I haven’t played 7 in a long time (never finished it) and don’t own 8. I might give 7 a try since I purchased the GoG version (which has both actually). I just remember getting all my hardwork for one summer getting slashed to level 5 in 7 lol. That said, my main issue about taking a plain Fighter or Thief is that your mana regeneration is going to be really low. I didn’t know how mana regeneration worked in 6 but my last play through I adjusted my party where everyone started off as either a Mage, Priest or in one case, an Alchemist. I kinda “cheated” for the Bard (but i was getting frustrated with the base character generator). For the Alchemist -> Ninja, I ended up going Elf female. Now, keep in mind, I didn’t think about 7 but I do like the idea of an early swap to Ninja just because Faerie already have very low armor naturally; the only bad part is that you’d be missing out on the start ninja attire. But I think the naturally low armor and the fact that your armor continues to improve as you level make this point moot.

The human Psionic is an interesting choice. I imagine you do this to obtain the oddly unwearable starting Shadow Cloak that you can use as a Monk once you switch. The only issue I have with the Psionic is that Mental skills tend to be kinda mediocre down the road. I found Mind Flay not to work too well against higher level monsters. Also, I ended up doing a very late swap to Monk. But I end up going a little crazy on the class switching in 6. I would probably stick with either Faerie Bard or Elf Bard if I started with one. My last party, I did Felpurr Mage into Bard (but I didn’t start with the instrument so I had to “fudge” things a little). But the idea there was to have the highest or higher magic regeneration.

For the Bishop, I went Faerie Mage into Bishop for the high mana regeneration. Faerie works pretty well here because of the low armor, the fact you can stick them in the back and the high mana regeneration. I think I stuck with the Mage class for a while since I used an Elf Priest that swapped into a Valkyrie. Then the Valkyrie became a decent healer that doubled with my starting Rawulf Priest because I had dumped all her starting points as a Priest into Theology. The key to me with Priest spells is racing to Cure Poison, which generally can be a problem. Having two characters get Cure Poison fast and have healing is really good.

Also, thank you for the comment! I might write up more on Wizardry 6 but haven’t been playing lately. I might start up Wizardry 7 though since I haven’t played that in a while.