the kirijutsu. Also, they start with ninjutsu. Chracter 3 Dracon Ninja Again nothing too crazy. I choose a ninja, because by the end of the game they are truly the best fighters and they start with ninjutsu. can't hurt to have a couple in the party. And since I have an alchemist already in the party, I'm gonna start him on Kirijutsu and then switch to Alchemy later. Character 4 Human Thief/Lord Interesting combo eh? you wonder why a lord and not someone like a ninja or ranger. Well since we're gonna be changing our fighter to a ranger, I figure around that time, or just a little before, we switch our thief to the lord. Now, while our new ranger is practicing alchemy and shooting bows from the back, we have a new mighty warrior up front. And since a thief starts with a sword, he can begin using the deadly swords you've been finding! We now have a large sword wielding noble maniac who can hide in shadows and openup those chests that have been a pain in your butt. Wee!! Character 5 Felpurr Bard/Samurai Like I said earlier, a bard early on in the game can help a LOT. His ability to cast mage spells after the third level will also help us out a bit later on when he can cast fireballs and magic missiles. We practice ninjutsu and music a lot in the early levels. Switching to Samurai afterwards gets us this warrior that can cast great mage spells, critical hit, hide in shadows, and play bard tunes. Also, it helps offset the lack of good armors available to Samurai in the beginning of the game. You keep the bard until you get some good weapons and such for him, and then you switch. A great character. Character 6 Faerie Alchemist/Ninja And finally, we come to your killer. I hope you have patience, cause you're gonna want to roll a big number for this guy. By the end of the game this dude is unstoppable, whether or not you try to get the best weapon in the game for him. For the first few levels just crank his alchemy up. By the time you switch him over to a ninja he should have 90-100 in it. Once that happens, you can start with the kirijutsu. An alchemist has some of the deadliest spells in the game, and by switching to ninja afterwards, you're guaranteeing him lots of spell points, and spells. A speedy ninja, with an ac bonus, the best weapon in the game, the nastiest spells in the game, and he can hide in shadows.....hmm...let me think....yes please??? The final party looks like this: 1 Rawulf Lord 2 Felpurr Monk 3 Dracon Ninja 4 Human Lord 5 Felpurr Samurai 6 Faerie Ninja V: Review and closing statement So lets go over the things this party satisfies from the rules we created above: all characters with ninjutsu: check Artifacts: Thief Mapping: Fighter Heal wounds: alchemist Silence: Monk At least one of each type of caster: Check Thief?: Yes. Bard: Yes. Scouting: Fighter/Ranger Kirijutsu: check All elite at end?: Yes In this party I have satisfied all the rules and guidelines I set for myself. I say myself, because you will set your own guidelines no matter what I say here. You may want a bishop at the end. You may not want so many characters with kirijutsu. My point here is to show you how to setup a party using your own strategies. I'd like to think I have a good idea of what really works, but you might be a masochist and hate the idea of a character having heal wounds in the beginning. Create your own guidelines and setup your party the way you want to. Basically the whole point of this FAQ is....don't rush it. This is a long game. You're gonna be with these dudes for a while. wizardry is a patient thinking mans game. Plan it out. Hope you enjoyed this! Feel free to email me with any questions at DannyAIC@aol.com