I've started playing Might and Magic VI and made some progress, and I've enjoyed every bit so far.

However, I'm not sure what to do next. My party is made of a Paladin, an Archer, a Cleric and a Sorcerer. They've all reached level 7, but since I was unsure where to spend the experience points, they all have around 15 XPs remaining. Am I supposed to focus each character in a narrow set of skills, or is it acceptable (or even recommended) to distribute the points across a large array of skills? In many (tabletop) RPGs, the former is usually the way to go, but I'm starting to think MM6 might actually encourage the latter. For example, shall I have my Archer develop magic or, say, dagger skills? All my characters can now use a bow, but would it be a good idea to keep investing points here? Is it worth it to spend points in armour skills, or would I be better off relying on powerful armours?

Things have started to get pretty hard (I just entered the Temple of Baa, at Castle Ironfist, and had to flee at the first encounter...), and MM6 doesn't look like the forgiving kind of games. Money and XPs seem rather hard to come by...

Also, if two identical hirelings join the party, do their bonus points stack up?

study a wide range of skill to expert first and then focus on four other attacking skills either weapon or magic for each one of them, focus them to master and then spread your skills to get more masters and then focus again learn to switch to walking and turn based mode by pressing capslock and enter when you are fighting. dont wear any armor or shield for now until you get expert or master later the armor class it provide is not a enough compensation for the reduction of the recovery time. remember: slay the monster before it can slay you! do the healing stuff after the battle!

Some skills require only one person to excel (disarm traps). In MM6, Perception helps you find bigger piles of gold etc. I'm not sure it shows you trap doors or avoid damage as in MMVII, but it does increase loot which in MMVI is important.

Your sorcerer will be you primary offense pretty soon (they start getting real good by around level 20). I suspect most first concentrate on fire and water with the Sorcerer. (Fire Ball and Meteor Shower, Water Walk and Lloyds Beacon etc) and Air with the Archer (Sparks being an early favorite). Since I use two Sorcerers in my parties, I go for that promotion first. But getting your knight promoted early on is always a good idea also. It's a wide open game. (In MMVI, the Knight is shorted some what but will end up getting your party back when everyone else is near death.)

Earth magic has necessary spells such as stone to flesh but always seems to come in fourth. But Rock Blast was one of my most used spells and Deadly Swarm works very well when other wouldn't. I loved Rock Blast for waking up critters around corners with some good billiard shots. But there is a fire spell in MMVI that does that also. But that will come later.

Bob

Unlike many other RPGs, Might and Magic VI doesn't have hard level cap, so you can feel less or more free with distribution of skill points. However, I'd give you following advices:
1. Don't put any points into Diplomacy, Disarm Trap and Learning. Diplomacy is useless. What concerns Learning - experience won't be as much of problem as gold for training. Disarm Trap - 1 skill point is enough to not get 1-shotted by traps at start of game, later you can just heal through.
2. Don't put any points in Perception above 4. You only need 4 here to be able to complete one of main quests.
3. Keep Repair Item on one char, Identify Item on other char. Preferably on Paladin and Archer, because they don't have much magic schools to focus on.
4. Get merchant for everyone. Training at higher levels costs ridiculous amounts of gold.

I wouldn't agree with one of posters above, Armor is critical very early on. A lot of mobs can put nasty debuffs on you if their attacks will connect, those debuffs are very expensive to remove and will greatly slow you down if you ignore them. And on top of that, mobs will just dry Cleric out of mana for healing. Personally, I reload each time I get debuff earlier in the game.

What concerns weapons, I'd get Bow skill for everyone. On Sorcerer I would focus on daggers, on Cleric on maces + shield, on Archer - 2-handed axes/spears, on Paladin - 1-handed axe/spear + shield.

gaozhongpeng, thanks, I understand better how progress is handled in MM6. Well, the least I can say is that I certainly did not expect that ! I never thought Perception could have any impact on the amount of gold found. I actually suspected Luck to play some role in this area... OK. I actually put some points in Earth magic, and Deadly Swarm is the main spell for my Sorcerer. So I'll invest some in Fire magic, then, as well as into Air magic for my Archer. Thanks for the advice! Ok. I was considering putting some points in Disarm Trap (and actually returning to New Sorpigal to buy it, since I never went to the Buccaneer's Lair...). I'm getting tired of the whole party dying nearly every time I open a chest. Is Repair useful early on? I haven't seen anything break down, so far. This is probably the skill I miss the most. Everything seems to be terribly expensive, and I never get much from what I sell. Perhaps I did something really wrong, but I don't expect my character to survive much without any armour. Is the recovery time tax only applicable to physical actions, or does is apply to spell casting as well? I see you left swords out. Are they not as effective as the other kinds of weapons?

Thanks all for your advice, you can see I really need it!

Luck does also, Some think Perception and Luck are more important than Merchant Skill. I never worked it out and since $ becomes a concern in MM6-- All of them is the answer.

Bob

try this website here you will learn more about MM6, https://sites.google.com/site/sergroj/mm/mechanics#TOC-Chance-To-Hit-and-Resistances, and as for not wearing any armor i mean just the shield and armor not including the cloak, glove, boots,helmit,belt, because they dont have a recovery tax, in fact you can still get your armor class pretty high for these equipments however later in the game when you learn expert and master skills of armor and shield then the recovery time reduction can be eliminated and also only then you can find a good enough armor for the skill points you invest on the skill that makes it worth it. and one more thing identical hirelings dont stack up

As a general rule, you'll want to have each character specialize at first, and only bulk up their general-purpose skills (such as Bow, Body Building, and the appropriate sort of armor) once their "____ Magic" skills are growing prohibitively expensive to train. I'd make an exception for Expert Shield/Leather, which should allow you to use these items without a speed penalty, and Expert rank in any spell school you expect the character to use regularly.

Weapon-wise, I'd suggest you go with a Dagger on the Sorceror, a Mace on the Cleric, a Spear on the Archer, and a Sword on the Paladin. The first two classes can only choose Staves for an alternate, and staves are slow, weak, two-handed weapons - bah! For the warriors, Spear and Sword both have their pros and cons in a patched game, and this way you'll be able to use twice as many cool item drops. :P Axes, sadly, are worse than either until you reach incredibly high (20+) ranks in Axe... and by then, you'll likely have little use for melee weapons.

As for Repair Items, items will never just randomly wear out, but being hit into unconsciousness can break your armor, and some enemies can break equipment on-hit. It's good to have a competent Repair user in the party to fix your gear when that happens.

Specializing in Earth has one major drawback compared to the other elemental schools - as most Earth spells deal Physical damage, they're useless against enemies immune to physical attacks, which of course are the ones where a good mage would be very helpful. Oozes in particular are also immune to Magic and Poison, which means that you _need_ elemental spells like Fireball, Sparks, and Ice Bolt to deal with them. I'm not saying you can't get away with a mage that's primarily Earth, but be sure to stockpile a few Wands of Fire and suchlike.

Thanks for the link, great reference! I came across the patch (but did not install it), but never looked any further in the website, I must confess. Aha! Right, I didn't think of that. Today, my Paladin has a Plate armour, but I might change for something lighter, and see the difference. Ok, good to know. Thanks! You mean that Luck is taken into account for buying and selling items? Or that finding more money beats spending less on the long run?

Ok, so that would mean putting points in one weapon for each character, and putting points in magic. It's interesting you mention Bow as a general purpose skill and not a weapon skill. I understand this is because every character should have it. Ok, I'm not that bad in that department, then, as it's more or less where I was going to. The only thing is that I already spend most points for the Archer on Bow, instead of Air magic or another weapon. Also, reading the reference given by gaozhongpeng, I now realise how important the various states you can be in have an effect on, well, many things actually! I must say I really did not expect MM to have that kind of depth! Ok, good to know. I thought I was being clever, as I expected enemies to be immune to magical attacks, rather than physical ones...

On start not so much, there is only mob in starting zone who can break items (Goblin King). But at later stages of game there will be a lot of mobs who will keep breaking your gear on their special attacks. It applies to spells too. At start of the game, wearing armor but having slower recovery rate is more important than faster recovery and no armor. Perhaps you misunderstood me, Armor is very important, especially at start of the game. Swords are very weak in MM 6. Best weapons are axes and spears. If you want to dual-wield - dagger is best to go with (e. g. spear + dagger). Luck only effects magic damage taken.

If you are short on experience you can grind a bit areas you've cleared earlier. After few months of in-game time the monsters on outworld maps will respawn (I believe it is different on each map).

Also, if one area is very hard, you can look into other first. It is long time since I played it, but I remember that when I stumbled upon very hard dungeon, I could find easier one which helped me get the gold and experience.

You mean that Luck is taken into account for buying and selling items? Or that finding more money beats spending less on the long run?

At Character Creation you are told that Luck involves three things: avoiding magical attacks, avoiding damage from traps, and a subtle affect on your character throughout the game. So it doesn't change how other characters interact with you like reputation or merchant skill. Nor is it a guarantee multiplier like Heroism (with which I hope you are familiar by now). But events can be of benefit to you with better Luck. So I always looked at it as "things going your way" when I found something better than usual. Whether its actual Luck or not, eh. That line at character creation is too vague to know for sure.

Bob

Thanks everyone for the advice. I spent some points and bought some skills, and things seem manageable now. Far from easy, but I wouldn't like that anyway!

I did just that after the second wave of opponents left my party with three characters cursed and one barely alive. Taking a break from that temple looked like the sensible, if not healthy, thing to do...

I'm now exploring the Dragoons' Caverns; wish me luck...

The point in the game where you find yourself now is considered to be a turning point in which the difficulty is ramped up. Keep at it though and soon you'll find yourself clearing 75%-100% of a dungeon in one swoop if you play wisely :)