I used the pregenrated party. It's a very well balanced party, with good stats (it will take you a long time to roll better) and equipment.
Since you can add two hirelings you can have all eight classes in the party.

After MM1 and MM2, MM3 will be easy. The monsters are fewer and weaker.

Beware of unnatural aging. That killed the first party I tried the game with.
If not using hireling, I think I'd drop either the Ninja or the Robber, and either the Paladin or the Archer. Barbarians are easily the best melee fighters, so I would definitely have one in the party. Their armor restrictions become meaningless pretty soon, as the difference in Scale and Plate armour is marginal compared to the bonuses you get from all kinds of protective equipment.

All characters need the Crusader skill, but characters are not limited to only two skills; they can have any number of skills.

Mr. Wizard I've never used, since I think it's cheating, and the game is not so difficult that you need to do that. Besides I think it makes you lose XP.

Thanks.

There are 10 characters here (with the addition of druid and ranger), so even when taking hirelings I have to drop 2...

Ah...was it that many?
Hmm...in my fairly recent game I see I have the default party of Paladin (based on the designer of the game), Barbarian, Knight, Robber, Sorceror and Cleric. My hirelings are Ninja and Ranger.

I don't think it matters much, though, except I'd have a Barbarian, a Sorceror, a Cleric and either a Robber or a Ninja. A Ranger or Druid also, if they have unique spells (I don't remember). And probably a Knight as the last character.

Some classes get certain skills by default, and others you have to buy. There is one place where you can get all skills for a character.

In my opinion, the sorcerer and archer spells are the most important so I would recommend them in a party. You'll want two fighters, so Knight/Barbarian and possibly Ninja would fit the bill there. A cleric and paladin get the same spells, but cleric is far better for more spell points. I like to pick a ranger for the spells that sorcerers and archers don't have access to.

Greets,

perhaps my questions are also helpful for others:

1- Do you think an elf archer will have 2.5x more HP than a sorcerer by the end of the game?

because:
Class HP; Elf modif; Total HP per level;
Archer 7; -2; 5;
Sorcerer 4; -2; 2;

( but I don't know about Endurance improvement affects and speed of gaining class levels)
--------------------

2- Is it not enough to have a ranger and a paladin in the party, instead of a cleric?
(as clerics are supportive / buffer dudez only)

thanx if you know sg on this.
bye.

I dropped the paladin and ranger and made an archer and used the nija. Wow you did one and two already? I need more free time :(.

Off topic: I am have problems bringing up my save games sometimes, as adm or no.

You'll want

- a sorcerer or archer for sorcerer spells
- a cleric or paladin for cleric spells
- a druid or ranger for druid spells
- a barbarian for physical attack power
- a (dwarf is the best race) robber (levels slightly faster, more HP and thievery) or ninja (more attacks) for opening locks

As 6th character choose what you want, you don't need 2 characters who can open locks or cast druid spells. It won't hurt if one of your 6 characters is a paladin or knight since only they can use plate but it's not important.

Many options work, there's no single best party, each has advantages and disadvantages. You can post which combination you have in mind and get advice for fine tuning.


@thread hijacker
1) No, rather 20 vs 17 or so
2) It's enough

Sorry thread readers and thread starter,
I thought my questions would only further enhance the brainstorming going over party creation.

kmonster,
If you meant to address this answer to me, I thank you for your help, but also strictly instruct you to ignore my posts in the future - and I will grant you the same.
"Congrats" on your acts here, too:
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/might-and-magic-vs-wizardry.36347/page-5

OK, while I really appreciate the new graphical interface (makes it much easier to control a lot of things), I'm slightly lost at some of the icons.

For starters, why doesn't the manual contain any help on this?? I really appreciate the beautiful storyline there, but mouse and keyboard controls should be included!!
I had to google to find how to save/load the game... I would never have guessed it's by the Tab key (no icons seem to bring the options menu, unless I missed something).

And in combat I really really really miss "X hit Y 2 times and did ### amount of damage". It's just graphics based and I find it difficult to follow who did what...

I hope it's just a matter of getting used to...

Can someone explain how combat works? Especially the ranged attacks...
Is it that now you can fire from distance? Do all 6 fire if all have ranged weapons? How do you chose who to fire at?
After you get into hand-to-hand combat, can you still use ranged weapons?
How do you chose whom to attack????


Thanks,


EDIT:
and what exactly does Mr Wizard do? All he does is bring you to town? In exchagne for XP if you're high enough?

EDIT 2:

Search and ye will find...
All nicely explained here:
http://shrines.rpgclassics.com/pc/mm3/general.shtml

This stuff *should* be in the manual!

Combat wise MM3-5 is definitely more "popamole" than MM1 and 2 and the real time combat of MM6+ was a natural evolution.
But I found the interface of MM3-5 to be very intuitive, and probably the best of all the old school (pre Fallout and Baldur's Gate) turn based CRPGs.

Most of the stuff on this site has been copied word-for-word from a manual, the m&m3.pdf only contains the story, I guess more wasn't considered necessary since the stuff is explained in the pdfs for Swords of Xeen and World of Xeen which use almost the same game interface.
It's a great site and more comfortable to read than a pdf.

To save click the little blue diamond above the party

Yes, but what about people who played MM3 when it came out? How did they figure out the keyboard/mouse controls? Xeen came out later so they wouldn't have had those manuals.

While most of it is intuitive, the Tab/Gem click to bring the save menu is really difficult to find unless you press all keys and click everywhere.

Was there some quick reference guide that's not included on gog?

I don't know which which box contents which versions of MM3 had when they came out or if there was a reference guide.
Be aware that the separately downloadable manuals are not all documentation included in the gog version, after installing you should get access to documentation from your start menu.