Might and magic VI

Best class and why?

Best party composition and why?

Best skill / attributes and why?

About to dive into this motherfucker for the first time…

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Cleric. Tbh not the "best" class per se, but an absolute must for any party. Knight kinda sucks because of no spells, druid also, because of limited light / dark spells near end game.

Starter party is alright. Otherwise 1 cleric, 3 sorcerers. You can have them learn mail / plate armor and other might-skills due to a "bug".

Almost all skills have their respective uses, getting schools of magic to expert / master asap for dem sweet spells should be a priority, though.

Attributes should be distributed according to class: int for sorcerers / archers, per for paladins / clerics, luck for your designated lockpicker etc. Endurance should be distributed evenly, though.

Nice, thanks for the feedback. That armor exploit seems a bit cheesy, but whatever.

So SSSC will just be a walking wall of death magic? How can I boost my mana capacity so I don't run out all the time? Does mana regenerate?

Can't go wrong with the standard Paladin/Archer/Cleric/Sorcerer; you get access to pretty much all the skills you'll need, plus, everyone can cast spells, and since in 6 you can master all skills, it makes it even better. That's why I prefer Paladin over the Knight, the HP difference isn't big, they can both use the same weapons and armour, and of course, being able to cast spells trumps over not having that ability. The Archer is essentially the same as the Paladin, except with elemental spells instead of clerical ones, and a few less choices in equipment; axes and chainmail is the best they can equip IIRC. You can also replace one of those two with a Druid if you fancy that, which has the biggest MP pool of all classes since it uses both Personality and Intellect, and they can cast all spells with the exception of Light and Dark. The downside is that their promotion quest is the most tedious of them all

If you like the idea of raining death with massive spam of spells, use Cleric/3 Sorcerer. You could grab a Druid, but they're IMO inferior because they can't use Light/Dark, and their class quest is annoying as fuck, unless you really enjoy sleeping at an inn dozens of times for the right day to pray at some shrine.

Make sure to grab Repair, Disarm, Identify and Merchant skills, one skill for each character, doesn't matter who gets it.

Spare your gold. Seriously, don't bother buying weapons and armors all willy nilly, instead, save the shekels for spells and good rings/amulets. You'll get weapons and armors frequently enough from dungeons

Also, if you don't mind cheesing, there's a house in the first town that'll teleport you to a shrine surrounded by dragons (pic related, just click around) Quickly use the shrine on all 4 to get +20 to all attributes. Go online and check the potion combinations, make 4 of each of the permanent attribute black potions, another +15 to all stats that way, but it is a bit time consuming. There's a bug on a version of the game (forgot which one) where you could get plate armor on every character, regardless of class, and on the same version there was yet another bug to get infinite experience.

Mana (like hp) increases via level-ups and stat gains in per / int (depending on class) and class-advancements. You can gain regeneration for both mana and life via enchanted armor pieces. For early- to mid-game potions, which you can brew yourself, totally suffice.

Holy shit, thanks man - this is fucking golden info.

I'm using the GoG version with a mouselook mod. Is that patched with the armor exploit removed?

Going for something like this FYI. Meditation seems like a very important skill for boosting mana pool.

GoG version might've patched it. I did it ages ago, but it was on a non-patched physical copy. Same thing with the experience bug.

Also, some more tips for ya:
- All stables have horseshoes, about 2-3 of them, and they give you +2 skill points when used on a character, and when the map respawns (which can take from 6 months to 2 years, all in-game time obv.), the horseshoes also respawn.
- If you use wands, make sure you leave them with 1 charge. The vendors will still buy at full price. Mo' shekels for mo' spells.
- Be careful with your reputation. Initially it might seem that it just checks if certain walking NPCs might talk to you or not, but it's actually important for Light and Dark masteries. Also, any Temples of Baa that you find, don't donate to them, because that'll tank your reputation.
- Try not to cry when reaching Darkmoor.

IF YOU PLAN TO MASTER LIGHT MAGIC, MAKE SURE TO LOOK UP A GUIDE

This was the jewry that cucked me out of 100% completion.

In order to achieve master rank in light magic, one of the two most powerful schools of magic, you need an "exalted" reputation when you approach the tutor (along with a huge sum of gold I believe).

This would be fine, if you could farm rep. But because this is an old game, you can't. There's a finite amount of "reputation" available in the game, and it decays over time. So you sort of have to "combo hero" in order to open up a 5-minute window in which you can teleport to the tutor's house (using water magic) and shake that fucker down.

Make sure to do light before dark if you plan on doing light. Dark magic is retardedly easy. Just go to any normalfag area, cast Armageddon, and boom bottom-tier rep. But you're not hitting exalted after that.

Can four knights beat the game?

I don't see why that party setup couldn't succeed, but it would be a bit tedious slowly walking where you need to go.

If it's for a challenge run why not solo Sorcerer? Hell, aim for level 300 while you're at it.

In SSSC how many should get light and dark?

How viable is a DDDD squad just using elemental magic and healing?

4 cute girls!

On my SSSC playthrough I had 3 Dark and 1 Light.

Light primarily for Hour of Power and Day of the Gods, and sometimes Golden Touch if I was too lazy to sell, Dark for Shrapmetal, Dragon Breath, Armageddon and Day of Protection. No real need for several Light masters in the party honestly, especially with enough skill points the buff will last you for days, assuming you don't fuck up your reputation.

Speaking of Light magic, follow this advice
It's an old game and really damn awesome, but the reputation thing is a huge flaming dick, so much so they immediately removed that aspect in the sequels.

Is this the best M+M rpg?

I beat like– 3 in like– 1990.. or something

I don't think a bug actually exists in any current version of M&M 6 (or 7 for that matter) where you can use equipment not meant for your class. If anything it was a vanilla bug that would only exist on the original CD version without patches. There's also the unofficial Grayface patch that fixes a number of things so I'm sure with that (you said you're using mouselook so I assume you're using that patch) you wouldn't experience any glitches/exploits.

As for the game itself, there are a number of different combinations you can do, though people tend to favor spellcasting from the powergaming perspective as being most powerful, but I think it depends on your point of view and the style of play. Might & Magic 7 has some varying differences and some additional classes that make variety in party classes a bit more appealing, but Might & Magic 6 will definitely prepare you for the gameplay elements in 7 if you later play that one.

As for starting out, I've found there are a few different combos you could go and do pretty well with.

Vanilla starting party the game picks out - Paladin, Archer, Cleric, Sorcerer:

Obviously this is built around balance and versatility for a new player who's getting a hang of the game. You'll have some spellcasters who can learn the late game magic skills of Light & Dark magic with the Sorcerer and Cleric, some support in other spell schools with the Paladin & Archer, and enough hit point and armor where you can take a few hits with everyone but the Sorcerer who'll need more healing. You have a Cleric as a primary healer off the bat, and some additional support from the Paladin later on.

Knight, Paladin, Cleric, Sorcerer:

A slight alteration from the default party setup, you rid yourself of a bit more spellcasting in favor of having a tank who can wear better armor and have more HPs than the Archer class. And since the spell schools the Archer gets will be more dependent on flinging damage spells than casting support spells (since the Sorcerer will focus exclusively on spellcasting and be better at it) you won't lose much in the way of spellcasting since the Paladin is a better tweener class than the Archer. Some later game healing spells will be more useful with a pure tank to distribute hit points around (since there's one healing spell in particular that evens out hit points so to speak, so that's one way to distribute hit points from tanky characters to low HP characters without using a lot of redundant healing spells). The first promotion quest for the Knight is also very easy to do compared to every other class, so before getting into the stretch of the midgame you'll already have a pretty powerful tank. Since the Knight & Paladin can both use plate armor and the Archer can't, they get a big advantage in the defense department so that's another advantage to not having an Archer in there.

Paladin, Druid, Sorcerer, Sorcerer:

Paladin gives you early game tankiness who can make use of various forms of equipment the main spellcasters can't use (can use anything a Knight can but just with a lot less HP to work with, and different promotion quests). The Druid will be bad in close combat and have annoying promotion quests, but will be able to fill a lot of roles right from the start of the game that the Paladin or Sorcerer couldn't by themselves (Paladin doesn't have much in the way of spell points for healing until they get promoted at least once or are a decent level). You get a few Light/Dark magic spellcasters who could each specialize heavily in one or the other (or both ideally if you plan on mastering them in all spellcasting), but you'll have to sacrifice skill points elsewhere to make that happen or level up a lot. Lots of spellcasting and you can still make some use of that spell which shares life between the party, making the Paladin's HP pool useful. You'll have a lot of magic users who can fling around offensive spells as well, so make use of area of effect spells that'll keep trickling down the HP totals in succession till those monsters go down.

cont'd in next post

cont'd

2 Cleric/2 Sorcerer or 1 Cleric/3 Sorcerer:

I've never been too big on parties exclusively featuring spellcasters, as they feature a big learning curve and are heavily reliant on using temples to make sure you can heal a lot (since you can only heal so much in the early game with spellcasting), but later on when you have the money to fill out the spellbooks of your characters you'll be able to dish out quite a bit of damage, and gain access to the game's most powerful spells with every character for tons of spellcasting. Personally I've never really played with these kinds of parties, but a lot of what I've seen has listed these two combos as probably the best options for all out spellcasting which some fans believe to have the best endgame power (when enemies will be flinging all sorts of stuff at you). You'll be relying heavily on enchanted equipment like rings and amulets since your characters won't have a whole lot of hit points to work with or heavy armor (Clerics can use chain mail and shields, but likely won't invest a lot of skill points into them). You could also roll with a Druid in one of those spots instead of a Cleric, but the promotion quest will be more annoying and armor they can wear won't be as good (they'll just be able to offer some versatility in the spellcasting with a lot of spell points).

Holy shit, thanks for such a well thought out post. Really appreciate the feedback.

cont'd

Knight, Knight, Paladin, Sorcerer:

My personal favorite of the combos I've played (my next few posts will focus on this combo, text limit separating it into different posts), you get a party that will be capable of running through dungeons decently from the get go and can make good use of a lot of the equipment you find from dungeons. I've played the most with this combo recently and up to the end game, so this is the one I can offer most insight and tips on.

It may seem like beefiness doesn't hold up as well as spellcasting does, mainly cus you can't put your fighters in front with your spellcasters behind them protected from harm (another game like Wizardry 8 allows you to do this, along with isometric RPGs in general). On the same token, the Sorcerer is the one character who'll generally end up needing healing so that's where most of your healing spells will go instead of spreading out amongst 4 characters.

K,K,P,S discussion cont'd

K,K,P,S discussion cont'd

The Sorcerer will have a ton of rolls to fill, and you'll want to get a few of the promotion quests done as soon as you can for a few levels worth of experience points and giving the Paladin & Sorcerer a better spell point pool to work with. The Paladin doesn't get Light/Dark magic and won't have a bunch of spell points to work with like a Cleric, Sorcerer, or Druid, but he gains access to the critical healing spell which shares life between the party and makes sure the Sorcerer will get all the healing he needs from the Knights and the Paladin having so many combined HPs. And unlike repeatedly using healing spells to heal HPs directly, that spell doesn't need to be used at the same frequency to keep your weaker characters (like spellcasters) from getting knocked out, so the Paladin doesn't need the same amount of spellpoints as the major spellcasting classes to make good use of it. And they get to use all the same equipment a Knight can, so if they focus on just one or two weapons they can be really good offensively similar to the Knight, and still wear plate armor. So all they sacrifice in return is more HPs, which 2 Knights will already have plenty of, and a few skill points that would normally go into weapons/armor cus they can cast spells while Knights can't.

This party is also good because generally certain spellcasters will be capable of becoming Master level in certain secondary skills, based on what attributes you want higher for spellcasting purposes. Personality is generally used on characters who you want to be your merchant and master that (Paladin, Cleric, and Druid want Personality for spell points), Intelligence is generally used on characters you want to be able to gain mastery in identifying items (Sorcerers, Archers, and Druids want Intelligence for more spellpoints), and then generally Knights, Paladins, and Archers are the ones you have work on other secondary skills like disarming traps, repairing equipment, etc. Though every character will want at least one point in Merchant and one point in Learning, since Merchant pays for the cost after a while for each character (since it applies to everything you spend money on, like training) and Learning will add up over time with extra gained Exp. even if you don't put skill points into it.

Sorc, sorc, sorc, cleric.
Because magic > might.

K,K,P,S discussion cont'd

With this party combination, it's ideal that once you have the skills for it, every character in the party should be dual wielding, with the exception being the Sorcerer if you want them to use a Staff (I forget which, but Expert or Master skill in Staff adds to your armor class which can be helpful for someone that doesn't wear much armor). Swords and Daggers can be wielded in a character's off hand where a shield might normally go, Daggers with Expert level and Swords with Master level. A Sorcerer can dual wield Daggers somewhat earlier since mastering Sword I think has some secondary requirements that may take a bit to reach, but once your 3 fighters master the Sword skill then it becomes using Swords in the off hand, and usually a different weapon in the main hand (to maximize two skills and good pieces of equipment instead of one). Using a Spear one handed, a good Axe, or another really good Sword (if you have that many to go around) make good main hand weapons for dual wielding, and you won't be using weapons 2-handed later on since dual wielding is better (also the magical properties of two weapons is nice).

Shields won't generally be what you want, since the Sorcerer will be getting hit more and have less hit points to work with, so this party composition is all about offense and taking out your enemies first before they can knock out your Sorcerer or Paladin. Shields will still be useful for a while in the early game, up until you get mastery in Swords. In the very early portions of the game some two handed swords or axes might be better than a sword & shield combo depending on what you find in the dungeons as loot. With this build you heavily play things by ear since good equipment helps a lot compared to more spellcasting oriented parties, so having the 3 fighters all master using swords then master in one other weapon for the main hand can be useful (the Paladin could master in Mace if you want, but them dual wielding two swords may still be best as it saves them skill points for spellcasting you'll end up needing). So say one Knight uses Spear/Sword, then the other Knight used Axe/Sword, then the Paladin could use Sword/Sword, then the Sorcerer could use Dagger/Dagger as their weapons, and eventually you'll be able to enchant weapons yourself to make use of a lot of things or sell.

K,K,P,S discussion cont'd

If the Paladin gets taken out in a dungeon, then most times you'll want to retreat as he's your one form of healing (and if he's taken out, there's a decent chance your Sorcerer has already been knocked out). Early game generally temples will be your best form of healing, and Knights cost the same gold to heal all those HPs as a Sorcerer so it's not a bad deal, just slightly monotonous until you get more self sufficient for dungeon crawling (health and mana potions can help out for a short while, but only at the early levels as potions like that are way underpowered in this game).

As with weapon skills in some respects, some secondary skills should be specialized by a single person so multiple party members aren't using skill points on something you don't need them using points on. One character specializes in Identify Item, one specializes in Merchant, one in Disarm Trap, one in Repair Item, etc. Some skills multiple characters will want to learn like Body Building or Meditation, since those are useful for any character that can get them. Diplomacy is the only skill you don't really need at all, so you can skip that. Also I'd probably skip Staff and Dagger for your 3 fighters, and probably Mace as well. One other little thing is to not put points into Leather Armor or Chain Armor for your fighters, as plate is generally better and skill points into armor are a bit marginal at the early levels (and this party is offensively based, so points into weapons and spellcasting are better). Save skill points for Plate Mail if you end up focusing on armor later, and Water Magic is usually the best to Master first with your Sorcerer as the benefits for the really good spells with it are really high (teleporting saves you a lot of IRL time and headaches, and helps finish some quests faster/better). Water Magic is basically your form of fast travel in this game, though it won't happen for a while still.

Some small general tidbits about the game below:

Go ahead and hold the wallet on most things in stores. Mostly you'll be going there to sell your stuff as loot from dungeons and chests, monsters, etc. You can find a lot of chests outdoors too so always explore the map even secluded areas. Spend money wisely or you'll quickly run out, due to spending money on training centers to level up (and the cost rises as you get higher in level). In stores only the rare useful magical item should be bought, or later on when you can enchant regular items into magical items, unenchanted stuff you may find useful for enchanting. Other money will be spent on spells for spellcasters, training up, or leveling up skills from trainers you come across. You need money for lots of things and it's a bit difficult to try grinding for money.

You can find horseshoes in the Stables of every town which give characters two skill points extra. Find them and hold onto them with one character who carries miscellaneous/quest items, and save them for one you need a few extra skill points to level a skill up later. Is useful when you want to train up to Expert or Master in something without wanting to level up again, so having the horseshoes available when you need them is a good convenience when you're visiting a new town with new trainers.

Perception can be used, but it's effectiveness is marginal unless all 4 characters have a high skill in it. Generally it's better to have one character being really good as disarming traps than all 4 good at evading traps. You'll want one character to get at least Expert in it at some point cus of a dungeon you need to do at some point, but compared to Might & Magic 7 the skill is a bit marginal for finding 'hidden' goodies and stuff, so I never really used it (and by the time you may need it, you can easily put a few points into it then visit a trainer to get expert in it).

Diplomacy is a skill you won't need at all, since peasant NPCs in town are vast and you'll eventually find someone you can talk to/use at some point without needing to use valuable skill points into Diplomacy. The secondary requirements for mastering it are also a bit different from most other skills, so since it doesn't really benefit combat or equipment you can just skip it (in other games Charisma/Diplomacy stuff might be good since they may have dialogue trees this game doesn't have).

cont'd

cont'd

Early in the game spellcasters will want to specialize in one or two spell schools in particular (especially if having more than one character who can use Elemental Magic, Self Magic, etc.). Later on though you'll have the skill points and horeshoes available to branch out and level up other things for minimal amounts of skill points, up to the point you can get something up to Expert then eventually Master. Earth Magic and Mind Magic should be focused on last as far as getting up to Expert & Master, all the other spell schools have their various advantages in focusing on earlier so you can pick any of those mostly.

Clerics can only use Mace and Staff as weapons I think, so if you have one in the party they'll have priority in getting the party's best Mace (and probably the best shield since they're the one class who can't dual wield anything, and won't have plate armor like Knights and Paladins). Having your characters with the most hit points hogging the highest armor class items doesn't benefit the party as much as would be in other games, since spellcasters will still end up getting hit a lot. Playing things by ear for equipment and needs/wants.

Those swords in those big rocks you find throughout the game can be pulled out, providing you have someone in your party with a high enough Might stat. You can use spells or various magical means to raise your Might and pull one out, and early in the game a two handed sword could be useful to have around for a bit since the damage is much better than early game one handed swords.

cont'd

You can enchant items, then sell them if it's something that doesn't end up with an enchantment that's helpful for you. So you can make a lot of extra money this way, or buy an unenchanted item from a shop then enchant it yourself for something you may be able to use.

In Might & Magic 7 the dynamic will be much different, as you won't be able to Master/Grandmaster any skill that you want (the skill system is more specialized in that one, whereas Might & Magic 6 you can potentially Master any skill you can learn). But in Might & Magic 6 as a result, the Paladin is generally the much better tweener spellcaster as elemental magic focuses a lot on offensive spells and needing a big spell point pool to make the most of it. Self magic later on doesn't rely on as many repeated castings to be made useful, so higher amounts of spellpoints aren't needed to make use of those spells. Paladins also get to wear plate, and Archers don't. Might & Magic 7 Archers will be able to Master/Grandmaster skills the Paladin won't be able to, in Might & Magic 6 any character can Master using a bow though unlike Might & Magic 7.

Light Magic and Dark Magic as mentioned before are reputation dependent. And it's much harder to raise your reputation to higher levels than to lower it (it's pretty easy to do something evil to be hated, like killing townsfolk). If you want Mastery in both, get Light Magic first as there are few opportunities where you can reach the super high reputation needed for that, and donating to temples only gets you a cut or two above average reputation (unlike other games where you could donate a bunch of money and grind reputation points perhaps, not so here).

Most peasant NPCs you can hire won't be all that useful, but the ones that give you extra gold or experience points are the ones that hiring in the first town will net the best benefits with. Most are pretty redundant so don't waste your money on them, as food is usually a non issue for example, or one time uses of healing which are only marginally useful (and you have to remember it in the middle of combat, when an actual Cleric would do).

You can pick apples off of trees for extra food, and this food can go over the normal limit you might get when filling up your packs at an inn. When an area of the game resets and refills with monsters, you can head back and get more food from the trees, just look out for red specks on them that look like apples.

Wizard is best class because day of protection and hour of power are OP.

cont'd

It's not really made clear by the game without a manual/guide, you can use the Enter key to enter turn based mode, and switch between real time and turn based. In some situations it will be helpful for you to do this, like for spell casting or making sure you hit certain targets with attacks/spells. Also it helps ensure that your ranged attacks/spells won't miss as much since critters in real time tend to move diagonally forward at you until they're almost right in front of you.

Spells that can hit accurately from great distance while moving around are generally great for hit and run tactics outdoors. Meanwhile, there are some spells you can hit enemies with while they may not be able to hit you due to them not being able to reach you or lack of vision. The Sparks spell can shoot out little sparks that fall down below if you aim it right or are on stairs/a cliff, hitting enemies that may not be able to reach you or attack. The Ring of Fire spell will hit enemies through walls and various obstacles, so with a high spell point pool you can whittle down or even kill enemies if you see them on the minimap with the use of the Wizard Eye spell. If you're a full story above/below them the spell probably won't hit them, but you can test it in some areas to find out. Very useful if you have mana regeneration with your spellcasters too.

My favorite party combo has always been Paladin/Knight/Cleric/Sorc, with the first two dual wielding swords and the Sorc tossing shrapmetal with dual daggers, which they do amazingly well with I might add.

I recently went through with three knights, a druid and an archer though, which was fun. All you really miss is Hour of Power and Shrapmetal, which you can very easily live without if you know your shit.

K,K,P,S discussion cont'd

One other thing I remember that's a key with this build, is that your Paladin and Sorcerer for a while will need to be helpful in casting a lot of buffing spells for your party. Body & Spirit magic have some useful buffing spells, while Fire and Air Magic also have a few helpful ones (some you get pretty early too). Earth Magic has one useful one, but it's not the most useful spell school to put points into compared to the others. Be sure to recast Haste as when the spell wears out it'll give your characters the 'weakened' status, which means using Cure Weakness on all of your characters. Light & Dark magic become really useful for the mass buffs they have, so your Sorcerer later on will be really important for beefing up the rest of the party to kick ass and chew bubblegum.

I started with M&M 3 back in 1994, then played 4/5 (World of Xeen) as part of a compilation box I bought a couple years later. As much as I loved them, and still do, I honestly think 6 and 7 were the best of the bunch. The open movement creates more strategy beyond simply "stay one box behind and shoot arrows". Plus it makes the world feel more alive when you actually get to walk through a town and see NPCs strolling about. The other added niceties, such as NPC companions and bitchy shopkeepers make it better too, IMO.

I also like that fan patches for 6-7 add mouse look and WADS too.

Make that 2 knights, a druid, and an archer. Blame my hangover.

cont'd

Those skull pits or things like trash heaps you should only search if someone has a good perception skill, otherwise bad things happen.

Save your game before drinking out of any well or fountain.

Use the quick reference page to help you remember things like potion combinations and what particular barrel fluid colors do for your characters. The active quest list you could also check up on regularly.

As a fun little aside, save your game and then head into a tavern and get everyone drunk on alcohol. Some really funny stuff there.

As a general rule, you should end up saving often, and I'd carry at least 10 save slots in case you need to backtrack for any reason (any RPG is always helpful to have multiple saves in separate slots, as some dungeons may end up proving difficult or wrecking you on your first try).

Without any magic to help or teleport around, and your only form of healing being regeneration or healing potions for 10 HPs a piece, and without any buffing spells unless you manage to keep a bunch of potions around, it would be an incredibly difficult and tedious process without at least one spellcaster (even a Paladin would do okay if just for some buffing spellpower). Also if a character died or got some other status effect, you're spending a lot of money going to temples or stockpiling status healing potions to deal with those, and you can't fast travel to a temple from out of a dungeon (and no Torch Light, Wizard Eye, etc.).

Yeah, it'd be a major pain in the ass, though I've never actually tested if Knights can use scrolls (they shouldn't be able to, but the devs may have allowed them to).

One final thing I remembered that may be important to remember, is that any character that's knocked out, dead, etc. (essentially not in fighting shape) won't gain experience points until you heal them of their condition essentially. So if your spellcaster keeps getting knocked out while you kill enemies in a dungeon for example, they may earn less experience points than your other characters do, since they were conscious for the kills. It's one thing to keep in mind when going out and fighting a bunch of stuff, as you'll want to do all you can to keep all party members afloat, or make a tactical retreat to a temple to fully heal then return to continue battle so everyone gets Exp.

Install the patch and the mouselook it makes the game much better playing with WASD and mouse look.

Oh dang, remembered another thing.

Whether in real time or turn based mode, using the mouse pointer and clicking on an enemy will attack them. Usually more useful in turn based mode, to target fire particular enemies and make sure you kill them one at a time. People/creatures that aren't hostile will just talk to you if you click on them, but using the A key to attack will attack anything even friendlies (and if you have a ranged weapon equipped, shooting a bow in town and accidentally hitting a peasant will make everyone go hostile, so don't hit the A key in town or cast any offensive spells). Accidentally killing peasants will destroy your reputation early and turn all nearby peasants hostile, which in almost any RPG is bad (and you can get arrested at Castles if your reputation is bad, you don't want that).

Meditation is important, but I wouldn't start out with it because you don't get any free equipment/spellbooks from it. Starting off with a magic skill means you get a few spells for free at the start, and some of those spells are more useful to have early on than a tiny amount of extra spell points 1 rank in Meditation will give.

Also keep in mind to strategically spread out secondary skills with whatever party you choose, so you can spread out skill points more evenly where applicable. And keep in mind that later on character stats may effect their ability to do certain things, like become more proficient in a skill.

So what have you decided to finally roll with on your first playthrough OP? Sticking with the party you had in the screenshot or trying something different? Having fun so far?

...

Since this is pretty much the designated M&M thread I'll just post this here.
I've started playing M&M today. The first one.
So far it's pretty good. I'm done mapping Sorpigal, excluding the jail and the rooms I can't get into jet, and have started grinding for some experience.
They keyboard controls are wonderful! Everything can be done so fast and intuitively.

Pic related is my current map of Sorpigal.

*yet

I've also just noticed I've placed the torch at 11,4 on the wrong side of the wall.

I've done a Knight run. It's actually not that bad, with a gate master follower. Wind master helps too, although having both gets expensive.
3 Knights and a Sorc is 10x better though.

How do knights kill dragons and titans? Those enemies seem really tough they can just break your gear and instant kill if you have to get close seems too hard.

You can get a follower which casts teleport spells to temples and when you get blasters everything else stops mattering so yeah 4 knights can easily beat the game.

You get repair on every character.
Knights actually out damage most spells when geared properly.

Knight does more damage than a lvl 60 point blank Shrapmetal with a darkness ring?

Sharpmetal isn't even that good of a spell
It does physical damage and since its divided into 7 sources a good chunk of it is going to be absorbed by the enemy.

What sort of damage can I expect from a knight though?

You only need to get repair on one character actually, you can repair any equipment you want in the middle of combat since the game pauses in the inventory screen. The rate at which equipment breaks later on the in game is extremely annoying though, since you have to spend way more time repairing stuff instead of focusing on combat (and enemies don't end up having to worry about broken equipment, while it's a pain in the ass for you to have constant maintenance of your equipment no matter how high tier it is). Maybe every now and then equipment could break like during some critical hits, but later on it happens way too often.

When buffed up with spells, equipment, magical weapons, dual wielding, bonuses from skill points and Expert/Mastery, etc., they can end up doing major damage in a hurry. So can a Paladin too, later on you can consistently get around 50-60 points of damage per hit depending on their Might values and how buffed up they are by spells and equipment. Light Magic buffing spells are most effective with some beastly party members to take advantage of the spells

I always thought for the casting cost Meteor Shower and Starburst were very great damage dealers, casting at a safe distance where you can dodge powerful attacks and just sort of whittle enemies down, switching between the spells depending on an enemy's resistances. Dark Magic tends to do more top end damage, but you spend a ton of spell points on those spells and the area of effect on Starburst and Meteor Shower is really good, and with a generally better recovery time so you can get more castings in. Plus the Fire & Air spell schools will be really useful for some other spells you're bound to use too, so pumping skill points into those will be quite effective.

Yeah you can do that but its incredibly tedious to change screens like that. Its simply more convenient to teach it to everyone as you get excess skill points anyway

Swords and daggers allow dual wielding which gives double damage for one handed weapons.
At around level 20 skill you can attack almost as fast as you can fire your blaster so you would be getting 5 or so turns per character for every turn the enemy takes. If your sword is enchanted with "Of Darkness" you don't even need to heal.
You can give two of your knights maces which will allow you to essentially stunlock enemies

usually at the point when armor breaks every 10 seconds my party is invincible anyway and I just let them fight in red armor.

When you're finished with the map you could post it somewhere online like Gamefaqs, so others could use it as a resource to help them through the game (some older RPGs are really annoying to play sometimes without some maps to help out with coordination and dungeons especially).

I might just do that. For Sorpigal it's not that important as that map is provided with the game already but I thought I'd map it anyway simply to get used to it and because it's actually fun.

I'm grinding for level 3 on all my characters and some better equipment before I go down into the dungeon of Sorpigal. I expect to be able to do so today.
I've added locations of guaranteed encounters after saving at the inn. The blue zone with the encounter at the temple is an anti-magic zone and thus a pain in the ass. I usually avoid it.
One can encounter monsters everywhere else but those are just random encounters.

Keep us posted if you do any other maps and stuff, or have some different thoughts about the game to offer.

I've got a decent draft done for the dungeon below Sorpigal. They should call it "the gauntlet". You'll see why when you notice the guaranteed encounters in the south-west.
Different colour for the maps so the fields with darkness are actually visible. The dungeon in general is dark so you need to cast light but the fields with darkness are darker still. Spellcasting isn't otherwise hindered.

The map for Sorpigal itself isn't done yet. I've been taking a look in the closed rooms and found a couple guaranteed encounters that aren't worth it thanks to the trapped doors. You'll spend more gold healing poison than you get from killing the monsters.

The difficulty amps up quite a bit at places. In Sorpigal itself the sign at the jail telling you not to enter isn't kidding! I've stopped mapping up there due to three Hippogriffs and two swarms of Killer Bee. They fuck your shit up!
In the dungeon there are some tough encounters as well. Pegasi are noteworthy.
Despite me getting the best armor the smith has to offer I'll have to level a bit more. I've got some at level 4 and some at 3. Feels like I need at least level six on all to deal with the jail.

Overall I'm having fun! Balance is quite good, you always feel like you make progress and you always have something to do. I have a bit more than a week vacation still and will keep going.

Cool cool.

Bump for the Might & Magic fans/lurkers. I wonder how the OP is doing with their M&M 6 playthrough atm.

you can already find em online m8

could be doable if you had weapons with vampiric enchantment
but traveling around would be tedious

...

Which one from the series is the best to pick up for a first timer?
I remember playing from my dads library it when i was in kindergarten, couldn't understand shit since couldn't read english but still had fun

3 or 6

pretty much anything from 6-8

Thanks guys, i'm gonna go with six since that was one that i played.
Also DL link to save anyone else the trouble: mega.nz/#!HBxGBBYK!w_NNE3_Q6HO_kSgWGfC4weegpE5m9u76u-rhEarw5_4
To install under Win7 x64 i had to unpack the archive _setup and launch _setup/SETUP.EXE, then unpack the ANIMS file into the install root, used GrayFace patch and that got rid of copy protection as well.
i just remembered going out with dad to pick up M&M 8 and then coming home and playing the shit out of it without any idea what was going on
sorry for a bit of OT, wasn't expecting to get feels from this thread

You can buy the game from GOG for around $10 in a collection with all the earlier Might & Magic games, I'd recommend that option plus the Grayface patch. Easy to save and archive the GOG installer plus the patch, and easy to install for people who just want to pick up the game and play without worrying about technical stuff.

gog.com/game/might_and_magic_6_limited_edition

On that note, I would also recommend M&M 6 for newcomers or those who haven't really played the games yet. It's the most fun, prepares you for Might & Magic 7 and 8, offers free roaming movement unlike the earlier games, and the voice acting makes the atmosphere of traveling around really enjoyable. Have fun picking out what class combinations in your party seem best, and I guess me and some other anons gave advice earlier in the thread about what some interesting starting parties would be.

OP here, really enjoying it. I printed out the world map on 4 pages of A4 and feel like I'm at the start of a huge journey.

Really appreciate the help in this thread. I'm going SSSC based on my earlier config.

I've been playing 6th for an hour now, went with the default Paladin/Archer/Cleric/Sorcerer classes, it's as fun as i remembered it being, but ive got a few questions:
How much experience do i need to level up, ive got like 1500 atm? do i need to manually trigger the level up process or do the skill points come automatically?
How to git gud at combat? I've mainly been using ranged attacks to slay goblins and mages, since melee basically never hits and does poor damage, is there a trainer i can visit to help my paladin git gud?
also F4 is fullscreen toggle, if anyone else was playing for the first time and didn't read it somewhere

but you could have open this on your second monitor instead of wasting all that ink
the-spoiler.com/RPG/New.World.Computing/might..magic.6.1/mm6.html

to get from level X to level (X+1) you need additional (X+1)*1000 experience

(example to get to the 4th level from 3rd you need 4000 exp)

generally to get to level X you need to have ((X^2)*1000)/2 experience in total

Thanks for clearing that up for me

True, but where's the fun in that?

I had this on GoG before I nuked my account over their new games with DRM. No torrent on kat.cr

Can someone spoonfeed me?

Why didn't you just keep the account around for redownloading your stuff? It'll stay there forever, or you can save the installer then back it up in the cloud somewhere or on local storage if you really hate GOG. I store all my stuff locally and I still have my GOG account.

They would look fabulous as liches!

I just wanted to say that sprites can get absolutely fucked! Nothing is so annoying to fight. They also always come in packs. Fuck 'em!

Melee damage in the beginning isn't very good, nor is it accurate. Once you bump your stats a bit and get better equipment you'll start shredding.
Every new game I give the letter to the guy in the inn, get his letter and immediately go hand it over in Ironfist, and once you do that you'll have 5k+ gold on your pocket, which will fund bow skill for everyone plus the actual weapon for everyone, just make sure you buy the cheapest ones. That makes the very early game much easier.

Make sure to get sword and spear skills to master on your Paladin, that way you can use a spear on one hand and a sword on the other. The drawback to using a spear with one hand is that it loses a bit of its damage, but that's why you offset it with a sword, and it has to be a good one. Why not double swords? Because spear on one hand still deals more damage than a sword, assuming they're around the same "tier", of course.

I feel like I have to level a whole lot more. There are certain enemies that just devastate me.
Centaurs a shit because they sleep your guys. Of course always both my cleric and mage so I can't cast awaken.
Sprites a shit because they curse. It's always at least four of the fuckers and after two rounds of cursing they hit like freight trains while you don't hit anything.
Pegasi just hit hard by default because they hit up to four times.

When does my paladin get to cast stuff? Gems seem plentiful and having another character that can power cure when the situation becomes dire would be a great help.

Just buy all the armor there is in sorpigal and get to around level 5 before going out. Most enemies miss a fully equipped knight and paladin due to them having high AC. I think the paladins learn first level spells around level 8 or 12.

I have all the armor but I'm level 4 on all. I'm in Eriquin now and have delivered the scroll. I guess I'll just grind some here and see what the local blacksmith has to offer.

As you put more skill points into your weapon skills, increase your Accuracy stat, and get higher quality weapons that have something like 3D3+3 to their damage, you'll have a higher chance of hitting stuff. That +3 bonus to your damage for example will also provide +3 accuracy to your melee attacks.

One of the fountains in town in the first area of the game will give your characters a boost to Might, which will probably increase their melee damage a bit.

In other games sprites tend to be pushovers/low tier units.

Oh, they are. They have about 3 HP and do shit for damage. But they have higher initiative than everything, come in packs of at least four and all curse you all the time. So in effect they end up being nearly unhittable and hit themselves for 10+ easily. Not to mention they buff whatever enemies they turn up with through that.
Skeletons hit decently hard but are easily dispatched by turn undead and having low HP. With sprites in the party they hit for 15+ at least.
For reference: My knight at lvl4 currently has 37 HP, the next healthiest chars have 27.
See the problem?

Later on they will likely be a joke or at most annoying. But for now they spell death.

...

Dang, sounds like annoying enemies who jinx your party then whittle you down with attacks that tickle you until they kill you. The worst way to die.

Any reason my spell points don't increase when I put on a +intelligence ring? I thought Intelligence was responsible for SP?

I put a +2 ring on and nothing changes.

I'm guessing that they do a shader or whatever to color shift the pinker pixels towards the chosen palette, but why are there three ones off to the side?

diminishing return

How important is it you get good loot (relics) from the dragon sand chests?

I mean I can spawn a new party and go check them and just reload if I get SHIT can't I?

beware that in some games and patches the content of chest is created upon entering map with said chest not upon opening them

also its not so much important you will get good loot even if you wont get any relics but savescumming is still the best way to get shit you want

As mentioned in the stat chart, you need to reach a certain level of Intelligence or Personality with a spellcaster to get a spell point increase. And there will be diminishing returns as the stat requirement gets higher and higher for the next benefit to spell points.

Getting +1 extra SP for 25 extra Intellect between 125 and 150 is WORSE than getting 5 extra SP from 350 to 400 (i.e. 1 SP per 10 intellect).

So, it's diminishing returns up to about 350 and then not…

Anyway, there is some kind of class bonus applied too right? What is that? Does it matter if you get promoted too?

Yeah, certain classes gain more spell points as they level up. Paladins and Archers are more evened out between gaining hit points and spell points as they're tweener classes, while the Druid, Sorcerer, and Cleric get more spell points and less hit points for their leveling.

Promotions do end up increasing how well you level up with your abilities, though it does also increase the cost of training up to gain levels at training centers so that tries to balance it out a bit (though by then you should have the money to train whenever you want).

Also different classes get different bonuses applied for things like the Body Building skill or Meditation skill. I'd still recommend getting spellcasters up to the point they can get Master level of Body Building, since hit points keep them alive (and one requirement for Mastering that is stat based I think, and their stats can be increased temporarily to meet those requirements with equipment). Obviously Meditation should have first priority for spellcasters, but since they still get hit in combat the most due to their lesser armor Body Building helps keep them from getting knocked out as much so occasionally dropping leftover points into that I'd recommend at some point.

the uninstall button
because this game is essentially an unrefined skyrim

?

...

OP here.

The amount of depth and customisability I have seen so far annihilates Skyrim.

There are a meaty number of dungeons and they seem, so far, to be pretty well put together and unique.

Also, towns / cities have more than 2 fucking buildings.

are you guys as excited as i am for the skyrim remastered edition?

It is a joke on purpose no need to put such effort into your replies.

A party based RPG is not the same as an action adventure game they are different genres.

I can do one too "No need for solitaire as call of duty is the natural evolution of this game"

You becha boyo. I'll be Buying that game as Dunovo is a tough nut to crack amiright fellow RPG enthusiast? For Skyrim is not only an RPG it is the apex RPG with well thought out system and an infinite amount of character customization and character builds.

No. I sank an embarrassing amount of time into Skyrim before coming to the conclusion that it was enormously broad but absolutely wafer thin.

The initial excitement when I saw the world map for the first time, and slowly made my way around the entire perimeter, mapping new places and exploring them as I went, faded rapidly. I realised that the dungeons were all extremely basic, with minimal level design. Combat was a complete joke. There was no real depth.

I would take 10 very well crafted dungeons over 100 copy / paste dungeons any day.

I can't think of what Skyrim would need to do, beyond basically being a completely new game rebuilt from the ground up, to make me want to play it again.

They are going to add spellcrafting and character stats back in along with everything else that made it an RPG they are also adding back in levitate.

This is all lies BTW

Since this is the closest thing to a dungeon crawler thread, I've got a question about Wizardry 6. Is rolling a character with 18+ bonus points as essential as people make it out to be, or can I make do with settling for 10 points without having a ball-bustingly frustrating experience?

It will make 6&7 easier but in 8 all your stats get boosted if you import a team.

good luck getting attribute to 200 let alone 350

Wizardry doesn't fuck around and you'll have enough of a challenge in 6 with a lot of bonus points. If you want to play the party through 6, 7 and 8 you should take the time to re-roll for something good. You don't want to regret rushing character creation several hours in.

Is there an unofficial patch or something for M&M7? I installed the gog version and my movement is all fucked up

For Might & Magic 6, 7, and 8 there's someone who goes by Grayface who made unofficial patches for all of those games. I'd install those for all of them.

Those games were made with using the arrow keys in mind for moving, and keys like WASD were used for other functions on release (since it's party based in first person and not an FPS type game). The unofficial patches add in mouse look for the games I believe.

Search for Grayface patch, which fixes some bugs and adds new functions like quick save and mouse look.

thank you

What's mouselook useful for in those games? Haven't played them yet.

problem with the original game is that you move with arrows and need to use keys "a" and "s" and you need to use mouse sometimes as well so you have these 3 positions your 2 hands need to cover so you constantly switch between them

also playing with wsad and mouse is just way more convenient

...

How difficult would a AAAA or DDDD run in 6 be?

Never played it but I remember fapping to that dragon @ age 12-13 or so because stuff like pic related didn't exist yet.

Alright, holy shit guys. I'm still grinding because I'm a fucking moron.
If anyone of you ever plans on playing M&M1 don't leave Sorpigal until you're at least lvl 5 on all your guys.
You'll usually want to talk to the leprechaun to teleport you to Erliquin so you can deliver the scroll the old man in Sorpigal's dungeon gives you to the wizard in Erliquin. Go do that but not before lvl 5.
Erliquin has not a single one guaranteed encounter, making grinding already a massive pain, and the dungeon mobs are often super strong, can't be fled from and are behind closed gates that'll poison your guys if the unlocking fails.

Reaching lvl 5 with my mage felt amazing. Fireball does so much for you in this game.

It would be doable cus you get the Water Magic teleporting and stuff, and a number of damage spells and some nice buffs. The problem is that Archers don't get to use all the same equipment of Knights & Paladins while still not having the same spell point pool as the primary spellcasters, so it isn't ideal. It'll also take a long ass time before you get a chance to get around to their promotion quests, unlike the Knight, Paladin, and Sorcerer who can take care of one or two of theirs a bit earlier on.

All Druids would be doable kinda like Archers would, their massive spell point pools would certainly give you a lot of potential to cast bunches of spells. Without Light/Dark Magic though, and the annoying promotion quest stuff for them, you'll just be spending a lot of time making sure you cast spell after spell so you can stay alive and kill your enemies. You'd also have a lot of skill point allocation you'd have to worry about and making the logistics of that work, along with the fact it'd be easy for the party to die from one trap in a dungeon or one misstep where you're surrounded. They'd have access to a lot of buffing spells to help out, but since Druids are kind of crappy in close combat the buffing spells don't help as much compared to have a more balanced mix. All in all, you'll be using a lot of Fire Magic to get the job done since that has the widest range of damage spells and you'll need to use those a lot.

OP here. Where should I be in the game at level 25? Playing SSSC and have around 200 SP on each character, I find I'm running out of mana quite quickly, even though I seem to be chewing up anything I have encountered so far.

I have basically explored and beaten most/all dungeons in New Sorpigal (except ghariks forge), Castle Ironfist, Misty Islands, Bootleg bay and Free Haven.

Have expert/master in a bunch of magics, aiming to load up on meditation and body building. Have done both the S and C promotion quests.

I am absolutely loving this game. It's awesome. I have basically explored like 5 tiles of the 15 tile map. Can't remember the last time I felt that a game had this much real content.

About the mana problem, you can either rest or just teleport to a temple and heal only your casters.
Take your time and explore all map tiles going north and then east when you hit something inaccessable.

North and west I meant

What about the Meditation skill? That gives lots of extra mana, right?

It does. Getting Expert and Master for a primary spellcasting class will help out a good deal too, the issue becomes generally replenishing mana, and that's where Town Portal & Lloyd's Beacon help. Town Portal to New Sorpigal for cheap healing which gives all your spell points back, or Town Portal/leave a beacon next to water pools that replenish a good deal of mana (Silver Cove I think has one fountain which restores a decent amount of mana in town). It's more useful to restore both health and mana at the same time though than restoring mana, using healing spells to heal up, then restoring mana again. At the point in the game the OP is, healing at a temple isn't that big of an expense and is worth it for the convenience since you don't have mana potions which do a good job of restoring spell points (unlike a hack'n slash type RPG like say, Diablo 2). Mana regeneration items will help somewhat in dungeons and while out fighting stuff, temples are the quickest and most convenient way to get mana back though.

The reason I don't tend to rest outdoors or in a dungeon is because it uses food (which I like stocking up on until I absolutely may need to use it up), and because rest can be interrupted by monsters while sleeping in an inn is 100% safe. Having rest interrupted means some characters may start off asleep with combat, which sucks.

To help with the mana problem, choose spells carefully. Area of effect and allowing monsters to cluster up helps get more damage out of a single spell (like Ring of Fire, Fireball, Meteor Shower, Starburst, etc.). Also, use buffing spells on the party to help their combat ability somewhat, and get used to using arrows a bit to save on mana. If you can take out the enemies you're fighting without needing to fling spells, go ahead and do so. Once you have spare points, it may be worth it to get Expert in Bow, just because it adds another decent option for ranged attack that costs no mana (and magical bows can get some nice magical properties from Enchant Weapon).

OP here. I have around 300 SP in each of my party, but using high powered Air, Water, Fire and Body spells (SSSC are masters in one of each).

So, basically I can chew through tough enemies with ease, but will drain my mana after maybe 10 - 12 casts.

For crappy mobs, I have bow expertise and decent bows, so can just shred weaker monsters for no mana use.

I would ideally like to get SP regen items on everyone, since health isn't an issue. How does one go about SP regen? Do items stack? What is the SP regen rate anyway (is it points per second or % of mana pool or what?).

I could continue boosting my meditation mastery since every point in that seems to add like 20 mana, which is great.

Mana regen items aren't fast enough to be reliable. Its like 5 or 10 points per 30 minutes in game.
Just use temples, gold has very little use anyway.

I don't think mana regen items stack, though I'm not sure if there's some way to test that. So I just think you'll need one, then you'll need to play inventory tetris to get the most spell points on your characters with Intellect/Personality stats, along with items that increase spell points directly

At some point it may be a decent choice to hold back on using spells as much as you can until enemies close in, hitting with arrows and the occasional hit & run melee attack (attacking with daggers and leather armor on means a fast recovery rate after attacking, so more attacks). Using turn based mode may help as well, if you want to whittle down the health of enemies then use an area of effect spell like Ring of Fire several times to take out most of them in short duration. And with 3 Sorcerers that's 3 castings you could potentially do at a time, so you can blast enemies clumped up and surrounding you or trying to hog the walls near where you are (Ring of Fire works through walls and obstacles, and across bodies of water between you and enemies).

You'll still use temples a lot, but combined with small bits of mana regeneration, spell point conservation, and maximizing the effectiveness of your spells (using Incinerate isn't always the most cost effective way of dealing damage, since damage can be highly randomized) you can last a bit longer through a dungeon area before needing to transport yourself back to town. If you run out of mana, just wait a bit for the mana regeneration to kick in until you have enough spell points to teleport towards a temple and heal up (if deep in a dungeon or in a map grid where you can't use Town Portal to travel to, make sure to place Lloyd's Beacon effectively too. Use it to return to a dungeon or transport to a hard to reach area of the world map).

Meant to say one per character. Same for health regeneration, which can also be useful and slowly heal you up over time

Temples are a ball ache to keep travelling back to though - How long real time is game time?

How can I get mana regen items? I want to try and test this and stacking them directly

Lloyd's beacon friendo

Town Portal to every town and visit the Alchemist shops to see what rings and amulets they have. You can buy items with mana regeneration or go ahead and buy ones that are high quality enough for enchantment. Save your game, then keep using Enchant Item until you get some items with mana regen.

About a minute or two of passed time in real time is equivalent to about an hour of game time, time spent in menus or turn based combat doesn't really make it seem that way though. You can click on the calendar after timing a minute to see how much in-game time passes as you don't do anything for a minute, or check the duration of buffing spells to see how much time is left after waiting a minute in real time to figure it out.

Town Portal and/or Lloyd's Beacon make it easy to get to where you want. New Sorpigal is the ideal place for healing as the temple there is cheap price wise and very easy to get to if you use Town Portal. You Town Portal to the fountains and the temple is a short walk away.

I haven't yet gotten Lloyds beacon…might explain it! What magic guild is it?

Water magic, along with Town Portal.

Water Magic. Town Portal and Lloyd's Beacon (instant transportation) are both Water Magic. Master level of Water Magic allows you total freedom of being able to travel the entire world map with minimal use of of stables and docks to travel (except for hard to reach areas).

Hard to reach areas I guess I could expand on and say places you generally have to wait for a certain day to travel to via docks (some places can only be reached via boat, and only from certain docks close enough to reach that area). One or two areas can only be traveled to by walking if my memory serves me correct, which takes about 5 days time and 5 units of food for travel. So for those areas, it's useful to set a Beacon with Lloyd's Beacon (when possible) to make going back to those areas easier, or areas with castles that you can't Town Portal to whenever you want. Depends on quests you want to do, areas you want to finish, etc.

How much do these spells cost? I'm still trying to save up for flight….!

Prioritize town portal and lloyd's beacon over flight.

Flight is really useful, but not until you get to certain areas where using it will allow you hit & run tactics outdoors against strong enemies that are tough to take down.

Understood. Also read about blasters…

Do blasters make magic obsolete? How easy is it to get them?

obligatory SSeth

It'll be forever before blasters become relevant, and by the time you reach them you'll have plenty of points to pour over into the relevant skills. Don't stockpile any points just to wait for those, you'll want all the skill points you can going into skills you'll be using a lot of the time, instead of just the very end portions of the game.

I just realized on that cover the mage lady and the knight aren't aiming for the dragon from their perspective.

I dunno, it looks like the artist has his dimensions okay. Probably just a matter of calculating movement in a still picture that makes it hard to see it the way the artist did.