Introduction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz1Mfyzoi1w

Wizardry 8! The last of the Wizardries made by Sir-Tech, though I believe there have been a few made by Japanese companies since then. It picks up where Wizardry 7 left off, especially if you import a final save from that game, as it greatly impacts the start location of your party. You can, of course, like me, also start an original party which gives you a fourth start location right in the middle of everything.

This LP is reasonably open world, so I will accept people's input on where and when to go. There's obviously an "optimal" path, but you're free to ignore it as long as you eventually hit all of the required places. Some of them are "gated" by being horribly tough, but Wiz 8 uses a mild sort of scaling which means every area has a max and minimum level it scales to. So some areas can NEVER be harder than a certain limit, others can NEVER be easier than a certain limit. Generally, though, even on Normal, this game will do its utmost to kick your ass. I will also be accepting input for the party to make. I've obviously got my own opinions on what makes a good, strong party but... there are very few party compositions that are completely unplayable.

Getting thrown a curveball might definitely be interesting.

There are also a few options on how to complete some quests and who to align with. I will also leave that option to the audience.

Why Wizardry 8? There are... a whole seven other wizardries first!

Firstly, the older Wizardries suffer from oooooooooooooh so much jank and are very much hardcore groggy RPG's in comparison. Secondly, most of the series has already been competently LP'd by better and smarter people than me, so I don't feel like retreading their footsteps. Wizardry 8 truly reworks the formula in a lot of ways which I greatly enjoy.

What's the plot?

If you didn't watch the video above, it's relatively simple. The gods, known in this setting as the COSMIC LORDS, created four artifacts to help manage reality. The Astral Dominae: creates life. The Chaos Moliri: creates change. The Destinae Dominus: contains all knowledge. And the Cosmic Forge, a pen that turns anything written to reality, though often with a certain "monkey's paw"-esque twist to it, as discovered during Wizardry 6.

Rumour has it that whoever collects the first three, with the fourth already having been returned to its intended place, can become the new Cosmic Lords, rulers of all reality. Obviously this is a thing we want. Also angling for this glory are the Dark Savant(imagine Darth Vader but with an army of very competent cybernetic troopers at his disposal), the T'rang(weird spider-slugs) and the Umpani(military-capitalist rhinomen). A variety of locals native to Planet Dominus(and a few who aren't) also have their own agendas and may get in our way.

So you mentioned making characters. What are the options?

Characters are made of six fundamental building blocks: A name, a character image, a gender, a race, a class and a voice.

Names: Hopefully do not need explaining. They're split into a "full" name(almost never shown at any point) and a nickname/diminuitive(sometimes just the first name) that pops up whenever the game needs to tell you that they've gotten sick, killed something, levelled up, etc.

Character image: Obviously the game has a lot of pre-made character images, but I may be able to import 180x144 .tga files if someone has a funny image to use instead. The game has a minimum of one male and one female option for each race.

Gender: You've got male and female, which are mostly irrelevant to the game. They don't affect stats, but only females can be Valkyries, they limit the selection of voices(there are 18 for each gender) and there are a few female-only pieces of equipment. In addition, we will need a minimum of one(1) male character to finish the game, as one encounter requires it and I don't believe it's skippable. We may be able to get a male hireling instead, but I've honestly never tried and I'd rather not softlock myself at the 80% point through the game.

Race: Races never limit your class options. Instead, each has a starting array of stats, and if your starting class requires more than those stats, you go into stat-debt, and your first few level ups' stat boosts have to be invested in repaying that debt. This means some class/race combos are certainly more optional than others. There are also a few pieces of race-restricted gear.

Humans have no special benefits or deficits and are roughly equally good at everything.

Elves gain some bonus Mental and Air resistance as a species default and are otherwise generically elfy, being slightly more fragile and smarter than Humans. They're good as both mages and clerics.

Dwarves have natural armor and Fire resistance, and boosted strength and vitality, at the cost of every other stat. They're good at punching things.

Gnomes get bonus Mental resistances and are highly dexterous. Their bonus resistance is Earth.

Faeries are our first race that isn't just Slightly Different Human. They're great mages, because they recover mana faster than any other race, and they have built-in bonus AC which works well with their inability to wear most armor(being very small and all) and mages' inability to wear most armor. They're very fast(often acting first) and have a high Intelligence. The usual move with a Faerie is to make them a Mage or an unarmed combatant or... a Ninja. There's a very powerful weapon only available to Faerie Ninjas, and only one of them in the game. Faeries get a grab-bag of boosted resistances.

Lizardmen are the inverse of Faeries. They're huge lumbering piles of muscle and health, slow and dumb as rocks. Great for Fighters and little else. They also get a mix of boosted resistances.

Dracons are noble dragonfolk whose main special trick is having a low-powered acid breath attack that can help out in the early game.

Felpurr are catfolk whose main thing is that they're the only other race to be as fast as Faeries.

Rawful start with the highest Piety stat, making them good options for Priests and Bishops. Otherwise, they're normal.

Mook are the second stand-out weird race along Faeries. Unlike Faeries, they can wear most standard gear, but there are also a few pieces of extra big gear only they can wear or wield. They are essentially intellectual Wookies, combining good physical strength with high intelligence, though they suck at Piety and Speed.

Classes: Are even more involved than races. Most equipment has some form of class limitation on it, unless it's a quest-vital item.

Fighters are amazing users of melee and ranged weapons. In the early game they hold the line, in the mid-game they lag a bit behind mages, and then in the endgame as enemies get higher elemental resistances they come back as the main damage dealers for the party.

Lords are Fighter/Clerics capable of wielding Divine spells and being oddly specialized in dual-wielding, a mostly useless ability. Think of them as Paladins.

Valkyries are Fighter/Clerics like Lords, but polearm-specialized(and polearms can kick ass) and occasionally when they die, they instantly revive at 1HP, which can allow for some sick speedrunning tricks or sometimes just save you when you fuck up.

Rangers are specialized in ranged combat and can use Alchemy spells. Their special abilities include ranged Criticals(critical strikes are instant kills that a few classes and weapons have access to) and they also simplify the game by constantly Searching, something that usually slows you down in exchange for being able to find hidden objects. With a Ranger, you just constantly have a chance to find bonus stuff.

Samurai are Fighter/Mages that can critically hit in melee and are immune to the Fear status effect, something more useful than it sounds.

Ninjas are Fighter/Alchemists that can crit with melee and thrown weapons, and who have access to unarmed combat. Another skill that is occasionally insanely useful. Their thrown attacks also never bounce off armor, if they hit, they always do damage.

Monks are Fighter/Psionicists who cannot be blinded, can critically hit in melee and focus specifically on unarmed combat(with a sideline in thrown weapons and staves).

Rogues are wholly non-magical, but their ability to pick locks is vital if the party has no Alchemist or Mage(or hybrid of same) capable of casting Knock Knock to deal with obstinate locks. They have a limited weapon selection but can contribute effectively in combat nonetheless.

Gadgeteers are non-magical... kind of. If you find the right environmental junk, they can create items that simulate some spells at a cost of Stamina instead of Mana. They also start with an Omnigun, a ranged weapon that levels with them and eventually acquires the ability to cause most of the game's status effects and use most of the game's ammo types. At the start, though, it can just shoot rocks. They also have access to lockpicking and can create a few unique weapons for other classes, like the amazing Triple Crossbow.

Bards are like Gadgeteers except they find their instruments already made, rather than assembling them and end up with a different "spellbook" at the end. They're also more melee-focused.

Priests cast Divine spells and can banish undead. Very straightforward, also very likely to save your ass. Having no divine or psionic spellcaster to put up Soul Shield sucks. They hit things with blunt objects in combat.

The Alchemy spellbook somewhat sucks compared to the rest, in my opinion, but Alchemists(and by extension Ninjas) can cast spells while Silenced, and so can ignore that status ailment. They also passively generate free potions, can mix certain potions and specialize in throwing weapons.

Bishops are Psionic/Mage/Priest/Alchemist crossclasses that have access to all four spellbooks. Having a Bishop ROCKS in the late game but SUCKS in the early game since their spread focus means they increase their abilities much more slowly.

Masters of mind bullets, immune to all mental status effects and great at inflicting them on the enemy.

Mages get a bonus to all elemental resistances and their main skill is in blowing things the hell up.

Voices

Each gender has nine voice "types" and two selections of each. Here are some examples:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fzlq9QTv0mA

I can upload the remainder if anyone wants to hear all of them.

I'll need six characters(technically I can play with a smaller party, but hell to the no on doing that), to fill out six of our eight slots(the last two are reserved for recruitable NPC's we can encounter along the way). As mentioned, I'm not sure the game is actually beatable(without a lot of reloading) without a Priest, Psionic or hybrid class involving one of the two, since the spell Soul Shield is the only thing standing between you and a lot of late-game save-or-die shenanigans(well that and your saving throws, I guess), so requiring access to that spell is the only limitation I'll put on the final party.

The Let's Play Archive

Wizardry 8

by PurpleXVI

Introduction

Table of Contents