So after completing MM6, it's time to start For Blood and Honor. After reading the manual it seems this one has the highest available classes to party size ratio so far, which means I'll have to be careful with party creation.

Before I start:
_I won't be using GrayFace's patch. I don't use user made patches on my first run...
_I'm not looking for the most powerful party, but rather a most balanced one. Parties like 4x sorceror are out of the question.

So...

_Is this a good party composition? I imagine I'd need GM in spells, so a cleric and sorceror seem like a natural choice. I'd also like to try the two weapons I haven't used in 6: spears and swords, so I'll take a knight. The last spot will be for a thief to try out the new thieving skill (yes, I heard it's useless, still I'd like to try it) as well as disarm trap and perception.
Classwise, I'd like to try all 4: knight dwarf, goblin thief, human sorceror (lich), elf cleric (light). Yes I know elf would make a better sorceror, but I'd like to leave it this way for RP reasons. I doubt it would have much of an effect anyway. Will I be missing out anything major with the above party?

_If I understand correctly, the second promotion is different for good and evil? Is it possible to have both good and evil characters in your party? So Cleric can GM in Light and Sorceror in Dark? Without giving spoilers, is it difficult getting the promotions in Dark/Light like in MM6 (i.e. do you have to save a quest that boosts reputations and do it just before you Master?)

_I'll miss out GM in Alechemy. Still getting a druid just for this doesn't seem to appealing. Will I miss out much by not having black potions? Is it possible to get them some other way?

_Has the dualwielding swords/daggers bug from MM6 been fixed (without Grayface)?

_Has the mind magic spells bugs from MM6 (fear... etc not working on enemies) been fixed (without Grayface)?

_Is the unarmed combat at all useful? Does GM in staff allow you to stack your Staff and Unarmed skills when using a staff as a weapon?

_Is the Dodge at all useful? Does GM in Dodge allow you to stack both Leather Armor and Dodge skills when using leather armor?

(the monk seems like a nice class to try. I really wish I had 6 spots to add a monk and a druid...)

_Any other high-level general advice before I start the game?

Thanks in advance!

You know RPG so it's a balanced party. The game forces you to go light or dark at one point which stops Grand Mastery in the Road not taken in Light and Dark Magic. So the whole party either goes good or bad. No mixture.

With Arms Master skill back, Knights are good.

Not that familiar with Thieves as I love two sorcerers.

Clerics I think are good for both offense and defense through the middle of the game. But become mostly support by the end.

Druids were made just plain bad in this game (which I think also applies to archers).

The Dodge/Unarmed skill (used together) are plenty good. But then you can't equip the "Sword of Ultimate Nullification" or whatever. Too many neat toys around to leave all of them at the smithy shop. LOL.

Good Luck.

Knight Cleric and Sorcerer are good choices. What concerns 4th, it is a bit tricky. MM7 differs from MM6 in such aspect that only pure classes can Master and Grandmaster skills, and hybrids are left in very bad spot. I'd go with Thief for 4th slot.

Races don't matter that much as this game has a lot of power-ups to make race differences negligible.

Can't have both good and evil chars in party. At specific point in game you need to choose between light and dark side, whatever you choose will decide your alignment and set of promotions.

Black Potions. i remember reloading for them in Bracada shop. It has a high chance to appear there and perhaps in other shops.

Dodge and Unarmed - personally I didn't find them that useful, they seem to be mostly Monk skills.

There will be Well of Wishes in Eofol. Just need to keep Protection from Magic up, and then you can get infinite gold, skill points and experience points from that well. Yes. Infinite.

Some important things to be aware of:
1. Marwick (? if not wrong with his name) will give you wand for "free". It is better just to lure dragonflies on him and get wand from his corpse or simply ignore that NPC, otherwise you will have mandatory quest later in the game, which rewards nothing but ruins your reputation and locks you from your allies for large period of time.

2. You will also have to choose your faction standing between Catherine and elves, they give timed quests (1 month of game time to complete). To be sure that you have power to complete them (fighting wyverns and similar creatures), timer starts when you are done helping dwarves (cleared their caves from troglodytes). I think you can fail timed quests and lie to regents to proceed with the game, but you get better rewards if you do them right.

3. Don't use services of temple in Mount Nighon zone. You will get nasty zombie characters, and there was no good way to remedy that in non-patched game from what I remember.

You've chosen the probably best classes for a first time playthrough.

Knights are far better than in MM6, doing more physical damage than the other classes, thieves can do quite some damage. If you choose chain as armor skill for your cleric elf can be advantageous on the long run but it the beginning it can be a little hard if your only healer has the fewest hitpoints.

GM Alchemy isn't essential, without it you'll be far more happy if you find black potions. You can still find all potions you want with a little luck.

Thanks all! I'll start today or tomorrow

Ooh, goody. This is such a fun game, I hope you enjoy it. I think I played with a Knight, Thief, Cleric, Mage and that worked out good enough.

Go for roleplay and fun, every team you'll choose feeling good to you will be okay.

For a fast development: knight, thief, cleric and sorcerer.

For stronger combat: knight, thief, archer and cleric.

Perhaps I'm a little late to the party, and several people have already answered some of these, but here's my input:

-Knight, Thief, Cleric, Sorcerer is my favorite composition, though sometimes I'll sub in a monk or a druid. GM in the self and elemental schools gives several VERY nice spells or perks for spells. This will cover everything that is important except Alchemy. The Pure [Stat] black potions are the big draw for GM Alchemy imo, but each character can only have a particular stat increased this way once (each character can buff each stat once this way, for a grand total of 28 Pure stat potions used), and you can find them as treasure or sold in the "higher level" stores (both potion shops and general misc item shops might stock them).

-At character creation, the races determine which ability scores (Str, Int, Per, etc.) get two stats per point spent and which stats require two point to get one increase. For example, an Elf gets 2 of Int per stat point you spend but requires 2 stat points to increase Endurance by 1. As a side note, certain monsters favor attacking particular classes, races, or genders. Beyond these two factors (and what character models you can have for the character), race has no effect on the game.

-Part way through the game, you'll be given a choice that determines whether you go Good or Evil. In case you aren't aware, the series lore has the Wizards (Bracada) aligned as Good and the Necromancers (Deyja) as Evil. Your party goes Good or Evil as a whole, and the second promotion quest for each character is set based on that decision. Also note that you will only get Light magic or Dark magic (for the relevant classes), not both. The Good/Evil choice will decide your ending, and it will decide which faction will be hostile to you. Once the choice is made, your interface coloring will change to reflect the choice; it will be obvious which one you chose.

-Some of the promotion quests are more difficult than others, but none of the quests are reputation based; you don't have to worry about locking yourself out like you did with Master Light in MM6. Certain skill promotions will require a base stat minimum as well as a skill point minimum, but you can find/make equipment that will give you what you need. For example, GM Merchant requires a character (that can learn it to that level) to have 10 skill points in Merchant, have already gotten the Master training, and something like 50 points in Personality (I don't remember the exact number). While casting a spell that increases Personality (Day of the Gods) won't give you what you need, equipping rings or other stuff will give you what you need.

-I don't know what the dual wielding bug was, but imo a character you want to dual wield should use two of the same weapon if possible. The only exception would be the Knight using a spear and a sword. I think the thief should put all his/her points into either swords OR daggers, to get the benefits added to the weapon in each hand. Archers can't use a shield, and they can't use two spears, so they'd probably go spear + other weapon.

-I think there are still bugs with the mind magic spells. I never used most of the offensive ones, so I don't know for sure.

-Unarmed and Dodge are basically Monk-only skills. The only other class that would get decent with them is the Thief, and the Thief is much better served by Dagger (or Sword) and Leather. Only the Monk can GM them, and he should. Combine Unarmed+Staff and Dodge+Leather to become a combat monster.

-If you wish to spend the time (both your time and game time), then you can get some extra stat points by decreasing your luck to minimum for each character and spending those points elsewhere. There is a fountain on Emerald Isle that adds to your luck, and it regenerates after 3 game months or so. You can spend your game time killing dragon flies for legit gold by using the Day of the Gods pedestal (they respawn every 24 hours or so, for about 6 days out of 7). If you can stand the grinding, there isn't any in-game drawback to this. You can pass game days faster by training one character up one level, exiting the training building, then going back in and training someone again; rinse and repeat to burn 5-7 days per level.

-Someone mentioned the timed quests during the Elf/Human hostilities. While ultimately the winner doesn't matter (except for story purposes), look for a third option when both sides want the same thing. The most xp is had by doing what the rulers wish for their individual quests, and then using the third option (which doesn't have an in-game hint).

-Speaking of third options, you don't have to fulfill the favor that Mr. Malwick refers to. You do have to accept the consequences of fulfilling it or not fulfilling it, though. One will anger your allies for 3 or 6 game months (can't remember which), one will anger the lender.

-Master Body (Protection from Magic), Master Air (Fly, Wizard Eye), and Master Water (Town Portal) are all awesome spells. GM Invisibility can make certain tasks game breakingly easy, so beware. Master Invis isn't as strong because the timer doesn't last nearly as long.

-While most overland area maps regenerate (like in MM6) in 2 years, the Barrow Downs is on a 6 month timer. Be aware.

-It can be hard to make the run to Mount Nighon at low levels, but by the time you can get Master Water, you should put in the effort to do so. Nighon has some strong monsters, but the shops carry good stuff and with Master Water you can Town Portal over instead of walking.

-GM Merchant and GM Water allows you to buy unenchanted stuff, enchant it with stronger enchantments, and then either keep it for use or sell it back for a profit. This is a great way to improve your equipment, and it is both safer and easier than killing dragons/titans.

This sounds really fun to try out! And a good surprise/secret. But it's curable, so you can try it out if you want.

An utterly worthless spoiler.

If you call a Light Elemental into existence then Beacon out of the area, the Light Elemental stays in existence permanently and is no longer counted against your player's cap. However, since the only way the elemental isn't destroyed is if the area is already cleared of opponents than the Element is just for show. But I like to do it in the Pit for story purposes. (Probably works w. Town Portal also.)

If you have a knight in your party, I'd suggest taking the dark path. The knight promotion quest on the light path can be difficult.
If you have druids or rangers, I'd suggest taking the light path. The ranger quest on the dark path requires doing bounty hunts which is extremely tedious and the druid quest takes place right before the end of the game.
None of the other promotion quests are too bad.

The default party of knight, thief, cleric, and sorcerer is the party with the highest number of skills with grandmastery. I'd recommend changing your characters races if you chose that party however. Enemies attack dwarves a lot so a dwarf is often better as knight than a cleric. I generally have a dwarf knight, goblin thief, human cleric, and elf sorcerer.

As soon as you can get a scholar hireling. They give an experience bonus and allow you to identify all items. They make the game a lot easier.

Thanks all. I'm just finishing Emerals Isle.

I'll be doing the Light path for roleplay reasons. Difficult is ok with me. I only asked about the Dark/Light promotions, because in MM6 they required Saintly reputation, which was impossible to get if you've finished all the quests which increase rep before.

I also accepted that wand from Marwick. Again, I'd preferred to roleplay it and choose the option I'd have chosen had I not known the consequences.

After I finish the game, I might reload and play the Dark path this time.

By the way, just a question, out of the two paths, is there one that is considered "canon" for story sequels? (like in HoMM 2, you can play Roland or Archibald, but it's Roland that is considered canon).

The different paths have different endings that complete the storyline in its own way.

In M&M VIII, The Queen and King of Erathia do show up toward the end so I guess that is the correct path to take. But their showing up is incidental since M&M VIII goes in a new story direction.

Could anyone tell me:

_How does putting skill points into Identify Monster help? I know how the skill works, but how different is say a Master with 10 skill points from a Master with 20? How is the Hunter hireling (+ to ID Monster skill) useful?

_ Is there an instructor hireling (+15% XP) like in MM6? I'm in Harmondale, must have reloaded plenty of times but still haven't found one.

Thanks.