User:Kcrescenzi
I LOVE Wizardry. It's the most challenging series of RPGs I've ever played, and for some reason, the way one random encounter can result in half of your party getting stoned or killed, the remainder magic drained, and stuck in a room that--according to the maps on Snafaru's website--shouldn't even exist, with no way out, just makes the games that much more appealing. Your party members can die of old age. The Temple of Cant rips you off when you need a resurrection or a cure for stoning or paralysis, and they aren't always that effective. Considering the inherent challenge in these games, I have no idea why I'm currently running the SNES port of Wizardry V (I am farily certain that teleporter traps are much, much more dangerous than in the PC version, given that twice recently they've stuck me in rooms that shouldn't exist, and have no exits--thank you Loktofeit and Malor!) with a certain self imposed challenge. I call it the Total Party Kill Challenge, or TPKC.
Here are the rules, if anyone else is as dedicated to pulling their hair out as I am--yes, I shave my head ;)
- The first 6 human characters rolled are used, regardless of whether I get a 17 or 6 bonus (I got both).
- Level Ups are final. This has to be done, because this is the only significant advantage emulation has over the cartridge--the ability to redo things in town that are normally constantly being saved.
- No Crimson Pool or Petrified Demon abuse. I can't very well march through the game with a party full of characters with 2,500 hp at level 10 and call it a challenge. Although anyone who's played these games knows that even 5,000 hp isn't insurance against your characters catching a case of death by Badi or explosions by lightning bolt. Also, and I need to edit the poison page, poison damage scales with your hp and level (?) so abusing either of these results in poison taking off between 100 and 180 damage every few steps.
- The in-dungeon quick save can only be loaded for a TPK. No redoing the last battle because some thief stole a plot coupon (happened, and I had to retrack my steps for another Jeweled Sceptor) or level drained me (also happened, and conveintly right before I could have unlocked the door to Evil Eyes--hello more grinding).
- This isn't a rule so much as a scorecard, but I record the number of resets of the in-dungeon quick save. This number will be a score for me, and I aim for the lowest possible score.
Despite the extra rules, a horrbile time of character creation where I had to make a pre-thief out of 6 bonus points, and a slew of horrbily unlucky traps, Di spells, and failed attempts at running away, I'm currently running this party:
- Hawker Lv28 G Lord 18/18/15/16/17/17 Age 23 HP 232
- L1on Lv27 G Lord 18/17/14/15/18/17 Age 23 HP 187
- Su7u Lv28 G Samurai 18/18/15/15/18/17 Age 26 HP 204
- Weeds Lv23 G Samurai 18/18/15/16/17/17 Age 23 HP 176
- Hydro Lv23 G Samurai 18/18/15/15/14/15 Age 22 HP 146
- Werd Lv36 G Thief 17/18/15/18/18/19 Age 17 HP 273 (What!?)
Update: The S O R N is dead, my party has the little @ sign, and everyone is between level 36 and 48. I'm not sure what to do now that everything is done... I think I'll keep looking for parts of the Maze that shouldn't exist.
I'm a 26 year old account manager for Allex Jordan and Associates, finishing my MA in Philosophy at Duquesne. This wiki and Wizardry itself provides a nice diversion when work is a little too much. Also as you can see in my picture, I have a beutiful 22 month old baby girl, who when I get on all fours crawls around under her "daddy house."
I hope that we can get a few more dedicated people to expand and add their knowledge to this database. I want this site to be a help to people trying to make headway in these games, instead of just listing some information or advertising a nonexistent walkthrough.
I'm playing Sorcerer #1 now. There are none to very few guides for these games. I think they fit in the "spin off" category for Wizardy, since they're modeled on (and steal maps from) the Wizardry games. I'll get around to putting up at least my strategies for those sometime soon.
Kcrescenzi (talk) 07:24, December 9, 2012 (UTC)