I'm going to try this out, any tips?

This reminds me of how bad Ubisoft fucked up Heroes of Might and Magic VII. Fuck, now I'm depressed.

But HoMM3 was the last game in the series?

Fuckoff

At least M&MX was a somewhat decent game.

Why

because Might and Magic came first

Draw maps. It adds to the fun of the game. You can use a program for that instead of graph paper. There are a couple you could find but my personal favourite is Grid Cartographer 3. It's free. The paid pro version gives you some neat things but you can totally do without them.
Pic related is my map of Erliquin in M&M 1.

As for general gameplay tips:
Two classes that can heal, two classes that can cure sleep.
Your mage is a slow burner, being complete crap at first but will kick ass later.
Give every char in the back some kind of projectile.
Poison fucks your shit up. Be aware of that.
Unlike in Diablo or other loot-based games it's actually not a bad idea to buy equipment. Even if you find something better you'll usually have someone to reach the old stuff down to.
Bump into every wall in dungeons.
Write down notes in a text file with a note where you read it so you remember the context.

Have fun. The M&M series is actually a lot deeper than one could think at first just because they are old.

Played the shit out of MM 3-5. Some tips for 4 and 5: A sorcerer and a thief / ninja are a must have in almost any party. Barbarians are superior to knights regarding gain of HP and attacks / round and an all around better class because of how weapon and armor prefixes work and scale. Must have spells: jump, teleport, etherealize, lloyd's beacon, day of sorcery, day of protection, implosion, mass distortion. All combat buffs scale with level of the caster, making clerics and sorcs the top recipients for +level rewards, followed by thiefs / ninjas. Money will become a very important ressource later on because training fees rise exponentially. Depositing your money in a bank grants 1% interest every 10 ingame days. Bows scale very poorly, making them only a viable option in the early game. AC becomes rather unimportant later on, because most damage you'll receive will be undodgeable and elemental.

P.S.:
Red: Strenght
Yellow: Accuracy
White: Luck
Purple: Speed
Green: Endurance
Blue: Personality
Orange: Intellect

I would recommend starting off with 2. 3 and onwards adds a real-time element to the games, which can lead to many unexpected deaths until you realize there was something behind you attacking you. 2 is strictly turn-based, and nothing besides traps can damage you outside of combat. I know, it's not as pretty as the later games, but at least you don't have to worry about getting assfucked by a dragon you didn't see when you stepped outside.

First off, do you want some serious fights or just the experience? If you want some really fucked up fights(vs 1000+ enemies), go PC. Otherwise, play a console version. Do you enjoy grinding? If not, go ahead and cheat in 2. Don't worry, you actually need to work hard to remove all the challenge. Push your stats to maximum, give yourself godly gear, you'll still encounter groups of enemies that can rape your face. That's just M&M2.

Once your wizard reaches level 7 or so, you gain access to some killer spells. Namely, disintegrate. The majority of attack spells operate on RNG, and are also effected by resistances that 75% of all enemies will have in one form or another. Disintegrate works on RNG for the first half of the spell(the insta-kill effect), but isn't effected by RNG OR resistances for the second part, which is a flat 50 damage to 6-8 enemies. Doesn't sound like much, but when you encounter enemies that can't be touched by any physical attack and are immune to every other attack spell you have, you'll be glad for it.

Get the Merchant(jew) skill for someone like your archer. Go buy Skill Potions. A bought Skill Potion will have 5 uses if I recall correctly. The person with the Merchant skill can sell the potions with 1 use left back to the store for the same price you paid for it. A single use of a Skill Potion gives a temporary 5-level boost, gone after the next battle. Keep in mind many of your RNG stuff will be based on level. You can easily go from doing 26 damage in 1 attack to 300+ damage in 18 attacks by chugging Skill Potions before a major battle. Broken? Fuck yeah. That's M&M2.

Oh, and no matter how powerful you get, do NOT challenge the Demon Kings outside of Sheltem's room. You will die. I'm not joking. Best I've ever done was to wipe out 15 before my entire party was eradicated. If you manage to defeat them, please post a screenshot.

Don't forget your maps

What was the code for leaving the first town again? I can't find it in the manual.

games.playazlounge.net/xeen_docs/Keywords.pdf

I made this one from my playthrough in MM6

Ahh primitive copy protection, how fun

filename

I kinda miss the days of badass maps and manuals that doubled as copy protection

but M&MV world of Xeen has a in game Map system and one of your party draws maps if they have the topography skill. You can even see a small part of the map in the scroll in the top Right if you toggle to it (I forget the hotkey)

I need a trigger warning for Darkmoor but I still love it, what a great fucking dungeon design.

what did they fuck up?

I know there's an NES version of m&m 1 but should I just nab like the GOG version or something? pic unrelated.