[atomicminds]

Tried another game and got my group to lvl 5 and to another forest adjacent to New City. But my luck ended there. My priest got poisoned and just before I was going to move a cure poison potion we got an encounter. We ran from it and ran into another one with 5 jelly's that killed us.

I never rerolled any of the stats for my characters or used a walk-through or redid a saved game or used any character editors. However, after dying repeatedly and seeing how this game operates, I'd warn anybody who isn't a save & redo junkie to at least re-roll stats until you get +15 or greater and also to consider a walk-through or a character editor if they're available. Otherwise, as others say, you're bashing your head against a wall that's made to crack skulls.

The primary concern I have of walking into the game with overpowered characters is that since 90% of the encounters are doable without any cheating or re-rolling or re-doing, the game would simply become a grind wherein 90% of the time you're clicking and clicking and clicking with no challenge present. The outdated interface makes it much worse. But it's the balance which produces the challenge that matters most to me. I like challenge. I like it when hit-points are low and I have to figure out a strategy. But to have that level of challenge and not to overkill is what makes great games great. It's a balancing act that not everyone achieves. Wizardry VII falls short (if not far) of this goal. But it has an excuse because it's 20 years old. But it still must be said.