OK I finally found the right guy and did the quests for the work camp.
How do you get wizards to memorize spells? I put spells in his inventory and use read and he does
the incantation, but I don't see them in his choice of spells area in the inventory.

Debra, I don't have a wizard so I don't know from experience, but someone on the Atari forums explained it this way:

"If I have an Arcane wizard scroll, I have my Wizard cast Read Magic on the scroll (not Identify). This tells you what the scroll is. Once it is identified, if it is arcane, you should have a Copy Scroll option in the Radial Menu somewhere. If you dont find it, look again. It may not be where you expect it. Anyway, once you select "Copy Scroll" a Spellcraft check is made and if you succeed, you've added the spell to your spellbook. If you fail, you wont be able to successfully try to scribe scroll again until your spellcraft skill increases by at least 1 ... which will be the next time you level up. This works both for PCs and NPCs. My party has Spugnoir as my only Wizard and he gets all the arcane scrolls. I make him read magic on them and Copy them.

This implies that for a Wizard, Read Magic (Spell) and Spellcraft (Skill) are vital."

Hope that helps.

UPDATE:
According to Adrenaline Vault, Atari has acknowledged that a patch is definitely being worked on, so I am going to stop playing until they release it. I'm sick of having to work around the bugs and the slow game performance.

I'm re-playing Anachronox now...

that is very good news that a patch is being worked on.

Schwab, it is too bad that the bugs are causing you such problems that you have to wait until the patch is released to continue playing. Hopefully the wait won't be too long.

I've quit playing too. I hope the patch will make this game more enjoyable. Some bug is making
me lose 100 GP everytime I cast an identify spell
that my mage has in his spellbook. It's like he's
a merchant instead of my mage. I have created 3
parties and started over 3 times because of game
issues. Enough already!
I received Once Upon a Knight and decided I would
play it while I waited for the patch. It won't even launch. Thanks Atari for another learn to
be a computer geek in your spare time course!

Debra, while the game does have a ton of bugs the identity "bug" you desribed is not one of them. that is a feature of the game, one many hope is changed in the patch. it is actually taken directly from the P&P game.

You're kidding?? Is this part of the new 3.5 rules?
I have never played one that did this. <img border="0" alt="" title="" src="graemlins/woozy.gif" />
Why would you want the identify spell then. I take it so I can use it out in the field and hopefully upgrade weapons or armor. This game needs everything identified and then you still don't know what it does. Even somethings that appeared to be identified already really weren't.
It is confusing.

debra,

go to the official forum and do a search for identify. limit it to title searches and several things will come up, otherwise you will get a ton of matches.

Identify spell bug is one you may want to take a look at.

I looked at that thread and I have to agree with that person who suggested that the overly faithful use of D&D rules may not be best for a CRPG, especially when casual RPG gamers (myself included) are faced with things like the "real" Identify spell.

I think rules like this mean more when you're playing a tabletop game that lasts a lot longer and where identifying a potion is a major event.
In a computer RPG, it should just be more convenient since things happen a lot quicker.

I agree it was a mistake to stick so closely to the rules in this case.

more news on the patch. the patch is now officially being worked on. there was an announcement by atari today:

LOS ANGELES

I guess I have just been used to the BG, Icewind Dale, etc. version of the identify spell. Well,
I have started a third party and we are up to level 5. I botched a Nulb quest so I didn't get to kill the gar and asked Otis
to join, but he's encumbered and won't share a thing. He may have to go back home.
I wait with baited breath for the patch. I hope it won't corrupt our saves or that we have to start over before using it.

Debra, that encumbrance thing was clearly an oversight in the design, many people have complained about it and I think the unofficial, fan-created patch fixes it, but I'm sure they'll adjust it in the official patch as well.

I admire your persistance and willingness to start over. I was lucky with my first party, they hit level 8 fairly easily, but I've stopped playing for now.

Once you get into the ToEE can you leave it again?
Also, is there any better level to be when you
enter it?

You can leave the Temple at anytime, you aren't trapped. However, you have to find the exits, which are in different places for each level.

I think I had just hit level 5 when starting the temple on the Earth level. I did quests for the various temple leaders to get more XP.

To use the Craft Wonderous Item skill do you have
to have a plain cloak or necklace, etc in your inventory so they can make the item from it or is
it just out of the blue? Also, is it better to get the Craft Armor spell than this one?