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(Jandrall: Ive cut down the fat on this one. The excellent magicuser
post that Atlus is referring to is the one called Magic User Info on my
page)
AtlusSeven
As
VERY few of you might remember, a while back I did a fairly long write
up on how to effectively build up a Ninja character. I really enjoyed
doing so. I love disecting character classes in RPGs and learn how to
use them to the best of their abilities. Call me what you will (ie--a
powergamer, a munchkin, etc), but I just love doing it. ^_^ It gave me
an idea, though. Every few days or so, I might post up a *SPOTLIGHT*,
focusing on one particular character class and how to use them effectively
and exploit their strengths. Who knows? Maybe it'll help others to give
some of the over-looked classes a chance when they otherwise might not
have.
Since
i've already tackled the Ninja (probably the most difficult class to use
effectively), i've decided to deal with another difficult class--the awesome
Bishop. So let's get on with it. ^_^
BISHOP--
In
my current party, the ONLY spellcaster I have is my Bishop. And you know
what? She's just a flat- out powerhouse, easily dwarfing any other spell
caster I've ever had. She's only level 18 and already has all of her realms
well above 80, some even maxed out at 100. Also, by having only one spellcaster,
it frees up slots so I can pick more fighter-type characters (just so
you know, the rest of my party is as follows---Samurai, Fighter, Rogue-changed
to Ranger after I maxed out my pickpocket, stealth, and locks and traps,
Ranger, and Valkyrie-changed to a Fighter after I maxed out her Polearms
skill).
The
key Attributes to build up are Intelligence (I've noticed that your realms
build up faster the higher this stat is, and you get the all-important
Power Casting when you hit 100), Piety (so you get more spell points per
level), and Speed (so your Initiative is very high, and you get Snake
Speed once Speed hits 100 which increases your Initiative even further).
Generally, you want to put 3 points into Intelligence on every level up
(so you can get access to Power Casting as early as possible) and divy
the rest up between Piety and Speed. Remember, too, that there's a secret
fountain in Trynton that, if you answer it's riddle correctly, each party
member gains +5 Intelligence. Once you max out your Intelligence, simply
put 3 points each into Piety and Speed.
Like
someone mentioned in another post somewhere, the key is to building up
your spellcasters-- ESPECIALLY the Bishop--is to use a variety of spells
during combat so that you gain points in several different realms. Rather
than cast Fireball over and over during combat, mix it up a bit. For example--
cast an Insanity (mental), then a Web (earth), then a Fireball (fire),
then an Iceball (water), then a Magic Missile (divine), then a Whirlwind
(air). That way you start to build up all your realms at a fast pace all
at once. Outside combat, always cast Magic Screen and Enchanted Blade
(Divinity), Armorplate and Chameleon (earth), Light (fire), Missile Shield
(air), and Detect Secrets and X-Ray (mental). This way, you'll gain points
in all realms (except Water) outside combat by "buffing up"
your characters. Cast Charm and Mindread on ALL NPCs you come across to
build up your Mental and Psionics realms. Also, casting Heal Wounds BEFORE
you rest allows your spell caster to gain points in Divinity and Divine
realms. You can also beef up a few of your realms by casting Cure Lesser
Condition, Cure Poison, Sane Mind, etc after combat on afflicted party
members, rather than rest for a few seconds to clear them up. Keep in
mind--even after you hit 100 in a realm, you should still cast spells
outside combat in that realm since it helps to build up your Power Casting
special skill.
When
you level up, only put points into your Primaries (Wizardry, Psionics,
Divinity, and Alchemy). Your secondary realms (fire, water, divine, etc)
tend to increase much easier through use than your Primaries do, so don't
bother allocating points in them unless you really need to. The only reason
you might want to is, for example, you just learned Fireball, but your
Fire realm is way too low to successfuly cast it on at least Power Level
1. It's best to pump 3 points each into Wizardry, Psionics, and Alchemy.
Divinity will raise up much faster than the rest through use since you'll
be casting Heal Wounds QUITE often throughout the game.
Another
neat trick I found---When you level up your magic user in the early game
(when your realms stats are fairly low) **DON'T** pick a new spell just
because you think you have to. Save your spell picks for when your Realm
stats are higher and you have access to the high level spells. That way
you'll have more high level devestating spells at your disposal. Since
the majority of low-to-mid level spells (and a few high level spells,
up to level 6 IIRC) can be learned through books anyways, there's no point
in wasting your spell picks when you level up on them.
A
few reccomendations on character creation and early spell picks--
As
for race, pick either a Faerie or an Elf. Faerie's have hellacious starting
speed and Intelligence (2 of the primary attributes for an effective Bishop),
natural AC bonus, innate magic resistance, and fast magic recovery. The
tradeoff is that they have very low Piety and are severly limited in the
Armor they can use. They also become encumbered very easily (since they
have very low strength and a lower weight allowance than other classes)
which effects their Armor Class and Initiative.
Elven
Bishops, on the other hand, can use a wide variety of weapons and armor,
have equal Intelligence and Piety, decent Speed, and a little bit of innate
magic resistance. The downside is that it takes a bit longer for them
to build up their Intelligence (when compared to a Faerie Bishop) to 100
to gain access to the ever-important Power Casting special skill. In my
party, I picked an Elven Bishop for both Role- Playing reasons and the
ability to use better armor and higher Piety (higher Piety = more spell
points).
At
character creation, pump as many points into Intelligence and Piety as
you can, and the remaining on Speed.
Pick
the following 2 spells at first---Heal Wounds and Sleep. Heal Wounds will
help build up the all- important Divine and Divinity Realms, as well as....well,
keep everyone else alive. ^_^ Sleep helps disable your opponents and helps
build up the not-so-used-but-still-kickass Air realm.
Early
on, you'll find a few Books. You can find one right off the bat that teaches
you Light. ALWAYS cast Light. After every rest cast Light. Not only does
it help to see in darkened areas, but it builds up the Fire Realm which
is important, as your most effective offensive spells lay in the Fire
Realm.
Remember
not to waste a spell pick on level up unless you ABSOLUTELY NEED IT! You
can learn Energy Blast, Armorplate, Whirlwind, Chameleon, Frost, Iceball,
etc. through books found throughout the game. And if you have a Rogue
with high enough Pickpocketing, it makes it that much easier to obtain
most of them ^_-. Early on, though, you'll want to learn Web, Insanity,
Fireball, and Freeze Flesh. Once you've learned those spells, you don't
really need any other ones for quite some time. Again, save your spell
picks on level-up for when your Primary Realms are high enough to where
you can have access to learning the higher level spells.
One
final note---As with all spellcasters, you're better off learning spells
that help to disable or impare your opponents. Sleep, Web, Freeze Flesh,
Blind, Insanity, etc are 10 times more powerful and effective than Fireball
and Iceball ever will be. I mean, would you rather toss a Fireball into
a swarm of enemies, doing a paltry 10-30 damage to each? Or toss out a
Web spell, freezing the majority of the enemies in place while your fighter-types
hack them to bits without taking so much as a scratch? Or better yet,
casting Insanity and sit back and watch as the enemies beat the crap out
of each other while you're characters play a game of Poker? ^_^
Anyways,
sorry for the loooooooong post. But if you follow my advice, you'll find
Bishops to be one of the more powerful character classes in all of Wizardry
8, able to have access to every spell in the game. And as we know, there
are some mighty powerful spells to be had.
Hope
you enjoyed my post. ^_^
Gooter
Great
post and good idea about "spotlighting" a different class every
so often. I do have one question though, you neglected to mention one
of the bishop's skills, artifacts (their bonus skill). Do you feel it's
not worth it for a bishop to work on this skill since they have so many
spell realms to put their points into? What about if someone was depending
on their bishop to be the main artifacts identifier? Would throwing a
couple points into it be detrimental in the long run?
Thanks!
giroml
Artifacts
goes up insanely fast all by itself, just right click every object before
you pick it up, helps to also have the Ranger who will find more hidden
items on the ground thus enabling you to right click more items and gain
more artifacts skill.
AtlusSeven
I
KNEW I was forgeting something, Gooter. Thanks for the reminder.
In
my opinion, and pardon my french, but screw the Bishop's Artifacts skill.
That's what Identify spell is for. ^_^ Not only is Identify superior (in
that you can cast a high level Identify earlier than you can use your
Artifact skill to ID an item), but you can gain points in Mental, Psionics,
and Powercasting by using Identify.
Thanks
for the reply and the reminder. ^_^
CoarseDragon
Excellent!!!
I
also recommend casting Chameleon after every rest as this also helps to
increase your Whipping Rocks, Armorplate and Armormelt spells from the
Earth Realm (all of which I find useful).
unravel
Re:
artifacts skill.
My
plan was also to neglect this skill in favor of using the identify spell.
Imagine my surprise, after blowing some cash on resurrect scrolls, when
I discovered I couldn't use the scrolls because no one had a artifacts
skill of at least 35.
I
imagine my party out there in some god-forsaken pit, trying to raise a
dead mage.
"Can you read this?"
"No...you can't?!"
"Hell no, I bought
them because I thought you could!"
Groshnak
One
point one the race issue. For a bishop, regardless of race, INT, PIE,
DEX, and SEN all start at 55, so an elf can actually get to 100 INT faster
than a faerie can. Since the elf gets 30 bonus points to the faerie's
25, and you can only allocate 1/3 of your bonus points to any one stat,
an elf can start with a max of 65 INT to the faerie's 63 and pick up Power
Cast at level 13, while the faerie has to wait until 14. After reading
your post, I've decided to give the bishop a go as my only caster, and
I think I'll go with elf as well, even though the speed advantage of the
faerie is awfully tempting.
Taliseian
Quick
question....
I
don't have my manual with me ( on vacation, limited computer access so
no gaming ), but isn't Piety important for Divine Spells while Int is
for Wizardry spells....or am I thinking back to Wiz7 again...
Thanks
T
AtlusSeven
To
lol_newbie--Powercast is a skill you learn once you attain 100 Intelligence.
You can allocate points in it much like you would, say, Sword or Ranged
Combat. Basically, the higher the skill is, the better your magic user
is at getting through the enemy's resistances with his/her spells.
In
regards to having a Bard in your party reducing the effectiveness of your
Bishop--I don't think this is the case. Granted, like you said, you might
have less opportunity to use your Bishop's spells. This really shouldn't
hurt you in the long run, though. Your Bishop will ALWAYS be casting spells
and getting better, whereas your Bard will alternate between using instruments
and his/her weapons.
To
Unravel--In regards to neglecting your Artifacts skill. Not really a problem.
You'd be suprised how quickly your skill raises by simply IDing items
that you can, using potions, reading books, etc. There's no reason to
really allocate any points with any character in this skill. Besides,
Resurrection Powders don't require any artifact skill and are very abundant.
To
Groshnack--Thanks for pointing that out about the Elven Bishop being able
to max out his/her Intelligence faster than the Faerie Bishop. An oversight
on my part. My appologies, and thanks again. ^_^
To
Lockridge and Bootackimus--Not sure if i'll be able to get around to doing
all those classes anytime soon. Ideally, i'd like to tackle those classes
that are either generally overlooked (Bishop, Rogue) or that I notice
people are having difficulty using effectively (Ninja, Samurai, Monk).
I'll most likely do my next Spotlight on the Monk, seeing as how they
are one of my favorite classes (who doesn't like 12+ attacks per round,
each with a chance of dealing a Critical Kill, coupled with insanely high
AC? ^_^) I'll see what I can do, though, since the Fighter and Ranger
are pretty much no-brainers, and the Lord and Mage wouldn't take much
at all really to write up. Might I make a suggestion, though? Check out
FleaBittenFox's most excellent post about magic users. He basically breaks
down each and every magic user (except the Bishop) and lets you know which
schools of magic are the best to use. You can find his wonderful post
here--
http://vnboards.ign.com/message.asp?topic=19982795&replies=9
To
Taliseian--You are partially correct. Piety does affect your Divinity
spells. It also grants you more Spell Points on level up. Intelligence,
according to the in-game information in Wizardry 8 however, affects ALL
schools of magic except the Divine realm. Both stats are vital to building
up an effective Bishop.
To
Everyone--thanks a million for the kind words and encouragement. It makes
me happy to know that my post didn't fall on deaf ears like I feared it
might. Thanks again, and look forward to my Spotlight on Monks (or maybe
Samurai or Rogue) very soon. ^_^
Groshnak
I've
been following your advice and pumping 3 points per level up into Wizardy,
Alchemy, and Psionics, and so far my bishop (level 7) is doing fine in
those departments, but she's woefully lacking in Divinity. Casting Heal
Wounds raises her Alchemy or Psionics skills, not divinity. The only things
I've been able to cast to raise Divinity are Make Wounds and Bless (which
I cast EVERY fight), and I only managed to get it up to 10 by the time
I made level 7. I pumped 3 points into Div that level and 2 each on the
others. I'm also going to do that at level 8 if she hasn't gotten it over
15 by that time, just so she can learn 2nd level spells. After I have
a couple more Divinity-only spells, maybe things will start looking up.
I have to say though, even with the lack of Divinity skill, she's STILL
all the magic support I need.
greenkiwi
Two
thoughts... do you have a high piety?
Supposedly,
casting a spell counts toward the spell book that you have the highest
skill in. So if your Alchemy skill is 25 and your Divinity skill is 15,
then casting heal, will help only your Alchemy skill.
Groshnak
Yeah,
that's why it goes to either Alchemy or Psionics, not Divinity. I know
*why* it's working that way, and I'm not really complaining, just pointing
out my experience. Once I get the 2nd level spells I'll be able to do
a lot more Divinity-specific casting, so it'll start to go up faster.
Piety
is fairly high as well, (71%). I started off at 65 and have been dumping
one point per level into it, along with 2 in Spd and 3 in Int. Once I
max Int I'll put 3 each in Pie and Spd, but that won't be for another
7 levels, I think.
Hallfax
Interesting
points. Just because some of the part-time magic users have spell ability
doesn't mean that you have to use them. That part about NOT chosing a
minor spell & saving up for a later powerful spell is great!!
The
Critical hit is VERY important in battle (KOed that 400 hp monster in
the first round, etc.), and the Ninja, Samurai, Valkyrie, & Monk still
fight in general well.
Besides,
I have my Monk practice her Psionics in long range combat instead of using
missle fire!
AtlusSeven
To
Groshnak--About your problems with raising your Bishop's Divinity skill...
Once
you get to Arnika, head on over to some of the shops. You'll be able to
purchase several books that give you Divinity spells. Remember to cast
your Divinity spells LIBERALLY, since you won't be pumping many points
into it (if any at all).
Remember
not to waste your spell picks on most of the lower-level spells. You'll
find books for most of the good ones.
As
far as lower-level Divinity spells go, try to get Web as soon as you can.
I don't recall there being a book for it, so you'll have to get it at
level-up.
Anyways,
hope your having as much fun with your Bishop as I have. Mine only has
2 or 3 more realms left to max out, and her Powercasting just hit 97 earlier.
IndyPendant
*Bump*--and
adding two points of my own. I'm busily playing through a party of 4 tanks,
a bard, and a single 4-colour bishop, and it's working out fine.
First
though, forget elf; go Faerie all the way, easy. You lose only 1 point
in Int and Piety overall at start; you gain *much* faster mana regen;
and the fact that you lose the use of most weapons is completely irrelevant,
since you'll be so busy casting multiple spells each fight, you simply
won't have *time* to swing a weapon around! I don't even have her equipped
with one.
Also,
be prepared to be disappointed with her for the first 8 or so levels.
By level 7, with mine, I had less than 20 in the 'main' realms, and less
than 10 in the 'secondary'. However, by level 12, I had reached around
70 in the main ones and 60 in the secondary. You begin to catch up *fast*
around 8th level and higher. But it will be a struggle at the earlier
levels, no question.
Anyways,
play what you want, and have fun!
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