#Wizardry8 #Monster #Manual : #Monastery

For your convenience in your adventures – a Manual to the Monsters of the Monastery – their strengths and weaknesses, how to kill them and how to defend against them.
I have marked some remarkable/dangerous static spawns and interesting items on the Monastery maps. After the maps, the Monster Manual will give you detailed descriptions of the Monsters of the Monastery.

Lower Monasterymonastery-map

Upper Monastery
monastery-map-upper

…if I missed something, please tell 🙂 Or if you want something else mentioned too! This guide is based on the monsters I’ve met in the Monastery in my playthroughs – so if you have encountered others, please add! Same goes for the pictures – if you have any missing ones, please contact me 🙂

 

Low Level (1+2)

Animals

roach
Roach
Some resistance vs mental spells, otherwise weak to spells. Single digit hp. Large Swarms. Hits single digits. Don’t let yourself get surrounded. Kill low hp ones first.

crab
Crab
Some resistance vs water, earth and mental spells, otherwise weak to spells. High single digit hp. Hits single digits. Kill low hp ones first. No problem to get them one by one waiting in a doorframe.

softshellcrab
Softshell Crab
Same resistances as Crab, vs water, earth and mental spells, otherwise weak to spells. Low double digit hp. Hits high single digits. Kill low hp ones first. No problem to get them one by one waiting in a doorframe.

Rat
Weakness to Fire/Water/Divine spells. Low single digit hp / low single digit hits. Kill low hp ones first.

lesserseeker
Lesser Seeker
Weakness to Fire/Water/Mental spells. Double digit hp. Ranged attacker. May nauseate so prefer to kill in mixed encounters to non-special attacking monsters.

bat
Bat
Resistant to Air Spells. Low hp, low damage.

Slimes

greenslime
Green Slime
Weakness to Fire/Water, Resistance to Mental Spells. Good drops. Single to low double digit hp. Can hit pretty high single digits. Easy to hit.

Languid Slime
Weakness to Fire, resistant to Mental. Good drops. Ranged attacker with Sleep effect. Easy to kill, do it first. Single digit hp usually.

 

Medium Level (3-5)

Animals

swarmingroaches
Swarming Roach
Resistant vs Mental Magic, weak to all other forms of magic. Up to low double digit hp. High single digit damage.
May have multiple roaches attacking you even if space is limited – so be careful not to get surrounded by these if they have a high number. Easy to hit and to kill. Area damage wrecks them.

smallspider
Small Spider
Resistant to mental magic, weak vs other magic. Low double digit hp. Ranged combatants with low damage but a high chance to paralyze your party. Can poison in close combat. If other monsters are present that you cannot kill quickly, try to remove the spiders first.

Wolf Spider
Resistant to mental magic, weak vs other magic. Low double digit hp. Ranged combatants with low damage but a high chance to paralyze your party. Can poison in close combat. If other monsters are present that you cannot kill quickly, try to remove the spiders first. Yes, there is not much difference – Wolf Spiders are higher level and usually have less hp in my experience.

Hardshell Crab
Resistant to Water and Mental Magic, weak vs other magic. about 30-60 hp. Low chance to poison you – high damage up to around 15. Extended Range, so protect your backline! Tough opponents for their level; try to control them quickly by spells like Blinding Flash or even the high level Sleep spell of your Bard’s Poet’s Lute.

venomcrab
Venom Crab
Resistant to Water, Earth and Mental Magic, weak vs other magic. Around 15 hp. High chance to poison you – poison may collect stacks so try to cure quickly at least after combat. High single digit damage. Easy to kill, so kill them and save your crowd control for other opponents. Collect the Venom Crab Shell they drop for Antone Rapax.

gnawerrat
Gnawer Rat
Resistant only to Water and Mental Magic. Low double digit hp, single digit damage. Easy to kill.

seeker
Seeker
Only resistant to Earth magic. Lower double digit hp. Single digit damage, ranged attacks. May nauseate your characters so in mixed encounters, try to control (sleep, insanity, etc) or kill.

duskbat
Dusk Bat
Resistant vs Water and Air, weak to Fire. Low double digit hp, high single digit damage. When mixed with normal bats, control them with a mental spell. Dusk Bats are hard to screenshot – this one refused to show her hp :-p

tanikafish
Tanika Fish
Resistant vs Water, weak vs Air. Low double digit hp, high single digit damage. Control and kill one by one.

Slimes

noxiousslime
Noxious Slime
Weakness to Fire, otherwise pretty resistant to magic, especially to Divine / Mental. Low double digit hp, ranged and melee attacks with a high chance to nauseate and some chance to poison your characters. Good drops, relatively easy to hit with physical damage.

Pustulant Slime
Weakness to Fire, resistant vs Mental Magic. Double digit hp. Melee combatant with high single digit damage and the unnerving ability to cast a nauseating cloud on your party. Eliminate quickly, or will wear you down in a multi-monster encounter.

Undead

undeadhead
Undead Head
Resistant against Divine Magic. Double digit hp. Casts crowd controlling spells and Energy Blast. Attacks low single digit hp in melee. A nuisance if encountered paired with other monsters – eliminate quickly then. Otherwise harmless and easy to kill.

Humanoids

higardibandit
Higardi Bandit
Water/Earth resistant. Good drops. Low double digit hp, good damage in melee and ranged too. Easy to kill but may run around and cause you to lose turns that way. May flee, being a nuisance later.

higardiraider
Higardi Raider
Somewhat resistant to Earth magic, otherwise average. Double digit hp. Good drops. Throws Death Stars, thankfully without their Kill-%. Tough for his level, but not dangerous.

higardicutpurse
Higardi Cutpurse
Water/Earth resistant. Good drops. Low double digit hp, good damage in melee and ranged too. Very easy to kill, but may run around or flee, being a nuisance later.

 

High Level (6+)

Animals

rabidrat
Rabid Rat
Strong resistance vs Water, some vs Mental Spells. Double digit hp. Up to double digit melee damage. High chance to nauseate on attack, some chance to drive insane. If the rats get to surround your characters, they can be a problem. One by one they are easy to deal with.

Slimes

Slithering Slime
Vulnerable to Fire only. High double digit hp, melee damage in the double digits too. High chance to nauseate your party. Tough opponent at early levels. Good drops.

Metallic Slime
Vulnerable to Fire only. High double digit hp; melee and ranged attacker up to double digits. May cause unconsciousness. Takes only 50% damage from physical sources. If they are too tough for you, you can always run, as they usually don’t do much damage and don’t follow quickly.

Undead

Screaming Head
These ones or the Shrieking Heads are waiting for you in the Grave in the Monastery. Vulnerable only to Divine Magic. Double digit hp.
Cast all sorts of spells to control the combat, but not much else. If your party is insane, run around until it wears off or only your low damage party members have it and then hack these things down. If you have Bishops with you, command them to the grave. Dangerous combined with other monsters only.

 

Bosses

TLDR-tactics-3-kingcrab
King Crab
Vulnerable to Fire, resistant to Water/Mental. Irritating Skin is a good option against it. Around 100 hp. Extended Range, attacking twice per round with single digit damage usually. An opponent that you have to endure, otherwise not that dangerous. Be careful about your weaklings in the back row: The King Crab can reach / attack them if you go too close!

gregor
Gregor
Highly Resistant to Water / Mental Spells, somewhat vulnerable to Fire. Irritating Skin may work. Around 120 hp. 3 Attacks with mixed damage, ranged and melee. High chance to paralyze or poison. A really hefty opponent – don’t hold back on him and I’d recommend to use items you collected in this fight too, like a Scroll of Haste, to help speed up the fight.
The longer the fight lasts, the tougher it gets. Don’t be down if one or two of your party members die – this is quite normal, as he can one-round many characters due to the paralyze/melee combo.
If you’re the type to save before tough encounters, you should do that. Even if you’re not, do it anyways, at least if it’s the first time you encounter him. Significantly stronger on higher difficulty levels. One of the toughest fights in the early game.
You can avoid him if you run around like a madman though, and proceed to the next level anyways, as he will go back to his room after a some time running around edges and jumping off cliffs, not pursuing you anymore.

Shopkeeper

burz
Burz
A nice guy, friendly but greedy. Use to get rid of stuff you don’t need anymore. Great source of ammo or minor upgrades. Also has some resurrection powder. Sometimes has a Longsword or a Short Staff and Daggers: All of these you will need to access the retro dungeons later in the game so you may want to stock up on that stuff as it isn’t sure you’ll get it later and it isn’t expensive at all.
I’d recommend you don’t sell your resurrection powder, as it can be really helpful if you don’t want to reload sometimes and don’t want to save the game like a paranoid madman 🙂

#Wizardry8 #TLDR #Tactics #9 : A Crabton of damage Ant more

tldr-tactics-9-crabs
When leaving the Monastery, you will likely encounter a group of crabs not that easy to beat: Venom Crabs and Hardshell Crabs. Here’s how you deal with them:

  • Venom Crab
    Usually around 10-20 hp, needs close range to attack, will add up poison stacks on your party members (-AC / -hp per round).
    These die easily, but there is usually a big number of them. Fortunately they are vulnerable to mental magic, so your bard’s lute as well as spells like Terror or Insanity will be great against them.
    Also, they take good damage from fire realm spells, as expected.
    If you have a source of area damage, that too will be a good idea.
    And as you probably thought they would be: They are pretty resistant to water magic. So if you are just so-so with your paralyze spell, spare your round and your spell points.
    Kill them whenever you have time for that in the group after the Monastery. They are not a number one priority, but they are bothersome nonetheless!
  • Hardshell Crab
    Going up to around 40 hp these are harder opponents and should be your number one targets as they have extended range. If you have casters or other weaklings in the second row, you should not come close to them but rather kill them from extended range.
    They can hit pretty hard, usually double digits and are generally not easy to deal with when your party is still low level.
    As for spells, go with the Venom Crab advice above: Weakness to mental and fire spells. Insanity is great on these.
  • Soldier Ant
    Usually only around 20 hp and in large groups, they hit pretty hard and can fit into one spot easily. Their models don’t need much room, so on a minimal door, there would even fit 2 or 3 of them, like you encountered with the roaches and other bugs. They can hit pretty hard and you should kill them quickly because it is so easy and they do some significant damage for their low hp score.
    You will likely have some source of area damage right now; use it against them. Also, mental spells will be great against the ants.
    Don’t let yourself get surrounded, as this will likely be fatal for your casters or other back row characters. Use at least the “your back to the wall” tactic!

Have fun gaming!

Immanuel-Can

#Wizardry8 #TLDR #Tactics 4: Grim #Gregor the Great

tldr-tactics-4-gregor

The Menace of the Monastery needs to be beaten to continue to the next “zone” there. It is

  • Gregor, the Giant BugYou can usually choose the fight. The tunnel from the room of King Crab leads up to his room. How he got there or who put him there is not known. But sure thing: He has killed many, and eaten plenty, to get to this prodigous size.

    So how to beat him? Easily! Of course. You need to pick the fight when you’re ready. You shouldn’t have party members much lower than 30 hp. Your party needs to be fully healed and have all Scrolls or Potions put to their respective users in fight. It pays to use everything you have, especially if you’re not sure if your party has enough damage to cope with him.
    You need to kill him quickly. The longer the fight lasts, the higher is the possibility of getting affected by his special effects: Blind, Poison, Unconsciousness, Paralyze. All pretty bad. An affected character can be one-rounded by him, even if fully healed.

    You will need to heal once you reach 20 hitpoints with a character, because he can, and will, one-round you otherwise pretty often. He is melee, so let him come to you until you start beating and firing on him. Don’t hold back – if you can, use a Scroll of Haste (which you have a high probability to find) to speed your party’s attacks up a bit, especially if you have a Samurai with you as I had. Lightning Strikes will say “Goodbye Gregor” like no other.

    If you don’t have specialized spellcasters, don’t waste your time trying to put control spells like Paralyze or Fear on him: They won’t work.
    Keep beating down on him and he will eventually fall. Your party should at least be Level 5 for you to try Gregor for a serious attempt on higher difficulties. And even if you are not the “reload” kind of guy, it pays to save your game before the fight. I didn’t, in the playthrough, though 🙂

    Have fun beating the “Boss” of the Monastery, the most difficult single encounter here.

  • More Monsters: Languid Slime, usually Level 2-3, few hp. Try to kill these from a distance, and quickly. They have single digit hitpoints and are usually addon spawns of more dangerous opponents – but the special effects on their ranged attack can be a plague if you’re unlucky (unconsciousness and the like are no joke if you’re stuck in a bunch of rats).
  • Small Spider: A group of these can quickly web and ranged attack your whole party, but don’t despair – they usually don’t do much damage and you can kill them one by one. Even if the fight takes long, if you’re not seriously wounded, just run into the group of spiders and melee them down one by one. They rarely have more than 20 hp and will go down really quickly. If you’re wounded though, make sure to lure them around an edge so that not many of the group can attack you.

See you next time with a Video,

Have fun gaming!

Immanuel-Can

#Wizardry8 #TLDR #Tactics 2

Wandering through the Monastery at the start of the game, you will encounter some monsters, mostly harmless but sometimes only harmless if well-treated. And by well-treated I mean mistreated in a violent way.

Some of the very first monsters of our playthrough Videos 1 / 2 / 3 and the tactics to beat them – to give you a good start:

  • Softshell Crab
    Don’t let the party get surrounded by these guys. Quite strong at Level 1-2 (up to 30 hp and sometimes they’ll hit double digits) if you encounter a bunch of them. Go to an edge or flee into a doorway and let them come to you. Then kill them one by one. Some immunity to water spells, like all crabs (Frost etc.).
  • Green Slime
    Probably the most harmless encounter level 1-2. Hitpoints up to 20. Doesn’t hit double digits and pure melee – so try to get them one by one, but low priority target when you encounter multiple different mobs. Some immunity to mental spells, as all slimes (Sleep etc.).
  • Rat
    Very low hitpoints but solid damage. Quite a multitude of them can fit into the middle attack area, so try to kill them fast. High damage per hitpoint, so potentially high priority targets in a mixed encounter. Vulnerable to mental spells (Sleep etc.). Don’t let yourself get surrounded, if possible. Quick.
  • Bat
    Low hitpoints / solid damage. Same as rats, but some immunity to air spells. Vulnerable to mental spells (Sleep etc.). Don’t let yourself get surrounded, if possible. Quick.

Hit them often hit them hard and have fun doing it 😀

See you next time with a Video – happy gaming

Immanuel-Can

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