Dungeon Master Forum

I know it is theoretically possible, but has anybody made the effort to use War Cry [in battle] to give Halk or Stamm a priest level before you get the Teowand?
I'm not sure just how much work that would involve, or if it is feasible.

I think I tried to do it once, but I can't remember if I succeeded.

Yes... Done this many times. Doesn't take all that long, and you don't need to do it in battle.
I've only ever done it up to novice level though.

There are other items that give mana apart from the Teowand...off the top of my head there is the normal wand, the staff, the moonstone...and possibly one or two other starter/early game items. There are other items later on that give mana/levels but you'll probably have the levels not to need to equip them by that point.

I'm most familiar with the Apple IIGS version that I've had since I was a kid, but I got a version that runs under Windows 98SE from dmweb.free.fr around 2000 or so.
In the Apple IIGS version, your options are limited before the Teowand. You can use Chani's moonstone (+3, same as Leeyla) if you take her, Nabi's staff (+2 mana, same as Sonja) if you take him. Tiggy's wand and the wand you get in level 3 only give +1 mana, which is enough to pre-cast LO, but you can't cast any spells with just 1 mana as the lowest influence of YA requires 2 mana at LO level.
So if you have Halk or Stamm without Chani or Nabi, you can't really do anything until you get the Teowand.
There are several other items later on such as just about all the staves, the vorpal blades, the Inquisitor, scepter of leif, and dragon spit that can teach mana, but the Teowand is the earliest available item that grants enough mana to start training spells if you did not take Chani or Nabi.
I actually kinda like a party of Halk, Stamm, Sonja and Leyla better than say Tiggy, Gando, Boris, and Wuuf or Chani.
Although I usually like to pick the ones with the greatest load carrying capacity with Halk, Stamm, Hissa Daroou or Sonja. Which ever strikes my fancy.

I have done it. I found that if I am toe-to-toe with a screamer, I can repeatedly war cry while it screams at me, and I can gain the first priest level before I even get any flasks. It takes twice as long to gain the second level. I also gain fighter levels at the same time.

This is the method I used in my speed runs to give Stamm some mana (and levels of course) - war cry.

Certainly have

The pic doesn't prove much, since you could just as easily have used the Teowand from level 4. Although going solo would make that difficult since your only means of attack while doing so would be tossing stuff, and the worms are not the easiest thing for using that tactic on. Not like mummies, trollins, gigglers, skeletons, or vexericks.
Heck, that's mostly how I handle Creature Cavern on level 3, just keep tossing clubs at the creatures.