Game 13: Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (NES) - Won! by Werdna

"There I was, just hanging out with some buddies playing Vampire the Masquerade, when all of a sudden a band of adventurers proclaimed I had stolen Trebor's amulet and they were there to reclaim it. While true, I couldn't stand the transgression. Really Trebor, is this the best you can do?"

At least someone won Wizardry last night. Werdna was at the top of his game with a first turn, very first action, Tiltowait. The most powerful spell in the game, and here I thought I was hot stuff having two mages with a few of these in reserve. This spell has the potential to obliterate my entire party with a max damage of 150. Each character ranged 70 to 130 HP.

Nooooo! I'm supposed to cast that

I started the session with some glimmer of hope that I might put this game behind me. I hadn't considered the possibility that Werdna would lead with such a devastating spell. At level 13 my mages and cleric gained their most powerful spells, which I tried to use during the final fight.

Looking back, I didn't see much need to change my class when I felt like the characters were at the top of their game. Alex, the lead fighter was sporting nearly 130 HP and had acquired some exceptional equipment.

Blade Cusinart is awesome, or I should say... was

Sean and Flewin also gained some good equipment such as an Epee of Excellence, Tanned Leather (better than padded), and 1st Class Plate. Having even my thief with negative AC was a nice sight, but my confidence didn't match reality.

Thankfully the run option has succeeded the majority of the time

I should have known better; I was constantly assailed by enemies that posed a greater threat than I knew how to handle. Especially those that were resistant to magic. The benefits from fighting these tough battles were tiny compared to the risks. Most of the time it was still better to grind against Murphy's Ghost.

Of all the fights I've won, Frost Giants were the only ones award this amount

It was nearing the end of my play session; I adopted a now-or-never mentality and pushed forward, towards Werdna's lair. Did I feel completely prepared? No. Did I feel like I stood a chance? Yes, obviously. So, I headed in after healing up.

I'm pretty sure it was after 3, which may explain why he was so mad... also I didn't have an appointment

I took a deep breath followed by a resounding sigh of consternation. Werdna was surrounded by what looked like a dangerous group of vampires. I was certain their level draining would give me trouble. What I didn't expect, as mentioned before, was the first volley of Tiltowait.

I still held out hope as one of my mages had miraculously survived and had his own Tiltowait queued. Alex, the lead fighter was drained and paralyzed. My remaining party members fell to more party damaging spells delivered by the vampires. The following turn the game knowingly taunted my lack of options.

Would you like to die or stare at the screen?

Dying at Werdna is the worst place. Not only is my party gone they are virtually unreachable. I would need to defeat Werdna to collect them. This would also require taking less than six characters as that's the only way to gather up the fallen character, one-by-one. I might as well have teleported into a wall.

You will be avenged!

I blame my poor luck on turning off the solid walls for the more classic feel of a lined dungeon. A classic look was a nice thought, but now I realize this must have also turned up the difficulty to 11.

A hidden difficulty setting... not really

So, what now? I have characters available to grind against Murphy, but I want to mitigate the risk of Tiltowait. I figure over 200 HP for each character is a necessity. I may make all new characters to focus ability points on vitality and fighters to maximize damage soaking potential.

I'll start with a group of fighters, change classes 4 - 5 times through cleric and mage for spells, and finally arrive at a party of fighters/ninjas (if I'm lucky enough, a thief if I'm not), a cleric, a mage, and a wizard.

I can't imagine anyone watching such obscene amounts of grinding for 8+ hours, so I'm not going to bore anyone other than myself. I'll stream my progress again once I've finished and start collecting treasure.

Poor Murphy, what did he do to deserve this fate?

I'll alleviate the strain of grinding solely on Wizardry by also playing Star Saga 2 at the same time. A slow turn based text adventure should fit nicely with the braindead button mashing on the NES.

Session Time: 4h00m (Total Time: 22h20m)