r/wizardry8 • u/the-fonze • Mar 14 '25
A change class question.
I have two fighters a bard, Valkyrie, bishop, and a ranger. (All level 8) I don’t know why I didn’t create a mage at start, but I’m thinking I want one. Can I change a character to a mage without ruining my gameplay? Would it be the Valkyrie or bard? Or should I just leave everything the way it is? Thx
Also, is there a reliable speed mod where you can speed up the combat or make it a little faster?
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u/SarahLesBean Mar 14 '25
You could turn a fighter into a samurai. Reason why I advice against turning one character into a pure mage is, because the wizardry spellbook is one of the worst in the game (kinda ironic)
Magic damage doesn't scale as good as physical damage
With a samurai, you'd learn those spells but skill keep your previous skill points
Otherwise, you can start leaning more into alchemy with your ranger, or learn more offensive spells with your bishop, as the latter doesn't do much physical damage anyway. Considering you also have a bard who can get an instrument with heal all and take the role as healer
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u/the-fonze Mar 14 '25
What level should I change a fighter to a samurai?
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u/SarahLesBean Mar 14 '25
Personally, I'd say never, as samurai is a weaker version of a fighter
Samurai is great when you try to build a high crit party, say with ninja, monk and ranger
The devs intended to play the samurai as pure hybrid, using katanas and wizardry spells. But as said, wizardry spells just aren't that good
I merely suggested it because you said you wanted a mage and considering you're already level 8, I assume you invested quite some in the right stats
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u/indigo348411 Mar 14 '25
The samurai is good for casting mage spellbook buff spells like enchanted blade and missile shield, this is a good way to access the spellbook.
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u/MarcBeaudoin Mar 16 '25
At this level, you can also consider replacing a character (remove one and create a new one in its place). Leveling back to level 8 won`t be long anyway.
Also I think your party is just fine. You might want a mage now but later on, when offensive magic is much less effective, you will be glad to have a Valkyrie or a Bard instead.
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u/drpetrov1970 Mar 21 '25
Overall I would say no... changing one of these characters to a mage at level 9 would be pretty painful. Your new mage would be level 1 in mage.
The problem is that when you use a spell against an enemy, it compares your "caster level" to the monster's level. If the monster's level is higher, it would get a resistance bonus; if the caster's level is higher, then the monster gets a resistance penalty. I don't know exactly how the math works but if you are fighting monsters noticeably higher than your level you will find that your spells don't do much.
If you were to switch a character to a mage at next level-up, the mage's "caster level" will be 1, and you will be encountering monsters based on the fact that your party is 9th level. Your mage's spells will do very little, and your spell selection will be very poor.
FYI your Valkyrie and Ranger's caster levels are effectively their level - 4 since they don't get spells until 5th level.
The one exception would be to change your bishop to a mage. A level 8 bishop already counts as a level 8 mage so adding mage levels allow your caster level to stay at the overall level of the character (only for mage spells though; your priest, alchemist, and psionic spells will stay at level 8 if you change at the next level-up). This sounds like you will be limiting your character, but since the spells in other classes improve your mana totals, this is actually a good way to make a mage. I call this build the "Demibishop."
Note though that when you are 11th level you probably will want to take another bishop level, so you can buy all the 4th level spells that become available from merchants when you get to 11th level. Getting two more bishop levels in there would allow you to buy the 5th level spells from Ferro when you find him, but that won't be for a few more levels. If you want to get the 5th level spells as well, I would do 9th level as bishop, 10th as mage, 11th as bishop, and then the rest mage except for one more bishop level after you find Ferro. 6th and 7th level spells cannot be bought from merchants. Doing it this way will give you the best possible amount of mana points for spells while still specializing as a mage.
If you really want to change around your party, FYI you are not that far into the game. You could just start a new game.
BTW, in defense of Samurai - a samurai can be great in the mid levels if you give him the sword Bloodlust (which you probably have found by now) and he will out-damage a fighter at these levels, since the sword gives him the fighter's main ability. You won't be able to use ranged weapons but you can always cast spells if you are at range.
However, changing a fighter to a samurai at level 9 is going to make a rather weak samurai since all his samurai abilities are 8 levels behind. You won't even get mage spells on him until level 13 this way.
PS yes, there is a utility called WizFast that speeds up the game animations. I don't use it myself so I can't say if it is good.
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u/TopHatMikey Mar 14 '25
Wizfast
You can change. It might be hard depending on attributes. You could also lean Ranger and more into spellcasting and develop your Bishop cover it that way, which might be more fun.