It feels like, in MM3-5, bows do not get additional attacks as you level. As a result, bows tend to fall off in usefulness as the game progresses, being basically useless by endgame (unless you're visiting an early area and there's enemies you didn't kill before).

I don't know for sure, but I would guess that Might is only for melee, though Accuracy might affect ranged. I think Holy Bonus might have some effect on ranged, though not enough to make it even close to as good as melee later on.

Well, dtgreene, thanks for your educated guesses, they all turned out to be correct.
Curiosity got the better of me, so I managed to find out the exact answers by using the "Where Are We" mod to find out exactly how much damage I did, using my levl10 knight (3X melee attacks) attacking a Giant Spider (30 HP) with a crytal long bow (5d2 + 1). He has 31 might and 21 accuracy.

- Knight attacked only ONCE every time. Giant spider went from 30 HP to around 20-22 HP, when it hit.
- Might cannot have had an impact: My 31 might would have inflicted 6 or 7 more damage per arrow otherwise.
- Holy Bonus (cast by a Lv 10 cleric) did 10 more damage every time. Spider went from 30 HP to around 10-12, every time.
- Heroism made it so my one arrow hit the spider every time, no misses recorded when it's cast on my knight.

I guess that on the bright side, this means all warriors are equally as good with a bow, Barbarian doesn't get an advantage over everyone else.

I think the Devs balanced Bows so that they help to take a bit of HP off enemies before they close the gap, helping your archers/sorcerers save mana (who could otherwise cast their offensive spells), similar to MM6.

I played with to sorcerers 3 Bow Attacks (1 Ninja, 1 Paladin, 1 Knight) and it worked very well both in terms of killing monsters early as well as maximizing amount of Spell points for high end, end of the game fights.

No it does not exist. But having high Accuracy and as soon as possible an Obsidian weapon and using fountains that provide extra level temporarily will bring you a long way.

Speaking of Obsidian weapons:
Is it me or the game hands them out like candy while Diamond items are much more rare despite being inferior?
And I haven't found a single Sapphire item yet, and only two or three Ruby ones so far.
I'm Lv 22.

The way it works is that there are 6 levels of item treasure, and each material or property can only appear at certain levels. In particular, Diamond and Sapphire can only appear as level 5 treasure, making them somewhat rare. Obsidian, on the other hand, can appear in both level 5 and 6 treasures, making it easier to find; in fact, it's the only material that can appear in level 6 treasure.

This sort of thing can also be an issue when you want an item that casts a specific spell. For example, Lloyd's Beacon, a spell that would be *really* nice to have in an item, can only appear on a level 2 item, and there aren't that many level 2 treasures in the game. (You might try the second town's shop for them.)

Note that this applies to World of Xeen as well.

Source for treasure levels (also has a list of all the treasure levels in the game):
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/564551-might-and-magic-iii-isles-of-terra/faqs/36599

Hi again,

Finally finished my MM3 playthrough !
It was fun. More fun than MM2 but also way easier.

Postmortem comments:

- In the final map, the optional room with many Terminators reminded me of the
Super Goober room in MM6. (Obviously MM6 took from MM3)
They are even more more dangerous than in MM6, as they are immune to physical damage!
- The AI lady's face in the ship's computer is almost identical to the Fountains' 4 Heads
you find in Fountain Head! Intentional?

Unsolved stuff:
- What is up to the well in the desert asking me what do I wish for? No matter what I say, it tells me
"Maybe your wish will come true!"
- Are Creators supposed to be Kreegan?

MM7 spoiler: : No wonder you don't get to fight anyone from the MM3 main party members and only one of the 2
hirelings from the first tavern, and no wonder Kastore so easily overpowered Archibald:
My party members were gods at level 116, far beyond any party I ever had in MM2-6-7-8.

- To reduce my fighters effectiveness I ended up downgrading all my diamond items to sapphire, and
Obsidian items to diamond, except for 1 obsidian long bow for my knight (and archer had I had one)
With my MM3 UGE module it was pretty quick to do, too.
I intend to do the same in Xeen.

- I did not use any of the many +5 levels wells/cups. Only the +2 ones

- It took me until nearly the end of the game to realize that "group" spells such as Fireball and Lightning bolt
only target up to 3 enemies, while "Cone" spells such as Dragon Breath target everything in front of you.

- Before tackling the last dungeons, Maze from Hell and the last pyramid, I had 40 million gold and was convinced
I would never have to worry about gold again. Well, by the end at level 116 i had burned through most of it and probably
would not have been able to continue training.

Onward to World of Xeen!
Since I constantly hear gold become scarce later on in that game, I intend to be the most avid and greedy penny pincher to have ever set foot on Xeen.

If you liked this, wait until you see what World of Xeen does in the end of the Dungeon of Death. I don't recommend going there until after you've obtained all 3 endings.

You won't have to do this in Clouds of Xeen. as you can only train up to level 20 without going to the darkside.

In fact, I don't recommend going to the darkside at all until you defeat Lord Xeen and get the Clouds of Xeen ending. (Not a spoiler, as the backstory in the game's manual presents him as the villain.) By never using any pyramids, and reloading if you somehow end up in Castle Alamar despite that, you can maintain the intended difficulty of Clouds.

You don't need to keep track of every single gold piece, particularly since you can still get interest at the bank, and money doesn't become an issue at high levels.

In particular, you won't have serious money issues until you can train past level 50, at which point you need to be careful who you train and how much.

It's not hard to get enough XP to reach level 116. Getting the gold needed to pay for that training, on the other hand, isn't a simple matter.

(Also, worth noting that training past level 50 actually requires clearing most of the Darkside, as neither of the two high-level training spots are accessible early.)

dtgreene as always your knowledge is appreciated.

Something I forgot to mention:

Monster regenerator huts don't just regenerate the 1 monster it names,
but other monsters on the same map too.
The Where Are We mod agrees with me from their description of the huts.
Ogre dwelling kept regenerating sprites early and I didn't know why then.

But way more dangerous are the vulture rocs in E4. I had slain a dozen barbarians
on my first visit but left their hut intact. Imagine my dread when I came back later
and found vulture rocs freely roaming the desert.
Normally they are only found guarding treasure spots.

Respawning monster spots are typically linked to lairs; as long as the lairs are still there, the monsters in question will respawn. However, there's the occasional case where the developers messed up, and destroying the lair doesn't prevent the monsters from respawning as they should.

I don't know whether there are any lairs with inverted logic, where monsters won't respawn as long as the lair still stands, but will respawn once you destroy the lair.

By the way, if you cast Half for Me on a character whose HP is above their maximum, the spell will deal negative damage to the caster. This can raise HP above its normal limit (and yields exponential growth if two characters cast it on each other), but since it's technically damage, an overflow into the negatives will kill the character. (This is unlike a certain fountain in Swords of Xeen that gives HP without limit; if that raises your HP to the point of overflow, you won't die or fall unconscious, despite having very negative HP.)

HP/SP overflow *might* be possible with the way fountains work in MM3, where if even one character's HP/SP isn't above the maximum, the whole party can benefit. This was fixed in MM4, though I note MM5 has one event that, at a certain time each day, gives everyone 1800 SP without limit. (I'm wondering if that can overflow.)