Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven

General

• Unlike Might and Magic 7 and 8, Magic is much stronger than Might due to the rudimentary nature of the skill system that was more polished in the later games. Therefore caster heavy builds will fare much better mid to late game.

Basic overview of classes

• Knight - Your basic meat shield. Can use all weapons and armor. Has the highest HP but no MP. Great for dumping misc skills on but the Knight's power tapers off around mid-game.

• Paladin - A hybrid of the Knight and Cleric. He gets all of the weapon and armor skills and also the Clerical spells. He's a bit less beefy than the Knight, but he can also heal you back up to fighting health in no time.

• Archer - A hybrid of the Knight and Sorcerer. He gets all of the weapon skills, most of the armor skills and Elemental magic. Just consider the Archer the offensive version of the Paladin. Slightly less beefy, but has more ways to deal damage.

• Cleric - The primary Mind/Body/Spirit caster as well as one of two Light/Dark casters. If you're running a caster heavy team, a Cleric is going to be the tank of the team due to better armor and HP.

• Sorcerer - The primary Elemental caster. The other Light/Dark caster and probably the best class in the game. Only can use Leather armor and limited weapons, but who cares when you can nuke everything.

• Druid - A hybrid Cleric & Sorcerer. Can't cast Light/Dark but has all Self & Elemental spells. Tons of utility packed into this squishy caster. I'd say they are the second best class in the game.

• I always skip Knights on my team as they tend to be more of a liability in the long run, but if you want a challenge, bring one or more along. Paladins and Archers are okay if you want something more beefy than a Cleric or Sorcerer, but the don't get access to Light/Dark spells, which ends up being worse in the long run.

• More often than not, I'll run teams like: C/S/S/D, C/C/S/S, D/D/S/S or C/D/D/S. The first one gives you 3 L/D casters, 3 Elemental casters and 2 Self casters for example. Add more Slemental casters for more offense, more Self casters for defense and L/D casters for offense/utility.

Stats

• Stats have certain thresholds for bonuses and negatives, but they are based on breakpoints: 13 in a stat is baseline 0. 0 in a stat a -6 bonus to that stat. From 13, it goes up a point at 15,17,19,21 and then 25.Then every 5 points up to 40, then 10 up to 50, then every 25 stat points after that up to 350. For the most part, 75 or more in your main stats by the end of the game is fine.
  • Might: Adds to melee damage
  • Int: Adds to SP for Elemental casters
  • Per: Adds to SP for Self casters
  • Acc: Adds to bonus for Atk and Shoot
  • End: Adds to HP and decreases recovery from enemy attacks
  • Spd: Adds to AC and subtracted from recovery time
  • Luck: Added to resistances and status effects

Skills

• You typically want to focus on one melee weapon skill and bow for everyone. There is no point to mastering multiple melee weapon skills. Bow is super useful for everyone.

• The same applies to armor skills, focus and master the best armor you can use and shield for any class that can use them but is not dual wielding or using a two handed weapon. Which typically means only the Cleric.

• Magic skills are a bit different. Light/Dark have the most powerful skills and should be pumped up for people who use those spells. Of the Elemental spell trees, Water, Air and Fire are all useful and have good spells. Earth is the only one that is pretty useless and can be ignored minus a couple of spells. With the Self spells, all three trees are decent. Below is a list of important spells IMO:
  • Fire: Torchlight, Prot from Fire, Firebolt, Fireball, Haste, Ring of Fire, Fireblast, Meteor Shower, Inferno, Incinerate.
  • Air: Wizard Eye, Prot from Elec, Sparks, Jump, Shield, Lightning Bolt, Implosion, Fly, Starburst
  • Water: Awaken, Prot from Water, Cold Beam, Ice Bolt, Enchant Item, Acid Burst, Town Portal, Ice Blast, Lloyd's Beacon
  • Earth: Proc from Magic, Stone Skin, Stone to Flesh.
  • Spirit: Bless, Remove Curse, Heroism, Raise Dead, Resurrection
  • Mind: Remove Fear, Cure Paralysis, Cure Insanity, Psychic Shock, Telekinesis
  • Body: Cure Weakness, First Aid, Cure Poison, Cure Disease, Flying Fist, Power Cure
  • Light: Golden Touch (saves time running back to town), Destroy Undead, Day of the Gods, Hour of Power, Sun Ray, Divine Intervention
  • Dark: Toxic Cloud, Shrapmetal, Day of Protection, Moon Ray, Dragon Breath, Armageddon

• As for Misc skills, some skills you'll want everyone to have, but many others only need one person to have it:
  • ID Item (One): Nice to have if you don't have a Scholar hireling with you. As long as your ID Item character is alive, you can ID with them.
  • Merchant (All): 1 point for everyone at a minimum to get a 10% discount on everything. If you want someone to Master this, have it be one of your Self casters as 30 Per is needed to Master.
  • Repair (One): You can shuffle items between characters during battle even while in turn based mode to have your Repair character do their work.
  • Bodybuilding (All): Extra HP is important
  • Meditation (Casters): Extra SP is important
  • Perception (One): Expert is needed at a minimum to complete the game.
  • Diplomacy (None): Useless IMO
  • Disarm Traps (None): Use Telekinesis instead
  • Learning (All): 10% bonus to XP is great for a minor gold investment. You can bump this if you want, but it's not needed.

Hirelings

• You can talk to the people walking around town and some are useful and give bonuses, but they take a percentage of the gold gained plus there's an initial fee. Here are some of the more useful ones:
  • Apprentice/Mystic/Spell Master: 2/3/4 point bonus to ALL spell skills. 5/10/20% take plus 500/1000/2000 initial hiring. The Mystic is a good medium.
  • Factor/Banker: Takes 5/10% gold found, but gives you a 10/20% bonus to gold found.
  • Bard: A bump to your rep, makes mastering Light Magic easier.
  • Healer/Expert Healer/Master Healer: Cures all HP once per day. Expert cures conditions besides Dead, Stone, Eradicate. Master heals everything. 5/20/50% gold found cost.
  • Scholar: Unlimited item ID and 5% bonus to XP for only 5% gold take. Amazing early on.
  • Gate Master: Once a day Town Portal. 20% take. Great early on.
  • Wind Master: Once a day 2 hr Fly. 20% take. Great early on.

Quests you can complete without fighting any monsters

• Bringing Sulman's Letter to Wilbur Humphrey (Which you should have done already)

• Retrieving Lord Kilburn's Shield and returning it to Wilbur Humphrey (The chest is guarded by werewolves and is trapped. You can lure the weres away by flying and then use the flying mechanism to avoid the blast from the trap)

• Drinking from the Fountain of Magic and returning to Albert Newton (Promo quest for your Sorcs)

• Knight's Nomination from Chadwick and returning to Lord Osric

• Repair the Temple Stone in Free Haven by hiring a Stonecutter and Carpenter and bringing them there. Then returning to Lord Stone (I suggest doing this one last as you lose your Wind/Gate Master hirelings)

• Fix the price of all stables and return to Lady Fleise (Once you accept this, do it as quick as possible for more gold. Also, remember to grab any horseshoes around the stables.)

• Visit the Altar of Sun on solstice or equinox (Druid promotion)

• Ending Winter for Lord Stromgald

• Return the Statuettes to Sweet Water, Kriegspire, Dragonsands, Mire of the Damned and Bootleg Bay (suggested that you have your own Town Portal and Fly spells handy)