GameBanshee Forums

I'm thinking of going through the game again, this time with a Knight, Archer, Cleric and Druid.
Do you for see any difficulties? How would you distribute the skills between the party, and especially the Magic? Probably Light, Dark and Body for the Cleric, Spirit, Water and Air for the Druid, Fire for the Archer. Earth and Mind are of secundary importance, I think.

Thanks for any advice!

One maxim that's good for all M&M games, Archery for all ASAP.

I know. Archery + backpedaling.

I'd try getting water magic up as soon as possible, the travel spells speed up the game a lot and enchanting items helps with the money. Being able to fly early is also useful, it might be better if water and air would be handled by different characters.
On the long run having the knight handle all the non-casting skills only one character needs sounds best, but it's too painful at the beginning. I'd at least have someone else handle the merchant skill at the beginning, because of the expensive training you'll want to make everyone a master merchant later in the game anyway.

Don't worry too much about the skills, you can always gain new levels and skillpoints by revisiting respawning areas.

I'm trying to recall M&M VI: can the druid get the highest magical spells? I know in VII and VIII that isn't the case. Only the mage could.

Yes, in VI the Druid can get all spells, except for Light and Dark.

GawainBS wrote:Yes, in VI the Druid can get all spells, except for Light and Dark.

Might be a good thing to get the mage instead, then, since that gives you two magic users with the light and dark casting classes.

fable wrote:Might be a good thing to get the mage instead, then, since that gives you two magic users with the light and dark casting classes.

I know, but I was mainly thinking of a way to play with a Druid finally.

Knight, Druid, Sorcerer, Cleric is too squishy, for my tastes.
Knight, Archer, Sorcerer, Druid might be doable as well. I believe lots of arcane spells can make up for lesser access to Light/Dark.

Yeah, 3 magic users and one tank wouldn't work too well, I agree. Frankly, I've never liked playing druids in the VI-VIII games. They just didn't seem to have enough to offer in compensation for the loss to endgame power. But I can see why you'd want to play one.

That's exactly what's my problem: I really want to play one, a "less frail" sorcerer, a "more offensive" cleric, a defender of nature, but I also want access to all spells and I also want to avoid too tedious combats.

Maybe I'd have to replay VII instead. It's either Light OR Dark there...

In MM6 a party consisting of 3 druids and a sorcerer or cleric is very powerful. Unlike in MM7 no other class can be better in the 4 elemental and 3 clerical spell schools than the druids and they can master both bows and melee weapons.
Knight, archer and paladin have only more hitpoints and a little broader melee weapon choice which lousy compared to the missing spell casting power while sorcerers and cleric get only light and dark in exchange for 3 or 4 spell schools.

In MM7 druids are rather disappointing compared to this, they can't grandmaster any of their spell schools. Their main benefit in MM7 is alchemy.

A M&M thread, and I almost missed it. I'd never hear the end of that...

Anyway, your party is pretty good but I'd ditch the Knight for a Sorcerer. Archer, Druid, Cleric, and Sorcerer is a powerhouse spellcasting party that will reduce the tedium once they start getting levels.

P.S. - Get the magic school skills for your choices since they're the most expensive.

DaveO wrote:A M&M thread, and I almost missed it. I'd never hear the end of that...

Anyway, your party is pretty good but I'd ditch the Knight for a Sorcerer. Archer, Druid, Cleric, and Sorcerer is a powerhouse spellcasting party that will reduce the tedium once they start getting levels.

P.S. - Get the magic school skills for your choices since they're the most expensive.

I'd get frustrated because of the squishiness of this party, not to mention that they can't use all items. (A gimmick of me.)
The combination of very few spellpoints the first 10 levels and the monetary expenses of getting spells for this party are enough for me, personally, to never start it.

How vulnerable a party is depends on the most vulnerable character, and you need a vulnerable character for light/dark magic. I don't think you'll enjoy doing the tedious and expensive temple visiting and repairing option when the knight is the lone surviver in the dungeon. Paladins and archers are nearly as vulnerable as casters.

You won't be able to defeat your enemies much faster early in the game with a group without magic users since there's no difference in the bow skill and no big difference with melee weapons. It's even possible that more casters will speed up the game in the early areas since you have more healing spells available and therefore don't have to leave the dungeons that often.

If you don't like spellcasting much even two knights, a cleric and a druid are sufficient to handle everything on the the other hand.

Knight, Archer, Sorcerer and Druid will probably be it then, with the Druid being the main (and only) healer.
On another note, did anybody ever found any use for the Diplomacy skill?

None. But then, I saw no need to beg or threaten anybody.

My point exactly...

Anyway, thanks for the advice, kmonster and fable.

Yep, Diplomacy is completely useless. You could have used potions to make up the difference for low values. There are plenty of potion ingredients on New Sorpigal. The Paladin can also use full plate mail, but I'll accept your decision to use the Knight. Give everyone single weapons and the shield skill that you can since there is the possibility that the armor recovery bug and another timing bug are still present even with the unofficial Mok's 1.3 patch.

That bug may still be out there, after all this time? I thought it was fixed several years ago.

I think your party will be weaker if you take a sorcerer instead of the cleric. Early on clerical magic is more useful than elemental magic and late in the game he'll have light and dark magic for the offense. If the druid is the only healer he won't be able to concentrate as much in offensive elemental magic as you want.