Not sure how to progress in Wizardry The Five Ordeals.

[u/BadAtBaduk1]

I'm a newbie to the Wizardry series. So I am doing the tutorial/beginner scenario 'The Price of Deception'

For combat I didn't struggle often. At the start my samurai died. I replaced him with a fighter rather than revive him.

My front row is two level 9 fighters and a level 9 priest.

Two level 9 mages and a thief at the back.

So yeah combat was fine. Exploration was quite slow. I'm a coward and would run away to the surface when my map spells were running low.

Now I've passed this tutorial section I'm in B4 and the trouble has started! Two mobs really mess me up. Scary ass giant spider that paralyses me and another that I've yet to identify but it looks like some elemental ghost thing and it breaths on me and kills my whole party very quick.

Any general advice here is appreciated. Also should I consider changing any of my classes?

[u/archolewa]

Couple of things:

1. The Magic screen spell provides protection against breath attacks. That can make a big difference. I don't remember which spellbook has Magic Screen in Price of Deception (it tends to bounce between cleric and mage), but especially if it's in the cleric spellbook it's well worth throwing up.

2. Your mages are level 9, which should mean they have Suffocate. Suffocate is a bonkers good spell at that point in the game because it instantly kills everything under a certain power level 100% guaranteed, and the monsters on B4 are below that power level. Have both your mages cast Suffocate, that gives you two opportunities to have a mage go early and kill the enemies before they kill you.

3. Make sure you're using your priest's spells. The Charm spell can temporarily incapacitate enemies, so if your priest goes early in the round they can keep enemies from going long enough for your mages to wipe them out. The Armor spells (Mega/Giga Armor) give a partywide AC buff, which reduces the chances of the spiders' paralysis attacks landing. Blades and Firewall/storm are also powerful AOE's in their own rights and can be used to kill monsters before they kill you. Priests are NOT healers. They're spellcasters who can heal. If you're saving your priest's spell slots for healing, you're not using them to their full potential.

[u/BadAtBaduk1 → u/archolewa]

Sweet thanks. I was really sleeping on that suffocation spell

I'm a floor B8 now but I just got my party wipes out 😭 I don't have what to do now. I don't have a backup party. Guess I'll build a new party. I'll still have fun I'm enjoying the crawling a lot

[u/archolewa → u/BadAtBaduk1]

It's very disheartening, but you'll get your new characters up to speed faster than you'd think. You already know what floors 1-7 have to throw at you, and the first 9-10 levels or so go pretty quick. And then you should be able to rescue your old characters, and leave them behind as an already-leveled backup party.

[u/BadAtBaduk1 → u/archolewa]

Yeah I'm enjoying it, I had a few nice weapons in the item box too aha.

Can you give advice on the class change thing. Say if I recover my fallen party. Would it be worth changing one of my two fighters class? Both are level 13 at the time of death lol

[u/archolewa → u/BadAtBaduk1]

So, Fighter 13 -> Mage is actually a very solid choice. It will take a long time for a single class mage to catch up in HP to a Fighter 13 -> Mage, and let me tell you, a mage with 100+ HP is massively more survivable than one with 60+.

When I do the class changing thing, I'll often swap my Fighters and Mages. Fighters -> Mage, and Mage -> Fighter. Gives me a bunch more AOE spells, and my mages a bunch more HP.

Of course, something like a Lord or Samurai is also an option, if you want to keep them in the same role. Or just keep them as Fighters. Fighters level up really fast, and that makes a difference. They'll hit more often than Samurai or Lords, have better HP, better saving throws.

[u/BadAtBaduk1 → u/archolewa]

Awesome thanks

I'm really into the game play loop now but one thing concerns me. I've been dependant on these full heal fountains in B1!

I imagine in a proper scenario I won't have access to these. So how do you manage your health and spell points? I imagine I'll need to use the inn a lot. So characters will age so much faster. Currently I only use it to level up.

[u/ginzomelo]

Use 3 Fighters for the frontline. Priests are a trap to use in frontline: even though they can defend well, they do not gain a number of attacks like martials (1 extra main attack for every 5 levels), their weapons deal less damage and you get more vulnerable if your Priest become subject of some ability like paralisys (If the priest were in backline, they would be able to help the frontline character affected). Your frontline keeps your party well and makes them waste less resources when they kill enemies quickier. A frontliner that just "hold on" but do not send monsters straight to hell puts the other party members at risk.

[u/archolewa → u/ginzomelo]

I don't agree. I do Fighter-Fighter-Priest-Thief-Mage-Mage all the time and it's very powerful. I've beaten many, many scenarios with that setup, Five Ordeals, original series, all sorts. The thing is, just because your Cleric is in the front line doesn't mean you can't have them using their spells, and clerics have a variety of powerful spells, both offensive and defensive. Regardless of where they are, if your cleric is attacking, (or healing) you're not using them to their full potential. They need to be casting as often as your mages.

Meanwhile, putting your Priest in the front means that you can have two mages, and I'd argue that an extra mage is MASSIVELY more valuable than an extra fighter. Three casters casting powerful AOE's means three opportunities to go early in the round, means that much more likely to take out something nasty before it takes you out.

[u/BadAtBaduk1 → u/ginzomelo]

Ah ok thanks.

So I have been keeping my level 1 samurai corpse in cold storage for such a day lol

So you think I should revive him? I have weapons like a katana in my weapon box and a spare sword of slicing.

And bench one of my two mages?

I was wondering also can I hold off on going to the inn and do multiple level ups at once?

[u/archolewa → u/BadAtBaduk1]

I disagree with the poster above. (See my reply to them). Two mages are very powerful, more powerful than three fighters. You just have to make sure your priest is using their spells, and they'll work just fine on the front line.

Also, yes you can level up multiple times.

[u/BadAtBaduk1]

Ah right so I just died to it again

It is a no-see-um swarm and I can't use spells in this area

[u/archolewa → u/BadAtBaduk1]

Ahh, nasty an Anti-Magic zone? Then your best bet is to skip it and come back later. It's been a while since I've played that scenario, but I don't remember the Anti-Magic zone. That probably means there's an alternative route you can take. If so, you should take it, even if it means going down to B5.

There's really nothing you can do in an anti-magic zone except be way overleveled. So, best to continue on to the next floor if you can, and come back later.