I'm excited about playing Might and Magic I: Secret of the Inner Sanctum, but I have two questions about leveling characters:

1) Is there a level or experience cap?

2) What are the ways of improving character's stats besides leveling up and training? I remember reading somewhere that 18 is the maximum for stats.

Thanks in advance!

There are indeed items and spells to increase stats, but there are other ways as well... these are intentionally left secret, for you to discover. Also, I don't think 18 is the max, I think it's slightly higher than that, in the 20s somewhere. But 18 is the highest you can get at character creation.

If this is the computer (non NES) version you are talking about, then 20's is not the stat cap. You can have stats up to 255 or more I think. In fact, part of the game is learning how to increase stats and it's fairly necessary to do so to win. Usually I get stats to around 100 or more before attempting end-game.

This is true in MM2, but I don't think it is true in MM1. But maybe I'm wrong? I definitely completed the end-game of MM1 with my stats in the 20s (although I didn't do some of the extra-hard optional stuff), but I needed much higher stats in MM2.

Waltorious, you *CAN* do the game with stats in the 20's; but only if you meta-game. There are some clues you just can't get to without fighting some serious fights and if you have STR and Speed under 50's for those fights you'll just get owned.

tompatrickjr, you made me load up my old save and check.

The characters which finished the game have their stats in the 18-32 range. Most stats are in high 20's. None is above 32. And they own the place. They can walk through Castle of Doom and do most fights just with Ctrl+A (in fact the difficult ones are the enemies that steal items, invisible stalkers if I'm not mistaken, because they steal items which are hard to find). Otherwise it's a walk in the park. And that is the most difficult area of the game.

So I'll second what Waltorious said. Are you sure it's MM1 and not MM2 (where you do indeed need high stats).

I'm also pretty sure I read somewhere that there is a stat cap in MM1 that's MUCH lower than the 255 cap in MM2. In fact, being able to get stats all the way up to 255 was touted as a new feature of the second game, on contrast to the first gam'es lower stat cap. But I can't find confirmation of this now, so I might not be remembering right.