This would be a poll if GOG allowed me to make one, so I'll try to tally a total eventually.


Human
Elf
Dwarf
Gnome
Half-Orc (aka Goblin in MM7)


(I didn't bother with mm8 races as they are somewhat derivative, and merged within their own classes.)

To be honest, I don't see race as being a defining characteristic of the character, but more as a secondary choice you make at character creation and then forget about.

One thing, however, is that in MM3-5 I think Elves aren't that good. The SP bonus only applies to Archers, who only get half the boost, and Sorcerers, who suffer dearly from the HP penalty in a game in which strong characters can't protect weak ones. In fact, I would say that Seymour is the biggest weakness in the WoX default party.

Also, I believe 1 resistance is significantly better than 0, since there's the possibility that the Luck bonus may only be added to nonzero resistances.

The only events I'm aware of in MM2-MM5 that check race are the ones in MM4's Northern Sphinx, but all races get to benefit from exactly one of these events. Some enemies exclusively target a certain race if possible, but I'm not aware of any notable examples.

Every party must have a half orc. It is necessary.

white human male.

na I think half orcs are pretty cool tbh

I wasn't aware of any skin color choices here, and I don't remember there being a non-white human portrait.

Also, in MM2, if you have an all-male party, you're going to have trouble with certain enemies. Even the default party is too male-dominated; if you don't count the pure casters, you have 3 male attackers and only 1 female attacker (and the female attacker is the one is the one who can use offensive magic if her attacks aren't working). (I'd recommend replacing both the Cleric and the Paladin with female characters; you want to replace the Cleric because the default one is so slow, and you want her and the Paladin to be the same sex, so why not replace both?)

In MM7 the humans (8 portraits in total) include an asian female and black female, as well as a somewhat middle-eastern looking man who has, by far, my favorite "voice" of all heroes in MM6-7-8 because of how obviously evil he sounds.

The black human female has a great voice too, my 2nd favorite. What about resistance given by spell buffs?

Resistance from spells does not work the same way mechanically.

Basically, the way elemental damage from enemy attacks works in MM3-5 is as follows:
1. Damage is rolled, based on the enemy. Note that, at least in MM4 and MM5, many powerful enemies do significant amounts of fixed damage at this step.
2. If the appropriate Protection from Elements effect is active, subtract its magnitude from the damage. Note that this can reduce the damage to 0, but is less useful against stronger attacks because it's applied before step 3. (The magnitude is 2l + 5, max 200, unless cast via Day of Protection, in which case it's just the caster's level (not capped at 200).)
3. Resistance checks are performed now. Each success halves the damage, and I believe the game keeps rolling until a failure occurs.
4. Damage is reduced by Power Shield's magnitude.
5. If damage is still positive, it gets dealt, along with any applicable status aliment. If damage is 0, no damage or status ailment occurs. (Damage can't be negative here, unlike with the Half for Me exploit.)

I didn't think the dude sounds evil, he has a nice deep voice kinda fitting for the thief of the default party.

Sometimes I want to play against type for a challenge.... half-orc sorcerer, elf barbarian Did you play with him for a whole game? His lines are the best.

(Killing a powerful monster)
"You're dead, Im not. Muhahahah".
(Last character alive)
"We do not need them anyway."
(After getting insulted at a shop)
"Do you... value your life?" I completely agree with you. You convinced me.
This morning I very easily found the hex offsets for both MM3 and Xeen, took me 15 minutes total.
To balance my characters race, since I still want to play with at least 1 elf, I hexedited my elf sorcerer's resist to 3-3-3-3-5-5 (from 0-0-0-0-5-5), and lowered my two humans' to 7-7-7-7-4-4. (from 7-7-7-7-7-7)
Whaddya think?

I have a feeling the effects are going to be rather minor (and with a certain specific route, a resist of 0 could be better than 3 or 7 in the long run in World of Xeen, but someone playing the game blind isn't going to do that most likely).

I note that Energy and Magic resists are harder to boost permanently, and that the most powerful enemies in the game, including 3 Xeen enemies in particular that can eradicate, use energy attacks.


One other thought: for MM3-MM5, if your entire party is human, then you will start able to swim.

In MM3-4-5, if we're talking purely about class skills, than I think that on paper, dwarves and gnomes are the best races.
All good class combinations can be achieved using solely dwarves and gnomes, and they will have plenty of HP/MP and thievery points no matter what classes you choose as long as dwarves focus on warrior types

In MM5, I might even consider dwarf for Sorcerer. The loss of SP might hurt, but there's that one spot in the second town where you can get 1800 SP once each day (though I'm not aware of any clues that hint at that), and there's an easily accessible early game spot that can boost a Sorcerer's INT by 25 if less than 50, so you can still have decent SP. On the other hand, the HP boost will be definitely appreciated, as low HP can hurt more than low SP in this game.

On the other hand, there's no point in using Gnome for Knight or Barbarian in World of Xeen. (There is a point in MM3, but only if you're familiar enough with the game to go without a Robber/Ninja and pick up Thievery in an alternate way. and only if you're not having someone else be your thievery gnome.)

What about using an Elf Archer over your Dwarf Sorcerer? Assuming identical stats, Their HP is 100% identical
(just tested it), and their SP is almost the same.
The archer obviously gets all the neat weapons and more attacks per round, the only downside seems
to be that het gets only half as much MP boost from boosting his intellect, as the sorcerer gets, even Half-Orc ones

These games are infinitely replayable. For my future replays or MM3-4-5, makes me wanna try all sorts of weird combinations,
like all 3 archer/ 3 paladins