Well having completed my 1st play through last month with KPDC it was a bit of a grind with all the available magics plus Light L12 and Dark L18 .
One thing I noticed is that shooting arrows even with 2 shot masters and all the immunities to magic later it turned out a lot easier (not to mention quicker) just running up to Titans, maddening eyes, dragons and so forth, go to turn based mode , (day of gods active) and the duel wielding knight and paladin with Spear sword combo were regularly doing in excess of 100 damage so the fights were fairly quick.... with the occasional teleporting out
Shrap metal and incinerate were handy but not really vital.
The K had in excess of 1000 HP so shared life helped when needed.
So with my magic protection at around 160 not much got through from the dragons and other spell casting nasties

Now that I know where everything GOOD is I no longer need Light ... 99% was for Day of gods
There is a button in the NWC dungeon which gives DoG on excess of 200 points, far better than my S ever did and the money box there gives 10000 Gold indefinately on weekly visits so no longer need for more than L4 merchant
Place Loyds beacon and visit before major encounters
Since the developers put it there its not cheating but meant to be used. (so I tell myself)
Also a beacon next to the boosting wells takes care of the rest.
So while Dark was handy (in places) I rarely used it plus the fact I had to nuke all the peasants in New Sorpigal to become vile and notorious (not nice)

So a much more melee orientated party now KPPA
The P's for a bit of healing-ailments and the A for portal and beacon and flying
All the rest of the points go to sword/spear combo... now I should have 4 members that can deal around 500 damage per round at the later stages of the game if the 1st party melee is a true indication.

Should be fun.

Don't forget some of the secret areas in Ultima 7, especially the one in Trinsic which allows you to bypass the entire game and reach the ending without having to pass the copy protection.

Speaking of copy protection, the one in Might and Magic 4 can be bypassed with obvious cheats (you can't reach the area where you get a certain sword, but you can get the sword with what I consider an obvious cheat), ant the one in Might and Magic 5 can be avoided without any cheats (the starting town has two exits, but only one is blocked by copy protection, and not right away).

Might and Magic 3 has an item that lets you teleport to any map. One speedrun actually gets that item right away and uses it to warp around. (This is not the same run as the one that abuses the bank and the Gold->XP fountain to get level 200 characters.)

Just an edit to my 1st party it was KPDS

As to the cheating bit ...well yes, maybe (I haven't had to use it yet) BUT what about the other stuff the game designers put on the maps ... place a beacon next to .

Kriegspere well that gives +30 levels temp
Sweet water fountain + 50 stats temp
Paradise valley fountain that gives 100 hit 100 spell points
Dragonsands 10 elemental resistances

drink from all, teleport to temple and heal, voila super duper party for early to mid game.
Is it cheating to place a beacon in any dungeon and teleport to temple when getting beaten up, teleport back fully healed even though the enemies haven't healed ?

My 1st ever M&M was 7 character was .. super Knight with grandmaster armsmaster has always been my favourite character so was a little dismayed to read all the comments about useless, underpowered without spells, Paladin can do everything as well and cast healing spells, weak towards end game and all the rest.

Fortunately took one anyway and with over 1000 hit points and several hundred in AC it was fairly indestructible.
not to mention between 100-200 damage per round ...I always kept specific Halbreds and swords Of double damage against Dragons/Demons etc and swapped and changed as necessary.

As to your comments that that DoG is over rated ..well with about 250 in everything it raises considerably your attack to hit, spell points and hit points.
As for hour of power although my light master had it I didn't like it much and seldom used it
I do have access to Heroism and bless and they are my favourite spells.
In fact my Paladins picked it up at level 1 .. Spirit is the very 1st spell I expert in and cast on entire party .. learned its usefulness in MM7 and never leave town without it.
In fact in my 1st game my L15 spirit master Paladin was getting higher results in buffs than the mage Light master
Haste is the thing I disliked most about Hour of power , I got sick and tired of curing weakness constantly
As for stone skin and shield ... nahh not that important when your AC is well over 100.
Having said that my mage/archer will cast haste towards the end game where it is usefull

I am still fairly early into my new adventure but this time around I planned everything carefully before starting.
So far I have ......
Minimized luck on all since you get all points back to 16 from the well
Dropped might to 12 on all characters Before travelling to BBay
1st hire Horseman and go to Ironfist (saves 2 days return trip ..important to save days for 1st visit to shrine of Might in BBay , talk to Seer to get shrine, show letter buy skills Bow etc , buy 4 good bows a few magic books. take coach back to NewS

Still L1 , fairly easy to beat up on goblins and weak mages, clear the map, get goblin code, retrieve candelabra, rescue the child (but dont do the snakes and spiders yet ..probably doable at L1 but a bit painful
By this stage I could train to L5 but stay at 1.
Hire Gatemaster , 1st stop Myst to get mage promotion (conveniently in BB)
Buy Water walk and fire ball
2nd stop Freehaven to drink from Might well, 16 free points, all characters now 16 might
Also get the Quest to rescue Sherrell in BB
The Knight promotion is here, go to castle easily avoiding all the red dots on map, walk to Inn and return.
Still L1 but now 1st promotion with 15000 points more,
Could now train to L8 but takes to much time and I may go into next month
3rd stop Silver cove , 2 conveniently placed wells to boost 2 more stats by 16 points in each.
4th stop back to Myst, dismiss gate master take boat to BB still L1 Drink from well for honorary mage promotion
Cast water walk , go the shrine ,defeat a few archers and +10 to might for all characters (hence trip to Freehaven 1st)
Walk to 2 more wells to get 16 free points in Personality and Intellect , only archers and canibals with a bit of planning doable L1
Next go to Trainer , train to L10 first time , all at once only takes 8 days in all since January no longer important

Now at L10 ..... 3 Quests are possible here.
Rescues Sherrell ,only canibals and snakes
Destroyed Crystal for guy in Temple
Aided Fire Lord ., mostly goblins, Ogres and 1 Varn character , at L10 not to difficult.
Hire gate master , back to freehaven to turn in Sherell , dismiss GM , catch boat back to Freehaven, go to seer to get intellect shrine, conveniently placed in MYst
Boat back to myst ... visit shrine +10 Intellect for all (hence drinking from the BB fountain 1st:
Now with 3 additional quests turned in I trained to L 16.
Now back to NSorpigal.

Next beat up Goblinwatch, and take care of the spiders and snakes in the temple.

Isn't M&M simply the best adventure ever

Cheers

Actually Knight is the best melee class in MM7, which is result of new Armsmaster skill and heavy nerfs to all hybrid/support classes. In MM 6 situation is different of course, but that's why I prefer MM 6 to MM 7 - world is much larger, dungeons are more interesting, there are no skill rank limits and Light/Dark separation.

And what are the comparative risks of getting to those buffs? The NWC dungeon requires...a Jump spell. Which can be available just up the hill.

One thing worth noting: The money box in the NWC dungeon provides its payout when your gold total is below a certain amount; there is no weekly limit or anything beyond that.

Also, it doesn't matter much matter how many points you put into the various melee skills. The Ancient Weapon description is accurate: "This deals death faster than anything you've ever seen". :)

One thing I do, if there is only one dragon/titan/whatever: charge up and just hold down the A key to spam attacks in Real Time. I think you actually get more swings in that way, compared to number of monster actions, because it gets some delay while running through its flinch animation.

Well, those weapons aren't available until almost the end of the game. Gharik's Forge, Castle Darkmoor, Tomb of VARN and other nasty places - you need to go through them without blasters somehow :)

True enough. Bows and patience were usually sufficient for me, if there were crowds. If there were only a few (or if the enemies were weak enough), then a Zerg Rush of Stabby Death was usually called for.