Igaryd: I have played MM6-7 and 8. In all of these games taking the grand tour early is a good idea. What do I mean by grand tour? Once you are done with the newb area Go every where you can go without fighting, you will find treasure, you can get quest, more importantly you can obtain a lot of stat boosters, In 7 for instance before I even start on the first quest to clear the castle I have already vistied every where you can get by coach, acquired meteorites and converted them into vastly superior weapons and armor at the appropriate houses in Erathia and I've completed the ranger promotion quest the flute quest and and the quil quest gotten 2 or more of the top quality bows you can buy early on and done my five victories in the arena

By the time you leave emerald Isle everyone in your party should have bow skill and the first fire spell you are going to learn is flame aura.

Oh one last thing fighting the dragon on Emerald Isle is a waste of time there are no tactical solutions to dealing with a dragon when you are at level four your job is to grab the stuff just indie the door, - the longbow, the shield and the message and however much other stuff you can get without getting killed there may or may not be other treasure by the nearby skeleton. The dragon by the way tends to fixate on the rats till they are all gone so try to get the hell out before then and stay away from the rats. Save before entering.

Igaryd: Yep forgot about the fireball wand as I never take it. I has also assumed that wyrmthrax being red was likely all but immune to fire anyway and for a dragon he is pretty much impoverished. And I can get almost all of his loot without killing him.