How to Use the Wiz8SpellAbility Spreadsheet

The link to download the file is located at the end of this document. This page only provides some needed extra explanation, for full details suggest reading through the Wiz8SpellAbility.txt file which is included in the download package. This will familiarise yourself with the various features. If you want to know more about how spell availability is calculated, refer to here for all the details.

[Data Entry] Sheet

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On the [Data Entry] sheet, the profession entering area has been expanded to handle entering in extra professions if you should choose to profession-change your character. Below is an sample of what you'll see when you first open the spreadsheet: When you open a clean copy of the Wiz8SpellAbility spreadsheet, only the first profession box is enabled (see the tick box on the left-hand side). You enter the character name, and select the profession and enter levels as usual. If you never profession-change your character, you need never touch the remaining profession boxes, use the spreadsheet the same way you always have. However if you do change the profession of your character, you first have to enable the second profession box. This is done by ticking the box on the left-hand side of the second profession box. Once ticked, the Professions drop-down box and Level spinner become "active". Select the profession and enter the number of levels achieved in that profession. This would then look something like the example below: Note: If you are unsure of how many levels a character has in each profession, go to the Inventory screen of the character and left-click and hold the mouse-button down on the character's current profession. A display something like what is shown below appears in the top-left corner: ** Important Notes ** Whilst it doesn't matter in which order you specify the professions, I'd recommend you use the first profession box for the first profession the character had, the second for the second and so forth. Each profession can only be selected once in the spreadsheet. An error will be shown if two profession selections are the same and the results of the other sheets will be grossly inaccurate. In the case of a character that is profession changing back to a previously held profession, simply keep incrementing the level of the existing appropriate profession box. This is the same way as the game handles it. Each of the level spinners in the profession boxes has been limited to between 1 and 50, this means that if all three profession boxes were enabled, you could enter a character with 150 levels! This of course would be incorrect as Wizardry 8 only allows a character to reach Level 50. An error will be displayed if the totals of the levels exceed this limit. In the unlikely event of you having a character with more than three unique professions, omit non-spellcaster professions as they have no bearing on spell learning. If sufficient numbers of people write to me requesting for handling of more than three unique professions, I'll look into it some more. ** Spell Learning ** When the spellcaster learns a spell, you can mark the spell as learnt in the spreadsheet as well. This helps highlight which spells the spellcaster can learn, but hasn't, which is very useful when visiting merchants who sell spellbooks or finding one during the parties travels on Dominus. When learning a spell either from a spellbook or spell pick during a level up, tick the box of the spell name in either the alphabetical list or the lists which have the spells divided into their spell realms; Air, Divine, Earth, Fire, Mental and Water and sorted so they are listed in the same order as what is shown on the 'Magic' screen in Wiz8. It does not matter which you use. Only the spells available for the character to learn are shown, the rest are "hidden" until the spellcaster becomes able to learn the spell. This is shown in the example below: When a spell is learnt, tick the box to the right of the spell name to indicate that the spell has been learnt.

[Availability] Sheet

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Example of an [Availability] sheet: The wording in the [Availability] sheet had to be modified to cover more possibilities of what is needed to learn a spell. In the Availability column beside each spell entry, one of the six following statements will be shown: "Only masters of Mastery Skill can learn this spell" The spell is only available to characters with a profession in the specified Mastery Skill/s. "Have to be Level X or greater to learn this spell" Only shown for single profession characters. It means the character needs to reach the specified level before the spell becomes available to be learnt. The value of X changes depending on the level of the spell and whether the selected profession is a hybrid or pure spellcaster. "Need X more level/s in a Mastery profession before spell can be learnt" Only shown for characters with multiple professions. It means the character needs to gain the specified number of levels in the specified Mastery profession/s before the spell becomes available to be learnt. The value of X changes whenever a level is added to a profession that the spell needs. Note: Hybrid spellcasters do not gain any levels towards spell learning until their fifth level. So the value of X will not change for their first four levels if the spell is in the appropriate spell book. "Require X more point/s (highest Mastery skill of M + 10% of Realm skill [R] = Y, need Z" Providing the character has sufficient levels to qualify for access to the level of the spell, each level of spell requires an increasing number of skill points before the spell can actually be learnt. The value of Z specifies the amount of skill points required, the value of Y is the current number of skill points the character has. This is calculated by taking the highest Mastery skill of the spell book/s the spell appears in (M), and adding 10% of the spells realm (R). The value of X is the difference between Y and Z. "This spell is available to be learnt" All the criteria have been met for learning of the spell, the spell can be learnt immediately by finding/buying a spellbook or will be available as a spell pick at the next level-up. "This spell has been learnt" You've marked the spell as learnt on the [Data Entry] screen.

Terminology

Spellcaster: A profession which can learn and use spells. Pure Spellcaster: A profession that specialises in casting spells. These are Alchemist, Bishop, Mage, Priest, and Psionic. Hybrid Spellcaster: A profession that has a mixture of fighting and spell casting abilities. These are Lord, Monk, Ninja, Ranger, Samurai and Valkyrie. Non Spellcaster: A profession with no spell casting abilities. These are Bard, Fighter, Gadgeteer and Rogue (however they are still able to use many spell casting items, especially the Bard's instruments and Gadgeteer's gadgets). Mastery Skill: Refers to the four spell book skills, Wizardry, Alchemy, Psionics and Divinity. Realm Skill: Refers to the six realms in which spells are divided. These are Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Mental and Divine. Mastery Profession: Meaning one of the professions that uses the indicated Mastery Skill.     Wizardry is accessible to Mages, Bishops and Samurai.     Alchemy is accessible to Alchemists, Bishops, Ninjas and Rangers.     Psionics is accessible to Psionics, Bishops and Monks.     Divinity is accessible to Priests, Bishops, Lords and Valkyries. Profession Changed: A character that as changed his or her profession at least once. For example, was created as a Fighter, then later changed to a Samurai. Spellbook: (no space) A book which contains the writings required for a spellcaster to permanently learn a spell. Spell Book: (separated by a space) The four spell books in Wizardry 8. These are Mage, Alchemist, Psionic and Priest.

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	Source: Wolfie (comments to wizardry8@mail.com). Last Update: September 13, 2004.