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 Posted July 25th, 1999. By The Blue Orc.An In Depth View of Party Creation The strongest parties consist of characters who complement each other in combat as well as outside of combat. Playing style, balanced development and your overall game plan also should have major effect on how you set up your initial party. You are going to have to live with them a long time so make sure you're going to get along with them. Remember not to use only one of the considerations below to create your party. Combat Style considerations will often directly conflict with the considerations outside combat. In MM7 party creation is the art of the trade-off.Combat Style: There are two types of combat in MM7: melee and ranged/magic. This is where playing style comes in. If you like to get up close and slug it out you need characters with decent melee abilities; if you prefer to stand back an watch your enemies die from a distance then you want to lean towards ranged/magic characters. A party balanced between melee and ranged/magic can also function but will always be at a slight disadvantage as some of your characters will always be fighting in a mode that doesn't favor them. Take for example a party of Paladin, Monk, Druid, Sorcerer, at range the Druid and Sorcerer will shine but the Paladin and Monk won't contribute much as their ranged attack is poor (almost non-existent for the Monk). In melee the Paladin and Monk will really knock some heads together but the Druid and Sorcerer will tend to get the stuffing beat out of them quickly due to their lower armor class and hit points. You won't always be able to choose the combat mode you fight in but by building a party with a particular style of combat in mind you can try to lead your opponents into the style which favors you whenever possible. This doesn't mean a balanced party won't work for you but you should be aware of the effects of your choices before you put 40 hours into the game and find your Monk character just isn't fitting in with your Monk, Archer, Druid, Sorcerer party anymore. A ranking of how capable each character class is at conducting Melee vs Ranged combat would look something like this (note: this is not to say, for example, that a Knight deals the same amount of damage in ranged combat as in melee it is to say that the Knight with Master Bow is better at dealing damage from a distance than the classes to the left of him):
Outside Combat: Non-Combat magic can make your visit to Erathia a breeze or a chore. There are 4 spells which are hard to live without Invisibility, Town Portal, Fly and Fire Aura. These spells will make your life much easier so if possible plan to have at least one character who can cast them. This means having a magic user(s) who Master Air, Water and at least Expert in Fire. It is unfortunate that Invisibility is an Air spell instead of calling it Chameleon or Blend and putting it in Earth magics but it does means that you don't really have to learn Earth Magics except for optional spells like Stone Skin and the Stone to Flesh spell. Do not ignore the Fire Aura spell, it allows you to make better magic weapons than your likely to find for a very long time. Lloyds Beacon is also very useful for getting in and out of dungeons quickly late in the game but requires GM in Water magic. Miscellaneous skills also play an important part in MM7. Some classes have many high misc. skills while others have almost none. In this case I am referring to misc. skills which effect the entire party. These skills are Alchemy, Disarm, ID Item, ID Monster, Merchant, Perception and Repair. Disarm, Merchant and Repair are critical for any party:
Merchant - The amount of money you have and what you can buy will be strongly effected by this skill. Money is easier to get in MM7 but you still need it. Repair - Even with Harden Item (a must for armor as far as I'm concerned) your character's armor will always seem to break in the middle of critical battles. Without a high Repair skill your character will have to stand there naked until you can go to a store and get it fixed. Can make a big difference if you don't like to reload a lot. Alchemy - Can be substituted for a second healer in your party. Since you don't have to use it in combat, if you can find a nice +10 or +15 Alchemy item you can only equip it while your brewing potions. A Divine Power/Cure potion with a power of 40-50 can do a lot of good real fast and is fairly cheap to brew. ID Item - Saves money identifying items and lets you use them right away if they are good. Can be replaced by money and patience however. ID Monster and Perception - Can make life for you as a player much easier. The can be replaced however with repeated inquiries to websites/bulletin boards. I'm not sure there is a benefit for getting higher than a Master rating in Perception. Keep in mind what other skills your characters will have to develop. For example sorcerers have good ID item & monster and alchemy but they also need to develop multiple magic skills so extra skill points are always hard to come by for sorcerers. Knights on the other hand have very few things to spend skill points on but have poor miscellaneous skills. Divide up skills between characters as best you can and if you have to 'dump' too much on one character plan to help them out by giving them horseshoes and possibly the learning skill early. Healing: You will get hurt - at times badly. You need some way to heal your characters besides paying for it at a temple. This means having at least one good healer. The best healer is the Cleric and then the Druid after this quality drops rapidly. A secondary healer (anyone who can learn body magic) is a good idea in case your primary healer is unconscious/dead. Alternatively, a good Alchemist can be substituted for a secondary healer although you will need Master level in Alchemy in order to create the very powerful Divine Cure and Divine Power potions (although how you mix the potions determines their effectiveness). Overall Game Plan: Where is your party going? Clerics do better with Dark Magic because Self magic doesn't have strong attack spells which work on everything. Black magic can make a Cleric suddenly become one of your most powerful characters as they can heal and kill (sort of a Super Druid with armor). Sorcerers can excel with either Light or Dark magic but with dark magic gain Immunity to certain self spells. The defensive nature of Light magic means that you really don't need to advance more than one character in light magic have any other characters work on magic areas which improve their attack spells. The only other character which is strongly effected by the light vs dark is the Monk. The Monk can either improve his magic (Light) or his Disarm skill (Dark). Whether you choose Light or Dark will make a big difference in what he can and can't do. Party Member Rundown: There is no perfect party except maybe for you. There is no one character class which is a bad choice by themselves. It is a matter of how you put them together and what you expect out of them.
Cleric - A powerful character for the Dark side. The best healer available, the best Merchant and can Repair items. Decent Melee fighter but usually spends a most of his time propping up other characters who got smacked around. Main disadvantage is the poor choice of attack spells available most are completely ineffective against many monster types this is of course eliminated by choosing Dark Magic. Do the math: a Priest of the Dark has good attack and defensive spells, decent Melee and can wear armor and use a shield. Monks - Can develop into good Melee fighters and the only class that can Master Disarm besides a Thief. They either have poor magic or poor disarm, bad ranged attack and no merchant or id abilities. One big advantage Monks have is they are the only class which can use items to improve their attack and defensive abilities (i.e. items with a plus to unarmed or dodge skill). Thieves - Good Melee fighter and poor archers with many miscellaneous skills. Thieves have the best Disarm and good Merchant and ID Items skills. With two good daggers they can hold their own against any other Melee fighter. Disadvantage is fewer hit points than Monks or Knights and only the Knight has worse magic skill. Basically if you don't want to have to worry about Disarming chests your only real choices are a thief or a Dark Monk. Druids - Second best magic user and healer all in one package. You don't get the best spells but you get a lot to choose from. Slightly better melee fighter than the Sorcerer (Master Dagger is better than Master Staff) and can use a shield but that's not saying much. Best alchemist around so you won't have to hunt down all those black potions. A good choice for the light side where one light magician is enough. Disadvantage is poor hit points, inability to GM in any magic and so many skills to choose between you have to be very careful not to spread the Druid too thin. Also they can't learn Light/Dark magic. Paladins - Good backup healers with a strong melee attack. Best Repair skill and one of the few classes which can wear plate armor. Disadvantage is few spell points and inability to master any magics until second promotion means they don't have enough juice to be a primary healer until late in the game. Rangers - Good Melee fighter with good archer skills and many miscellaneous skills. Excellent at ID Monster and can Disarm if no one more qualified is around. Disadvantage is they are bad at lots of types of magic and start out with no magic abilities at all. Rangers do however have the easiest first promotion quest (talk about a cakewalk). Their attack spells won't ever amount to much but they can serve as a secondary healer. Archers - Despite having a poor reputation from MM6, Archers are good Melee fighters, decent magic users and have that GM in archery. They can learn Disarm but by the time they can become Experts you party is likely to be a smoky memory (bring lots of salve). They can attain GM in Perception if you can find a use for that. Knights - Awesome Melee fighting ability and great archery but not much else other than a good Repair skill. Can learn Merchant if you aren't greedy because he'll only get expert level in it. Use the above to guide your choices. Where you opinions differ from mine go with yours (and suffer :-) ) because this is your party not mine. There are no absolute right answers when the objective is to have fun and the game is as well balanced as this one is. See you in the Tavern. The Blue Orc |
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Have you read Lord Ardyn's editorial, The Undeniable Charm of Might and Magic? If not, click here. |
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This section is intended to contain Editorials from members of T.E.L.P. and everybody else who would like to share their opinions on the world of Might and Magic, CRPGs, computer games in general or whatever else is on their minds. If you have some material you would like to see posted here, please send an email to . |
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