How about "No Spells" (includes hirelings), possibly paired with "No Hirelings".

How about "No Training"? In other words, play through the game without leveling up your characters at a training facility.

(This means that, unless you can find other ways to increase your level (like fountains or permanent level events, if any exist in MM7), you must play through the entire game at level 1.)

(As a side note, I have determined that this challenge is feasible in World of Xeen, but I don't know about MM7.)

You can make a combination of different challenges - solo, no training, no skill points, no buffs, no spells, no items (quest items being an exception), only initial gear, no NPCs.

Though I am not sure how "no spells" would work in case of Light Path...

Personally, I prefer challenges like - complete everything, "collect them all", reach maximum level possible, acquire most powerful gear, etc. :)

Here's another challenge idea:

Pretty much every Might and Magic game has some dragon dungeon. How early in the game can you clear it?

(Interestingly enough, in World of Xeen, I find it useful to do Dragon Tower before the Labyrinth of Lost Souls; the former is easier than the latter at low levels, and it gives you tons of XP and a very useful fountain.) The problem with this is that, unlike with the other challenges suggested in this thread, the game becomes too easy, as you end up more powerful than you would in a casual any% playthrough.

I believe the game is very possible to beat at level1. It would be hard due to lack of skill points. As long as you travel a lot in the beginning to gather horseshoes and genie lamps to get enough skill points for the skills you need.

Now not leveling up either your characters or skills, that I would believe to be extremely hard if not impossible. With extreme use of wands though it may be possible. Hmm, maybe the next time I play after my current play through, I might try it. Is this even possible? I thought you were limited to 13 to 15 relics, or artifacts before the game locked you out of getting more. If it is feasible to get them all, then I might actually try to collect them all in my current run through.

I'm not sure it is possible, but perhaps if you stacked enough wands. If it is, there are a number of areas that at that would be so very, very tedious.

There are several points where you have to kill enemies, and you don't have infinite room to run. I don't think Dark side is possible for a Level 1 run; the Breed Grounds are just too tightly confined, and the enemies will blow right through your pathetic HP. The Blaster Guys, with Power Cure, are another potential game stopper.

I'm thinking about different areas, and even if it is possible, it seems like too much work to be worthwhile. You'd have to farm 2 year area respawns (or the 6 month Barrow Downs) for gold to buy the scrolls and wands that would be necessary. There is an artifact limit, though I don't know what the number is off-hand.

It's possible to use Invisibility and Stealing to grab their Power Cube without needing to kill the Blaster Guys.

I think Xenofex could be a problem? Could try to use Haste potion + blaster to defeat him, but the devils are likely to do a fair bit of damage first. With Day of the Gods, high Luck and Body Building it might be fine.

The Lincoln could also be tricky, those robots do lots of damage. Lloyd's Beacon would make it easy though.

All in all it doesn't sound impossible to do a level 1 run, but it might make the game so tedious as to make you give up halfway :)

The Nighon tunnels and tunnels to Eeofol would also be insane to get through. I'm more curious to see how far I can make it, more than beating it. Yes, it will take awhile and I'd be taking a lot breaks due to frustration, too. I may attempt it some day, just not anytime soon. If you're leveling up your skills, then it is very possible to beat at level 1. But I mentioned not leveling your characters OR skills. You would be completely reliant on hirelings, wands, and scrolls for all your spells beyond the basic ones. You would also need rings, amulets and armor that would bolster your skills, and stats. Most of those would need to add 10+ to be of any real use. As long as you can get enough invisibility scrolls, it should be doable, albeit very tedious and annoying.

Some of these ideas seem pretty good. I think I might restrict myself to only use basic equipment like crude swords and basic leather armour. I might also limit my characters to only learn up to expert on their skills. I want it to provide a bit more challenge, but nothing as crazy as going for a level 1 run. The solo druid play through took enough time and I want to progress the game fairly quickly.

What about a speed run? Not real time, but game time. For example, I've seen on the web somewhere that someone had completed M&M VI (not seven) within 4 or 5 game days. So, started January 1 (game calendar) and completed by January 5th or 6th. I forget the exact number of days for sure. Additionally, a shorter game time combined with higher fame creates a higher end game score. I'm having trouble finding it again. I think it was in french on an english website.

Anyway, maybe try for shorter game times with M&M VII than what you've done before?

This reminds me of a speedrun of M&M III that I saw which is fast in real time, but slow in game time.

The particular run cleared the first town, deposited money in the bank, spent decades of in-game time working to accrue interest, created 3 new characters (because the old characters were so old they had some stats at 0, causing them to randomly keel over and die), and used the XP->Gold fountain to raise characters to level 200 (the maximum you can train to). Was very fast real time, but took so much game time that, if the game had a functional time limit, time would likely have run out.

Over the weekend I tried several of the Classifications that I never really used. Thief etc.
One Party I tried: Two Paladins and Two Rangers is probably the strangest game I played. Completely different. Like playing with four Utility Infielders and no .350 hitter. Made me rethink the battles.
So that is one type of challenge.

Another type of challenge: The low% challenge.

Basically, the idea is to beat the game while doing as little as possible.

Specifically, here are rules for a basic version:
* You must beat the game (that is, you must see the ending, and if there's a cheat to see the ending early (like in the Xeen games) it doesn't count)
* You may only do mandatory quests. This means no side-quests, and in particular means no promotion quests (unless they are mandatory).

A more advanced version might add the following rule:
* If there are any glitches that let you skip parts of the game that are supposed to be mandatory, you must do them. (Are there any?)

(Side note: If this challenge is applied to Might & Magic 2, it would require that you use only one non-Robber class in your party because of the way the game is structured, unless there's a glitch I don't know about.) It's worth noting that the low% challenge I just proposed is the exact opposite of this.