Hey, spick. First off let me say congrats on picking up Wizardry 8 for such a cheap price! I hope you enjoy it half as much as I do.
Now if you don't mind I'm going to give you a bit of advice.
At the start of the game don't level too much. It will make your life a LOT easier once you get out of the Monastery on your way to Arnika. Arnika Road is probably the hardest part of the game, and the whole reason why is monsters level with you and at that point of the game you're party will be under equiped to handle the stuff that spawns there. I tend to stop leveling at level 5 inside the Monastery, but I still train my skills. Skills are way more important then levels in this game.
Save your spell picks for your casters. Buy a few spells at the eariler levels so your casters can get by, after that just save them. Once you get to a town you'll be able to buy spells books, so save your spell picks for higher level spells.
Grr... well that's all I'm able to post at the moment. If you have any questions about the game feel free to ask me. I'm a self proclamed expert on this game - I refuse to play the game on anything less then expert and ironman now a-days. :P I've finished the game twice with a full 6 man party, once with a solo Elf Bishop, another time with a solo Faerie Ninja, and my current game I used
www.random.org to generate my party - I got 2 party members (and that's not counting all the games I've started but lost my party while playing Ironman. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />). A Hobbit Rouge (yay!) and a Mook Bishop (died on the way to Arnika, but I was able to get my rouge's steath to 100 inside the Monastery so it's not that big of a lose. hehe...I'm not even sure if I'll bring my Bishop back to life).
