Thanks. I assume I should wait a while before attempting this? I have hardly any hirelings and am still only level 9. I would have to level the hirelings as well of course... Okay, I'll focus on some other stuff first :)

It can be a good strategy to have a nice pool of hirelings and equip them with all the extra loot you find.
Since many areas are restriced by class, alignment and (IIRC) sex, they can be useful for filling out the party.

Thanks again for all your advice. With such old games, it's sometimes hard to find some tips.

Actually, areas restricted by things other than class only exist for some characteristics, and are generally inconsequential.

Race: In castle dungeons, there are areas where certain races are forbidden. All you get from those spots is a tiny HP boost, and the dragon dungeon has a better reusable boost, so this really isn't a concern.

Alignment: No restricted areas here. The only thing alignment affects is the ability to equip random treasure; if an item spawns with a +5 or higher bonus, it will only be equippable by a character of a certain alignment. Note that, if an event causes a character's alignment to change (this involves going to a specific square in a castle dungeon; behavior doesn't affect alignment in this game), the character's current equipment won't change, allowing you to keep an item of the now wrong alignment equipped. Also, you can have good and evil characters in the party, unlike in Wizardry.

Sex: The Personality boost locations (which are right next to one another) are sex restricted; therefore I recommend that your Cleric and Paladin be the same sex. More important, however, is that some enemies have sex-based physical immunity; a character of the wrong sex won't be able to damage the enemy with physical attacks. Since the default party is 2/3rds male (3/4ths if you don't count pure casters), and the default Cleric is too slow to get a spell like Bless in before healing, I recommend, when starting the game for the first time, that you create a female Paladin and a female Cleric. It's also worth noting that the hirelings are also mostly male, so having more female characters is a good strategy. Note that, like alignment, sex can be changed somewhere in the castle dungeons.

By the way, there are some other interesting things to find in the castle dungeons, which I will leave it for you to find. It might help to test whether spells like Teleport and Lloyd's Beacon work on each floor; those spells are very useful when they do work, but there are areas where they don't. Don't forget that, when those spells fail, Jump and/or Etherialize might succeed. (Jump can be sometimes used to bypass combat; there's one event (not in a castle dungeon) that requires Etherialize to reach.)

I think I waited a while before trying it. There are always other places to explore in the game, so don't be afraid to try somewhere else and come back to things like this later on.

Also note that I didn't bother with hirelings much when I played, and got along just fine. So they're not required, but can be useful and you should use them if you want to. Whatever seems more fun to you!

In MM1, my party's alignment tended to slip towards evil over time, which I assumed was because I was always attacking enemies instead of bribing them or surrendering. I recall the manual suggested this could happen. It was easily rectified by either visiting a Temple or casting the Restore Alignment spell. Was I wrong about the source of my alignment changes? Or does MM2 actually change these rules, such that behavior no longer changes alignment?

Just curious. As you've said, alignment in MM2 only really matters for equipment restrictions, and isn't that much of a hassle to deal with.

My experience is that MM2 does change the rules, or rather doesn't implement the rules that MM1 had (assuming your experience is correct, as I still haven't played MM1).

The MM2 manual suggests that hirelings might charge you more if you mistreat them, but I have not seen any evidence of that happening. (See also my previous comment about the apparently nonfunctional time limit.)

Ok, I'm progressing slowly through the game. Quick question: how can I prevent paralysis? Do I get immunity once I level some more (now lvl 10) or is there another way to deal with this?

edit: same question for eradicate :)

edit2: freeing bishops helps a lot with levelling I just found :)

Protection from Magic should help.
Donate at Temples to get max protection.

Leveling up does seem to provide protection, and I suspect casting Protection from Magic might be a major factor as well; that spell improves as you level (as long as you don't get so high that integer overflow is a concern, but that doesn't happen until sometime after level 200, so you should be safe for now). Don't forget that you can cure paralysis with a spell that you should have at this point. Once you are able to cast Divine Intervention, you can use that spell to cure everything but eradication.

Eradication is harder to deal with, but is not as common. If you don't want to pay to remove the effect, you could get a hireling Cleric/Paladin, use a fountain (or a specific item) to boost their spell level, and then cast Resurrection, but that costs a point of Endurance from the target (and ages the caster). In any case, if enemies are eradicating you, you probably should go somewhere else unless it's a boss fight, in which case you might not want to fight the boss at this time (unless you can reach the fight with some major temporary boosts active).

There are a couple ways to get a more powerful Protection from Magic effect at low levels:
1. Donate money at a temple. This may take a few times before the priests cast their blessing on you.
2. Temporarily raise your levels (for example with Skill Potions), then cast the spell. Just be aware that the cost scales (though there exists an item that can cast the spell for you, and you are only one level away from being able to recharge such items). Note that the similar Protection from Elements spell doesn't have a scaling cost, but still scales in power. Just don't raise your level too high, or you'll encounter integer overflow.

The temple donation effect isn't max protection; it's just a pretty high amount (something like 60%). If you want truly max protection, you need to be exactly level 235 or 245 (forgot which) when you cast the spell. Of course, you might not have enough spell points to cast that spell even if you do temporarily raise your level, so you might need to cast that spell at a more reasonable level.

(Also, if you go over the level needed, an integer overflow will make the spell very weak.)

Thanks for the tips. The overflow which you keep referring to, is that something to keep in mind while playing or will I have finished before that? I'm only level 10, can't imagine reaching lvl 245

If you don't spend hours power leveling, you will likely finish well before integer overflow becomes a serious issue. In fact, it might be a good idea to stop leveling at some point, as random encounters will have more enemies the higher you level; sometime in the 20s or 30s might be a good time to stop. (20 is more than necessary to have access to every spell without temporary boosts.) Of course, if you want, the game does let you reach really high levels, but it isn't actually needed.

With that said, there are certain items that will temporarily boost your level when used; if you use them too many times before casting a spell that's subject to overflow, you might have an issue. This is especially an issue if you happen to find such an item with an alignment restriction; due to the way the game represents the restriction internally, and because the programmers forgot to account for them, such items will boost your levels far more than they should when used. (It's possible for a single use of an item to give you over 200 levels!) This bug affects certain other items as well; if you raise your Spell Level (normally no reason to go above 9) to the triple digits, you might not be able to cast any spells.

I'm back again with another question!

I finished all the class related quests, my characters are level 22 and I can travel through time. I kinda know what to do, just don't know where to go but that's fine.

The problem I'm facing now is that in the earlier centuries the monsters are much stronger and I get defeated quite easily again. I visited the 7th century, for the quest for Lord Haart but I stood no chance when encountering foes. Now I'm exploring Castle Xabran, which is doable as long as I run when facing difficult enemies.

Now to the question: should I level further, by for instance repeating the black battles and rescueing the bishop, or should I just use as many skill potions money can buy? Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Assuming you haven't explored the whole map, explore some other areas and dungeons if things get too hairy.

Personally, I would recommend:
* Make sure that your characters have at least 50 Speed.
* Don't underestimate the Power Shield spell. It reduces the HP you lose during battle by half, which makes it incredibly useful. Cast the spell once and it will help for the entire battle. (Note that this spell doesn't change the displayed damage amounts.) Often, casting this spell and then auto-attacking will win battles for you.
* It also helps, of course, to get some good weapons for your party.
* Go into the dungeon with dragons in it. There is a very nice HP boost if you can defeat an Ancient Dragon. (Also, there's some nice treasure, including a guaranteed item that works better than a skill potion.)

Great, thanks for the pointers!

Edit: wow your tips helped me defeat the dreaded cuisinart. Well, defeat, survive their frenzy! Thanks.