I'm just about to create new party and I was wondering, besides the one thing in Portsmouth, is there anything interesting related to specific sex or race in the game?

Should I make my whole party good, like I want to, or is there a reason why to make some characters neutral? Are there any weapons in the game only wieldable by a specific alignment (no spoilers besides "Yep, 2x weapons for good fighters, 2x for neutral sorcerers" etc. please).

Also do the races somehow factor in, or will I miss out on anything if I don't make anyone a half-orc or gnome or something? Depending on my rolled stats I might just only go for humans, elves and perhaps dwarves, maybe gnome for the robber to get extra luck but I'll see.

IIRC a few weapons are alignment restricted. If you import the party to MM2 all the best weapons will be alignment restricted, so it pays to have a balanced party there.
Some enemies in MM2 can only be hit by females, and some only by males. I don't recall if this was also the case in MM1.

Alignments can shift due to certain actions, but can also be restored in certain way(s).

All in all I recommend a balanced party both gender and alignment wise. The default party in MM1 has only one female. though.

IIRC, race doesn' really play much part, except they have different resistances and starting stats, which won't matter much once they advance some levels.

PetrusOctavianus is correct. I would add that in MM2, it's pretty easy to get around alignment restrictions on weapons. One can temporarily become the correct alignment, equip the weapon, then restore alignment, and keep using the weapon as long as it's not un-equipped at any point. In MM1, I honestly don't remember if there were many alignment restrictions on equipment.

All in all, alignment doesn't matter that much. You can probably do whatever you want.

Robbers are absolutely terrible at fighting, but they're essential for disarming traps on all the loot you find. In that sense, they're possibly the most important party member. May as well use a gnome for the luck bonus, as your robber will be bad at fighting no matter what you do.

Awesome, thanks for your advice! :) Is there a list somewhere which shows the weapons so I can plan accordingly? Sounds good, but I'd rather just check the list so I won't have to use that workaround - it wouldn't feel right.

Awesome advice, in that case I'll probably try the gnome if the roll is suited for it!

The cluebooks included in the extras pack have a full list of items, filled with spoilers of course. But, if I remember correctly, the actual alignment restrictions in MM2 are mostly random. So you might find a sword with a +15 modifier on it, which is cool, but it will randomly have a restriction to one of the three alignments. You can't really predict what that's going to be ahead of time. The cluebooks just list base stats for items. Which is still very useful, as otherwise it's hard to determine which equipment is better than other equipment; I like to just search the PDF for a specific item when I find it, so as to minimize spoilers for other items.

Again, I don't remember much about alignment restrictions on items in MM1, which probably means they were less common, and maybe didn't exist at all.

Also note that your characters' alignment will likely shift while you play, even if you don't want it to. But it's easily restored.

The MM1 cluebook has a list of all the weapons, and I'm pretty sure a few of the had alignment restrictions, but as Waltorious says MM2 is more random.

The way alignment restrictions work in MM2 is as follows:

An item that is not randomly generated never has an alignment restriction, regardless of its bonus.

An item generated with a bonus of +4 or less never has an alignment restriction. (Note that items that can't be equipped (like potions, for example) never come with bonuses, and hence never have alignment restrictions (except in one circumstance that would not happen unless you do it on purpose and are patient; see below).

An item generated with a bonus of +5 or higher will have a random alignment restriction. This alignment restriction (which is encoded in the upper 2 bits of the bonus field) can't be changed (except in the situation I mention below).

There are, incidentally, a few things (bugs) to note:

First, if an item has an alignment restriction and boosts a stat when used, the alignment bits are not ignored by the code that provides the bonus. Hence, a Neutral only Shaman Pipe +5 will, when used, boost the character's Spell Level by 198. (Note that a Spell Level too high will prevent you from casting spells; 9 is the highest beneficial value, and triple digit values can cause this issue.)

Second, if an item is Neutral only and +63, the value of 255 will be treated as the item being cursed; trying to equip it will curse the character, and a cursed character can't change equipment until the condition is cured. Uncurse Item doesn't help here; instead, it sets the number of charges remaining to 1.

Third, if you cast Enchant Item on a +63 item, the bonus will overflow to 0 and the alignment restriction may change. This is the only way (that I know of) for the alignment restriction to change, and the only way you can have a non-equipable item with an alignment restriction. (Of course, you need to have 63 * 50 = 3150 spell points to do this.)

All this information applies specifically to the DOS version; other versions may have different bugs.

Thanks again guys! I'll use the cluebooks then, I thought both games had pre-defined artefacts that you were talking about, like MM6 and 7 do (or at least I've been told). Thanks for the info!

That sounds rather unfortunate with those two bugs, would you recommend playing a different version? Is it even possible to transfer my saves from the DOS version to Commodore/Apple etc.? Probably not, right? Should I play a different version of the first game?

I don't know about MM1.

The bugs I mentioned in MM2 are generally not particularly game-breaking. (How many people bother to enchant their items to +63 anyway?) The only issue might be using alignment restricted items for stat boosts, or possibly encountering overflow issues at really high (200+) levels.

One thing I do know: In the Sega Genesis and (original) Macintosh versions, there is an annoying bug that affects spells at higher levels; when an enemy saves against a spell (which always happens if the enemy is strong enough and you have not cast Frenzy), the damage is cut in half twice rather than once. Also, a certain superboss lacks its breath weapon in those versions.

Also note, in the DOS version (but not the Sega Genesis version), Frenzy's Endurance penalty is only temporary, and Holy Word does not age the caster. (You might want to be aware that there is a major exploit with the Frenzy spell, so you might want to stay away from it if you don't want to disintegrate that superboss that should be immune.)

By the way, the game sometimes does check for overflow. For example, I believe you can overflow your age with Rejuvenate, but not with Resurrection.

I remember killing Orc God and getting Short Swrod +63. I still remember it, because I was surprised it was exactly 2^6-1 and it was HUGE upgrade for my party (I cheated in that game, hex-edited chars to be Lv.255, so everyone was with starting gear). So getting +63 items doesn't really require going out of your way.

Ah alright, that makes sense! I thought it's something that can happen regularly to you. In that case I'll probably just merrily continue to play the DOS version.

Yeah, I never encountered these bugs when playing. They seem like the kinds of things that only matter when one is trying to do some serious powergaming.

Sarisio's example of finding a short sword +63 was probably strongly affected by his characters having super high level; I don't think I found anything with bonuses higher than +30-ish during my game.

And again, this is all MM2, so you don't even have to worry about it yet. Enjoy MM1, it's a great game!

Yeah, I was thinking the same, it's unlikely I'll get to 255 unless I'll be grinding a lot!

Thanks, I'm at the character creation still! :)

Hmm... I remember finding several items better than +32 in the Amiga version, but never in the DOS version. Neither the the CRPG Addict when playing MM2. So I had begun thinking there was a a cap at +32 in the DOS version, but now it seems it's not anyway.

Yes, I never got anything higher than 32 and thought it's the cap too. Good to know it's not the case.