Hello again,
jfs313 here, and you've seen me progress through this lovely game over the past month or so. I'm approaching I believe the end-game now, and while I hesitate to put these all explicitly as 'end game questions' (since they're mixed), there are a few lingering questions I'd like to ask.

Sorry, long post incoming! If you want to try to tackle a bunch of these or simply drop tidbits here and there, both are very welcomed!

Party Update:
KCSS party, ranging from level 56 - 67. Knight is my main tank and HM-slave (to borrow a pokemon concept) with ~141 skill points just chilling, Sorcs - have one specialized in Water, one of Air, both growing in Dark magic (level 12-14 at the moment). Cleric is Light and body. Big thanks to Bookwyrm627 for the gameplan (I fiddled around on my own to come up with different approaches, but indeed this ended up being the most effective!)

Quest Status:
cleared out almost all quests from the East side of the map (but I keep missing that damned solstice...), just cleared out Blackshire Wolf Den fairly easily (it was actually one of the most enjoyable dungeons for me as I could kite the entire thing and facerolled everyone without breaking much of a sweat... oozes and mana replenishing kind of annoying though). Just finished the Obelisk quest - all my remaining requests are pretty much in Kriegspire now (+ Slicker Silvertongue and equinox). Still afraid of Dragonsand, dragons, and titans.

Questions
Here are a few more questions I had lingering:

1) Experience stacking:
I heard that hirelings of the same kind may not stack? I have an instructor now, and played most of the game with an instructor (+15% experience) and teacher (+10%), but in this case, does it just factor into account one of the two hirelings? Perhaps the first one hired, or the one with the higher bonus, or the one with the lower? Can I have 2 instructors and get +30%?

2) Hireling recommendation
If I could get the double experience tutors, then I'll go with that, but in the case that only one is factored, any recommendations for the second hiring? I have all the needed skills on my characters (repair, ID, etc), and gold is pretty much a non-factor at this point - would something like +magic skills hireling be best?

3) Effect Stacking
I'm starting to get some of the "Increases the effect of x magic" rings/amulets. I'm assuming these do not stack and you should only rock one (per type of relevant magic) per character, is that correct?

4) Double Igraine
I'm not sure if this is a bug, but I managed to find 2 of 'Igraine' rings (+25 points body/mind/spirit) - one in the obelisk reward rock and one just randomly in a dungeon. Can I wear them both on the same character to get double the effect, or would only one apply?

5) Finished 'Quest Items'
I'm getting to the point where inventory space is becoming pretty precious (especially from dungeon running and golden pyramid runs - thank you so much Greyface patch for making the latter super easy) and I got all of these quest scrolls piling up, but I'm not sure if I can safely drop them or do something else with them. Scrolls like: Letter from Temple Baa, Dragon Riders, Prince of Thieves, Fragment of Journal, etc. I think I counted 14 total. Additionally I have Dragon Tower Keys, Flute, Snergle's Axe, Crystal Skull. Do I need any of these? Can I chuck them away?

I also have Memory Crystal Delta and Cloak of Baa, but from what I gather these are still relevant for current/future quests.

6) Situational Item Preservation
I also have acquired some items that I feel maybe in the future I can switch for situationally, but I would like maybe some future insight regarding whether they're worth holding on to or not. I have some items that:

- Prevent characters from sleep
- Prevent paralysis
- Double damage vs demons
- Double damage vs dragons
- Several +25% resistance to cold/fire/elec, etc

Are any of these worth hanging on to for situational purposes? And I guess with the resistance items specifically, is there a certain difficult part coming up where I should like hoard protection again fire or cold or something else?

7) Valuable Potions
At this point, I have one character that pretty much only holds restoration potions, and those are the only potions I have found a good use for (when you get that annoying weak/fear effect I think that you can't cure without temple-ing). Are there any other good potions I'm overlooking?

8) Super Powerful Spells - Aiming/Effectively Using
So I've read a lot that spells like Starburst, Shrapmetal, etc are super powerful but I don't know, I get a sense I'm not using them correctly or I'm not aiming them right? Is there an effective way to use these spells?

While I'm at it, does Finger of Death actually do anything? I'm trying to make the most of it, and I was thinking at Master of Dark 20 skill, should be 100% effectiveness, but I guess too good to be true?

In a given dungeon, I basically find myself favoring Sparks and Ice Bolt/Blast, and switching to double Shrapmetal if I get to a very powerful monster (like the Golden Dragon in that medusa temple). I just feel like maybe I'm not sorc-ing the most effectively if I'm still using fairly early/mid level skills?

9) Fighting Oozes Without Magic
I read somewhere that if you equip a bow or weapon with elemental damage, you can hit oozes or other physical immune monsters without magic, but this never ever seemed to work for me and I'm pretty much reliant on my 2 sorcs to kill all oozes (even my Cleric body magic doesn't work). Am I missing something?

10) Divine Intervention
Just picked this up. Would I assume correctly that this can basically be abused by putting a Lloyd's beacon beside the fountain of youth and zooming back and forth when needed?

11) Battle Prep
So when I'm prepping the party for a new area or dungeon, I basically cast Hour of Power + Day of the Gods + Day of Protection + Fly if I'm outdoors or Torchlight if I'm indoors. This is my battle prep set up - anything else good to cast?

12) Which Items for Which Classes?
Items like +x magic or + intelligence/personality are fairly obvious, but I'm also juggling items that have like +25 endurance, luck, speed, +x armor class, etc and just kind of putting them fairly randomly on each character. Is it good to balance these kind of stats throughout the party, or should I be loading certain items on certain characters?

13) 'Must Have Effects' On Each Character
It seems to be that every character should have the following 3 effects: 1. regenerate HP over time, 2. regenerate spell points over time (if they have spell points), 3. increase rate of recovery. Would you also say these are essential for all characters? And I'm guessing 2 of these effects on the same character do not stack, correct?

I also LOVE knockback effect items, especially on bows, but I only found it twice (and the reason I still rock an Elven Bow on one of my characters that has this effect). I would love to get like x4 Stellar bows with knockback..

14) MM7, 8, 9, etc
I actually love playing games a second time immediately after finishing them so you can benefit from all the knowledge you just mastered/gained, so I'm keen to give MM6 a second go right when I finish, and it's the only one (outside of HOMM3 which I'm still struggling to figure out) I have exposure with, but do you recommend the ones further in the series too? I must say I have had a lot of fun with MM6 and I realize how influential this game is on future RPGs. It's been a real pleasure so far, and even in 2022 with cutting-edge graphics games on the market, I feel myself enjoying these 'old school' games much more (maybe I'm just getting old :o)).

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Sorry, that is a lot! Thank you for your kind perusal.

Fountains I hit first:: Magic protection and Luck in Blackshire.
Why holding onto the Golden Pyramids?
I sell my Finger of Death wands when I get them
I use Meteor and Starburst when a group is behind a hill or directly in front of me.
You can do two druid promotions in one Equinox (19-20 and 20-21)
scholar and teacher I believe stack; plus rings don't
Protection from sleep is verrrrry important and each of your players should have a ward against sleep.

Thanks for the reply!
Oh yeah fountains, never thought about that.

About Golden Pyramids, sorry to clarify I don't hold on to them, but I do runs every now and then where I fill 2-3 characters up completely with them (~130+), then covert/retain/sell. So the more empty room I have in inventory the better.

Got it for Meteor and Starburst. I think I have to play around with the mechanics a bit more.

Oh, didn't know there's another promotion quest right after, good to know.

Got it for stacking - hope to verify about the followers.

Will keep protection from sleep stuff.

Thanks!

finger of death is shite, even with 60 dark it doesn't kill mid tier enemies in 10+ casts. usually want to put the tanky items on mages for as much space as they have left after their main magic boosters since your tanks will survive longer anyways.

being a old hag is mostly beneficial to sorcs anyways so the fountain of youth ain't really necessary. mm7 and 8 are fun, could go for the merge mod when you play through 8 so you can powercreep the shit out of 6 and 7 after you're done with 8.

I just learned something new. Some testing with a Scholar (5% bonus) and Teacher (10% bonus) shows that they don't stack; the highest bonus applies. I didn't test with an Instructor, but I'd guess the same thing happens there (since you have both on hand, you can test it pretty easily yourself). In later games, these hirelings seem to function by giving a bonus to the Learning skill (but identical hirelings don't stack with each other). So for MM6, only keep one, and keep the highest.

Makes me wonder if the same holds true for MM7/8, and the skill screen is just lying... Pick whatever fills a gap or augments your strengths. If gold should be an on-going non-issue and you're mostly getting your damage from spells, then a spell caster type should be good. They take a lot of your income, though. I believe they do not stack. You can quickly test with a spell. For example, equip two rings of +Body magic, and see how much Body Resistance increases your resistance from the default compared to one ring and zero rings.

I seem to recall that an artifact's "of X Magic" and a non-artifacts "of X Magic" do stack, but that might be MM7 (or even just wrong). The AC and SP bonuses probably stack, but I doubt the bonus to body/mind/spirit stacks. Since you have two of them on hand, there's an easy way to check! -Many letters/notes/etc just give hints. You can try visiting the oracle, saving, and then throw things away one at a time and see what he returns to you.
-Dragon Tower keys: Used in both Archer promotion quests. Toss them if they aren't automatically removed by the time you've completed both.
-Snergle's Axe: If you've completed the quest and don't want the axe, then toss it.
-The Flute doesn't do anything useful. Toss it if you don't want it.
-Crystal Skull only matters for the Tomb of VARN. Once it is clear, you can toss it/them.
-Memory crystals: You'll need them after you complete the Council quests.
-Cloak of baa: if you've finished the quest, then you're probably okay to toss it if you don't want to use it. -Sleep: Two Expert Water magic users means sell any prevention items. They can wake each other up. Also, getting damaged will wake a sleeping character.

-Paralysis: If you have only one character that can cure it, then maybe keep the prevention item; it depends on how big the item is. Consider just leaving it equipped on the guy that cures the status, depending on what else is competing for that slot.

-Double Damage versus...: No. Sell it and use whatever also applies to the other 90% of monsters in the game.

-+Resistance: If it doesn't impress you enough to wear all the time, then sell it. Cure Weakness is a simple Body magic spell. Cure Fear is a simple Mind magic spell. Neither is worth long-term inventory space. What is the actual name of the status you're concerned about?

I don't much bother with potions in MM6 except the Pure Stat potions. Maybe a couple of the high hp/mp restore potions for emergencies. Starburst and Meteor Shower are for killing large groups of monsters. To maximize the effect, fly around over the group in circles or something to get them to clump together, then quickly fly away (so you aren't caught in the spell) and cast it. Try messing with your altitude and camera tilt in turn based mode so you can't see the ones in the very front of the pack (causing the game to aim the spell at a creature near the middle) to get the most out of these spells. It may take a couple castings to kill them (or put them low enough for you to mop up with something else), but the entire swarm should take a chunk of damage.

Shrapmetal and Sparks get the most out of running right up next to your planned victim before casting so all of the individual missiles hit the same target. At skill level 10, Shrapmetal should do 10d6 +6 damage per shard, so hitting the same target with all 7 shards should deal 70d6 +42 damage (before resistances). Monsters have resistances which lowers the success rate. I'm not sure about the details. I mostly don't bother with this spell since it isn't reliable. Sparks is popular for its shotgun effect. Use what works. Read the spell description and compare the listed damage with your skill level to get a feel for how much damage a given spell will do before resistance. If the weapon with the elemental damage component hits, the physical damage is stopped but the elemental damage should still go through. Some quick googling indicates that it needs to be Fire, Ice, or Lightning damage though; poison, body, and magic type damage (yes, "Magic" is a type of spell damage) won't hurt them. There is no shame in having your two Sorcs murder oozes. Sounds right, unless the game enforces the Dawn/Dusk requirement (it might?). Since you're willing to use Lloyd's Beacon, just TP to New Sorpigal, use the temple, and Beacon back. That should do it. Make sure the buff spells are being cast by whomever has the highest skill level in the relevant magic. It isn't a huge deal either way.

For the stats that everyone uses (ex. speed), I like to go ahead and balance it out. Pay attention to the break points for stats; if only one character meets a break point with a +stat item, then they should get it. If only one character is getting much mileage from a stat (ex. Str if only your Knight is attacking in melee), then do the obvious thing.

I like to give preference to my healer for the strongest defensive stuff (ex. AC), but you'll have to balance those against the various other bonuses the cleric could be equipping. For the Regen items, definitely put both on everyone (exception: Knights and Regen SP).

Rate of Recovery: I guess? I don't recall seeing it much, so I've never prioritized it. Regens of the same type (HP and HP) do not stack. If you are really enjoying MM6, then I definitely recommend giving 7 and 8 a go. They are more of the same, with some tweaks to the systems and a different map and story line.

Re: the Flute item:

Isn't there an optional use for the flute? Something like an NPC in New Sorpigal or Castle Ironfist or somewhere who you can give the flute to (not part of a quest, per se)?

I laughed when I gave it to the guy who wanted me to retrieve a harp in Ironfist.
He was disgusted at my stupidity

Hey. Still worth knowing as far as I'm concerned.

But isn't there someone else you can give it to?

No. That's the joke.

Not as far as I'm aware. Apparently there were lots of rumors back in the day, and maybe it was part of some quest that they were designing but didn't have time to finish, but the flute doesn't do anything (except maybe play a little trill if used by a character?) in the final product.
I'm glad to help.

If you aren't sure about a given quest item, then like I said, save and see if the seer will return it to you if you drop it. Happily, MM7 and MM8 have ways of effectively expanding your inventory capacity.

Approaching Act 3, l'd say. (Final Act.) There is one game-changer to come late in that Act before you go defeat the demons in their dungeon at Sweet Water, which is the real end game. (Along with wiping out remaining dragons and titans, if you like, which is optional.)

Finger of Death
It counts as killing by Magic-type damage. Most mid- and high-level creatures are Magic-immune. Are there any sea serpents left around Hermit's Isle? -you could try it against them. Magyar swordswomen. Sorcerers, magicians and warlocks (though these do have some resistance). Death knights (you'll have finished those in the Warlord's fortress, but there are some in another dungeon you may not have entered - no quest for it).

Incidentally, Minotaur Kings use the spell against us, so Magic-resistance items are good to have when facing them. Especially on the cleric who is there to cast Raise Dead and then Shared Life if anybody else suffers the effect.

Oozes
If a bow has the +1d6 fire damage enchantment, for example, then whenever it hits an ooze, the 1d6 will be effective, but that is all. (SPOILER HERE) But the oozes in Blackshire's werewolf den were the last ones.

Potions
Hour of Power includes Haste, which doesn't last as long as the rest. You can of course recast the whole Hour of Power just before its Haste runs out, but another option, since you don't have a Fire sorc, is to drink Haste potions.

Stat break points Did you follow this? Since you use bows, a good way is to watch how a character's Shoot number improves with Accuracy. For example, improving Accuracy from 15 to 16 makes no difference to Shoot, but improving Accuracy to 17 adds 1. Below 20, it is every odd number that counts, but above that only 21, (23?? - don't remember), 25, 30, 35, 40, 50, 75, 100.

So if, with Day of the Gods and everything, a character has a stat boosted to 55, for example, then a further +10 from an item makes no difference, whereas somebody sitting on 65 will benefit. Minimally.

P.S.Protection from sleep and from paralysis
Flying Eyes can put party members to sleep. So can one other type of monster still to come.

Gargoyles (Marble and Diamond) can paralyze. So can Agar's birds (Pets and Monsters).

There are none of those in the three western areas (Hermit's Isle, Paradise Valley and Sweet Water) or their dungeons.

Resistance items
Demons cast fire spells. Whereas with dragons, the fire damage done by reds is less than the cold damage done by blues. And there is no resisting the golds (should you not be dodging them in real time).

Chests for inventory overflow
Dragon slaying items, demon slaying items, potion ingredients and unwanted message scrolls are just the sort of thing I dump in chests. The chest where Twillen had his statuettes is a good one, but be sure to empty it before claiming his reward. Though I guess you've already finished his quest?