General Advice

[Woudo]

So I started a fresh game with x4 characters. I prefer playing these sorts of games with a single character who, from getting all the XP meant for six characters funnelled to just himself, is eventually a god but uh Wizardry 8 seemed pretty opposed to that playstyle and so does Wizardy 6. Went with a standard RPG party of Fighter/Mage/Cleric/Thief.

First fight was maybe 12 tiles in and up some stairs. Five rats and two rabid rats. I lost every single character and didn't kill a single rat.
I tried again and got maybe ~50 tiles in, up/down multiple stairs. Five rabid rats, six rats, six rats, four killer rats. I didn't bother playing that one out.

Any advice? I'm guessing I must need to walk around the initial foyer a bit and grind out easy mobs until I can progress.

[[INaD] Supervisor Hat]

Did you make sure to equip your characters after starting the game? For some reason they don't start with their weapons and such equipped. =P You may well be aware of this already, but I think it's standard procedure to get this question out of the way. ^_^

[Mokka]

The game starts you off with your weapons unequipped so you'll want to fix that as soon as you can. Could also be the RNG gods being cruel to you (It will happen a lot in this game so you want to get into the habit of saving a bunch).

[Woudo]

No I didn't know that.

Welp, time to give it a proper try then.

[|DI| AndyNPC]

You're going to want a full 6 character party in every Wizardry game you play. It's possible to beat them solo, but you don't want to try that unless you really know what you're doing. More exp per character isn't worth the slots you could have another caster in. The first three characters in the party order can dish out and recieve melee damage, so put your fighters up there. Keep thieves and casters in the back since they'll be insta-killed by nearly everything and can't deal much damage themselves. You can replace usless party memebers at any time with a new character, but be warned that this deletes the character you're replacing.

Also make sure you always keep your map up-to-date and have the manual handy for refrence.

[Zadok]

Dude: W8 is not opposed to that at all. Besides Iron Man & Mods I played pretty much everything Solo in W8. Last was a solo Mage. The game is hard for a beginner even with a full party but it can be solo'd for sure. In W7 it seems possible too. Not quite through yet but my Fairy Ninja is already doing pretty well without even having the Cane.
I guess if I make it W6 is next so here's my question: any experiences with solo'ing W6?

[Slooge]

you have to make 2 chars to enter wiz6. Dragging a corpse around bugs me, so ended up duoing it.

[EolSunder]

to help survive early on have a bard who has his sleep lute, really helps with the early mobs with unlimited sleeps for survivability. Use on the largest group to keep them out of action. The side benefit with sleeping mobs is you always hit them with weapons. You might not penetrate their armor, but you won't have to worry about swishing misses all day.

[Crusader_bin]

I barely started few hours ago, but you can use shortcuts to save and load state in DosBox. Beats saving within the game a lot. Plus, I don't think you are meant to use any stairs before you gain at least one level with each character. (though upper levels seemed harmless mostly) There are some tips & hints pdf files in the game directory (well, you figured out the magic words, so you know where).

I don't think you have to keep your map up to date, it'd be ridiculous waste of time imo. First few levels didn't seem that hard without mapping the places.

Though I could not find the buttons on the first level you start in, and some guides mentioned them. No idea why, walked every inch of that place 4 times...