Let's Play Wizardry 6: Bane of the Cosmic Forge

Once upon a time, there lived a king who initially seemed to be wise and good and just, but then turned out to be more than a bit evil. He and his queen terrorised the kingdom and conducted various bizarre rituals in a quest for power. Eventually the king joined forces with a wizard whose ambition matched his own. As they mounted their campaign for universal domination, they learned of an artefact known as the Cosmic Forge, a magic pen that could be used to rewrite reality. Locating its resting place, the King and the Wizard succeeded in stealing the Cosmic Forge and, in the finest traditions of evil alliances everywhere, both simultaneously decided to off the other in order to secure the power of the Forge for themselves. There was a great battle, an explosion of magic, and then... nothing. At least, that is how the story would later be told.

Wizardry 6, in all of its 16 colour glory. This is probably the best-looking screen in the game.

Both the evil king and his wizard ally are gone, and so is any sign of the Forge. For one hundred and twenty years, the castle of the Bane King has lain empty, falling into ruin along with what was left of the kingdom. All until one night, when a particularly daring (or perhaps simply foolhardy) band of adventurers took an interest in looting the crumbling castle...

About Wizardry 6

Wizardry is one of the oldest CRPG franchises, and is credited as the precursor to many CRPG pedigrees such as Bard's Tale and Might & Magic, as well as Dragon Quest in Japan (though strictly speaking there are other, now more obscure titles that deserve a measure of credit—if you want to learn more, I recommend visiting the CRPG Addict). There have been eight mainstream Wizardry titles, not including the additional titles released only in Japan.

The sixth wizardry title, Bane of the Cosmic Forge, kicked off a new story distinct from that of the earlier games—a story that would continue into the seventh and eighth titles and would leap out of its standard medieval fantasy shell into a bizarre mix of fantasy and science fiction. One notable characteristic of the resulting trilogy is that you can transfer your characters between the three games—this is particularly interesting given that Wizardry 6 came out in 1990 and Wizardry 8 didn't make an appearance until 2001.

I've played and completed Wizardry 6 before, played Wizardry 7 (both Gold and DOS variants) but didn't get particularly far, and played a demo of Wizardry 8 when it first became available. I've wanted to take a party straight through the trilogy for some time now. I thought I would give it another go with a fresh party, and I thought I would take inspiration from various 'Let's Plays' of many other games by chronicling my own playthrough.

Introducing the Cast

Outside of the entrance to the castle of the infamous Bane King...

The bright red gargoyle seems a bit incongruous to be honest.

Enter stage left, the first of our 'heroes'—the dracon Wrath. Tall, dark and scaly, Wrath dresses in a simple green robe tied at the waist by a leather belt upon which hangs a rather beaten-looking cutlass.

Armed with only a sword. There are many swords like it, but this one is his.

Wrath is a dracon—a race of dragon-like humanoids notable for their haughty manner and the ability to belch acid. Once, Wrath was a samurai-in-training, learning the art of blade and spell. For reasons that will remain unstated for now, Wrath has been disgraced, his family weapons taken from him. Now he finds himself reduced to playing bodyguard to a band of madwomen and (even worse) a cat.

"We have arrived."

"We can see that! I wish you wouldn't state the obvious all the time."

Following behind Wrath is a tall, willowy she-elf dressed in simple, if slightly grubby, loose clothing and holding a plain wooden staff. Alva is a youth of lowly birth with dreams of higher station.

She's got a long stick she can poke enemies with. This makes her a valkyrie.

Alva wishes to become a valkyrie, an elite spearmaiden—but such an opportunity is not often afforded to those without the privilege of noble birth and expert training. She is determined nonetheless.

"Wow. This looks really, really... old. Don't you think Motoko?"

[Nods.]

Shaana and Motoko have been companions all their adult lives. One is cheerful and gregarious, the other is taciturn and contemplative. Shaana is the token human of the party; a bard by aspiration, and a petty thief by deed.

Believe it or not, that lute is the most effective weapon the party currently has.

Motoko is a dwarf—a foundling who grew up in a monastery, but ran away from religious orders to travel the world. It is unknown how she and Shaana met, or why they stay together.

The only character that's supposed to have little-to-no equipment.

Shaana is dressed in peasant slacks and carries a staff, much like Alva. Unlike Alva, she also has a lute hanging from her shoulder on a leather strap. Motoko is dressed more akin to Wrath, in a simple grey robe. She carries no weapon.

"It is more than just an old ruin girl. It was the abode of the infamous Bane King, and all of his stolen knowledge and treasures."

The fifth member of the group, and its ostensible sponsor, is the felpurr mage referred to by the others as Whisker (not his real name).

1 hit point. 1 hit point. I only just noticed...

The felpurr are a race of cat-people, fleet of foot and wit, if often subject to (not entirely undeserved) distrust by the other races. 'Whisker' is dressed in a blue robe and sandals, and carries a sling on his belt—staves and daggers are all very well for the traditional wizard, but if something nasty turns up, Whisker wants it dead before it gets close to his (extremely precious) person.

"Do you think that gargoyle gets lonely on its own?"

Finally we have the alchemist Konata.

Are faeries supposed to be naked in this world?

She's a faerie with a considerable deficit in her attention span, except when it comes to things that bubble and glow and hiss. Nevertheless, she is the closest the party has to a doctor. Besides, Shaana insisted that she come along.

"..."

"Probably. Shall we go inside?"

Having gathered, the party ventures forth.

This turns out to be a tad optimistic.

The first thing that happens upon the group entering the castle is that the portcullis shuts behind them, preventing anyone from leaving.

"Well, crap."

Next time: actual gameplay! Or read on for an overview of character creation in Wizardry 6.

Character Creation

To play Wizardry 6, you need a party of six characters (technically, you can go through the game with less, but why?). Each character contributes their own skills and specialties, primarily based on their class—fighter, thief, mage, and so forth. You can use the six pre-generated characters, but obviously a large part of the fun of Wizardry is creating your own party. It's also a large part of the frustration of playing Wizardry. Or not playing, as the case may be.

So, character creation. Basically, when you start creating a new character, you name your character (you can also rename them later if you like), select your race, then select your sex. There are a number of races available:

Human	Just as you'd expect, an ordinary human.
Elf	The archetypal elf; smart and quick, but also fragile.
Dwarf	Dwarfs. Tough and strong, studious, but not terribly quick on their feet.
Gnome	Gnomes are pious, tough and dexterous, but not personable or fast.
Hobbit	Charming and agile, but not too studious or strong.
Faerie	A tiny fey. Intelligent, personable and very agile, but physically weak.
Lizardman	Strong, tough, fast and dumb.
Dracon	A dragon-like humanoid. Physically imposing, a little dim.
Felpurr	Cat-people. Smart and fast, but not too pious or strong.
Rawulf	Canines. Tough, pious and personable, but also a bit dim.
Mook	Suspiciously like wookiees from Star Wars. Strong, smart and slow.

There is a difference between males and females. Females get -2 Strength, but +1 Personality and Karma, which... doesn't really make up for the Strength loss unfortunately. On the other hand, females get access to an additional class (valkyrie) and there are more female-only items in the game (some quite powerful) than there are male-only.

Having selected race and sex, Wizardry gives you a starting profile of attributes and hands you a random number of bonus points between about 5 and 26.

This is what the first two hours of gameplay look like.

You then select a class, which forces you to immediately spend a number of bonus points simply to meet the minimum stat requirements for that class; if you don't have enough points, then you simply don't get to choose the class. Requirements can go from 0 points (male lizardman fighter—those lizards are just natural warriors) to 24 points (female lizardwoman lord—not happening unless you're incredibly lucky). In practice, bonus rolls above 12 or thereabouts are uncommon. Values above 18 are extremely unlikely. And you can't re-roll without completing the character you're on and then either saving it or discarding it. So in practice, given that you want competent characters, generating a party in Wizardry can take forever. My party was generated using rolls of between 16 and 18, with the exception of Alva, who was generated with an amazing 21 points that, as I will explain later, I basically threw away. The classes:

Fighter	A simple warrior, able to use almost any arms and armour.
Mage	Your basic spellcaster, able to use a wide range of offensive and utilitarian sorcery.
Priest	Your basic healer, able to use a range of curative and defensive magics.
Thief	The experts in pickpocketing and lockpicking, as well as sneak attacks (and not much else).
Alchemist	A spellcaster who relies on potions and bombs for their 'magic'. Has a nice spread of offensive and curative abilities.
Ranger	Natural archers with Thief-like abilities and the ability to later learn alchemy.
Bard	Thieves with the ability to use music to frustrate enemies. Can also eventually learn Mage magic.
Psionic	A spellcaster who specialises in mental effects such as illusions and mind-reading.
Valkyrie	A female fighter who can use divine magic like a Priest. Basically a cut-price Lord with faster leveling.
Bishop	A fusion of Mage and Priest, capable of using magic from both disciplines.
Lord	A paladin-like fighter with Priest magic.
Samurai	A eastern-themed fighter with specialised equipment, access to Mage magics and the ability to kill with a single strike.
Monk	Fighters that can kill with their hands and feet. Can perform sneak attacks and eventually learn Psionic magic.
Ninja	Specialised fighters that can also learn Thief abilities, perform killer sneak attacks, and (eventually) learn Alchemist magic.

The number of bonus points required to get into each class varies by race and sex, but essentially gets higher the further down the above list you go. You can knock out fighters easily enough during character creation, but creating a ninja is time-consuming. The more 'advanced' classes tend to fuse more abilities together, but those abilities increase more slowly, and in play tend to be weaker earlier in the game and force you to spread your attributes and skills more thinly. You can change the class of characters mid-game as well; in fact an established play-style in Wizardry is to start with most of your party in 'simple' classes like fighter or thief, and then promote them into classes like samurai and ninja—in this respect, the advanced classes can be thought of as being a little like prestige classes in third edition Dungeons & Dragons. I will be doing some limited class-changing, but I won't go too crazy—not immediately, anyway.

After selecting class and spending any remaining bonus points, you then get to randomly roll Karma—a rather mysterious attribute, the effect of which is subtle enough that you shouldn't worry too much about spoiling a high bonus roll with a low Karma roll. You also get to choose a portrait from the finest gallery 1990 has to offer (all the portraits are pretty bad truth be told, but then this game isn't exactly a looker anyway, nor was it even in 1990). You then spend a random allocation of skill points across a number of weapon, physical and academic skills based on class—you may even get some points for free based on your class.

As a bard, Shaana can play musical instruments and nick stuff.

Weaponry skills basically cover the usual range of medieval death-dealers: swords, polearms, axes, bows, the gripping hands of a rabid lunatic, etc. Physical skills are more varied, and include:

Scouting	The ability to spot interesting things in the environment, alerting the player to points of interest.
Oratory	The ability to speak clearly under stress. Important for successfully using magic in battle, unless you are an alchemy user who brews your spells rather than intoning them.
Ninjutsu	Stealth and the ability to execute sneak attacks while hidden. Only thieves and other rogues get this.
Legerdemain	The ability to pick people's pockets. Another rogue skill.
Skulduggery	The ability to pick locks and disarm traps. A very important rogue skill.
Music	The ability to play musical instruments—specifically magical ones. bard only.

Academic skills also come in all shapes. For example:

Mythology	The ability to identify enemies more precisely; there are multiple variants of each general class of enemy (bats, rats, rogues, etc.), and knowing whether or not you're fighting one of the nasty variants can be rather helpful.
Artifacts	The ability to use magic items in battle. Using an artifact and having it blow up in your own face is not fun.
Scribe	The ability to use magic scrolls in battle. Scrolls contain uses of spells, and like artifacts, when you use a scroll, you really want it to work. On the designated target.
Thaumaturgy	Knowledge of the magics used by mages in particular. If you don't have enough of the relevant magic skill when you level up, you may find you cannot learn any good spells.
Theology	Knowledge of priestly magic.
Alchemy	Knowledge of alchemical magic.
Theosophy	Knowledge of psionic magic.
Kirijutsu	The ability to perform critical strikes that immediately kill the target. Only samurai, monks and ninja get this.

Finally, you get to choose two spells if in a class that starts with them.

Energy Blast, the novice mage's fiery friend.

There are six 'spell pools': fire, water, air, earth, mind and magic (non-elemental, I suppose). Each character has a number of spell points in each pool, that regenerate over time at a rate determined by their class. Each spell in the game belongs to a specific pool. When a character learns a new spell, the number of spell points they have in the corresponding pool increases; spell points also go up every time the character goes up a level for all pools that they have already invested a spell in. The four main 'pure' spellcasting classes are mage, priest, alchemist and psionic; each has their own set spell list, with a fair amount of overlap between lists, and their own associated academic skill (thaumaturgy, theology, alchemy and theosophy respectively). Classes like valkyrie and monk get access to these skills as well, but don't actually start accumulating spells until they have advanced a few character levels within the game.

Once you've finished the character, you must decide whether to keep or discard the character. Once you've made six characters, you can start the game!

On another note...

I actually did a bit of sleight of hand with the composition of my party here. I built Wrath as a thief and Alva as a ninja (well, I did roll a 21 for her bonus points). I then immediately changed their classes to samurai and valkyrie once the game started. Why? So that Wrath and Alva both have the ninjutsu (stealth) and kirijutsu (critical strike) skills from the start of the game. So what's the catch? Well, when you change a character's class, their characteristics immediately reset to the minimum required for a character of their race and sex to qualify for the new class (which also means you have to qualify in the first place). This has little impact on Wrath (a male dracon samurai costs 16 points, he was built using an 18 point bonus), but I'd rolled 21 bonus points for Alva and to qualify for an Elf valkyrie requires ony 12 points. Ouch. The attributes of characters do improve as they advance (albeit randomly), but only time will tell if Alva will recover from my meddling for the sake of a bit of extra sneak attack. At least it inspired a little extra characterisation for the two characters, explaining Wrath's lack of a samurai's daito for example, and making Alva's assertion that she is a spearmaiden rather more aspirational than factual.

Another consequences of the class change is that Wrath and Alva start with the skills, health and equipment of their original classes (Alva's ninja gear has been stashed away to not be seen again for quite some time), which will slightly slow the development of their 'real' skills.

I also took the liberty of rearranging the starting equipment of all six characters to better suit my purposes and planned narrative (for example, Whisker has Shaana's sling while Alva has Whisker's staff in lieu of a proper spear).