I just wanted to get the modifiers straight in my head as far as equipment is concerned.

As an example if I have a Steel Cutlass then we're looking at 8-14 Damage and a +3 to Hit? Ebony Cutlass would be 6-14 Damage and a +4 to Hit? Last one, a Cold Grand Axe would then be 13-28 Damage with a +20 Cold Resistance? I wanted to make sure I was adding up those modifiers correctly, I'm so used to RPGs where the more an item is worth the better it is.

Another odd thing to me is that Bronze Gauntlets are actually worse than just Gauntlets are. I was thinking at first that anything with a material type before the name of the item would be better than just the base item.

Also are there any other things to be aware of when selecting equipment that aren't immediately obvious?

To be honest this is one of the most fun PC RPGs I have ever played. I can't wait to get to IV and V as they seem to be regarded as the best in the series, thank you for your time!

A few other things of note:

An item that casts a spell, when used, will give the enemies a free turn. (This bug is also present in the Xeen games.)

Any item that casts a spell can be recharged with the Recharge Item spell. This works even if the item is an item "of recharging" and is being used to recharge itself. Also, items never break when recharged, or if they do, it is extremely rare.

Recharge Item works on scrolls and potions as well. I believe there's one sold that casts Power Cure; recharging it lets you get the scaling benefit without the scaling cost.

Duplication does not work on powerful items. If you want to use that spell to make money, make sure not to throw out your old source item before making sure you can duplicate the new one. Also, duplicate items have no charges.

If a character's HP is reduced to -10 or lower, the character's body armor will break. For that reason, equipping body armor isn't always the best strategy, as AC only protects against physical attacks. (At least it isn't bad as in Xeen, where having -10 or lower breaks *all* your armor, causing me to simply not bother with that type of equipment in that game.)

Also, in the SNES version, but not the PC version, if your equipment reduces your AC below 0, it will underflow and become rather large.

To be truly sure about stats on your equipment, do the following.

Save the game, visit any weapon/armor shop, identify the item in question.
Reload (to avoid wasting in-game time and gold).

Also, MM III isn't heavily gear-reliant game. When I first played it, I didn't put any attention to whatever items I had.
Just keep your eye on obsidian gear - it is miles better than anything else.

Perfect, all extremely useful information thank you so much.

I'm surprised that this Cold Grand Axe I found is so powerful then actually, I'm glad I kept it.

Also I like the idea of having the item identified at a shop because I'm always writing things down on a piece of paper and flipping back and forth between my lists, hoping I've done my math correctly.

It's not in MM3, it's not a bug, it's in WoX for balancing reasons.

How is it not a bug? (Use an item outside of battle, the enemies get 2 turns. Use it during battle, any enemies not engaged in melee get an extra turn.) Also, I distinctly remember it in MM3.