User Guide

Caution: Always have at least one item slot open in your party in case you find
an essential item. Otherwise, you'll have to restart from a saved game. Unlike
other games which allow your characters to blissfully walk away from items that
are essential, Wizardry will force your party to accept an item. While good game
players can generally recognize what's required of them, Wizardry's safety feature
means you won't find yourself frustrated at the end of the game without
something you desperately need.
Combat
You're not alone in this world. Well before your party wandered here, creatures of all
kinds called this locale their home. You will find them waiting behind doors or see
them lurking about dark recesses. As you may have anticipated, a meeting between a
group of monsters and your party is frequently without milk and cookies. However, a
combat situation comes with fun and challenge and plenty of it.
Who's There?
Most of the time, you will only be told what the monsters look like, not what they
really are. For example, you may encounter an "Unseen Entity" but you won't know
whether it's a ghost or a flying bed sheet (or something worse for that matter).
Characters who have studied mythology have the best chance of identifying the
monsters' true identity.
The Course of Action
Combat will proceed in rounds. Each round, both you and the monsters select a
course of action, and then Bane of the Cosmic Forge acts as the mediator of the action.
Combat is over when either side runs away or is totally defeated.
When you come upon a group of monsters bent on stopping your party dead in their
tracks, each of your characters will have several options. These options are based on
the character's class, skills, weapons and position in the party; so it's likely that each
character's combat options will be slightly different than his or her fighting mates.
Fight
The "Fight" option engages your characters in the fine art of physical contact. Their skills,
weapons, statistics and muscle are called into play (not to mention a bit of sheer luck).
Depending on your characters' skills and weapons, you may be able to choose from one of
several methods of fighting. The method you choose is called a fighting mode. (To see
which modes your weapons use, Assay them while reviewing your characters.) Each mode
has its own strengths and weaknesses, and relies heavily on the skill of the character
wielding it. (See weaponry skills in the Creating a Character section of this manual).
The basic attack is a "swing", a side-to-side slicing blow. The chart on the next page
compares the other available fighting modes to the swing in three areas:
To Hit: As compared to swing, the likelihood your character will hit a monster
with his or her weapon. For example, if your character selected "Melee", he or
she would essentially swing wildly in hopes of hitting something. Obviously the
odds to hit are down when you're not really looking where your weapon is going.
However, a "Swing", covering a wide arc with direction, has a good chance of
hitting a monster.
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Bane of the Cosmic Forge