Human
Specialty - being unspecial
"Jack of all trades, master of none" certainly fits this iteration of humanity. Bog average stats and resistances. While they won't have significant trouble getting into any one class, they don't have any that are particularly easy either. Rangers are the only class that doesn't require at least a 12 in any one stat to choose them.

Elf
Specialty - magic swapping
Elves have it just as easy whether they want to be a Mage or Priest or both. They're by far the easiest Bishops to set up. If you do want to go the dual route, try setting one up with 15/15 Int and Piety from the start as either a Priest or Mage, swap through Bishop when leveling slows down, then into the opposite of what you started as it slows again. Any other smarts happy classes are a good fit for elves.

Dwarf
Specialty - front line infantry
These short pink bearded Lizardmen make for good Lords and Valkyries, and don't struggle at pretty much anything involving hitting things in the face. They also have a decently easy time getting a job as a Psionic and handle themselves fairly well in the role. If you want to become a Psionic later down the career path, try sticking to classes that have a decent Int requirement built in.

Gnome
Specialty - nose in a book
Shorter, pinker, and even more holier-than-thou, Gnomes have an easy path to the more pious professions. The high piety makes them strong when swapping between the Int based casters as well, as there is less fall-off in such an important stat, and they can more likely get back up to 15/15 for Bishop faster. They're no slouch in basic combat stats for Strength and Vitality either, but you may end up bemoaning the low starting Speed at some point.

Hobbit
Specialty - friendly little jerks
Great Personality, but besides Bard and Lord it's usually not a highly sought stat. They can actually be quite good at swapping between Ninja and Lord. Decent base Dex gets you more attacks faster in any of the combat roles. Would have been more interesting if they had one more point in Dex to be the unique for that too, as is they share top Dex with several races.

Faerie
Specialty - tiny bundles of hurt
I may need to write a whole section on Faeries. Do be wary of swapping into a profession that doesn't care about Strength, Vitality, or Piety as any of them will take awhile to come back. You can definitely go the caster route, just be wary as you'll already start with low health and carrying capacity. Try to hit 8 Vitality along with your main stats to lessen the impact and reduce the likelihood of getting swatted like a fly early.

Funny enough, their natural base speed makes them one of the strongest melee fighters available, if you have enough points to spend. Speed and Dex contribute to more attacks per round, and more swings per attack respectively. One more hit per round, with one less base damage per hit because your strength isn't extra high, is almost always a valuable tradeoff. Unfortunately they still don't make strong fighters in many of the melee classes because of their equipment limitations. Set them up in a class with already similar limitations though, like Monk or Ninja, and they can end up wrecking face and getting all the benefit from being a tiny, unhittable dynamo.

*special note on Faerie equipment*
No matter what class you take, Faeries will always start with the same Faerie gear. This can significantly weaken several classes that otherwise start with strong gear for your starting Faerie role. Take a Faerie Bard to start and you won't get the super powerful Lute, for instance. If you definitely want the gear, even if someone else will be using it, maybe try having your Faerie start in a profession that naturally gets relatively weak gear (monk or robed caster), with their starting points spent to let them swap to the main profession you want easily. Have another character do the same, ready to swap out of that profession into their main role (preferrably one that can use the Suede or Quilt pants you should be finding early into your adventure), and you'll have your Faerie Ninja decked in a nice, relatively new suit of Ninja gear.

Lizardman
Specialty - rewarding to play a smart one
Probably one of the three most unique races to play available, along with Dracon and Faerie. The Lizardman is clearly built to be a front line meat stick. Your natural Strength lets you always be able to swap into Fighter, as long as you never care about swapping back to anything that cares about smarts and personality ever again. Maybe good to start as that frontliner Fighter class and swap out, as you can then spend every bonus point at creation freely to set up an easy swap. Just make sure you've fixed the Fighter Slaying Bug first.

Dracon
Specialty - it may be rude to spit, but it's effective
So the Dracon, besides just getting points for being part dragon, also gets a unique breath attack. The attack is acid-based and can hit a whole single group of enemies. At first it may only hit one, but it improves as your character does. It uses a significant amount of stamina to perform as well, so generally good to soften the enemies up or when you've got nothing better to do. Out of spell points, in the back lines, carrying a short dagger that you could barely stab the guy in front of you's back with? Well now you can do something with your stamina instead of twiddle your thumbs. Generally Dracons are well suited to this sort of back line duty. Paired with a class that can sneak is potentially even better, as now you've got the option to hold a strong short range weapon and still contribute to damage even when not sneaky at the moment. Like magic, the breath attack won't break you out of stealth. Only major downside is limited Int and Piety for caster classes.

Rawulf
Specialty - lord of the pack
Almost as pious as a Gnome, and slightly more hairy. Rawulf's have a nice easy path to becoming a Lord, but do well in just about every caster or hybrid profession given the proper training. With only Int as a low base stat, swapping class is fairly straightforward as well.

Felpurr
Specialty - faerie that can actually wear normal armor
Like a Faerie, a Felpurr specializes in things that aren't hitting things and taking massive hits in return. They make for a strong version of all the more nimble hybrids, Samurai, Valkyrie, Monk, etc. Try to set your Vitality to 8+ when you can manage it.

Mook
Specialty - if Chewbacca were a psychic
Almost certainly the easiest path to being a Psionic available in the game. Mook end up being good in a number of roles. Smarter but less pious than Dwarfs, just don't expect your walking carpet to be super fleet of foot.

Female characters receive -2 Str, +1 Per, +1 Kar. Not the best tradeoff usually, but you get to be a woman which is awesome. Perks include unlocking the Valkyrie class and a (very) few female only pieces of gear.

Fighter
Specialty - front line infantry

Ease - Fighters are about the easiest class to roll as, if you aren't a female Faerie. They are also dead simple to know what to pump. You can probably leave Vitality moderately low, 10-14 range, as the class already gives strong health and good armor options to keep healthy. From there it's Strength, Dexterity, and Speed to hit things harder and more often.

Role - If all you do is hit things in the face, you are going to get pretty good at it. Without much hassle, they can start learning a few useful skills for your party since they don't have much else to do, and make good Scouts and Mappers. Their simplicity is a double edged sword though. When you've topped off what a Fighter can really be for your group, the hybrid specialty classes can still have room to grow. They don't really lose much in that exchange, either.

Equip - Fighters start with good equipment for their role of taking punches in front of your party. They can use pretty much every heavy armor or weapon available in the game. Fighters end up being quite strong at single target damage dealing. Outfitting more than two with the best available gear can become a challenge at some points.

Special Note - Due to a coding error, fighters take double damage from any attack in the game that doesn't specifically do double damage to some other class. Essentially the default of "do nothing special" was set to the code for "hit fighters extra hard". This can be fixed using the Cosmic Forge editor available online.


Mage
Specialty - a tool for everything besides smashing face and healing

Ease - The Fighter of magical combat. Mages are easy to roll and pretty much just benefit from Intelligence, Piety, Speed, and just enough Vitality to not get swatted level 1.

Role - Unlike Fighters, Mages also get spells that give them major utility outside of combat. Once you get the appropriate spells, they can Knock through almost anything a Thief would have done for your party regarding Chests and Doors, they can Identify the items in your inventory, Detect Secrets even your scout would miss, and much more. Their only major limitation is weakness in hand to hand combat, both dealing and receiving blows, and not being able to heal up the party. Their combat focus is also definitely more on the Group side as opposed to single target, lacking in multiple swings/attacks per round on a single target in melee.

Equip - Mages start with basically nothing and can make use of just about as much for gear. At least you won't be worried shopping for the latest armor.


Priest
Specialty - healing first, then other things

Ease - The healer of the simple classes. Easy to roll and know what to do with them, overall.

Role - Focus on getting enough spell points into Divine so you can heal up your buddies. Then you can move into group attack spells and utility from Mental and such. Your spellbook isn't quite the toolbox of a Mage but you really don't need it to be.

Equip - While you start with the same robes as the other casters, Priest can actually equip some slightly heavier armor options. Starting with a Quarterstaff also allows attacking from the 4th and 5th party slots from the start instead of sitting around with no spell points after the first two rounds of combat. They are well suited to the middle line role as a result.


Thief
Specialty - hide, backstab, steal, good friend, terrible enemy

Ease - Easy to roll a character for, like the other three base classes. Unfortunately the only thing they really excel at is outside of combat. You don't really need to emphasize their out of combat stats for them to excel at that though, so they can be almost as burly as a Fighter, just with worse equipment and base health.

Role - Just stay alive and contribute how you can in combat. You're really just there for the locked chests and doors to be found all over the place.

Equip - Fighting on the front line in cloth armor early on is a tough task. You do get some other equipment options soonish, but even late there are just fewer options for contributing directly to a fight. On the plus side hiding with a melee weapon will let you attack from any rank.


Ranger
Specialty - you would think hitting things from range

Ease - Just try and figure what you want most out of yours and build accordingly.

Role - A Fighter/Thief/Alchemist hybrid, without the thieving skills. Makes for a decent second front liner depending who else you have. Ranged combat actually lags a bit behind in usefulness in Wizardry, but if you want a sixth row with fighting skills in an all combat party, Rangers can be a solid fit. Access to Alchemy means they can also be a spare healer and general caster.

Equip - You wouldn't think, but Ranger is just a step behind the Fighter/Lord/Valkyrie on what heavy armor and weapons they can equip, near on par with Samurai without the specialty kit. Just need to find a good sword to start with. Ranged combat is somewhat limited by ammo, but if you want to go that route, Rangers are a natural.


Alchemist
Specialty - very slightly more healy Mage alternative

Ease - A Mage with one healing spell and slightly less utility. Sometimes Alchemy spell selection is more easily resisted by monsters. Bonus of not having to worry about being Silenced or needing Oratory.

Role - If your only early healer start with Heal Wounds. Sadly there is no other Divine spell to take to improve your spell points for that crucial use so good to have a secondary healer soon.

Equip - Just about as limited as mage. Get used to your robes. That early Cherry Bomb can be handy though.


Bard
Specialty - utility gold

Ease - Fairly easy to roll. The music skill, and especially the starting Lute, can be ridiculously useful or not at all useful, leaning towards ridiculous early on. Spending points can thin you out pretty hard as there's so much to invest into that is useful. Could even be your party Diplomat. Fortunately Music skill does seem to raise with practice.

Role - A unique ability to endlessly cast spells with just a touch of Stamina. On top of that you get access to everything a thief can do for you skill wise. Then there's access to all the Mage spell book. Early on, just focus on keeping stuff locked down in combat, and move on from there.

Equip - The Lute alone can carry almost any party through the first few levels where some other classes have growing pains. Unfortunately you are otherwise basically limited to the same kit as a Thief making front line combat a bit of an ask. You don't actually need to equip the instrument to use it, so changing out of the class is an option after picking up a few points of music skill. Will just make acquiring instruments later a bit harder as you can't buy stuff from NPC's that your character's class can't use. Maybe try some Legerdemain to get around that.


Psionic
Specialty - thinking too much

Ease - Hardest base caster to roll, and mostly somewhat limited to Mental spells hurts for resistances. Depending on the enemy you may be either relatively strong or weak. Diverse enough for utility and second easiest spell book to make use of for Heal Wounds though. Intelligence, Piety, and Speed are key as usual.

Role - Well, sling spells when spells need slung. Starting with decent Vitality does make Psionic slightly easier to put as your third character if you have a thin front line, but not ideal.

Equip - Of the four basic casters only Priest gets much for armor. Starting with a unique accessory is a bonus though.

Valkyrie
Specialty - girl power

Ease - Much easier to get into than a Lord, as long as your character is a woman, letting you spread bonus points more easily. Takes less experience to level as well. Combat stats are key to acting on the front line, but a Valkyrie can sit at the 4th and 5th spots in a heavy fighting group and act as a good healer with a solid spear.

Role - Like the Fighter and Lord the Valkyrie excels on the front line. Like the Lord the Valkyrie gets access to the Priest spells and makes a great second healer. Very versatile character to have in a party.

Equip - Starting with a spear really helps going with a heavy fighting party, letting the 4th or 5th spot contribute in combat early, otherwise lags a bit behind Fighter and Lord for starting kit. All three can basically wear all the same heavy gear late. May be only enough gear around for two relatively fully kitted, but a third can be managed.


Bishop
Specialty - dabbling in a bit of everything magic

Ease - Well, you have to learn spells from two different spell books, one spell per level, all while getting levels more slowly than either Priest or Mage. You don't get to choose which class your spell comes from this next level, it swaps between the two. Try to hit the spell skill break points for learning the next tier spells before that class comes up again. Then there's the minimum stat requirements which can be a hassle.

Role - A Bishop is basically like any of the four baseline casters, with all the utility of having the two most useful lines of spells in one character. You can absolutely make a Bishop your only pure caster, never change class, and still end up with a very strong party member out of it. Frankly though, there isn't much value in that utility over the base casters. Since the benefit doesn't quite offset the cost in experience and hassle of juggling two spell books, Bishop often ends up as a conduit between a Priest and Mage class change. You get to continue to learn spells from your higher spellbook class every other level, only drop down to 15 Int/15 Pie/8 Per instead of the Priest/Mage minimums for your race, and if you plan to pop into one of the specialized sides again the temporary higher experience requirements won't really matter much.

Equip - Trade a Priest's starting healing potions for a modest helm only Priest or Bishop can wear. They get the same modest gear limits as Priest throughout the game, only slightly better than Mage/Alchemist/Psionic.


Lord
Specialty - more friendly, less feminine Valkyrie

Ease - One of the harder classes to roll, Lord is actually fairly easy to handle once you get going. Your Diplomacy skill raises naturally with level as a Lord, so not necessarily an extra place desperately needing investment competing with your spells. Just set up for front line fighting and learn Priest spells as you go.

Role - The third of the main tanks of the game. Just as well suited to the role as either Valkyrie or Fighter. It's nice to have a natural diplomat on the squad, but not all that useful if playing Gold with it's diplomacy system gutted.

Equip - Only slightly stronger starting gear than a Valkyrie, and just about even with a Fighter for front line protection. Your starting Broadsword could be a staple for a fair while. All three get the same heavy gear by the end.


Samurai
Specialty - the alternative frontliner

Ease - Not exactly easy to roll, not exactly easy to gear, not exactly easy to skill up everything, Samurai is all about the payoff for the effort. Even if you focus Kirijutsu over Thaumaturgy for Academia skills, make sure you get enough Thaumaturgy to keep learning new tiers of Mage spells before you run out of new ones to learn. Speed and Dexterity for more attacks pays off well.

Role - Eventually one of the most damaging front line classes, and can do a decent tank impression with good gear. Access to Kirijutsu critical strikes and the Mage spells are a significant plus. Unfortunately Samurai can get off to a bit of a slow start. Keep an eye out for unique gear from NPC's and chests.

Equip - Starting with dual wielding helps for your damage, but the initial robes can be a hindrance early. Samurai are about as easy to equip for the front line as a Ranger but with several pieces of kit that is unique to their class or shared with Monk and/or Ninja. Probably don't have two for the sake of gearing them both.


Monk
Specialty - not really caring about a limited equipment pool

Ease - Not spectacularly strong early on, like Samurai and Ninja the later payoff is strong. May want to pump your Vitality at least a bit early, besides getting Dexterity and Speed for more attacks. Plenty of skills to invest in. At least you won't have to worry much about gear.

Role - Pretty much the only thing Monks don't do naturally is thieving skills. They are the only other source for Psionic spells besides the base class. They can slot in as a front liner, a hide and ambush back line fighter, and a good supporting caster.

Equip - The starting Bo lets them help in early combat from a 4th or 5th spot position in heavy combat groups. Otherwise sticking to Hands & Feet is very viable for the majority of the game. Hiding offsets the weak starting robes early, lets them fight close range from anywhere in the party, and eventually provides most of the Monk's armor rating through a bonus from Ninjutsu skill only they and Ninja receive. Just beware that the bonus is lost due to many negative status effects. Monks are basically limited to the same armor choices as Mages, Alchemists, and Psionics so the Ninjutsu bonus armor is important to being on the front line.


Ninja
Specialty - everything

Ease - The pinnacle of slow to start, Ninja take the most experience per level. They don't even learn their first Alchemy spell until level 5. Meanwhile you have access to pretty much every skill you could want besides the Bard's Music, so you can be pulled in just about any direction. Spending your bonus points is mostly personal choice after the Ninja base distribution spreads your stats pretty evenly across the board. High Dexterity, Speed, and Strength are fairly common for the master assassins.

Role - You can basically do it all. Fight from the front line, the back line, cast group shattering Alchemy spells, then hide and rest mid fight and let your comrades mop up the riffraff. Cast your utility spells outside of combat and go to town on any poorly secured doors, chests, and purses. So many skills, so few skill points.

Equip - The starting suit of Ninja gear is hard to replace in game if you don't start a character with the class. Ninja can't even use Robes for armor so it is a consideration, though Faeries can use their Gossamer starting kit. It's not hugely important for the armor class given their natural Ninjutsu bonus armor, but rolling around in your undies might raise a few eyebrows. Meanwhile a baseline is good for when the Ninjutsu bonus is prevented by negative status effects. You do have access to more weapons than a Monk, including some that are shared only with Samurai, but punching and kicking is quite viable.

Attack Styles Chart

Swing is the baseline attack. Generally every attack works in most every situation. Mostly just swap what you're doing if the monsters are resisting or dodging your attack and you have multiple options based on your equipment.

*Directly affected by character strength

• Read the manual.
  
• Having trouble running Wizardry Gold? Try putting the Wizgold folder into your main C:\ directory.
  
• For the adventuring spells like Enchanted Blade that light up the globes, each cast adds to the duration. For the longer lasting ones, sitting by a fountain and spamming them for a bit can be useful.
  
• Cast Levitation before climbing.
  
• The various spells that conjure creatures can be extremely powerful to help you in a fight, but good luck if they backfire.
  
• Disease, Stoning, and Death are the only status effects that are permanent until you actively cure them.
  
• Stoning and Death each cost your character a point of Vitality, so best avoided.
  
• Hiding allows you to attack from any range using melee weapons.
  
• Only certain monster abilities and special attacks can occasionally hit a hidden character.
  
• Casting spells and a few other things won't reveal a hidden character.
  
• Diplomacy in Gold is tied to doing something nice for the NPC's faction instead of making that particular character happy through truce and bribery. The skill is basically made worthless.
  
• Fighters and fighter classed NPC's take double damage due to a programming error, you can use the Cosmic Forge utility to fix the bug if you choose.
  
• Click the candle next to your portrait to see how much XP you need to level. Click your name bar to get access to the class changing menu.
  
• After about 7 Oratory, which does raise with practice, you should be able to start investing your casters' physical points into Swimming. Getting to 10 Swim skill is a priority just so your characters don't drown from getting your feet wet. Funny enough, you can rest in water.
  
• Cursed gear combined with class changing can let you better equip some tough to equip classes. Just equip the strong gear, don't remove the curse, change classes and suddenly you can have a Ninja wearing some shiny, clanky mail outfit.
  
• A former Bard can continue to use their favorite Lute. Getting new instruments from NPC's might require a use of Legerdemain to pick their pockets. They don't like to sell you stuff you apparently can't use.
  
• If planning to change classes, make sure to get a point into each skill your character's new class doesn't have access to. You can continue to add points later, but lose access if you haven't put a point into the skill yet.
  
• Typically go for a group targeting attack spell for each of your casters as a priority. Later on, at least one spell that hits all enemies for each. The first batch of group spells unlock for each spellbook around 17 points invested into the key skills, Thaumaturgy, Theology, Theosophy, or Thalchemy.

You may have noticed there are two versions of the game available for you to play. The original DOS version and the Windows ready Gold version. I'll try to help you choose, but it's going to be very much your personal preference what you go with. I'll list the advantages of either option.

Having trouble running Wizardry Gold? Try putting the Wizgold folder from the steam insall folder into your main C:\ directory.

DOS
Positives

• Diplomacy works properly
  
• Proper reading speed
  
• Full screen available through DosBox no matter your resolution
  
• Slightly more moddable

Neutrals

• Slower time in combat, but you can read the feedback
  
• Good enough art and music in both for personal preference

Negatives

• Music and art is more digitized
  
• Have to fish out the map
  
• Must wait for sound effects and text while moving around, much slower
  
• Clunky save system

Gold
Positives

• Automated mapping
  
• Less digitized art and music
  
• Voiceover available (can be optionally disabled, personal taste)
  
• Digital hint book and map (not available directly with Steam version)
  
• Much quicker time moving around, not waiting for sound effects on doors and such
  
• More convenient save system

Neutrals

• Faster time in combat, but you can't read the feedback
  
• Good enough art and music in both for personal preference

Negatives

• Super fast default text speed is unreadable - can set an option to slow it fairly well and hit Space to pause text, but doesn't always help
  
• Diplomacy and Mapping skills are useless
  
• Black borders or reduce your native resolution - no true fullscreen easily

Being such a classic series, there's already a whole community of folks out there playing and chatting with each other. You just need to know where to look. And you looked here so it's as good a place as any to start.

http://store.steampowered.com/manual/245430 - The Wizardry Gold manual available through Steam. Just linked here so you don't have to go through the Store page. They really should move manual links into the Library at least.

*As always, be careful with links you get from the internet.*

Mad God's Tiny Hut, Home of the Cosmic Forge editor - Cosmic Forge will let you totally mod Wizardry 6, 7 dos and gold, and 8 to your heart's content. Definitely at least use the Wizardry 7 patch to fix the Warrior Slayer bug. The game has an effect that causes double damage to certain classes, unfortunately Warrior was set as the default by mistake instead of Null. All your weapons, all your enemies' weapons, and every phoots lashing tentacle or monk foot does double damage to the tankiest folks in the game.
*Steam automatically filters the link to Mad God's site, but Google is handy for now*

softwarespecialties.com - forums for the full Wizardry series with folks who have been chatting since at least Wizardry 6. Provide a couple of their own tools for the game as well including the WizEdit editor. Was one of the places the game creators came when Wizardry 8 was a new thing to be pushed. Still probably the most active forum.

tk421.net/wizardry/ - Links for all sorts of Wizardry related things including maps for every game, and some of the officially unoffical patches that have come out (used to get stuck when all your skills got maxed to 100, for instance), and the DSCheat save editor. If you want to use DSCheat, you may need to run it through dosbox just like the game itself.

zimlab.com/wizardry/ - the fan page of community member Snafaru. Like tk421, plenty of links to files, patches, maps, mods, and walkthroughs. Provides coverage for the full series.

This guide covers the beginner dungeon and making your way into the first city. It is spoilerific, but nothing matters to the main plot yet. My goal is to just get your feet wet. Check out the manual as well and you should be off to a good start. Just build up good habits like exploring around and saving fairly often.

When you first start out, there are four possible areas you can head to. Either you try to cross the field of flowers, follow the road the other way into town, head for the ladder down into the starter dungeon, or head off into the wilderness.

The field is a shortcut you'll learn to cross later in the game. You can try it now, and can get a tidbit of lore out of it. As playing this game is significantly about the lore, I'd recommend it.

There is a strong fight blocking the way into town, and a guard who wants to know what business you have there. If you have no business, you can try fighting him. Good luck with that.

The remaining options are the starter dungeon and the wilderness. I recommend the starter dungeon first, with the wilderness either once you're past the first level, or before heading into town.

Starter Dungeon - Level 1
Once you take the ladder down, you'll find yourself in a square room with four offshoots in each of the cardinal directions. The direction we want gets to a T intersection as you enter. Should be one turn to the right from the ladder. If you find the grate, it's one more to the right from there. To the right from that intersection is the most important resource in the early game. It's a fountain.

The fountain is the quickest source of health, stamina, and mana in the game, and finding them around is somewhat rare. It's often quicker to run all the way to the nearest fountain than to rest (this is something that can mostly be handled with potions and food later on). Generally branch all your exploration of the rest of the floor, and even into the wilderness and city, from this fountain at the start.

One of the branches has a grate we'll get back to. Each of the three others have at least one interesting feature you'll need to use the Search button to activate. One will give you a bit of information that the guard of the city might be interested in. The other two are hidden passages behind walls. The buttons are fairly apparent, if you're looking straight at the wall. It's one of the things about classic rpgs that you may be rewarded for noticing things like this. A good Scout character or the Detect Secret spell will be a lifesaver if you're not used to this. Just look for the twinkle in the eye or a message that the character noticed something.

Each of the chests is likely to be trapped. I hope you have a natural chest popper with some Skullduggery. Opening a chest without setting off the trap involves inspecting it to find out what trap is on it. Hit the inspect button while it is red and you'll set off the trap. Yellow doesn't set anything off. While it is green you'll get some info about the mechanisms of the trap in the form of asterisks, dashes, and question marks.

Asterisks mean that component is part of the trap. Dashes mean it's not. Questions mean your character isn't sure. Improving your Skullduggery helps the diagnosis, and also improves the amount of time the random color is on green or yellow. Eventually you'll have spells to help your diagnosis, or bypass chest and door locks entirely.

Once you have the info, match it to the traps in the list. If you figure which is the right trap, go in the order the mechanisms are numbered to disarm that trap. Again you have to click when the random color is Green to be successful. Yellow is neutral. Red sets off the trap. Worst comes to worst, either go to the save you made before you opened the chest, or make a mad dash for the fountain.

The chests will likely hold your first unidentified loot. If you have a character with Artifacts skill, they may give you more info. Otherwise you can wait til you have the Identify spell, which gives more than the basic Assay info. You can equip the weapons and armor without identifying them. Nothing should be cursed - yet.

One chest will hold the key to the second floor. It's distinguishable from other keys by not having a count of those remaining, even if it's not yet identified. Plot item keys generally all have this feature. With that, you're ready for level two. I'd recommend the Wilderness first though.

Wilderness -
You will only be able to go through a limited section of the wilderness. It essentially acts as another short wing of a dungeon, just with trees. You'll eventually have to head through the city to advance the plot. The reward for heading this way is both unique and highly useful as you continue along.

I like to go this way after the first level of the starter dungeon as it opens a fairly clear path back to the fountain, and there is a tough fight over this way you may want to be prepared for. If you see something about crunching bones, you best be ready for your next step. After that, just follow the path along until you come on another chest, with a small bay to your left.

This chest contains the Journey Map Kit and some other random gear. The map kit is unique in the game, so try not to lose it.

In the DOS version, you have to increase the Mapping skill of a character to put it to full use. Open your inventory and hit use and your map of the current area, at least the tiles you've stepped on, will be revealed. Higher skill displays stuff like doors and walls and some other points of interest. The Wizard Eye spell will again do in a pinch.

In the Gold version, having the map kit automatically pops up a map window that refreshes as you go along. You don't receive increased detail from the mapping skill of your party. It's one of the only distinguishing features from a gameplay perspective between the two versions.

The only other thing to do out here is to go swimming. If your whole party doesn't have at least 10 Swimming skill you WILL most likely drown that character. At best, you'll drain your stamina after just one or two tiles, and need to rest for a long time or run to the fountain. You may also run into some extremely strong, for this point, monsters in the water. I'd recommend waiting a bit and swimming in some other areas first instead.

The best reward from the water doesn't involve actually swimming in it...

Starter Dungeon - Level 2 -
Using the plot key, you can now open the grate blocking the last wing of the first floor. There's not much do do here til you reach the last room. The monsters are tougher than the first floor, so be prepared. In the last room you'll find quite a difficult fight against an undead horror.

Tough, that is, if you didn't pick up a particular second tier spell on your Priest/Lord/Valkyrie already. Second tier spells come at somewhere around 17-18 points into the appropriate skill. Getting to that point is part of why I like to hit the wilderness before the second floor.

The chest here is the most dangerous you'll be likely to find early in the game. Reloading a save may be your only option. The rewards are quite useful, however. Particularly noteworthy are the amulet, and one of the red potions.

The amulet is likely to be your only way to revive a deceased character for the early portion of the game. It serves well as a backup later on if your holy characters happen to croak first. Just be warned it has limited charges. Like so many other things, you'll eventually get a spell to get around this particular limitation.

The red potion, if you have enough skill or the appropriate spell to identify it, is a Cherry Bomb. I find it particularly useful for the next bit.

Entering New City -
What classic adventure would be complete without a carefully laid ambush by a band of bandits? Unfortunately I just spoiled the surprise. Taking out the group is tough without the use of spells that target the whole group. Thankfully you've got a few levels under your belt now and either have some appropriate spells either learned or have a handy Cherry Bomb ready to go.

The cherry bomb is actually a few power levels higher than a typical character cast Psionic Fires at this point. That little dice counter on the casting window increases the force of a spell, but costs more and is somewht more likely to backfire. Potions don't backfire though, and this one is somewhere around a rank 3 bomb if I remember correctly. May as well use it now before you just outclass its power.

You may find yourself facing more than one group. This is based in part on a random battle generator, and in part on just how much leveling you've done with your party by that point. That's right, a game from 1992 had encounters scale to the party. Actually 6 did that too, but still quite impressive. As you clear a group, the ones behind will move ahead and come into melee range. Spells can target individual enemies, a group, or practically the whole pack. Use the bomb on the largest group for best effect.

Having dispatched the bandits, it's time to head into New City. Maybe use the starter fountain again first.

The citizens of the town are a bit beefier than most things you've faced to this point. Especially the Savant Guards. The gentleman guarding the town entrance can probably wreck you single handed, if you give him good reason.

This will likely be your first interaction with the NPC Text parser. It's not quite as advanced as some examples before or after in gaming history but quite versatile nonetheless. You'll want to keep track of interesting topics in a journal, proper names and general topics to discuss. So far, we've got "Savant, Rattkin, New City, and Paluke" that I can think of. Just typing in the topic will get you most of the info you could hope for. There are also simple general words like "who", "rumors" and "lore" that will get you more general info. Asking a full question can also sometimes get a different answer. Watch out with "lore" though, as you share everything your party knows as well (and I'm still not quite sure what they mean by this). "Bye" will end the talking portion of the NPC interaction in later conversations. For now, all you have to do is mention "Paluke" from that note you found, and you'll get your foot in the door.

Welcome to New City.