I might just be missing something obvious, but this question is really bugging me because my necromancer keeps getting killed the instant an enemy walks up, because he is in the #2 position. How do I move him to the back of the party???

And for that matter, how do you switch out a party member you don't want for one that you do? I have tried every key combination I can think of and read all the manuals but don't see this anywhere.

Thanks in advance!

You cannot move your main character from the first spot. Other NPCs' position is dependent on hiring order.

You can hire / dismiss party members at the Inn. If you meet anyone for hire but don't have place for him at given moment, he'll be added to available hirelings next time you visit any Inn.

Thanks Man! I have a 5 person part, with 1 additional person available at the Inn, and have 1 person in party that I don't want. However, no matter what combination of clicks, shifts, alts, and ctrl-tabs I try, I cannot hire him or dismiss the person I don't want. Ctrl-D doesn't work. Ctrl-Shift-Click doesnt work. Click and drag doesn't work. How can I do this? Thanks!

Perfect! Thanks DaveO! Ironic that you can't do this while at the Adventurer's Inn. Ah well, it works. I think I'll aim for a 4-man party, 5 seems too easy. Once I've completed that I'll do the 1-man like I did with the Baldur's Gate series :) Has anyone tried a 1-man party in MM8?

I've played and completed Troll, Cleric, and Minotaur solo. I had a Dragon solo that I stopped around level 15 or so.

Cool! Sounds like fun. I always like it when games give you lots of options like this to increase the difficulty.

I played solo with a necromancer. It was rough at first, but by the end I was a god.

Party order has no effect in MM8. Everyone's on the front line.

This.

That goes for MM6 and MM7 too.

Some monsters have racial or class preferences, though.
Some against gender too (MM6 Titans target females)

Personally I removed all monster racial/sex/class preference from my monsters file in all three games.

Huh, guess the guide I was reading was wrong.

Anyway, beat the game with knight, d.elf, cleric, necro, and really enjoyed it*. It's just very classic M&M fun. If 3D0 still existed and just made an endless series of M&M games based on the same rusty old M&M engine, I would playh all of em. It's just such fluid fun :)

*Only trouble was, my Lich kept getting killed in almost every single ground-based battle despite having Seredine's Preservation and maxed-out leather skill and 2 rings of defense. Anyone else have this trouble? I am thinking it was maybe just because my fighter characters both had Noblebone bows and kept blowing him up by accident.