BTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB T / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / T B / \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \ B T \ *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* \ T B /\ | | \/ B T \ * ~~BTB's Might & Magic VII FAQ~~ * \ T B /\ | | \/ B T \ * ~Version 1.1~ * \ T B /\ | | \/ B T \ *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* \ T B \ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ / B T / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / T BTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB !#$%^&*!@#$%^&*!@#$*$% * @ % CENSORED VERSION & $ # #!*&^%$#@!*&^%$#@!*$!@ wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ _\ /_ | | о/ \о \ \/ / | | / /\ \ _\ /_ | ~Quick-Naviagate~ | о/ \о \ \/ / | | / /\ \ _\ /_ | | о/ \о \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm To get where you're going in a hurry, try Quick-Navigate! Just follow these five easy steps: 1. Highlight the name of the section or subsection that you want to go to in the table of contents (listed below). 2. Press ctrl + C. 3. Press ctrl + F. 4. Press ctrl + V. 5. Press Enter. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ _\ /_ | | о/ \о \ \/ / | | / /\ \ _\ /_ | ~Table of Contents~ | о/ \о \ \/ / | | / /\ \ _\ /_ | | о/ \о \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm -------------------- I. Basic Information -------------------- A. Author's Note (Read This!) B. Quick Info C. Skills, Leveling-Up, & Promotions D. Statistics & Probabilities E. Statistic Thresholds F. Food & Rest G. Conditions & Ailments H. Time & Aging I. Reputation & The Law J. Shopping in Might & Magic VII K. Building a Team that Works for You L. "Lost-Forevers" (Definitely Read This!) -------------- II. Characters -------------- A. Knight B. Monk C. Thief D. Ranger E. Paladin F. Archer G. Druid H. Cleric I. Sorcerer ----------------------------------- III. Walkthrough (Main Line Quests) ----------------------------------- A. The Scavenger Hunt B. Harmondale's New Lords C. The Elf-Human War D. Path of Light E. Path of Darkness F. Colony Zod & The Shoals -------------------- IV. Promotion Quests -------------------- A. Knight Promotions B. Monk Promotions C. Thief Promotions D. Ranger Promotions E. Paladin Promotions F. Archer Promotions G. Druid Promotions H. Cleric Promotions I. Sorcerer Promotions -------------- V. Side Quests -------------- A. Emerald Isle Quest (The Missing Contestants) B. Harmondale Quests C. Stone City Quest (Troglodyte Slayer) D. Tularean Forest Quests E. Erathia Quests F. Tatalia Quests G. Nighon Quest (Haldar's Remains) H. Bracada Quest (Seasons' Stole) I. Deyja Quest (Kill the Griffins) ------------------ VI. Little Secrets ------------------ A. Trap & Perception Reference Chart B. Wells, Altars, & Cauldrons C. Games, Contests, Tests, & Challenges D. Obelisks E. Trading Goods F. Secrets of the Genie Lamps G. Artifacts & Relics ------------- VII. Arcomage ------------- ----------------- VIII. Skill Lists ----------------- A. Weapon Skills B. Armor Skills C. Miscellaneous Skills D. Magic Skills ------------------------- IX. Expert Teachers Lists ------------------------- A. Weapon Skill Experts B. Armor Skill Experts C. Miscellaneous Skill Experts D. Magic Skill Experts ------------------------ X. Master Teachers Lists ------------------------ A. Weapon Skill Masters B. Armor Skill Masters C. Miscellaneous Skill Masters D. Magic Skill Masters ------------------------------ XI. Grandmaster Teachers Lists ------------------------------ A. Weapon Skill Grandmasters B. Armor Skill Grandmasters C. Miscellaneous Skill Grandmasters D. Magic Skill Grandmasters ------------------ XII. Weapons Lists ------------------ A. Swords B. Spears C. Axes D. Maces E. Daggers F. Staves G. Clubs H. Bows I. Blasters ----------------- XIII. Armor Lists ----------------- A. Leather B. Chain C. Plate D. Shields ---------------------- XIV. Accessories Lists ---------------------- A. Helmets B. Gauntlets C. Boots D. Cloaks E. Belts F. Amulets G. Rings -------------- XV. Item Lists -------------- A. Potions B. Reagents C. Wands D. Books & Scrolls E. Gems F. Ore G. Other Items ---------------------- XVI. Enchantment Lists ---------------------- A. Weapon Enchantments B. Non-Weapon Enchantments C. Universal Enchantments ----------------- XVII. Spell Lists ----------------- A. Fire Magic B. Air Magic C. Water Magic D. Earth Magic E. Spirit Magic F. Mind Magic G. Body Magic H. Light Magic I. Dark Magic -------------------- XVIII. Hireling List -------------------- ------------- XIX. Bestiary ------------- --------------- XX. Other Stuff --------------- ------------------- XXI. Hints & Tricks ------------------- A. Exploiting the A.I. B. Exploiting the Economy C. The Multi-Loot Bug D. Death Blasters --------------------------------------- XXII. For Veterans of Might & Magic VII --------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------ XXIII. St0rmcat's Might & Magic VII Editor ------------------------------------------ -------------------------------------- XXIV. Game Availability & Tech Support -------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------- Version Info, Credits, & Contact Information -------------------------------------------- BTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB T / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / T B / \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \ B T \ *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* \ T B /\ | ~I~ ~I~ | \/ B T \ * * \ T B /\ | I. Basic Information | \/ B T \ * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * \ T B /\ | ~I~ ~I~ | \/ B T \ *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* \ T B \ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ / B T / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / T BTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section I: Basic Information|/ /\ \ _\ /_ | ооооооооооооооооооооооооооооооо/ \о \ \/ / | O / /\ \ _\ /_ | A. Author's Note (Read This!) | о/ \о \ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \ _\ /_______________________________ | о/ \о \ \/ /|Section I: Basic Information|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Thank you for choosing a BTB FAQ. From the name of the section, "Stuff You Definitely Should Know Before Playing", a few things should be apparent. Here, I shall convey useful information about the game itself which is not readily apparent to the player. This is information that would greatly behoove the player to know and does not reveal anything, either story-wise or anything that may give you an unfair advantage while playing (for those of you who hate that sort of thing). In short, it is highly recommended that you look this section over before you begin playing. The walkthrough is the "meat" of the guide, containing in-depth strategies, directions, and so on. It is also generously littered with spoilers and profanity, and seeing as you have thusly been warned, I tend not to tolerate bitching about either of them. The appendices, or in other words all the parts of the walkthrough that are not the walkthrough, contain supplemental information that may be often referenced in the walkthrough. However, take note that during the walkthrough, I generally assume that my reader possesses a basic knowledge of the information found within the appendices, so please keep that in mind when using the walkthrough. Lastly, I must stress that in addition to providing help and information with the game itself in the walkthrough, I also keep a very good running tab on whatever plot may exist, often adding insight and commentary. This is meant to assist you, the reader's understanding of not only the technical aspects of the game, but also the finer details (namely the plot). Many people often say that my various commentary makes the game more enjoyable for them, which is indeed my intent. If you do not wish to partake of my commentary, I most certainly understand, and hope you at least find the answers to your question in the various non-plot-related parts of my FAQ. If, however, your distaste for my writing style leads you to bitch about my "filler-laden" FAQ, then my advice to you is quite simply to go fuck yourself and find something better to do with your time. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section I: Basic Information|/ /\ \ _\ /_ | ооооооооооооооооооооооооооооооо/ \о \ \/ / | O / /\ \ _\ /_ | B. Quick Info | о/ \о \ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \ _\ /_______________________________ | о/ \о \ \/ /|Section I: Basic Information|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm The following list is a quick run-off of general things to bear in mind about this game: About halfway through the game, you will make a seemingly in consequential choice, which will In fact have a huge effect on the entire game. You will choose one of two paths, and follow that path to the conclusion of the game. Which path you choose will have a huge impact on the rest of the game, and some notable differences are as follows. Different quests will be available to you on either path, different promotion quests will also be present (see section I.C. for more on promotion quests), --- The damage formulas in this game are a derivative of D&D rules. While most of this is explained in detail in section I.C. of the FAQ, a quick introductory note bears mentioning. That is, the concept of dice. When a weapon, for example, does 3d4 + 5 damage, it does the combined total of a four sided die rolled three times, plus five. This means that the potential damage output for this particular weapon ranges from 8 to 17 points of damage. Coversely, a spell that does, say, 5 + 1-8 damage per skill point would do a guaranteed 5 damage, plus 1 to 8 points of damage for each skill point in that particular school of magic. Don't worry, I talk about skill points in a little bit, just hang in there. --- A, C, and S (default) are three of the most important keys in the game, along with the Spacebar (mentioned below). The A key, most importantly, is your attack key. When you press it, whichever character is highlighted on the bottom of the screen will attack with whatever weapon they have equipped (or attack with their bare hands should they not possess a weapon). If your character has a bow equipped, then her or she will attack with the bow unless they are standing within melee range of any attackable creature. This includes friendly creatures, so be warned. Lacking a bow, your character will just attack (and miss) with their melee weapon or bare hands (assuming that you are not standing within melee range of anything, that is). The C button will bring up the highlighted character's spellbook, from which you can choose a spell to cast. You can navigate the spellbook via the tabs located on the right side of the spellbook (there will be one tab for each school of magic your character has learned). Lastly, in the spell menus, you may notice that you can set a "quick spell" to the S key. When you press the S key, a character will attack normally as if you had pressed the A key unless you have a quick-spell set, as well as enough MP to cast that spell, in which case the character will let loose with the spell instead. As you might expect, this is a very quick way to eat up your MP in the midst of a tough battle, so be wary of that when selecting your spell (good candidates include Heal, and low-level attack spells, in my opinion). --- The Spacebar would be the other extremely important key in the game. Anyone who has ever played a game like Doom knows this already, but as if it begged reiteration, the Spacebar is your general-all purpose interaction key. It does everything from talk to people, to open chests, to open doors, throw switches, etc. The mouse can also be used, though there are times when if the mouse does not work, the Spacebar usually will (this pertains especially to the Walls of Mist quest, which many claim to be bugged, though I personally have never experienced any problems with it because I use the Spacebar). --- Take note of the color of the small area surrounding the portraits of each of your characters. Under normal circumstances, it will be green. When enemies are near, it turns yellow. And when an enemy is in very close proximity, it turns red. This is important both as a warning to your party, and also due to the fact that certain things (such as resting, or casting the Town Portal spell) cannot be done while enemies are near. Also note that the color around your characters' portraits will go away for any particular character experiencing recovery time (discussed further just below). --- The vast majority of the game will take place in a "real-time" environment. You may move your characters about at all times, but whenever one of them acts (attacks, casts a spell, etc.), they suffer a "recovery time". This is a short period time in which they cannot act. You'll notice that the area around their portrait loses its color at this time. It will return to color again when they are ready to act. For more on recovery time, refer to section I.D. of the FAQ. By pressing the enter key (default), you may switch the game to a more traditional RPG style turn-based mode. In this turn-based mode, your characters' recovery times become far more noticeable, as your quicker characters will be able to act more often than your slower characters. You are also allowed a small movement phase before your attacks. Using the turn-based mode is not necessary for victory in Might & Magic VII, but it does slow the action down a bit and allows for more thought-out spellcasting tactics. All in all, you are advised to experiment with both modes and use whichever you feel the most comfortable with. --- One important thing to note about turns is that just about any action will cost a character his or her turn, including drinking a potion (potions are discussed a little later on in this section). However, any desired number of additional potions may be consumed by a character whose turn has passed. This is useful if you are really hurting and need to pump one or more of your characters back up to good health. The catch, of course, is that you must still have at least one character who is still in the green. This is because you cannot access your party's inventory via an inactive character, but you can access the inventory of another character and then switch to the inventory of any other character on your team, even if they are inactive. Keep this information in mind as you play. --- As with just about every other RPG ever made, there are treasure chests, boxes, crates, and all other forms of containers scattered throughout the land just brimming with goodies for you. Be warned, however, that almost every last one of them is armed with a trap which will damage the ntire party. The damage done is random, but often it is quite severely damaging- easily enough to wipe out your party if you're not lucky. That being said, characters with the Disarm Trap skill have a chance to disarm these traps, providing they are the active character when you open up a chest, crate, or other treasure-filled container. For more specific information, refer to section VI.A. of the FAQ. The master level Earth spell Telekinesis can also be used to open chests without fear of harm. Characters with the Perception skill stand a chance of avoiding the trap damage, but this is as a general rule not a good thing to rely entirely upon. --- Aside from the aformentioned traps, some traps also exist hidden throughout various dungeons, often triggered when you step on certain areas of the floor. These parts of the floor will be revealed if any character in your party possesses a high enough skill in Perception (refer to section VI.A. of the FAQ for more information on this). Perception also causes other hidden features, such as secret doors and the like, to be revealed. As you might expect, this is a skill that is highly valuable to the first-time player, whereas in contrast the veteran will have little to no use for it. --- When you first obtain any piece of equipment, excepting that which you purchase from shops, it is initially unidentified. This is indicated by the item appearing with a heavy green tint in the item screen. Information on any particular item in your inventory can be obtained by right-clicking it with your mouse. If the character who is holding the item has a high enough level in the ID Item skill (refer to section VIII.C. for more on how the ID Item skill works), he or she will identify the item, and information about it will appear. If not, the item remains unidentified. Unidentified items are still completely useable- you merely don't know anything about them. Simply by looking at it, you , the player, might be able to tell what the item is, but you will still be unaware of any enchantment that may be on the piece of equipment Enchantments are "bonuses", to put it one way, that enhance the effectiveness of the equipment. A complete listing of all the various enchantments is available in section XVI. of the FAQ, and if you are particularly savvy, you can usually figure out if anything is enchanted merely by examining its effects on your characters when equipping them. Still, most find this to be horribly inconvenient, and either opt for the ID Item skill, or pay shops to identify their items. --- A handful of things during your quest, usually a certain few enemies possessing the skill to do so, may cause your equipment to break. This will be indicated by the piece of equipment in question being displayed with a deep red hue in your inventory, and also it will read "broken" when you attempt to right-click it for information. If a character has a high enough skill level in the Repair Item skill, he or she can mend the item immediately simply by right-clicking it (for more on how the Repair Item skill works, refer to section VIII. C. of the FAQ). Broken items, although equippable, are entirely unusable, and have no effect on a character whatsoever. So, you'll probably want to fix broken equipment as soon as possible, either via the Repair Item skill or by paying a shop to fix it for you. --- Potions are a fairly big aspect of the game. Basic potion-making is something any of your characters can do. You'll need a "reagent", which comes in a variety of different forms (basically, these are the ingredients to the potion, all of which are listed in section XV.B. of the FAQ), as well as an empty potion bottle. Simply pick up the reagent and right-click it over the bottle to make the potion. How some of the reagents, such as a Meteorite Fragment, are immediately transformed into a drinkable liquid through nothing more than your character's own will and self determination is beyond me, but the potion is made on the spot, and is immediately useable. The "strength" of the potion will be listed if you right-click it, and stronger potions will have different effects based on the type of potion in question. Stronger reagents make stronger potions, and the Alchemy skill level of the character who made the potion (if applicable) is added to the strength of the potion also. While red, yellow, and blue potions are the three basic types, these can be mixed to create a vast myriad of different potions, which are all listed in section XV.A of the FAQ. Note that the character creating potions will need the Alchemy skill to create any potions more complex than red, yellow, or blue, as well as to create or use catalysts. Catalysts are grey potions and are special in the sense that you cannot drink them, but rather you mix them with other potions to alter their strength to that of that catalyst used. Attempting to create a potion that your character does not have the expertise to mix is a good way to get yourself blown up. Don't ask me how just two Poppysnaps and some Widowsweep Berries can be so volatile- just take my word for it. --- Concerning a glitch in the game, the Haste spell doesn't work. This includes pedestals, scrolls, and any other way to induce the haste condition upon your party (this includes the Hour of Power spell, as well). Not only does it not work, but can actually be counter- productive in that your characters are weakened when the spell wears off. The good news, however, is that haste potions do, in fact, work. And even better, they typically last much, much longer than the spell does, anyways. The only negative effect is that each potion only affects one character at a time. So, in a nutshell, haste cast on the party does not work, whereas haste cast on an individual does. --- Holding shift (default key) causes your party to run instead of walk. Some people like to keep the "always run" option on (which will then swap the function of the shift key to walking whenever you hold it down), but there is a reason why that may not be such a great idea. That is, when running, your characters recovery times are doubled. So, with the always run option on, you will always suffer this penalty while attacking, unless your party is standing absolutely still. This is just a friendly warning, and you are advised to, knowing this, choose whatever option you feel comfortable with. --- *Pressing the X key (default) allows your characters to jump a little bit into the air. This is a good way to cross small gaps, but nothing more. The jump is very small, and for anything further, you should use the expert-level Air spell Jump. However, it is very important to note that you can hop onto any body of water and, a'la Jesus, walk right across it. Your characters' only protests seem to be the occasional "I'm drowning!" as you trudge across the surface of the water, accompanied by a slow but steady drain of all your characters' HP. The expert level Water spell Water Walk will allow you to walk across the surface of water without taking damage, but as I have clearly stated, water travel is entirely possible without it, no matter how heavy your armor is. Use this knowledge to your advantage in the early game when the Water Walk spell might not be available. --- Steep terrain is another issue that should be addressed. If the slope is less than 90 degrees, it is entirely possible for you to climb on up via pressing yourself up against it, though some of the steeper hills are still almost entirely impassable. In any event, you'd do best to find yourself the least-steep side of any hill, cliff, or other big, tall thing to climb in front of you to scale. From there, it's all a combination of "hopping" up with the X (default) key, and "wriggling" your way up the hill by pressing yourself up against it and turning from side to side with the left and right keys (this is surprisingly effective). Also, the expert-level Air spell Jump is extremely helpful in this pursuit, should you happen to posess it. Granted, all of this is entirely moot when you acquire the master-level Air spell Fly, but climbing is a useful skill of getting to various locations early in the game, as well as making traveling in Deyja and Bracada far much easier. Actually, now that I mention it, it's pretty much impossible to travel almost anywhere in Deyja without doing at least a little climbing unless you are flying. --- The converse to climbing, of course, is falling. And it hurts. The rule is that for every 10 feet your characters fall, they lose 10% of their maximum HP. Falls under 10 feet do not hurt, and a fall of 100 or over will kill you outright. For starters, I should note that water, as in real life, not only will not break your fall, but often can make the situation worse when you take the whole drowning thing into consideration. And, as if it needed mentioning, a foot in Might & Magic VII is not very far at all. But you can get a fairly good idea when you consider that the typical building/person in this game is about as tall as a building or a person might be in real life. The good news is that the initiate-level Air spell Feather Fall will eliminate damage done by falling for as long as it is active. The same can be said for the master-level Air spell Fly. And also, you will not suffer damage from falling after casting the expert-level Air spell Jump, no matter how far it is you happen to fall after casting it. That is, while the spell only takes you 60 feet into the air, you can fall much farther than that after casting the spell without getting hurt. Keep these things in mind as you travel. --- Do peasants wandering about on the street apparently unaware of the fact that they are standing directly in your way piss you off? Well, you could kill them, but section I.I. describes why that may not be such a good idea. Try the Y key (default), which prompts your character to yell at the idiot standing in your way. Repeated yelling may be required in the case of severe dipshittedness, but they usually get the hint pretty fast and move out of your way. --- Note that the 1-4 keys on the top of your keyboard correspond to one of the four members of your party. This has various uses. Press the appropriate key once to activate that character, if he or she is able to activated at the moment, that is (as opposed to using the tab key to cycle through your characters), and then you may press the appropriate key again to bring up their user info screen. But perhaps the most useful aspect (in my experience, anyways) of this is its usefulness in sorting your inventory. When you left-click any item to "pick it up", you may send that item directly to any character's inventory by pressing the appropriate key. This not only makes sorting your inventory far more convenient, but also makes looting chests and the like far much more quick and easy. --- And lastly, if, for some reason you have lost any quest item you were carrying, head on over to the Arbiter's Hut in eastern Harmondale and speak with the judge there. Tell him "I lost it" and he'll give it back to you. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section I: Basic Information|/ /\ \ _\ /_ | ооооооооооооооооооооооооооооооо/ \о \ \/ / | O / /\ \ _\ /_ | C. Skills, Leveling-Up, & Promotions | о/ \о \ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \ _\ /_______________________________ | о/ \о \ \/ /|Section I: Basic Information|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I discuss skills, leveling-up, and promotions all in the same section, as they are all inter-related. Let's begin with skills. There are three different types of skills in Might & Magic VII. Combat skills allow your character to use a certain piece of equipment. For instance, you cannot use a Spear, or Chain armor, without the appropriate skill. Note that clubs (crude melee weapons) and accessories (such as helmets, gauntlets, and cloaks) do not require skills to use. Magic skills will allow your character to cast magic spells from their respective schools. Miscellaneous skills, lastly, have various beneficial effects, either by aiding the character directly, or allowing the character to perform tasks beneficial to the party (such as Merchantry or Repairing Items). Skill levels start at 1, and may be raised using skill points . Skill points are earned mainly through leveling-up, but can be attained through other means, as well. Even so, they are a very rare and very limited resource, so you are advised to spend them wisely. It takes 2 skill points to raise a skill to level 2, 3 skill points to raise it to level 3, etc. Raising a skill's skill level has various effects on the skill, and varies depending on the skill. However, the most important method of refining your characters' skills is by seeking out teachers (listed in sections IX., X., and XI. of the FAQ), and enlisting them to promote you to expertise, mastery, and perhaps even grandmastery of a particular skill. These will often convey very large and significant bonuses to the skill, as well as allowing additional skill levels gained for that skill to be even more effective. For example, an expert of the mace has their skill level added to both their attack bonus as well as damage done, as opposed to the non-expert, who receives only the addition to their attack bonus. Magic skills are of worthy note here, as well. Expertise in magic skills dictates not only what spells a character may learn, but also the effectiveness of those spells. For example, an expert in Air magic may learn both initiate-level spells, such as Wizard Eye, as well as expert-level spells, such as Shield. As the character's expertise in Air magic increases, he or she will not only be able to learn higher-level spells, but the spells from lower levels will often function much more effectively under higher levels of expertise. In this case, for example, the Shield spell has a much longer duration when the caster is a master of Air magic as opposed to a mere expert. The exact way in which each spell will grow more useful with increased expertise varies per spell, and is thusly detailed in the various lists throughout section XVII of the FAQ. Note that different character classes are allowed only attain certain degrees of mastery in each skill (Sorcerers, for example, may grandmaster magic skills that Archers are allowed only to master). Furthermore, some levels of skill expertise will be available to a character only after certain promotion quests (for more on promotion quests, see below). These are also successive endeavors, in case you hadn't noticed. That is, you must be promoted to an expert before becoming a master, and so on. Lastly, note that in order to be promoted to expertise, mastery, or grandmaster of a skill, in addition to the appropriate class and promotion requirements, you must also have achieved a certain skill level in that particular skill. The following chart illustrates the various requirements. +----------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+ | To be promoted to... | ...you must have reached at least this skill level. | +----------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+ | Expert | 4 | | Master | 7 | | Grand Master | 10 | +----------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+ Next, let's discuss leveling-up. Rather than immediately promoting your characters to the next experience level as most RPG's do when you attain enough experience points, in the world of Might & Magic VII, you must seek out a training facility and pay to be promoted to the next level. Of course, you must have attained to required experience points prior. You can tell if your characters are ready to level up by bringing up the quick reference card (default key Z), and any character whose level is listed in green text is due for a level up. Their experience points will also be listed in green text on their respective individual statistics screens. Also note that unlike most RPG's, the only statistics raised via leveling up are HP and MP, though skill points are also awarded, as well. The other stats can only be raised through other means, as detailed in section I.D. of the FAQ. How much HP or MP a character gains with each level-up is dependent on their class. Knights, obviously, gain more HP than, say, Druids. However, the skill points awarded for each level-up are the same for all characters, regardless of class. The formula for determining how many skill points a character will gain upon level-up is detailed in the chart below. (Note that even though it is theoretically possible to be attain levels off this chart, not only should you have figured out the pattern by that point, you'll probably also have far too many skill points by that time to give a shit.) +--------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+ | When being promoted to the levels... | ...you earn this many skill points. | +--------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+ | 2 - 9 | 5 | | 10 - 19 | 6 | | 20 - 29 | 7 | | 30 - 39 | 8 | | 40 - 49 | 9 | | 50 - 59 | 10 | | 60 - 69 | 11 | +--------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+ Lastly, we'll talk about promotions. Each character class has three "promotion quests". These promotion quests are different from regular quests as, although they don't progress the story line, completing them allows the character to be promoted to the next "level". A Cleric, for instance, will be promoted to a Priest, and then later to a Priest of the Light, or to a Priest of the Dark. Note that a Cleric must first be promoted to Priest before attempting either the Priest of Light or Priest of Dark promotions, and that only one of the latter two may be attained (this will be determined by a choice you make about halfway through the game, as discussed below). Completing promotion quests allows your characters to learn skills to a higher level of mastery, as well as significantly raises their HP and MP maxes. For instance, whereas a Cleric might gain 3 MP for each level up, a Priest will earn 4. At the time of promotion, the game acts as if every level gained up to that point had been gained as the newer class, meaning you can feel free to take your time and complete the promotion quests at your leisure. Also, Priests may, for example, master magic skills which they could only gain expertise in as Clerics. Finally note that you may complete promotions quests for characters that are not in your party- you merely do not see any benefit from completing them aside from the experience, gold, and items gained. Concerning the second promotions, as I mentioned above, which of the two your will be able to attain is dependent on your choice made halfway through the game. One set of promotions is available to parties on one path, whereas another set of promotions is available to characters on the other path. The promotions themselves are almost entirely the same, with only a few scattered areas in a few different classes that might be a little different. While these are all mentioned under their appropriate areas in section II. Of the FAQ, the most important difference rests with Clerics, Sorcerers, Paladins, and Archers, and concerns the ultimate school of magic which they can study. Each of the two paths has their own school of magic (Light and Dark) that contain some very powerful and useful spells, and is exclusive to characters playing on that path. One last thing worthy of mention (or reiteration) is that while the second promotions are path-specific, the first promotions, which must be attained before earning the second promotions are not. Ergo, both Priests of the Light and Priests of the Dark must have been earlier promoted to Priests before attempting their second promotions. I mention this because more than likely, characters following one path will receive their first promotion from teachers of the opposite path, and then must seek out new teachers in order to receive their second promotion. Fear not, this is how things are supposed to work. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section I: Basic Information|/ /\ \ _\ /_ | ооооооооооооооооооооооооооооооо/ \о \ \/ / | O / /\ \ _\ /_ | D. Statistics & Probabilities | о/ \о \ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \ _\ /_______________________________ | о/ \о \ \/ /|Section I: Basic Information|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm This is a subject that is mostly limited to RPG's, and deals with the random probabilities of things happening in the game and the statistics that they are based upon. Statistics are important in every RPG, and some other games as well. Unfortunately for us, statistics are a far different thing in every game we have ever played, and they can often be confusing. Below is listed every statistic in the game, how we get it (and/or make it bigger), and what it does (simple enough for ya?): HP should be a statistic familiar to anyone who's ever played an RPG before, and I will therefore refrain from explaining too much about it. It is important to note, however, that when it falls below 0, your character goes unconscious. When it falls to a negative number equivalent to that character's Endurance stat, the character dies. There is a big difference between the two, as characters who are merely unconscious can be cured via Heal spells, potions, and other curative means whereas a character who has died cannot be. Also note that although HP is visible as an exact number on a character's stat screen, there is also a bar to the right of each character's portrait on the bottom of the screen that indicates how much of his or her maximum HP is remaining. Green indicates good health, yellow is moderate damage, while red is serious injury. This can be misleading as it is a result of a character's maximum HP, so a character (such as a Monk) with a lot of HP could be down in the red, and still be about as well off as, say, a Druid who is still in the green. Anyways, a character's HP max will go up with each level-up, as his or her Endurance stat goes up, as his or her Body Building skill level or expertise increases, and you'll generally receive a nice bonus to it with each class promotion. --- MP is another stat that should be familiar to anyone who hasn't been living under a rock for the last 30 or so years. There's nothing special about the MP stat in Might & Magic, except that it occasionally jumps up and down and does tricks when you feed it treats. A character's MP max rises with each level-up, as his or her Meditation skill or expertise rises, and a hefty bonus is generally received with each class promotion. Thieves, Rangers, Archers, Druids, and Sorcerers will also see their MP maxes rise with the Intellect stat, whereas Monks, Rangers, Paladins, Druids, and Clerics will see it go up alongside their Personality stats. --- Might is a fairly self-explanatory stat. The higher this stat gets, the more damage a character does with melee attacks. A character's Might stat increases by consuming red liquid, and can receive some hefty one- time permanent bonuses by visiting a certain altar/well or by consuming the black potion Pure Might. For more on red liquid, altars, and wells, refer to section VI.B of the FAQ. For more on (black) potions, refer to section XV.A.. --- Intellect causes a character's MP stat to rise as it goes up. This applies only if the character in question is a Thief, Ranger. Archer, Druid, or Sorcerer. Knights, Monks, Paladins, and Clerics make no use of this stat. A character's Intellect stat increases by consuming orange liquid, and can receive some hefty one-time permanent bonuses by visiting a certain altar/well or by consuming the black potion Pure Intellect. For more on orange liquid, altars, and wells, refer to section VI.B of the FAQ. For more on (black) potions, refer to section XV.A.. --- Personality causes a character's MP stat to rise as it goes up. This apppies only if the character in question is a Monk, Ranger, Paladin, Druid, or Cleric. Knights, Thieves, Archers, and Sorcerers make no use of this stat. A character's Personality stat increases by consuming blue liquid, and can receive some hefty one-time permanent bonuses by visiting a certain altar/well, or by consuming the black potion Pure Personality. For more on blue liquid, altars, and wells, refer to section VI.B of the FAQ. For more on (black) potions, refer to section XV.A.. --- Endurance causes a character's HP to rise as it goes up. It also marks how far into the negative numbers a character's HP can go before he or she dies. A character's Endurance stat increases by consuming green liquid, and can receive some hefty one-time permanent bonuses by visiting a certain altar/well, or by consuming the black potion Pure Endurance. For more on red liquid, altars, and wells, refer to section VI.B of the FAQ. For more on (black) potions, refer to section XV.A.. --- Accuracy, as you might have guessed, help a character's attacks connect more often. As this stat goes up, it increases a character's Attack Bonus, for both melee and ranged (bow) attacks. A character's Accuracy stat increases by consuming yellow liquid (ewwww...), and can receive some hefty one-time permanent bonuses by visiting a certain altar/well, or by consuming the black potion Pure Accuracy. For more on yellow liquid (again I say, ewwww...), altars, and wells, refer to section VI.B of the FAQ. For more on (black) potions, refer to section XV.A.. --- Speed is a stat which shortens a character's recovery time, therefore making him or her quicker in battle. A character's AC will also go up with their Speed stat. A character's Speed stat increases by consuming purple liquid, and can receive some hefty one-time permanent bonuses by visiting a certain altar/well, or by consuming the black potion Pure Speed. For more on purple liquid, altars, and wells, refer to section VI.B of the FAQ. For more on (black) potions, refer to section XV.A.. --- Luck is a stat that works as a bonus to all resistances (mentioned below). A character's Luck stat does not receive very many chances to increase, but can receive some hefty one-time permanent bonuses by visiting a certain altar/well, or by consuming the black potion Pure Luck. For more on altars wells, refer to section VI.B of the FAQ. For more on (black) potions, refer to section XV.A.. --- AC stands for Armor Class, and is a stat most hard core D&D fanatics should recognize, at least. In short, this stat represents your character's defense. Only it does not lessen damage- it prevents it outright. When an attack is made, a check is made with the target's AC to see if the attack actually hits. I would list the formula except that you probably don't really care. In a nutshell, the higher your AC is, the harder you are to hit. Simple enough for ya? AC is affected by a character's Speed stat, a character's equipment, a character's expertise in the armor or shield they are using (only if they are using it, mind you), and the Stoneskin spell. In addition, certain wells provide temporary bonuses to a character's AC. For more on wells, refer to section VI.B. of the FAQ. --- Attack Bonus is the Yin to AC's Yang. Whereas AC determined how hard a target was to hit, a higher Attack Bonus makes your melee or ranged attack much more likely to connect. The Attack Bonuses listed on a character's ranged and melee skills are a sum of all the factors that go into the Attack Bonus stat. These includes a character's Accuracy stat, equipped weapon(s), and the Bless spell. Please note that when a character is attacking with a weapon in both hands, the attack bonuses for those two weapons are combined to make a larger attack bonus for a single attack made with both weapons (as opposed to each weapon striking separately). --- Damage is a stat that I honestly hope I don't have to explain to you, lest you probably need more help than this FAQ can provide. The numbers listed under damage for both melee and ranged attacks are the possible damage output for your characters attacks at that point, taking things such as equipped weapons, the Heroism spell, etc. into consideration. Is does not, however, take into consideration added elemental damage, usually due to enchantments. For example, a character wielding Broad Sword of Flames (the "of Flames" enchantment adding 6-12 addition points of fire damage) will not see the addition 6-12 points of fire damage reflected in his or her Damage stat. A character's Damage output is affected by his or her Might stat, equipped weapon(s), expertise with that weapon (in some instances), by the Armsmaster skill (Master level or higher), and by the Heroism spell. Please note that when a character is attacking with a weapon in both hands, the damage output for those two weapons are combined to make a larger damage output for a single attack made with both weapons (as opposed to each weapon striking separately). However, a major disclaimer to this rule involves additional damage done by enchantments on the weapons. Only the enchantment on the weapon in the character's main (right) hand will be counted. --- Air, Body, Earth, Fire, Mind, and Water Resistance should be self- explanitory enough. These stats work to reduce damage made by spells from their respective schools of magic. Note that enemies also possess resistances to Light, Dark, and Spirit magic, as well as physical attacks. Like AC, the higher these stats get, the more they will help you. Unlike AC, these resistances do not work to eliminate the damage entirely, they work merely to lessen it. It is worthy of note how the resistances work. They do once check to see if a character takes half damage, succeeding in that check, it makes a second check for a quarter damage, succeeding that, it makes a third and final check for an eighth damage. So, insanely high resistances won't almost entirely kill off the damage done by any particular spell to you, but you can at least feel more secure in passing more checks. The Luck stat acts as a bonus to all resistances. Resistances are affected by equipment, and can be permanently raised by visiting a couple of particular altars/cauldrons. Many wells can temporarily raise certain resistances, as well. Different character races start the game with different inherent resistances, to boot. For more on wells, altars, and cauldrons, refer to section VI.B. of the FAQ. For more on character races and their starting resistances, refer to section I.K. of the FAQ. --- Spirit, Light, Dark, and Physical Resistance both work exactly like the resistances all mentioned above, but with one notable difference: they are possessed only by the enemy and never by anyone on your team. --- Recovery Time, lastly, is a stat that's not mentioned on a character's statistic screen, but is still of great importance. A character's recovery time, as mention in section I.B., is the time after a character acts in which he or she must "recover" and is not allowed to act. Recovery times are affected by a number of things. First and foremost, it is a result of the attack used. Each weapon type has a certain recovery time associated with it (including unarmed attacks), as does each particular spell. Further expertise in the given school of magic often helps to reduce the recovery time for said spell, but much more can be done to reduce a weapon's recovery time. Further expertise and skill points in the given weapon skill, as well as skill points in the Armsmaster skill can help to reduce a character's recovery time for physical attacks. A few enchantments also help to reduce the recovery rate of a particular weapon. It is worthy of note that when a character is attacking with two different weapons, the recovery rate for the slower weapon is used. Aside from what I've already mentioned, there are a few other bonuses/penalties that apply to both physical and magical attacks. Being in the haste condition greatly reduces a character's recovery time, and they will also receive a bonus to their recovery time . Aside from those two things, everything else pertaining to recovery time aims to raise it. Armor, depending on the type, will slow you down, though further expertise in the skill for that particular armor can lower or even eliminate that penalty. The same can be said for shields. Finally, as I discussed earlier in section I.B., if you take action while running, your character's recovery times will be doubled. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section I: Basic Information|/ /\ \ _\ /_ | ооооооооооооооооооооооооооооооо/ \о \ \/ / | O / /\ \ _\ /_ | E. Statistic Thresholds | о/ \о \ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \ _\ /_______________________________ | о/ \о \ \/ /|Section I: Basic Information|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Something vitally important to note about stats in Might & Magic VII is that they do not work as simply as they do in most other games. Whereas you might be expecting a higher stat to be more effective no matter what, that isn't necessarily the case. Rather, stats become more and more effective after hitting certain "thresholds". For example, an Endurance of 17 will provide 2x (where x is a character's HP gain per level) extra HP to that character's max HP. The next stat threshold is at 19, so increasing the Endurance stat will do you no extra good until it reaches 19. So, in short, a stat of 17 and a stat of 18 provide the exact same benefits. This is very important to keep in mind while creating your party, as well as a good thing to bear in mind as you are developing your characters throughout your travels. Note that stat thresholds apply only to a character's seven basic stats: Might, Intellect, Personality, Endurance, Accuracy, Speed, and Luck. It does not affect things such as AC or resistances, so feel free to take any and all opportunities to raise those particular stats as high as you can. Without further adieu, the stat thresholds are listed in the chart below. +-----------------+---------------+ | Attribute Score | Bonus/Penalty | +-----------------+---------------+ | 0 | -6 | | 3 | -5 | | 5 | -4 | | 7 | -3 | | 9 | -2 | | 11 | -1 | | 13 | +0 | | 15 | +1 | | 17 | +2 | | 19 | +3 | | 21 | +4 | | 25 | +5 | | 30 | +6 | | 35 | +7 | | 40 | +8 | | 50 | +9 | | 75 | +10 | | 100 | +11 | | 125 | +12 | | 150 | +13 | | 175 | +14 | | 200 | +15 | | 225 | +16 | | 250 | +17 | | 275 | +18 | | 300 | +19 | | 350 | +20 | | 400 | +25 | | 500 | +30 | +-----------------+---------------+ As the table above demonstrates, 13 is the "average" stat. Anything above it confers bonuses, whereas everything below it dips into the negative numbers. It also demonstrates how stat growth starts to slow after about 30. What does this mean to you? It means that early in the game, every little bit in stat growth helps. Keep this chart in mind while developing your characters in the early game. As for later in the game, it is rarely, if at all possible to achieve natural stats that go much higher than 125 or so. So a the bottom portion of this chart more or less just helps to show how effective a seriously bulked-up temporary stat-boosting potion can be. Gains from 100 to 350 are slow but steady, but you earn a very nice bonus for breaking that last 50 points to a stat value of 400. 500 and beyond is nice, but exceedingly difficult to achieve through just about any means. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section I: Basic Information|/ /\ \ _\ /_ | ооооооооооооооооооооооооооооооо/ \о \ \/ / | O / /\ \ _\ /_ | F. Food & Rest | о/ \о \ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \ _\ /_______________________________ | о/ \о \ \/ /|Section I: Basic Information|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Food and rest tend to go hand in hand in Might & Magic VII. First of all, let's discuss the benefits of rest. In most RPG's, you need only rest when you become injured; your characters never get tired. In Might & Magic VII, your characters may become both injured and tired. If your characters go for 24 hours straight with no rest, they will become weak (section I.G. of the FAQ discusses the "weakness" ailment in further detail). Granted, you have many means, both magical and otherwise, to simply cure your characters' weakness and go about as if nothing out of the ordinary just happened, and can theoretically keep them awake as long as you have to via this method. But beware that keeping your characters up for too long in sleep-induced weakness (about 2 or 3 days) can cause them to go insane, or even death. On one hand, this is a nice way to easily induce insanity upon your characters if you so desire (again, refer to section I.G. of the FAQ for more on this ailment), but you should always save first, as death is not an uncommon side effect of sleep deprivation. As for the sleep itself, it will restore your characters' HP and MP to their respective maxes, as well as cure any of the following conditions: afraid, asleep, drunk, unconscious, weak. Don't go expecting sleep to cure your insanity, death, or whatever other weird-ass ailments you might happen to be stricken with. Check out section I.G. of the FAQ if you wanna know how to do that. And now for the food part of things. Without food, your characters cannot rest. I find this logic to be questionable at best, but that's just the way things work. Food can be purchased at any tavern in the game, and depending on which tavern you are buying from, they will be able to fill your packs to a certain "maximum" amount. For example, the tavern at Harmondale can fill your packs to a maximum of 6 food. In contrast, the tavern at Mount Nighon can fill your packs to a maximum of 60 food. Of course, you end up paying a lot more in Mount Nighon than you do in Harmondale, so excess food can be kind of a waste of your money. Food never does spoil, though, which is good. Granted, the cheapest and easiest way to rest involves staying at a tavern, in which food is provided, and your personal store of food remains untapped. Taverns are open most of the day, and staying at one will advance time forward to the next 6 AM (apparently, your team consists of early risers). However, providing you have sufficient food supplies, you can camp just about anywhere where no enemies are near (meaning the area around your characters' portraits must be green- not yellow or red). Of course, if you're the kind of simpleton who is going to pitch camp in the middle of a bloody battle, then perhaps a piece of string may provide more suitable entertainment for you than Might & Magic VII. Now, on to camping. There are several points that must be made here. First of all, as I mentioned above, you can camp anywhere. Even in the middle of a dungeon, or worse. Of course, if you don't exercise some common sense when looking for a place to rest, odds are that your slumber is going to be disturbed by a pack of traveling monsters in the middle of the night. Not only can this be annoying, but it's also dangerous because you are fighting without the benefits of a full night's rest. In order to gain the benefits of rest, your characters must sleep for a full, uninterrupted 8 hours. This is in contrast to sleeping at a tavern, where each sleep period lasts until 6 AM, and will be beneficial no matter how long it lasts. Lastly, exactly where your characters decide to set up camp will influence how much food they use up. This is detailed in the chart below. +-----------+-----------+ | Terrain | Food Used | +-----------+-----------+ | Castle* | 0 | | Grass | 1 | | Dirt | 2 | | Road | 2 | | Indoors | 2 | | Snow | 3 | | Marsh | 3 | | Wasteland | 4 | | Desert | 5 | +-----------+-----------+ * The castle in question is Castle Harmondale, in which after a certain point in the game, you may sleep all you want without incurring penalties to your food stores. As you can see clearly by the chart, harsh weather conditions make your characters extra hungry. So, when possible, travel a few tiles over into more hospitable terrain before resting. Also note that traveling from region to region uses food, and where you exit a certain region can often dictate how much food is used. For example, traveling from Bracada to the Barrow Downs will use a lot less food when you take the road as opposed to traveling through the desert. If you don't have enough food to make the trip, your characters will arrive in a weakened condition. However, it does not matter how long they travel between maps while weakened. You can send your characters back and forth through maps indefinitely without food, and the worst that will happen to them is that they will become weak. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section I: Basic Information|/ /\ \ _\ /_ | ооооооооооооооооооооооооооооооо/ \о \ \/ / | O / /\ \ _\ /_ | G. Conditions & Ailments | о/ \о \ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \ _\ /_______________________________ | о/ \о \ \/ /|Section I: Basic Information|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm There are a wide variety of conditions and ailments which your characters can be stricken with in Might & Magic VII. There are also a wide variety of ways to fix them. As you progress through the game, you will (or probably will, at any rate) develop a wide range of ability in do-it-yourself healing, but lacking those skills, the one fail-safe way to get yourself fixed up is to go visit a temple. This will be either due to your inability to handle that particular ailment yourself, or due to the fact that you've allowed yourself to be afflicted with the ailment for so long that you no longer are powerful enough to deal with it. You can see how long a character has been afflicted with a given condition by right-clicking the character's status in their stat information screen. Note that only the most severe condition afflicting them at any given point will be listed here, but you are also given a full list of whatever ailments the character happens to be suffering when right-clicking. This is especially useful if you happen to be going around with a condition you can't cure, as it helps you at the very least keep yourself from racking up more problems on top of that. Though I mentioned above that paying the right price at a temple will cure you of anything, there is a slight exception to that rule involving the Zombie condition, and is discussed below when I talk about that particular ailment. And now, without further adieu, I give you the conditions and ailments of Might & Magic VII, presented in alphabetical order for your convenience (excepting Good, which is listed first): Good is the normal condition. If your condition is listed as good, then everything is normal. --- Afraid is a condition that's usually associated with the undead. When you hear one of your characters scream in terror, you can generally assume they are either plummeting to their deaths or have been stricken with this ailment. And seeing as if they were falling, odds are you'd probably be aware of the fact, it's not too hard to tell when one of your characters has the bejeezus scared out of them. All in all, it's not really one of the more debilitating conditions. It effects your stats somewhat, as detailed in the chart at the end of this list, but that's about it. Cures include the initiate level Mind spell Remove Fear, the compound potion Remove Fear, resting, and visiting a temple. --- Asleep is a condition you'll see occasionally, either if your camp is disturbed my monsters, and there are a select few enemies who have the ability to inflict this upon your characters. Not the most debilitating of all ailments, as all it really does is prevent the affected character from acting until he or she is attacked, force-fed the complex potion Awaken, or had had the initiate-level Water spell Awaken cast on them. Resting and temples are two other ways to cure this condition. --- Cursed is a pretty nasty condition, and fairly common to run across, seeing as a variety of enemies (usually undead, but not always) have the ability to afflict it upon you. The curse causes any attacks or spells cast by the character to automatically fail 50% of the time, so you'll want to clear this thing up pretty fast, either with the complex potion Remove Curse, the expert-level Spirit spell of the same name, or by visiting a temple. --- Dead is fairly self-explanatory, if you ask me. It is caused when a character's HP falls to a negative number equal to their Endurance stat. Characters suffering from this condition can't really do much except decompose until you find some way to bring them back to life. Early on, your only real solution will be visiting a temple, though for reasons I get into later it's probably bad to visit a temple in the Deyja, Nighon, or Pit regions concerning this matter. But later on, the master-level Spirit spell Raise Dead will also do the trick. --- Diseased is worse than being poisoned, but not as bad as syphilis (which, thankfully, your characters are unable to contract). Characters suffering from this condition suffer a pretty bad blow to their stats, which is detailed in the chart at the bottom of this list. Left untreated, it also gets progressively worse. While not the most common of ailments, expect to see it at least a couple times during your journey. The causes are pretty obvious: various disease-ridden enemies, and digging around through huge piles of trash without the aid of an adequate Disarm Trap skill. Cures include the complex potion Cure Disease, the master-level Body spell of the same name, and of course visiting a temple. --- Drunk is a condition you won't run across too often, mainly because your characters rarely have time to pause a heated battle to have a few brews, and whenever you go to a tavern, the "get plastered" option is noticeably absent. There are a select few enemies whose toxic attacks are the equivalent of a shot of Everclear, however, and can get your ass drunk in no time. It might also interest you to learn that you can sometimes get pretty wasted going around drinking out of every well, trough, and other various pools of standing water you find, but odds are that if you're doing this then being drunk is probably the least of your worries. That being said, drunkards are pretty worthless in battle, seeing as their stats take a pretty significant nosedive while intoxicated, as detailed in the chart at the end of this list. It is also worthy to note that nobody bothered coming up with a "Sobriety" spell or potion, meaning that your only methods of ridding yourself of this condition are rest or visiting a temple. --- Eradicated is an interesting condition, to say the least. It's like being dead, but worse. Because not only are you dead, but your body has also been destroyed way past the point of an open-casket funeral. If this has happened to you, odds are you had an encounter with a real badass, or your stupid ass tried mixing a potion that didn't agree with the blood stains on the sidewalk that used to be you. Visiting a temple is usually the only way you're going to be able to fix this, unless someone with you happens to know the grandmaster-level Spirit spell Resurrect. --- Insane is a delightful condition to witness, if not purely to see your character(s)' reactions. They will laugh manically and foam at the mouth, which amuses me to no end. Insanity is somewhat rare, and is caused mainly by a select few enemies and sleep depravation (I discuss this in section I.F. of the FAQ). Stat-wise, this is the one and only ailment that can actually be beneficial to some of your characters, providing you don't really much care about them magically. Might, Endurance, and Speed (with a huge emphasis on Might) are all boosted at the expense of pretty much all of your Intellect and Personality, which you probably wouldn't expect an insane person to have, anyways. Insanity is a great way to boost a character's stats (especially Might) temporarily, which can be extremely helpful when you're checking out all the things I mention in section VI.C. of the FAQ. And like I said, it is more or less entirely beneficial to any character that doesn't use magic, but can be horribly inconvenient in that every time you go to visit a priest, they'll find your demeanor displeasing and rid you of it even though all you wanted was just a damn health boost. Aside from the aformentioned priest, other cures for this condition involve the compound potion Cure Insanity and the master-level Mind spell of the same name. --- Paralyzed is a condition which will completely stun your character, making him or her entirely unable to act. Usually caused by enemies, and somewhat rare, this is a condition you'll probably want to get fixed up ASAP. Because if all of your characters are incapacitated in any way (dead, unconscious, stoned, or paralyzed), then you still lose. Can be remedied with the white potion Cure Paralysis, the expert-level Mind spell of the same name, or by seeing a priest. --- Poisoned is a fairly common condition that has a negative effect on your stats, though not as bad as disease does. Like disease, however, it will continue to get progressively worse if left untreated, so you might want to fix it up as soon as possible. Poison is caused by a number of sources, mainly enemies, and can be cured with the complex potion Cure Poison, the expert-level Body spell of the same name, or by seeing a priest. --- Stoned is a condition most commonly caused by medusas and pot. And seeing as the latter does not exist in this game, chances are you ended up this way due to an encounter with the former. Not the most common ailment, as medusas aren't exactly easy to come by, but being stoned can really put a damper in your plans, as it entirely prevents the affected character from acting. In more severe cases, the victim will also grow long hair and become a hippy. And as I mentioned before, if all of your characters become incapacitated, either through death, unconsciousness, paralysis, or stoning, you still lose. Cure this with the black potion Stone to Flesh, the expert-level earth spell of the same name, or by visiting a temple. --- Unconscious is something you'll be dealing with quite a bit in the game. This is what happens to your characters whenever their HP falls below 0. Under this condition, they cannot act, and are pretty much incapacitated, but there's still hope. Using any curative means you have at your disposal, you can raise their HP above 0 to cure this condition. However, if their HP falls to a negative number equal to their Endurance stat, they die. --- Weak is another common condition you'll see at least a few times in your adventures. Characters which are in a weakened state gradually lose HP over time, and their attacks do half damage. Causes are numerous, and include enemy attacks and sleep deprivation. Cures include the simple potion Cure Weakness, the initiate-level Body spell of the same name, resting, and visiting a temple. --- Zombie is a condition which you'll probably be freaked out the first time you see. That's because, well, your characters literally turn into zombies. It's unnerving. Though this condition has no conventional causes, odds are you contracted it by trying to have one of your dead characters resurrected at the wrong temple. Of course, it only should take this happening to you one time before you learn that necromancers are probably not the best people to be visiting for your revival needs. To avoid this condition, which reduces you to a dull, boring, stat- barren lump of rotting flesh completely devoid of any and all magical abilities, just simply avoid getting yourself revived at temples in places that are noticeably evil, namely Deyja, The Pit, and Nighon. To fix this condition, hurt the afflicted character a little bit, and then visit a temple that isn't, you know, evil. On a fun little side note, you can practice do-it-yourself zombification on your own character with the initiate-level Dark spell Reanimation. It's a real piss-poor substitute for Raise Dead, but it's helpful if you're in a serious jam. As noted above, several conditions can adversely affect your characters' stats. The chart below details these conditions and exactly what percentage each of your stats will rise or fall to under each ailment. Please note that multiple conditions are not compounded- you are only given the stat alterations of the most severe condition your character is afflicted with (you can see which condition this is by checking the character's stat screen). Of course, statistics aside, any other negative conditions brought about by your multiple ailments are compounded. That being said, I give you the chart. +-----------+-------+------+------+------+------+-------+------+ | Condition | Might | Int. | Per. | End. | Acc. | Speed | Luck | +-----------+-------+------+------+------+------+-------+------+ | Afraid | 120 | 50 | 50 | 100 | 50 | 120 | 100 | | Disease 1 | 60 | 100 | 100 | 60 | 60 | 60 | 100 | | Disease 2 | 30 | 60 | 60 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 100 | | Disease 3 | 10 | 30 | 30 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 100 | | Drunk | 50 | 25 | 25 | 50 | 10 | 20 | 200 | | Insane | 200 | 10 | 10 | 150 | 100 | 120 | 100 | | Poison 1 | 75 | 100 | 100 | 75 | 75 | 75 | 100 | | Poison 2 | 50 | 75 | 75 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 100 | | Poison 3 | 25 | 50 | 50 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 100 | | Zombie | 100 | 1 | 1 | 100 | 50 | 50 | 100 | +-----------+-------+------+------+------+------+-------+------+ wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section I: Basic Information|/ /\ \ _\ /_ | ооооооооооооооооооооооооооооооо/ \о \ \/ / | O / /\ \ _\ /_ | H. Time & Aging | о/ \о \ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \ _\ /_______________________________ | о/ \о \ \/ /|Section I: Basic Information|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Time is yet another concept in Might & Magic VII that must be addressed. As you might have noticed, time passes in this game. And there's really nothing you can do about it. The game starts on January 01, 1168. There are twelve months, each having 28 days. Time passes at the rate of approximately one game minute for every two real-life seconds. Of course, time also passes quite rapidly when you rest, travel from region to region, or just simply by waiting. You can advance the speed of time by pressing the R key (default) and clicking on a denomination of time in which your characters are instructed to hang around where they are and wait (5 minutes, an hour, or until the next 5:00 AM). Note that unlike camping, your characters can wait without fear of being ambushed by enemies, although you still cannot choose to have them wait while enemies are near. Anyways, as time progresses, you are inevitably going to start noticing some changes, which aren't necessarily bad, but you'll still want to be prepared for them. First off, the most noticeable effect time has on your travels concerns shopping. Whether shops need it or not, they will restock their wares once every two weeks. However, for the two-week clock to begin, you must enter that shop. After the shop restocks, you must enter it yet again to start the clock again, and so on. This phenomenon, otherwise known as "respawning", can also be applied on a much larger scale. Whenever you enter a certain region, it starts a clock on that region. When that clock this two years, the region respawns. Enemies and treasures will both repopulate the map at this point, meaning you can go back for more experience and gold if so desired. Also note that the one area that will never respawn is inside Castle Harmondale. This is very important, as you can use the treasure chests inside the castle to store your excess goods. By the by, on a somewhat separate note, section III.C. of the FAQ is also strictly timed. It is the only part of your quest with time several time limits working at once, so you are advised to go into that particular area of the walkthrough fully prepared. Aside from what I've already mentioned the only other real effect time has on you is age. Your characters, believe it or not, will age just as people would in normal life. Your characters age naturally as the years pass by, and certain forces throughout the land also have the capability to magically age your characters. Your actual age and your current (magically-enhanced) age are both statistics kept on a characters stat screen. In the event that your current and actual age are different, your current age will be listed in green. It is possible to reverse unnatural aging with the black potion Rejuvenation. Natural aging cannot be reversed. And so, inevitably, your characters will age as you play through the game. Not that it will have any cosmetic effects on your characters whatsoever- I've honestly seen characters in their thousands looking as young as they day they were 20, which is at the very least profoundly astonishing. Statistics are another issue, however. They remain fine for most of their life, but after awhile, age will begin to alter their statistics. The chart below details how your stats will alter to various percentages of what they once were after reaching certain age thresholds. +-----------+-------+------+------+------+------+-------+------+ | Age | Might | Int. | Per. | End. | Acc. | Speed | Luck | +-----------+-------+------+------+------+------+-------+------+ | 0 - 49 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | | 50 - 99 | 75 | 150 | 150 | 75 | 100 | 100 | 100 | | 100 - 149 | 40 | 100 | 100 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 100 | | 150+ | 19 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 100 | +-----------+-------+------+------+------+------+-------+------+ Now, a few things are apparent from this chart. For starters, your characters will be pretty much fine until age 50, and that's when age this them like a ton of bricks. There's a bad over-the-hill joke just waiting to be made here, but I digress. Though the odds are fairly slim that your characters will actually break the 50-year age point, it's actually not such a bad deal for your magically-inclined characters, if you can handle the slight dip in Might and Endurance. From age 100 and on, though, your character just gets progressively worse and degenerates into a crippled mess of althzheimers and Matlock reruns. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section I: Basic Information|/ /\ \ _\ /_ | ооооооооооооооооооооооооооооооо/ \о \ \/ / | O / /\ \ _\ /_ | I. Reputation & The Law | о/ \о \ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \ _\ /_______________________________ | о/ \о \ \/ /|Section I: Basic Information|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Ah, the good ol' law of the land, and the reputation which comes with it. We'll talk about the law first. As you might expect, there are a number of things you can do in this game which are, suffice it to say, illegal. After committing these heinous acts, you will be fined a certain amount of money. The money is not taken directly from you, but you might want to go find a courthouse (it doesn't matter in which region, as all the courthouses are interconnected) and pay off your fine. Attempting to visit any castles in this game excepting your own with an outstanding fine will inevitably lead to prison time, which is not fun to say the least. What exactly causes fines? Two major things, really. Failing in an attempt to steal, and killing somebody. While nothing more needs to be said on the former, the latter merits a bit of an explanation. Killing a peasant carries a generally small fine, if at all. Killing a guard is much more heinous, and is always fined and fined heavily. Needless to say, when you off a peasant, the guards will come after you, but like I said, sometimes you are not fined for killing the peasant. I mention this only because there is a time in section III.A. of the walkthrough in which this information may come in valuable. That being said, I've also seen some strange instances in which killing peasants actually lowered my outstanding fines. But to stay on the safe side, one should generally avoid killing random people in the first place. There are a few special exceptions scattered throughout the game, but I mention them all in the walkthrough, so worry not. And of course, hand in hand with the law comes reputation. Illegal activities not only impose fines upon your characters, but it also makes them less liked in the region in which they committed those crimes. Granted, reputation is not global, but local, meaning you can go on mass killing sprees in one region while remaining relatively liked in another. This also works the other way. Just as your reputation can go down, doing things such as completing quests and donating to temples will cause your reputation to go up in a particular region. But then again, what you do to get you liked in one region makes you liked in, well, that region. And why do you care? Simple. As you'll discover in section I.J. of the FAQ, the better your reputation is, the better prices you'll get in shops in that region. So it's generally in your best interests to be liked in at least one area, lest you blow a hole in your wallet. Reputation is represented as a number. Your reputation in each region starts off as 0, or neutral. When this number goes up, it means you are less liked. When it goes down, you are liked more. To get a general indication of your reputation, you can check the quick info screen by pressing the Z key (default) and checking what it says about your reputation. I shall call this your reputation ranking, for future reference. Again, for every region, it will start off being listed as neutral. Reputation rankings in green text are better than neutral, whereas reputations in red text are worse than neutral. Neutral in white text indicates, you guessed it, a completely neutral reputation. When your number reaches certain thresholds in either direction, your reputation ranking will change from neutral to something else. The following chart indicates what your reputation number must be to achieve the various reputations. +---------------+--------------------+ | Reputation # | Reputation Ranking | +---------------+--------------------+ | 25 & Above | Hated | | 6 - 24 | Unfriendly | | 5 - -5 | Neutral | | -6 - -24 | Friendly | | -25 & Below | Liked | +---------------+--------------------+ Of course, all this means nothing until you figure out exactly how what you do will affect your reputation. I have also complied a chart for this, describing the various actions that can alter your reputation, and how severely (and in which direction!) +---------------------+-----------------------+ | Action | Reputation Adjustment | +---------------------+-----------------------+ | Succeed at Stealing | +1 | | Fail at Stealing | +2 | | Kill Someone* | +2 | | Complete a Quest | -5 - -10** | | Donate at a Temple | -1*** | +---------------------+-----------------------+ * Please note the difference between hit and kill. You can strike someone and still be ok, providing they are still alive; this applies only if you actually kill whatever you hit. The same can be said for fines incurred- only if you make the kill. They'll still get pretty pissed off at you, though, so watch out. ** Whereas most quests will shave 5 to 10 points off your reputation, the exception to this rule is the Troglodyte Slayer quest in Stone City, which shaves a generous 25 points off your reputation. *** While you may donating to a temple infinitely, you will only receive the benefits to your reputation a maximum of five times per region, at -1 a pop (for a total of -5 overall, if you donate 5 times). wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section I: Basic Information|/ /\ \ _\ /_ | ооооооооооооооооооооооооооооооо/ \о \ \/ / | O / /\ \ _\ /_ | J. Shopping in Might & Magic VII | о/ \о \ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \ _\ /_______________________________ | о/ \о \ \/ /|Section I: Basic Information|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Shopping in Might & Magic VII is a fairly complex system. Complex enough, at any rate, that I saw fit to dedicating an entire section of the FAQ to explaining how it works. First, I'll go over the basics of pricing and what affects it. Then we'll move on to how to get the most out of your money throughout the game. That will be followed by several tables detailing the best regions to find whatever it is you're looking for. Finally, the section will close with the travel schedules for horse-drawn carriages and boats across the continent of Erathia. Shall we get started? Each and every item in the game has a value, which you can view when you right-click it for information. Shops tend to want to sell things at much higher than their value, and buy them for much lower. The two major factors which tip the odds in your favor, allowing you to sell for higher prices and buy for lower, are the Merchant skill of the character making the transaction and your party's reputation in the current region. Better reputations make for better prices, as do higher merchant skills. Please note that this also applies to services, as well. Services all tend to have a (albeit hidden) value, and better reputations and Merchant skills will lower the cost of these things, such as training, boat rides, and room and board at the local tavern. Another factor would be the specific region you have to be in. Each region has its own "multiplier", which indicates how greedy the local merchants all are. The higher the multiplier, the higer above the value of the item or service in question shopkeepers will tend to charge, then the farther below the value they will want to purchase things for. Regions such as Celeste, The Pit, Deyja, Bracada, Avlee, and Nighon tend to have very high multipliers, so expect to pay much, much more for what you get as opposed to things you might buy in places like Harmondale, Erathia, and the Tularean Forest. However, as you might have guessed, the regions with the higher multipliers tend to have the better goods, so shopping in them is more or less something you'll probably want to do, anyways. Though which region you shop in will more or less be dictated by what you want, which region you sell at should be a different story. For the highest possible bang for your Might & Magic VII dollar, it would be in your best interests to sell to a region that will give you the most money for what you have. Due to the massive reputation boost you can recieve for completing a relatively easy quest there, that place would be Stone City (located in the Barrow Downs). With a halfway decent Merchant skill, you can sell things for just about their base value, which makes Stone City the place you should try to do most of your selling at. If you haven't the time nor the patience to travel that far, the next best place is right at home in Harmondale. But still, for the more expensive hauls, there's a lot to be gained by taking the effort to head out to Stone City. If you save up a lot of money early on, you'll usually be glad you did later on. And now, we move on to the specific locations to find all the good stuff you're looking for. Different weapons and armors, specifically, are generally more prevalent in certain areas. The chart below details the best places to go when you're looking for something in specific. +----------+----------------------------------+ | Item | **Best Region(s) to Shop | +----------+----------------------------------+ | Sword | Erathia / *Tidewater / Nighon | | Spear | Tularean Forest / Avlee | | Axe | Stone City | | Mace | Stone City | | Dagger | Erathia / *Tidewater / Nighon | | Staff | Nighon | | Bow | Tularean Forest / Avlee | | Leather | Tularean Forest / Avlee / Nighon | | Chain | Stone City / *Tidewater | | Plate | Stone City / *Tidewater | | Shield | Stone City | | ***Misc. | Deyja / Bracada / Celeste | +----------+----------------------------------+ * Tidewater is the small island off the coast of Tatalia. I mention it specifically as the shops located there are much better than the ones on the mainland. ** The shops at Emerald Isle and Harmondale contain good early-game selections from everything listed on the chart above. Conversely, the shops in Celeste and The Pit contain the best selections available (excepting the notably crappy magic shop at The Pit, which provides very poor wares). *** Acessories such as gauntlets, cloaks, and boots tend to be much more generally common throughout the land. However, that being said, those which bear the most powerful enchantments are to be found in the regions with the best magic shops: Deyja, Bracada, and Celeste. And now, the flip-side of the weapons and armor business is magic. Each discipline of magic (excepting Light and Dark) has four guilds located across the continent, one for each level of devotion. Initiate guilds sell only initiate-level spells, expert guilds sell expert and initiate-level spells, and so on. However, you are strongly advised to buy spells of a certain tier from their respective shops. This is because of the massive price gaps between guild tiers. Buying an expert-level spell from a master guild could prove far more costly than taking the time to seek out the respective expert guild, so it would be in your best interests to take note of where the various magic guilds are located. The chart below lists all of the guilds and their respective regions. +--------+----------------+--------------+--------------+-----------------+ | School | Initiate Guild | Expert Guild | Master Guild | Paramount Guild | +--------+----------------+--------------+--------------+-----------------+ | Fire | Emerald Isle | Harmondale | Tularean F. | Nighon | | Air | Emerald Isle | Harmondale | Tularean F. | Celeste | | Water | Harmondale | Tularean F. | Bracada | Evenmorn Island | | Earth | Harmondale | Tularean F. | *Stone City | The Pit | | Spirit | Emerald Isle | Harmondale | Deyja | Erathia | | Mind | Harmondale | Erathia | Tatalia | Avlee | | Body | Emerald Isle | Harmondale | Erathia | Avlee | | Light | N/A | Bracada | N/A | Celeste | | Dark | N/A | Deyja | N/A | The Pit | +--------+----------------+--------------+--------------+-----------------+ * Though I mentioned above that it is often best to purchase spells from the lowest-tier guild possible, the one exception that can be made is the master Earth guild of Stone City. Due to your party's high reputation there, spells purchased from the master guild can actually be cheaper then those purchased from the initiate or expert guilds. The final thing I'd like to talk about as far as shopping goes is training. As you might have noticed, the skill levels of the Training Halls in various regions are all different. And as your party becomes more and more skilled, they will have to seek out more and more skilled trainers to train them. The chart below lists the various regions and the maximum levels to which they will train your characters. +--------------------------+-----------+ | Region | Max Level | +--------------------------+-----------+ |Emerald Isle / Harmondale | ? | |Erathia / Tularean Forest | ? | | Stone City | ? | | Tatalia / Avlee | ? | | Nighon | ? | | Celeste / The Pit | ? | +--------------------------+-----------+ * Sorry, I really need to find out that information. I'll make a minor update when I do. Lastly, we have the preferred methods of travel across the continent: boats and horse-drawn carriages. Granted, it is almost possible to spend the game doing nothing but walking or warping from place to place, but early in the game, when time and/or convenience is an issue, odds are you'll find yourself dropping a negligible amount of coinage for easier travel. And also note that it is impossible to reach Evenmorn Island without using a boat, so either way, at one point, you're pretty much going to have to rely on these methods of travel. The two charts below list the stable and boat schedules across the continent. +=================+ | Stable Schedule | +=================+-----------------+--------------------+-------------+ | Origin | Destination | Days Available | Travel Time | +-----------------+-----------------+--------------------+-------------+ | Erathia | Harmondale | Tue, Thu | 2 Days | | | Tatalia | Mon, Wed, Fri | 2 Days | | | Bracada | Tue, Wed | 3 Days | | | Deyja | Mon, Thu | 3 Days | | | | | | | Tularean Forest | Harmondale | Thu, Sat | 2 Days | | | Avlee | Mon, Tue, Wed, Fri | 3 Days | | | Deyja | Tue, Fri | 2 Days | | | | | | | Harmondale | Erathia | Mon, Wed, Fri | 2 Days | | | Tularean Forest | Tue, Thu, Sat | 2 Days | | | The Arena | Sun | 5 Days | | | | | | | Avlee | Tularean Forest | Tue, Thu, Sat | 3 Days | | | Deyja | Wed, Sun | 5 Days | | | | | | | Tatalia | Erathia | Tue, Thu, Sat | 2 Days | | | | | | | Bracada | Erathia | Mon, Wed, Fri, Sun | 3 Days | | | Harmondale | Tue, Sat | 5 Days | | | | | | | *Deyja | Erathia | Mon, Wed, Fri | 3 Days | | | Tularean Forest | Tue, Thu, sat | 2 Days | +-----------------+-----------------+--------------------+-------------+ * Deyja is a tricky region when it comes to the stable schedule. Because the region is nocturnal, the stables will be open when one day becomes the next, more or less meaning that each "day" in Deyja offers two different fares. +=================+ | Boat Schedule | +=================+-----------------+--------------------+-------------+ | Origin | Destination | Days Available | Travel Time | +-----------------+-----------------+--------------------+-------------+ | Erathia | Avlee | Mon, Fri | 4 Days | | | Tatalia | Tue, Thu, Sat | 2 Days | | | Bracada | Wed | 6 Days | | | Evenmorn | Sun | 7 Days | | | | | | | Tularean Forest | Avlee | Tue, Thu, Sat | 3 Days | | | Bracada | Mon, Wed | 6 Days | | | Evenmorn | Sun | 7 Days | | | | | | | | | | | | Avlee | Erathia | Mon, Wed, Fri | 4 Days | | | Tularean Forest | Tue, Sat | 3 Days | | | Tatalia | Thu | 5 Days | | | | | | | Tatalia | Erathia | Tue, Thu, Sat | 2 Days | | | Avlee | Fri | 5 Days | | | Bracada | Mon, Wed | 4 Days | | | Evenmorn | Sun | 5 Days | | | | | | | Bracada | Erathia | Sun | 6 Days | | | Tularean Forest | Sat | 6 Days | | | Tatalia | Mon, Wed, Fri | 4 Days | | | Evenmorn | Tue, Thu | 1 Day | | | | | | | Evenmorn | Tularean Forest | Sat, Sun | 6 Days | | | Tatalia | Mon, Wed, Fri | 4 Days | +-----------------+-----------------+--------------------+-------------+ wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section I: Basic Information|/ /\ \ _\ /_ | ооооооооооооооооооооооооооооооо/ \о \ \/ / | O / /\ \ _\ /_ | K. Building a Team that Works for You | о/ \о \ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \ _\ /_______________________________ | о/ \о \ \/ /|Section I: Basic Information|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm One of the most important aspects of the game takes place before the game even begins. I'm talking, of course, about building a team that works well for you. The proper team combination in Might & Magic VII can literally make or break you. Thus, this section is dedicated to helping you build that team, from start to finish. First, we'll take a look at the nine character classes, and which combinations of them tend to work the best. Then we'll look into the other issues that go into making your party, namely race, starting skills, and yes, even your characters' voices. First and foremost, of course, there are the classes that make up your party. Lots of different combinations can work, and depending on your play style, that combination is going to be different. While I can't tell you specifically which classes to choose, I can point out some of the skills and traits which most good parties should possess. What follows is a short list of some of the more important things to look for in a party, and you're strongly advised to take them into consideration: * A character who can at the very least master the self magic schools of Mind, Body, and Spirit. Paladins, Druids, and Clerics can all do this, with Clerics even being able to grandmaster them. * A character who can at the very least master the elemental magic schools of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. Archers, Druids, and Sorcerers can all do this, with Sorcerers even being able to grandmaster them. * A character who can at the very least master the Repair Item skill. Clerics, Paladins, and Knights can all do this, with Paladins and Knights even being able to grandmaster them. * A character who can at the very least become an expert in the Disarm Trap skill. Classes capable of this include Archers, Rangers, Monks, and Thieves, with Thieves even being able to grandmaster in the skill. * A character who can at the very least become an expert in Alchemy. Thieves, Clerics, Druids, and Sorcerers can all do this, with Sorcerers being able to master and Druids being able to grandmaster the skill. * A character who can at the very least become an expert Merchant. Knights, Paladins, Archers, Druids, Thieves, and Clerics can all do this, with Thieves being able to master and Clerics being able to grandmaster the skill. * At least one character (preferably two) with a decent amount of HP and good fighting/armor capabilities. These include Knights, Monks, Thieves, Paladins, Rangers, and Archers. Moving right along, how exactly do the nine classes stack up against one another? Section II. of the FAQ goes over each class in-depth, and section VIII. of the FAQ contains the lists which detail exactly how far each class can advance in all of the game's various skills. The chart below, however, gives you a general overview of the classes' HP and MP. It lists the starting HP and MP for each class, and then the amount by which it will go up each level for the unpromoted, first promotion, and second promotion classes: +----------+----------------+------------------+------------------+ | | Starting Value | HP Per Level | MP Per Level | | Class +-------+--------+------+-----+-----+------+-----+-----+ | | HP | MP | Base | 1st | 2nd | Base | 1st | 2nd | +----------+-------+--------+------+-----+-----+------+-----+-----+ | Knight | 40 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Monk | 35 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 1 | | Thief | 35 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 1 | | Paladin | 30 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | | Ranger | 30 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 3 | | Archer | 30 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | | Cleric | 25 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | | Druid | 20 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | | Sorcerer | 20 | 15 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 6 | +----------+-------+--------+------+-----+-----+------+-----+-----+ Now that you've at least put some thought into what kind of team you might want to travel with, I would like to stop to note that most classes fall into one of five different categories, which I will do into detail about below. Note that for each category, I give a primary example as well as some suggestions on how that particular team can be "tweaked" to better suit your style, but that doesn't necessarily mean that those are the only possible team combinations that would fall under that category: The Default Team: KTCS. This team is set as Might & Magic VII's default team for a reason: it's likely the most effective party combination in the entire game when played well. The main components of this team would be the two specialized magic classes (the Cleric and the Sorcerer) playing off the trengths of the specialized fighting classes. While the Knight and the Thief are the default applicants for this slot, either one may be replaced with a Monk for more or less the same results. --- The Alternate Team: RAPD. Basically, "Alternate Team" refers to any team that is a strong departure from the Default Team. Whereas the Default Team consisted of two specialized spellcasters and two specialized fighters, I give you as a prime example for the Alternate Team Might & Magic VII's four poster children for diversity: the Ranger, Archer, Paladin, and Druid. Of course, this is the most loosely-defined team, and just about any character on this team can be switched out for someone else at whim. However, too much change will probably cause this team to fall under one of the other four categories. --- The Magic Team: RSCD. This is a team more focused on the magical side of things as opposed to the physical. The Druid accompanies the specialized spellcasting of the Cleric and Sorcerer, and the Ranger offers not only additional magical support, but an important role as the lone fighting- oriented character on the team. The Ranger can be replaced with a Monk, a Thief, or an Archer for similar effect, but Knights and Paladins are not reccomended on the grounds that neither of them can disarm traps very well. The Druid can also be replaced with another specialized spellcaster, if desired. A slightly distant, but still very workable variation of this team consists of a Paladin, Archer, Cleric, and Sorcerer, or PACS. --- The Power Team: KAPT. The flip side of the coin from the Magic Team is the Power Team. This team focuses as much on fighting as possible without handicapping your team too badly in the magic department, but even so, the reliance entirely on the Archer and Paladin for spellcasting, as well as the lack of a master alchemist might make this a somewhat difficult team to play for the novice player. While the Archer and Paladin are more or less intregal parts of the team, the Knight and Thief are still pretty much interchangeable with the Monk. However, it is reccomended that you not replace the Thief, as that would leave your team entirely lacking in the Alchemy and Identify Item skills. --- The Extreme Team(s): CSSS or KMTR. The Extreme Team is generally created for the sole purpose of challenge, and is generally not reccomended for novice players. Though there are many, many different team combinations that fall underneath this category (including most teams that are tweaked beyond fitting in any of the other four categories), the two main versions, as shown above, are more extreme versions of the Power and Magic Teams. A Cleric with three Sorcerers is a vet favorite in which magic rules supreme... if you live long enough to use it, that is. For customization, one or two of the Sorcerers on the team may be replaced with any combination of additional Clerics or Druids. In any event, the lack of the ability to disarm traps, among other things, will pose a problem for this team. Conversely, the Knight, Monk, Thief, Ranger team is probably one of the hardest teams in the game to play as. Expect to rely heavily on scrolls, wands, and potions if you want to survive, and as a last-ditch effort, consider lessening your problems by replacing the Monk or the Thief with a Druid (replacing the Knight is not reccomeded as it would leave your team without a good Reapir Item skill). Not only will this give you a decent amount of magical power to work with, but because the magic is all weighted down on one character, it will also force you to take a hard look at the seven main schools of magic and determine which ones truly deserve the highest priority, and which ones can either wait until later or be left to the Ranger. A learning experience, to say the least. Once you've decided which classes to assign to your party members, the next consideration would be race. You may choose from the human, elf, dwarf, and goblin races to create your party. Race, unlike class, does not have such long-ranging effects on the game. Rather, it merely affects the character's starting stats and resistances. Different races have different strong and weak points, which I will discuss more throughly below. This will be followed by a chart detailing each race's specific starting statistics, and then another one detailing each race's exact starting resistances: Humans are the most balanced race of them all. They have no strong or weak points, and are generally suitable for just about any of the nine classes. Humans also start off with a small resistance to Body magic. --- Elves are, as to be expected, the most magical of the races. They possess high levels of Intelligence and Accuracy, which make them ideal Sorcerers and Druids. They make fairly good Archers, as well, though their poor Might and Endurance stats make them a poor choice for just about any other class. Elves also possess an inntate resistance to Mind magic. --- Dwarves are a very sturdy race, possessing high Might and Endurance statistics. This, unfortunately, is offset by their poor Accuracy and Speed. They are a decent choice for any of the heavy fighting classes, though you should consider going with a goblin instead, but dwarves do make fairly ideal Clerics, at the very least. Dwarves also begin with slight resistances to Earth and Water magic. --- Goblins are the ideal fighters of the game, with strong Might and Speed skills. Their Intelligence and Personality is poor, more or less relegating their use mainly to the heavy fighting classes. Goblins make ideal Knights, excellent Monks and Thieves, and good Rangers, as well (by the time a goblin Ranger delves into the realms of magic, you'll have likely been able to compensate for their low Intellect and Personality). Goblins tend to make poor choices for just about any of the other classes, however. On a final note, goblins begin with small resistances to Fire and Air magic. +=====================+ | Starting Statistics | +=====================+-----+-------+--------+ | Attribute | Human | Elf | Dwarf | Goblin | +-------------+-------+-----+-------+--------+ | Might | 11 | **7 | *14 | *14 | | Intellect | 11 | *14 | 11 | **7 | | Personality | 11 | 11 | 11 | **7 | | Endurance | 9 | **7 | *14 | 11 | | Accuracy | 11 | *14 | **7 | 11 | | Speed | 11 | 11 | **7 | *14 | | Luck | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | +-------------+-------+-----+-------+--------+ *All stats which begin as 14 are strong points for that particular race, and as such will go up by 2 for evey 1 bonus point spent, and will add 2 points to the pool for every point taken away below 14. **All stats which begin as 7 are weak points for that particular race, and as such will only go up by 1 for every 2 bonus points spend, and will only add 1 point to the pool for every 2 points taken away below 7. +==========================+ | Starting Resistances | +==========================+-------+--------+ | Resistance | Human | Elf | Dwarf | Goblin | +------------+-------+-----+-------+--------+ | Fire | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | | Air | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | | Water | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | | Earth | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | | Mind | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | | Body | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +------------+------------------------------+ Next up, we'll address the issue of starting skills. While skills can be picked up quickly and easily not too long into the game, that's still no reason not to put at least a little thought into the skills you choose to start off with. For each class, two skills are predetermined- a weapon skill and some other skill descriptive of the class. Past that, you may choose two additional skills from a preassembled list with which to begin the game with. Each skill will start your character with something in their inventory which will allow him or her to utilize said skill. The Shield skill, for example, starts your character off with a shield in their inventory, making weapons and armor good choices for starting skills (though, as we've already noted, each class already starts out with a weapon skill, so choosing a second usually isn't a good idea). From both a financial and usefulness standpoint, magic skills are by far the best choices for starting skills. Not only are magic skills expensive, but you also get two spells for free. Failing a magic skill, the next best selections for your magicians are Learning and Meditation, again because of their higher cost to learn during the game. For your fighting-oriented classes, the best choices, again from both a financial standpoint and also considering what you might actually be using early on, include some of the more useful miscellaneous skills (like Disarm Trap) and armor skills. Though as a notable exception, I should make note that because the Archer does not start with a melee weapon, the Spear isn't a bad choice to start with, though financially it makes more sense to start with two schools of magic. Whatever your selections for skills, attempt to think somewhat ahead when you choose. Don't pick skills you won't end up using or developing. A Paladin, for example, can probably stand to skip Leather armor and go straight for Plate at first chance. And furthermore, there are a lot of questionable additions to the starting skill lists for each class, as I mentioned earlier. Just because a character can start with a particular skill doesn't neccessarily mean they're going to be very good with it at all. For a good example, starting a Monk off with the Sword skill is for all practical purposes a pretty bad idea. On the flip side of things, there are a lot of good skills for each class that you are unfortunately unable to start with. Paladins, for example, can't start off with Mind or Body magic, which really sucks. The chart below details the possible starting skills for each class, as well as each class's two "predetermined" starting skills: +----------+---------------------------------------------------------------+ | Class | Starting Skills | +----------+---------------------------------------------------------------+ | Knight | Sword + Leather (Predetermined) | | | --- | | | Axe / Bow / Mace / Spear | | | Chain / Shield | | | Armsmaster / Body Building / Perception | | | | | Monk | Unarmed + Dodging (Predetermined) | | | --- | | | Dagger / Staff / Spear/ Sword | | | Leather | | | Armsmaster / Body Building / Identify Monster / Perception | | | | | Thief | Dagger + Stealing (Predetermined) | | | --- | | | Bow / Sword | | | Dodging / Leather | | | Alchemy / Disarm Trap / Identify Item / Merchant / Perception | | | | | Paladin | Mace + Spirit Magic (Predetermined) | | | --- | | | Axe / Dagger / Sword | | | Leather / Shield | | | Armsmaster / Body Building / Merchant / Repair Item | | | | | Ranger | Axe + Perception (Predetermined) | | | --- | | | Bow / Dagger / Sword | | | Dodging / Leather | | | Armsmaster / Body Building / Disarm Trap / Identify Monster | | | | | Archer | Bow + Air Magic (Predetermined) | | | --- | | | Axe / Spear / Sword | | | Leather | | | Armsmaster / Learning / Perception | | | Fire Magic / Water Magic | | | | | Cleric | Mace + Body Magic (Predetermined) | | | --- | | | Leather / Shield | | | Alchemy / Learning / Meditation / Merchant / Repair Item | | | Mind Magic / Spirit Magic | | | | | Druid | Dagger + Earth Magic (Predetermined) | | | --- | | | Mace | | | Leather | | | Alchemy / Learning / Meditation / Perception | | | Body Magic / Spirit Magic / Water Magic | | | | | Sorcerer | Staff + Fire Magic (Predetermined) | | | --- | | | Dagger | | | Leather | | | Alchemy / Identify Item / Identify Monster / Meditation | | | Air Magic / Earth Magic / Water Magic | +----------+---------------------------------------------------------------+ And lastly, though one might not think it such an important consideration, please believe me when I say that the voices you choose for your characters are indeed something to strongly think about before setting off on your adventure. There's nothing like getting far into a game of Might & Magic VII, only to find yourself restarting because if that whiny bitch on your team says just one more thing, you're going to wring her Goddamn neck. To the best of my ability, I have listed the various voices the game offers for your characters below, and I make some attempt to steer you away from some of the worse ones. Though the voices are interchangeable with the portaits, each portait has its own "default" voice to go with it. For the purposes and ease of listing them out, each voice is identified by the portait it goes with: The first human male voice is your general, all-around typical hero-type guy voice. With a go-get-'em attitude and a hearty taste for adventure, this is a great voice to lead your team to victory. --- The second human male (discernable from the first guy because he has a scar over his eye) has a voice a lot like the first guy, only with a fun English accent. And it's not one of those pompus accents, it's more like a 80's hair metal rocker accent, which is quite kick-ass to say the least. A good choice, so long as you don't have anything against the Brits. --- The third human male (it's becoming very hard to tell these guys apart) is where the voice acting starts to fall apart. The first two guys were good actors. They pulled off the "kick-ass typical hero guy" voice quite well. This guy tries, and more or less fails. He sounds more like what he is- a bad actor painfully delivering his lines. --- The fourth human male (the Arab guy) has one of the most kick-ass voices In the game, in my humble opinion. The overall tone of the voice is laid back and calm, but still with that underlying tone of how dead he's going to make you. Highly reccomended. --- The first male elf (the one with the absolutely blank and empty stare on his lifeless face) has a voice and personality more or less descriptive of his portait. It gets on my nerves pretty fast, but then again, that's just me. --- The second male elf (the one suppressing an obnoxious grin) has about five seconds before I drop-kick his miserable little ass across the room. There's just something about a guy with an extremely high-pitched, extremely over- excited voice that fills me with a burning desire to destroy him. I doubt you'll be overly fond of him, either. --- The first dwarven male (the one with the darker hair) has a quite stereotypical dwarven voice. Brash, raucous, but overall not that irritating. Reccomended, if that's the style you're going for. --- The lighter-haired dwarven male has a voice more like the first human male. Think a dwarf voice with more of a "typical hero guy" tone to it. Not that bad, overall, but I'd just as soon go for the first guy over him. --- The fat goblin male (the first one) has a voice that's too forced to sound particularly pleasant. The second one is a lot better. --- The skinnier goblin male has one of the best voices in the game. He's got the IQ of a below-average toaster, and he probably won't be able to tell you what something is until he stabs you with it, but there's just something, well, downright loveable about his comical "big, dumb guy" voice. If you don't find his mind-shattering idiocy annoying, I'm confident you'll find his voice both kick-ass and pleasantly amusing. --- The redhead human female is likely the worst voice in the entire game. She tries to be sarcastic, but ends up just being a complete pain in the ass. She's whiny, annoying, terribly overacted, and she sounds like she'd rather be at a chili cookoff than adventuring. Avoid her like the plague. --- The attractive brunette female has one of the better voices in the game. Genial, pleasant-sounding, and not a complete pushover, either. Reccomended. --- The little asian female possesses one of my favorite voices in the entire game. Upbeat and spunky, with just the right amount of sassy. And unlike someone else I could mention, she manages to pull this off without sounding like a total bitch. --- The black human female has one of the more laid-back calm voices in the game. She has a pleasant baroque vocal quality characteristic of the black race, and makes for a fine choice. --- The redhead female elf: the infamous whiny bitch. Many gamers refer to her as the poster child for how annoying some of the voices in this game can be, though compared to some of the others, I never found her to be that irritating. But she is quite whiny, and if that kind of thing is going to bug you, pass this voice up. --- The brunette female elf has likely the most soothing, relaxing voice of all the females in the game. It is a very fitting voice for an elven female and has a very gentle, kind tone to it. Always a pleasure to listen to, and guaranteed never to annoy. Highly reccomended. --- The blonde female dwarf sounds more like my grandmother with a pack a day smoking habit. Nice, if you happen to like that sort of thing... freak. --- The redhead female dwarf has, well, let's not lie to ourselves, the vocal equivalent of gonhorreha of the ear. She sounds like she's made of helium, and I can only thank the gods that half of what she says is so high-pitched as to be inaudible to the human ear. In case you haven't picked up on my subtle indications, this probably isn't the best voice to go with. --- The first female goblin (the nastier-looking one) is actually worse than the blonde dwarf, because you can tell that the rasp in her voice is forced. And no, the results aren't particularly pleasant on the ears. --- The second female goblin sounds a lot more pleasant than the first female goblin (and looks a lot better, to boot). With a voice and attitude that's still distinctly goblin, she pulls it off without hacking up a lung in the process. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section I: Basic Information|/ /\ \ _\ /_ | ооооооооооооооооооооооооооооооо/ \о \ \/ / | O / /\ \ _\ /_ | L. "Lost-Forevers" (Definitely Read This!) | о/ \о \ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \ _\ /_______________________________ | о/ \о \ \/ /|Section I: Basic Information|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm In most games, normally RPG's, there are an abundance of things to collect, acquire, do, find, and see. While most of these can usually be done at your leisure, this section is dedicated to helping you find certain things that can no longer be done after a certain point within a game: * Everything on Emerald Isle is a lost-forever. Once you leave, you cannot go back. * The entirety of the events depicted in section III.C. of the walkthrough are lost-forevers running onder a strict time limit. Be warned before entering that portion of the walkthrough. BTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB T / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / T B / \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \ B T \ *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* \ T B /\ | | \/ B T \ * * \ T B /\ | ~~Coming Soon~~ | \/ B T \ * * \ T B /\ | | \/ B T \ *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* \ T B \ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ / B T / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / T BTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB The following sections/subsections are currently under construction and will be featured in future updates: II. Characters A. Knight B. Monk C. Thief D. Ranger E. Paladin F. Archer G. Druid H. Cleric I. Sorcerer III. Walkthrough (Main Line Quests) A. The Scavenger Hunt B. Harmondale's New Lords C. The Elf-Human War D. Path of Light E. Path of Darkness F. Colony Zod & The Shoals IV. Promotion Quests A. Knight Promotions B. Monk Promotions C. Thief Promotions D. Ranger Promotions E. Paladin Promotions F. Archer Promotions G. Druid Promotions H. Cleric Promotions I. Sorcerer Promotions V. Side Quests A. Emerald Isle Quest (The Missing Contestants) B. Harmondale Quests C. Stone City Quest (Troglodyte Slayer) D. Tularean Forest Quests E. Erathia Quests F. Tatalia Quests G. Nighon Quest (Haldar's Remains) H. Bracada Quest (Seasons' Stole) I. Deyja Quest (Kill the Griffins) VI. Little Secrets A. Trap & Perception Reference Chart B. Wells, Altars, & Cauldrons C. Games, Contests, Tests, & Challenges D. Obelisks E. Trading Goods F. Secrets of the Genie Lamps G. Artifacts & Relics VII. Arcomage VIII. Skill Lists A. Weapon Skills B. Armor Skills C. Miscellaneous Skills D. Magic Skills IX. Expert Teachers Lists A. Weapon Skill Experts B. Armor Skill Experts C. Miscellaneous Skill Experts D. Magic Skill Experts X. Master Teachers Lists A. Weapon Skill Masters B. Armor Skill Masters C. Miscellaneous Skill Masters D. Magic Skill Masters XI. Grandmaster Teachers Lists A. Weapon Skill Grandmasters B. Armor Skill Grandmasters C. Miscellaneous Skill Grandmasters D. Magic Skill Grandmasters XII. Weapons Lists A. Swords B. Spears C. Axes D. Maces E. Daggers F. Staves G. Clubs H. Bows I. Blasters XIII. Armor Lists A. Leather B. Chain C. Plate D. Shields XIV. Accessories Lists A. Helmets B. Gauntlets C. Boots D. Cloaks E. Belts F. Amulets G. Rings XV. Item Lists A. Potions B. Reagents C. Wands D. Books & Scrolls E. Gems F. Ore G. Other Items XVI. Enchantment Lists A. Weapon Enchantments B. Non-Weapon Enchantments C. Universal Enchantments XVIII. Hireling List XIX. Bestiary BTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB T / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / T B / \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \ B T \ *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* \ T B /\ | ~XVII~ ~XVII~ | \/ B T \ * * \ T B /\ | XVII. Spell Lists | \/ B T \ * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * \ T B /\ | ~XVII~ ~XVII~ | \/ B T \ *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* \ T B \ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ / B T / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / T BTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section XVII: Spell Lists|/ /\ \ _\ /_ | оооооооооооооооооооооооооооо/ \о \ \/ / | O / /\ \ _\ /_ | A. Fire Magic | о/ \о \ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \ _\ /____________________________ | о/ \о \ \/ /|Section XVII: Spell Lists|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Torch Light * Type---Miscellaneous * MP-----1 * Normal--- Increases the aura of light surrounding the party. The effects are only visible when it is dark. * Expert--- Brighter light. * Master--- Brightest light. * Grand---- Faster recovery rate. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fire Bolt * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----2 * Normal--- Does 1-3 damage per point of skill in Fire magic. * Expert--- Faster recovery rate. * Master--- Faster recovery rate. * Grand---- Fastest recovery rate. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fire Resistance * Type---Defensive * MP-----3 * Normal--- Increases your party's Fire Resistance by 1 per point of skill in Fire magic. Duration is 1 hour per point of skill. * Expert--- Increases your party's Fire Resistance by 2 per point of skill. * Master--- Increases your party's Fire Resistance by 3 per point of skill. * Grand---- Increases your party's Fire Resistance by 4 per point of skill. One of the six basic resistance spells. Fire Resistance is one of the more useful amongst them all, mainly due to the general prevalence on creautres who attack with fire-based spells and attacks. Useful in many situations, but as with the rest of the resistance spells, it generally isn't worth the effort to cast until you have achieved at least a skill level of 4 and an expert ranking in Fire magic. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fire Aura * Type---Indirect offensive * MP-----4 * Normal--- Imbues a weapon with the "of fire" enchantment for one hour per point of skill in Fire magic. * Expert--- Enchantment is "of flame". * Master--- Enchantment is "of Infernos". * Grand---- Enchantment is permanent. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Haste * Type---Indirect offensive * MP-----5 * Expert--- N/A (see comments below) * Master--- " " * Grand---- " " I can safely and honestly say that this is the worst spell in the game. And I say that because the spell does not produce any positive effects whatsoever (I mentioned earlier in section I.B. of the FAQ that this spell doesn't actually work). In fact, it's actually counter-productive in that when it wears off, it leaves your party in a weakened state. Avoid this spell at all costs. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fireball * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----8 * Expert--- Does 1-6 damage per point of skill in Fire magic. Will explode when it connects to damage anything nearby. * Master--- Faster recovery rate. * Grand---- Fastest recovery rate. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fire Spike * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----10 * Expert--- Drops a spike on the ground. When another creature touches it, it will explode, doing 1-6 damage per point of skill in Fire magic to everything nearby (excluding your party). * Master--- Does 1-8 damage per point of skill. * Grand---- Does 1-10 damage per point of skill. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Immolation * Type---Indirect offensive * MP-----15 * Master--- Surrounds your party with a hot fire that periodically deals 1-6 damage per point of skill in Fire magic to anything standing near you. Duration is 1 minute per point of skill. * Grand---- Duration is 10 minutes per point of skill. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Meteor Shower * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----20 * Master--- 16 rocks fall from the sky in a large radius around the closest target, each doing 1-8 damage per point of skill in Fire magic. * Grand---- 20 rocks are summoned. Basically, this spell summons flaming death from the heavens to smite a large area of enemies, which will automatically be centered around the closest one in front of you. The good news, obviously, is the vast capability for destruction this spell has. The bad news, of course, is that if you're not careful, you will be caught in the impact zone yourself. The meteors fall slowly enough that you should be able to escape the damage if you move quickly enough, but then again, so can your enemies. In a nutshell, this spell has great possibilities, so long as you exercise care and caution while using it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Inferno * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----25 * Master--- Deals 12 + 1 damage per point of skill in Fire magic to everything in sight. Only works indoors. * Grand---- Faster recovery rate. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Incinerate * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----30 * Grand---- Deals 15 + 1-15 damage per point of skill in Fire magic. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section XVII: Spell Lists|/ /\ \ _\ /_ | оооооооооооооооооооооооооооо/ \о \ \/ / | O / /\ \ _\ /_ | B. Air Magic | о/ \о \ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \ _\ /____________________________ | о/ \о \ \/ /|Section XVII: Spell Lists|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wizard Eye * Type---Miscellaneous * MP-----1 * Normal--- Causes automap to reveal the locations of creatures. Duration is 1 hour per point of skill in Air magic. * Expert--- Locations of treasures is shown. * Master--- Other points of interest are shown. * Grand---- Casting cost is 0. One of the more generally useful spells, Wizard Eye causes creatures to appear on your little automap in the corner of the screen as colored dots. Green dots are friendly creatures, red dots are hostile, and yellow ones are dead. At expert level, this spell becomes even more useful by showing treasure on the automap as blue dots. Granted, it suffers the fact that the autopmap is a top-view, so it is impossible to know the altitude of the treasure (or what floor the treasure is on, so to speak). That said, it's still extremely useful in helping you nab all of the treasure in any given area. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Feather Fall * Type---Defensive * MP-----2 * Normal--- Protects your party from damage taken from falling. Duration is 5 minutes per point of skill in Air magic. * Expert--- Duration is 10 minutes per point of skill. * Master--- Duration is 1 hour per point of skill. * Grand---- Faster recovery rate. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Air Resistance * Type---Defensive * MP-----3 * Normal--- Increases your party's Air Resistance by 1 per point of skill in Air magic. Duration is 1 hour per point of skill. * Expert--- Increases your party's Air Resistance by 2 per point of skill. * Master--- Increases your party's Air Resistance by 3 per point of skill. * Grand---- Increases your party's Air Resistance by 4 per point of skill. One of the six basic resistance spells. Air resistance will be quite useful, even versus a lot of foes that aren't necessarily air-based. This is because, much like the fire element, a lot of creatures tend to attack with air-based spells and attacks, including the fearsome titans. Use it whenever necessary, but as with the other resistance spells, unless you have at least a skill level of 4 and an expert ranking in Air magic, it's probably not worth the hassle to cast. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sparks * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----4 * Normal--- Fires 3 sparks which bounce around until they hit something or dissipate. Each spark does 2 + 1 damage per point of skill in Air magic. * Expert--- Fires 5 sparks. * Master--- Fires 7 sparks. * Grand---- Fires 9 sparks. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jump * Type---Miscellaneous * MP-----5 * Expert--- Your party jumps 60 feet into the air, taking no damage when they fall. * Master--- Faster recovery rate. * Grand---- Fastest recovery rate. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shield * Type---Defensive * MP-----8 * Expert--- Halves damage done by incoming missile attacks. Only effective against physical damage. Duration is 1 hour + 5 minutes per point of skill in Air magic. * Master--- Duration is 1 hour + 15 minutes per point of skill. * Grand---- Duration is 1 hour + 1 hour per point of skill. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lightning Bolt * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----10 * Expert--- Does 1-8 damage per point of skill in Air magic. * Master--- Faster recovery. * Grand---- Fastest recovery. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Invisibility * Type---Defensive * MP-----15 * Master--- Makes party invisible to creatures. Will be broken if the party speaks, attacks, casts spells, or comes into contact with any creature. Cannot be cast when hostile creatures are nearby. Duration is 10 minutes per point of skill in Air magic. * Grand---- Duration is 1 hour per point of skill. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fly * Type---Miscellaneous * MP-----20 * Master--- Party can fly for duration of the spell (1 hour per point of skill in Air magic). See comments below for instructions on flying. For every 5 minutes in the air, 1 spell point is drained from the caster. * Grand---- No spell point drain. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Implosion * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----25 * Master--- Does 10 + 1-10 damage per point of skill in Air magic. The spell will always hit. * Grand---- Faster recovery rate. Of all the attack spells that claim to "always hit", Implosion is the one and only spell that actually delivers what it promises. While it does only a little more damage than Lightning Bolt and costs more than twice as much to cast, you do get the reassurance of a guaranteed hit with Implosion. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Starburst * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----30 * Grand---- 20 stars fall from the sky in a large radius around the closest target, each doing 20 + 1 damage per point of skill in Air magic. Think of Starburst as an extremely souped-up version of the Meteor Shower spell. It, like Meteor Shower, automatically targets the closest creature in front of you, has a very wide range of effect, and can hit your party if you're not careful. The two major differences include greater damage done, and the stars fall at a freighteningly high velocity. Unlike Meteor Shower, escaping the blast radius of this spell once it is cast is pretty much impossible, which is bad for your enemies, and equally bad for you if you happen to be standing anywhere near the blast radius. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section XVII: Spell Lists|/ /\ \ _\ /_ | оооооооооооооооооооооооооооо/ \о \ \/ / | O / /\ \ _\ /_ | C. Water Magic | о/ \о \ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \ _\ /____________________________ | о/ \о \ \/ /|Section XVII: Spell Lists|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Awaken * Type---Healing * MP-----1 * Normal--- Cures the Asleep condition for the entire party. Works only if the target has been asleep for less than 3 minutes per point of skill in Water magic. * Expert--- Works for 1 hour per point of skill. * Master--- Works for 1 day per point of skill. * Grand---- No time limit. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Poison Spray * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----2 * Normal--- Does 2 + 1-2 damage per point of skill in Water magic. * Expert--- Faster recovery rate. Fires 3 shots (in a spray pattern). * Master--- Faster recovery rate. Fires 5 shots. * Grand---- Fastest recovery rate. Fires 7 shots. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Water Resistance * Type---Defensive * MP-----3 * Normal--- Increases your party's Water Resistance by 1 per point of skill in Water magic. Duration is 1 hour per point of skill. * Expert--- Increases your party's Water Resistance by 2 per point of skill. * Master--- Increases your party's Water Resistance by 3 per point of skill. * Grand---- Increases your party's Water Resistance by 4 per point of skill. One of the six basic resistance spells. Water Resistance is not one of the more commonly useful amongst them, seeing as not too many enemies are prone to using water-based spells and attacks. That being said, many of the enemies that do use such attacks tend to be rather powerful (Water Elementals, especially in the early game come to mind), so it's good to have around, despite that fact. However, as with the other resistance spells, it really isn't worth the effort to cast until you have at least a skill level of 4 and an expert ranking in Water magic. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ice Bolt * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----4 * Normal--- Does 1-4 damage per point of skill in Water magic. * Expert--- Faster recovery rate. * Master--- Faster recovery rate. * Grand---- Fastest recovery rate. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Water Walk * Type---Miscellaneous * MP-----5 * Expert--- Allows your party to walk on water without taking damage. Duration is 10 minutes per point of skill in Water magic. For every 20 minutes your party is on water, 1 spell point is drained from the caster. * Master--- Duration is 1 hour per point of skill. * Grand---- No spell point drain. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recharge Item * Type---Miscellaneous * MP-----8 * Expert--- Recharges the uses on any wand. Each time this spell is cast, the wand permanently loses (50% minus 1% per point of skill in Water magic) of its charges. * Master--- Wand loses (30% minus 1% per point of skill) of its charges. * Grand---- Wand loses (20% minus 1% per point of skill) of its charges. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Acid Burst * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----10 * Expert--- Does 9 + 1-9 damage per point of skill in Water magic. * Master--- Faster recovery rate. * Grand---- Fastest recovery rate. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Town Portal * Type---Miscellaneous * MP-----15 * Master--- Teleports the party to the central fountain of any one of six regions that you have already visited. Chances of success are 10% per point of skill in Water magic. Cannot be cast while hostile creatures are nearby. * Grand---- Can be cast when hostile creatures are nearby. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Enchant Item * Type---Miscellaneous * MP-----20 * Master--- Randomly enchants a non-enchanted item. See comments below for restrictions. Chances of success are 10% per point of skill in Water magic. Enchantments are level 4. * Grand---- Enchantments are level 5. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ice Blast * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----25 * Master--- Fires a ball of ice which explodes when it hits something, sending 7 shards flying in all directions. Shards ricochet until they hit a creature or melt. Each shard does 12 + 1-3 damage per point of skill in Water magic. * Grand---- Ball explodes into 9 shards. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lloyd's Beacon * Type---Miscellaneous * MP-----30 * Grand---- The ultimate teleportation spell. See comments below for instructions on use. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section XVII: Spell Lists|/ /\ \ _\ /_ | оооооооооооооооооооооооооооо/ \о \ \/ / | O / /\ \ _\ /_ | D. Earth Magic | о/ \о \ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \ _\ /____________________________ | о/ \о \ \/ /|Section XVII: Spell Lists|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stun * Type---Indirect offensive * MP-----1 * Normal--- Stuns the target, knocking it back and forcing it to recover before taking any action. * Expert--- Stronger effect. * Master--- Stronger effect. * Grand---- Strongest effect. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Slow * Type---Indirect offensive * MP-----2 * Normal--- Halves movement speed and doubles recovery time for target creature. Duration is 3 minutes per point of skill in Earth magic. * Expert--- Duration is 5 minutes per point of skill. * Master--- Target reduced to 1/4 speed. * Grand---- Target reduced to 1/8 speed. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Earth Resistance * Type---Defensive * MP-----3 * Normal--- Increases your party's Earth Resistance by 1 per point of skill in Earth magic. Duration is 1 hour per point of skill. * Expert--- Increases your party's Earth Resistance by 2 per point of skill. * Master--- Increases your party's Earth Resistance by 3 per point of skill. * Grand---- Increases your party's Earth Resistance by 4 per point of skill. One of the six basic resistance spells. Earth resistance is probably the least useful of them all. Not many enemies tend to use earth-based spells and attacks, and fewer still will pose much of a threat to you, anyways. But hey, you might as well keep it around just in case. As always, until you have at least a skill level of 4 and an expert ranking in Earth magic, it's generally not worth the bother to cast. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Deadly Swarm * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----4 * Normal--- Does 5 + 1-3 damage per point of skill in Earth magic. * Expert--- Faster recovery rate. * Master--- Faster recovery rate. * Grand---- Fastest recovery rate. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stone Skin * Type---Defensive * MP-----5 * Expert--- Increases party's AC by 5 + 1 per point of skill in Earth magic. Duration is 1 hour + 5 minutes per point of skill. * Master--- Duration is 1 hour + 15 minutes per point of skill. * Grand---- Duration is 1 hour + 1 hour per point of skill. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Blades * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----8 * Expert--- Does 1-9 damage per point of skill in Earth magic. * Master--- Faster recovery rate. * Grand---- Fastest recovery rate. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stone to Flesh * Type---Healing * MP-----10 * Expert--- Cures stoned condition on target character. Works if target has been stoned for less than 1 hour per point of skill in Earth magic. * Master--- Works for 1 day per point of skill. * Grand---- No time limit. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rock Blast * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----15 * Master--- Fires a rock which will bounce around until it hits something or dies out. When it hits something, it explodes and does 1-8 damage per point of skill in Earth magic to anything standing nearby. * Grand---- Faster recovery rate. Rock Blast is similar to the Fireball spell, but with one notable difference: it cannot be targeted. Rather, a rock is simply unleashed forward, and travels at a high velocity, bouncing around until it dies off, leaves the map, or hits a target, in which case it will explode, damaging everything around it. Due to the higher cost and the fact that it's not much more powerful than Fireball, Fireball still is the preferable spell in most occasions, but Rock Blast is simply great for nailing your enemies from around corners or for making other tricky, non-linear shots that Fireball is incapable of making. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Telekinesis * Type---Miscellaneous * MP-----20 * Master--- Allows you to manipulate objects from afar. See comments below for more details. * Grand---- Faster recovery rate. Why Telekinesis is an Earth spell and not a Mind spell is beyond me, but I digress. Telekinesis allows you to manpiulate objects from afar: throwing switches, picking up items, looting bodies, etc. The two major uses involve using this spell to collect items or loot bodies that fall outside the map range and would otherwise be uncollectable, and using it to open chests, crates, and other boobie-trapped goodie grab bags without fear of having them explode in your face. Unfortunately, casting it while the Invisibility spell is active will still cause the spell to wear off, so there are some situations where it's still nice to have someone along with the appropriate Disarm Trap skill. But that being said, unless you develop either a grandmaster skill or high master skill in Disarm Trap, you're still going to reach a point in the game where the skill will fail you, and you're just going to have to fall back on Telekinesis else take the damage, anyways. So this is a great spell to have, and possibly one of the most compelling reasons to develop mastery of the Earth magic skill ASAP, especially if you don't have a character on your team with a strong Disarm Trap skill. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Death Blossom * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----25 * Master--- Fires a magical stone into the air which explodes over a target creature, showering the area and doing 20 + 1 damage per point of skill in Earth magic to anyone caught in the blast. Can only be cast outdoors. * Grand---- Damage is 20 + 2 per point of skill. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mass Distortion * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----30 * Grand---- Deals damage equal to (25% + 2% per point of skill in Earth magic) of a target's current HP. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section XVII: Spell Lists|/ /\ \ _\ /_ | оооооооооооооооооооооооооооо/ \о \ \/ / | O / /\ \ _\ /_ | E. Spirit Magic | о/ \о \ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \ _\ /____________________________ | о/ \о \ \/ /|Section XVII: Spell Lists|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Detect Life * Type---Miscellaneous * MP-----1 * Normal--- Allows you to see any creature's current HP when you right click on them. Duration is 10 minutes per point of skill in Spirit magic. * Expert--- Duration is 30 minutes per point of skill. * Master--- Duration is 1 hour per point of skill. * Grand---- Creature's currently active spells are shown. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bless * Type---Indirect offensive * MP-----2 * Normal--- Increases target character's Attack Bonus by 5 + 1 per point of skill in Spirit magic. Duration is 1 hour plus 5 minutes per point of skill. * Expert--- Spell affects entire party. * Master--- Duration is 1 hour + 15 minutes per point of skill. * Grand---- Duration is 1 hour + 1 hour per point of skill. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fate * Type---Indirect offensive * MP-----3 * Normal--- If cast on a character, Attack Bonus is increased. If cast on a creature, Attack Bonus is decreased. Bonus (or penalty) is 20 + 1 per point of skill in Spirit magic. Duration is 5 minutes or until target attacks * Expert--- Bonus or penalty is 20 + 2 per point of skill. * Master--- Bonus or penalty is 20 + 4 per point of skill. * Grand---- Bonus or penalty is 20 + 6 per point of skill. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Turn Undead * Type---Indirect offensive * MP-----4 * Normal--- Causes all undead creatures in sight to flee from your party for duration of the spell (3 minutes + 1 minute per point of skill in Spirit magic). * Expert--- Duration is 3 minutes + 3 minutes per point of skill. * Master--- Duration is 3 minutes + 5 minutes per point of skill. * Grand---- Faster recovery rate. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Remove Curse * Type---Healing * MP-----5 * Expert--- Cures cursed condition on target character. Works if target has been cursed for less than 1 hour per point of skill in Spirit magic. * Master--- Works for 1 day per point of skill. * Grand---- No time limit. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Preservation * Type---Defensive * MP-----8 * Expert--- When cast on a character, prevents death due to massive HP loss for the duration of the spell (1 hour + 5 minutes per point of skill). * Master--- Spell affects entire party. * Grand---- Duration is 1 hour + 15 minutes per point of skill. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Heroism * Type---Indirect offensive * MP-----10 * Expert--- Increases damage dealt by the party's physical attacks by 5 + 1 per point of skill in Spirit magic. Duration is 1 hour + 5 minutes per point of skill. * Master--- Duration is 1 hour + 15 minutes per point of skill. * Grand---- Duration is 1 hour + 1 hour per point of skill I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spirit Lash * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----15 * Master--- Does 10 + 2-8 damage per point of skill in Spirit magic. Target must be within melee range for the spell to work. * Grand---- Faster recovery rate. The most damaging of the direct damage self spells suffers from the lone drawback that it must be cast at very close range for it to be effective, else the spell will fizzle without draining any MP. For Clerics and Druids, this shouldn't be much of an issue- both classes could stand to add a powerful melee attack to their arsenal, anyways. Paladins are probably better off sticking with the Mace, though. That issue aside, Spirit Lash is an extremely powerful spell, has a very reasonable MP cost for the damage it deals, and given that the damage dealt is Spirit-based, resistance to the spell is rarely an issue. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Raise Dead * Type---Healing * MP-----20 * Master--- Raises target character from the dead. Works only if character has been dead for less than 1 day per point of skill in Spirit magic. Revived character will be weak after casting. * Grand---- No time limit. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shared Life * Type---Healing * MP-----25 * Master--- Takes your party's combined HP, pools it, adds to it 3 HP per point of skill in Spirit magic, and redistributes it as equally as possible amongst your characters. * Grand---- Pool size is combined HP + 4 per point of skill. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Resurrection * Type---Healing * MP-----30 * Grand---- Raises target character from eradication. Revived character will be weak after revived. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section XVII: Spell Lists|/ /\ \ _\ /_ | оооооооооооооооооооооооооооо/ \о \ \/ / | O / /\ \ _\ /_ | F. Mind Magic | о/ \о \ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \ _\ /____________________________ | о/ \о \ \/ /|Section XVII: Spell Lists|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Remove Fear * Type---Healing * MP-----1 * Normal--- Cures afraid condition on target character. Works if target has been stoned for less than 3 minutes per point of skill in Mind magic. * Master--- Works for 1 hour per point of skill. * Master--- Works for 1 day per point of skill. * Grand---- No time limit. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mind Blast * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----2 * Normal--- Does 3 + 1-3 damage per point of skill in Mind magic. * Expert--- Faster recovery rate. * Master--- Faster recovery rate. * Grand---- Fastest recovery rate. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mind Resistance * Type---Defensive * MP-----3 * Normal--- Increases your party's Mind Resistance by 1 per point of skill in Mind magic. Duration is 1 hour per point of skill. * Expert--- Increases your party's Mind Resistance by 2 per point of skill. * Master--- Increases your party's Mind Resistance by 3 per point of skill. * Grand---- Increases your party's Mind Resistance by 4 per point of skill. One of the six basic resistance spells. Mind Resistance is at least more useful than the general lack of practicioners of the discipline might lead you to believe. More enemies than you think attack with mind magic spells (no mind- based attacks, strangely enough). And while Pshycic Shock, as mentioned later in this section, is not much of a threat to worry about, resistance is still nice, especially when you consider that titans can still cast it at a very high level. But perhaps the best use of this spell s that it is useful against any creatures whose attacks can paralyze you. This includes, but is not limited to, ghouls, medusas, and certain gargoyles. Naturally, however, the spell won't do you much good until you have at least a skill level of 4 and an expert ranking in Mind magic. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Telepathy * Type---Miscellaneous * MP-----4 * Normal--- Caster reads targets mind, telling you how much gold it has. * Expert--- Faster recovery rate. * Master--- Faster recovery rate. * Grand---- Fastest recovery rate and casting cost is 0. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Charm * Type---Indirect offensive * MP-----5 * Expert--- Removes any hostile feelings target has towards the party. Spell will be broken if party attacks creature. Duration is 5 minutes per point of skill in Mind magic. * Master--- Duration is 10 minutes per point of skill. * Grand---- Spell lasts until party leaves map. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cure Paralysis * Type---Healing * MP-----8 * Expert--- Cures paralyzed condition on target character. Works if target has been paralyzed for less than 1 hour per point of skill in Mind magic. * Master--- Works for 1 day per point of skill. * Grand---- No time limit. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Berserk * Type---Indirect offensive * MP-----10 * Expert--- Causes target creature to go crazy and start attacking the closest thing to it. Duration is 5 minutes per point of skill in Mind magic. * Master--- Duration is 10 minutes per point of skill. * Grand---- Spell lasts until party leaves map. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cure Insanity * Type---Healing * MP-----15 * Master--- Cures insane condition on target charachter. Works if character has been insane for less than 1 day per point of skill in Mind magic. * Grand---- No time limit. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mass Fear * Type---Indirect offensive * MP-----20 * Master--- All creatures in sight flee from the party for the duartion of the spell (3 minutes per point of skill in Mind magic). * Grand---- Duration is 5 minutes per point of skill. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Psychic Shock * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----25 * Master--- *Does 12 + 1-12 damage per point of skill in Mind magic. * Grand---- Faster recovery rate. *While Psychic Shock claims to deal 12 + 1-12 points of damage for each skill point in Mind magic, the damage it deals in reality is actually significantly lower. Exactly what the real damage formula for this spell is I cannot say, suffice it to say it ends up being about on par with Mind Blast, if that gives you any kind of idea. And as if that weren't damning enough, despite how fast the spell's missile flies, it just doesn't seem to connect that often. Skip this one; you'll be glad you did. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Enslave * Type---Indirect offensive * MP-----30 * Grand---- Target creature will fight creatures hostile to the party, and the spell will not be broken if you attack it. Duration is 10 minutes per point of skill in Mind magic. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section XVII: Spell Lists|/ /\ \ _\ /_ | оооооооооооооооооооооооооооо/ \о \ \/ / | O / /\ \ _\ /_ | G. Body Magic | о/ \о \ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \ _\ /____________________________ | о/ \о \ \/ /|Section XVII: Spell Lists|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cure Weakness * Type---Healing * MP-----1 * Normal--- Cures weakened condition on target character. Works if target has been weak for less than 3 minutes per point of skill in Body magic. * Master--- Works for 1 hour per point of skill. * Master--- Works for 1 day per point of skill. * Grand---- No time limit. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Heal * Type---Healing * MP-----2 * Normal--- Cures HP to target character. HP restored is 5 + 2 per point of skill in Body magic. * Expert--- Cures 5 + 3 HP per point of skill. * Master--- Cures 5 + 4 HP per point of skill. * Grand---- Cures 5 + 5 HP per point of skill. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Body Resistance * Type---Defensive * MP-----3 * Normal--- Increases your party's Body Resistance by 1 per point of skill in Body magic. Duration is 1 hour per point of skill. * Expert--- Increases your party's Mind Resistance by 2 per point of skill. * Master--- Increases your party's Mind Resistance by 3 per point of skill. * Grand---- Increases your party's Mind Resistance by 4 per point of skill. One of the six basic resistance spells. Body Resistance is effective against a very wide variety of foes. While you will never find yourself running into any Body Elementals, or anything of that sort, you should still cast this anytime you are fighting enemies that attack with body-based spells or attacks (which includes a wide variety of creatures), enemies that can cast Hammerhands (monks, mainly), and creatures that can poison you with their attacks (such as troglodytes). But of course, it is again worthy of note that unless you have at least a skill level of 4 and an expert ranking in Body magic, the spell won't do you much good, if any. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Harm * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----4 * Normal--- Does 8 + 1-2 damage per point of skill in Body magic. * Expert--- Faster recovery rate. * Master--- Faster recovery rate. * Grand---- Fastest recovery rate. One of the two low-level direct damage spells from the self magics, Harm does just a tiny bit more damage than Mind Blast at twice the cost. The increase in damage probably isn't enough to justify the MP cost, so Mind Blast is probably a better idea if the caster also delves in Mind magic. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Regeneration * Type---Healing * MP-----5 * Expert--- Target character regenerates 1 HP per minute for the spell's duration (1 hour per point of skill in Body magic). * Master--- Character regenerates 3 HP per minute. * Grand---- Character regenerates 10 HP per minute. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cure Poison * Type---Healing * MP-----8 * Expert--- Cures poisoned condition on target character. Works if target has been poisoned for less than 1 hour per point of skill in Body magic. * Master--- Works for 1 day per point of skill. * Grand---- No time limit. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hammerhands * Type---Indirect offensive * MP-----10 * Expert--- Enchants target character's unarmed attacks to do an additional amount of Body damage equal to the damage dealt by the unarmed attack. Duration is 1 hour per point of skill. * Master--- Faster recovery rate. * Grand---- Spell affects entire party. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cure Disease * Type---Healing * MP-----15 * Master--- Cures diseased condition on target charachter. Works if character has been disease for less than 1 day per point of skill in Body magic. * Grand---- No time limit. The only real problem with this spell is that by the point in the game you actually are able to learn it, you're about as likely to see a naked midget line dancing with Elvis as you are to catch disease. And the money you spend on the spell may or may not justify the rare occasion you might actually have to use it (a Cure Disease potion is one of the easier potions to mix, if you'll recall). But if you've got the money to blow, by all means go for it and save yourself a reagent or two. Besides, the bottle in the spell illustration in your spellbook does a good job of covering up the naughty parts of the naked man in the spellbook's background. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Protection From Magic * Type---Defensive * MP-----20 * Master--- Grants party immunity to the poisoning, disease, stoning, paralysis, and weakness. Spell will negate one such attack of each type per point of skill in Body magic before the spell is broken. * Grand---- Also grants immunity to death and eradication effects. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Flying Fist * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----25 * Master--- Does 30 + 1-5 damage per point of skill in Body magic. * Grand---- Faster recovery rate. One of the more comical spells, Flying Fist quite literally assaults your enemies with a giant flying bitch-slap. The missile flies at a reasonable speed, and the damage it does is very high. If Psychic Shock actually worked as advertised, then it would be a serious contender with this spell, but as it stands, in the field of direct-damage self spells, this is the best one you've got aside from Spirit Lash. The drawbacks of the spell are pretty standard: a high MP cost and an abundance of creatures that are immune to Body magic. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Power Cure * Type---Healing * MP-----30 * Grand---- Restores 10 + 5 HP per point of skill in Body magic to the entire party. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section XVII: Spell Lists|/ /\ \ _\ /_ | оооооооооооооооооооооооооооо/ \о \ \/ / | O / /\ \ _\ /_ | H. Light Magic | о/ \о \ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \ _\ /____________________________ | о/ \о \ \/ /|Section XVII: Spell Lists|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Light Bolt * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----5 * Normal--- Does 1-4 damage per point of skill in Light magic. Undead take double damage. * Expert--- Faster recovery rate. * Master--- Faster recovery rate. * Grand---- Fastest recovery rate. For the casting cost, Light Bolt deals fairly low-end damage, unelss you're using it on the undead, in which case you might as well just whip out Destroy Undead on them. For Sorcerers and Archers, elemental spells are usually a far better deal unless resistance becomes enough of an issue. Clerics and Paladins, conversely, given the few attack spells they already have (and the fact that many enemies tend to be immune to all of them), may find themselves with a fairly decent addition to their arsenal, especially at higher levels of skill in Light magic. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Destroy Undead * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----10 * Normal--- Does 1-16 damage per point of skill in Light magic. Only works on the undead. * Expert--- Faster recovery rate. * Master--- Faster recovery rate. * Grand---- Fastest recovery rate. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dispel Magic * Type---Indirect offensive * MP-----15 * Normal--- Removes spell effects from all creatures in sight. * Expert--- Faster recovery rate. * Master--- Faster recovery rate. * Grand---- Fastest recovery rate. This is one of those spells that's really, really annoying to have cast against you, but somehow isn't as annoying to the enemies. Probably because you're the one who usually stands to suffer the most from the effects of a spell that nullifies the effects of any supportive magic you've cast upon yourself. Very few enemies tend to bother with supportive magic, but against those that do, this is a fairly nifty spell to pull out. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paralyze * Type---Indirect offensive * MP-----20 * Normal--- Prevents a target from attacking or moving. Duration is 3 minutes per point of skill in Light magic. * Expert--- Faster recovery rate. * Master--- Faster recovery rate. * Grand---- Fastest recovery rate. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Summon Elemental * Type---Indirect offensive * MP-----25 * Expert--- Summons a Lesser Light Elemental which will fight creatures hostile to the party. Each caster can have 1 elemental summoned at a time. * Master--- Summons a Light Elemental. Can have up to 3 elementals at a time. * Grand---- Summons a Greater Light Elemental. Can have up to 5 elementals at a time. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day of the Gods * Type---Defensive/Indirect offensive * MP-----30 * Expert--- Increases each of your characters' stats by 10 + 3 per point of skill in Light magic. * Master--- Stats are increased by 10 + 4 per point of skill. * Grand---- Stats are increased by 10 + 5 per point of skill. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prismatic Light * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----35 * Master--- Deals 25 + 1 damage per point of skill in Fire magic to everything in sight. Only works indoors. * Grand---- Faster recovery rate. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day of Protection * Type---Defensive * MP-----40 * Master--- Casts Protection from Magic, the six basic resistance spells (Fire, Air, Earth, Water, Mind, and Body), Wizard Eye, and Feather Fall on your party. Resistance spells increase party's resistances by 4 per point of skill in Light magic. * Grand---- Resistances are increased by 5 per point of skill. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hour of Power * Type---Defensive/Indirect offensive * MP-----45 * Master--- Casts Haste, Heroism, Stoneskin, Bless, and Shield on your party, all at 4 times the caster's skill in Light magic. * Grand---- Spells are cast at 5 times the caster's skill in Light magic. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunray * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----50 * Master--- Does 20 + 1-20 damage per point of skill in Light magic. Only works outdoors. * Grand---- Faster recovery rate. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Divine Intervention * Type---Healing * MP-----55 * Grand---- Restores party to full HP and MP, removes any averse conditions, and ages the caster 10 years. Can only be cast 3 times a day by the same caster. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section XVII: Spell Lists|/ /\ \ _\ /_ | оооооооооооооооооооооооооооо/ \о \ \/ / | O / /\ \ _\ /_ | I. Dark Magic | о/ \о \ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \ _\ /____________________________ | о/ \о \ \/ /|Section XVII: Spell Lists|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reanimation * Type---Indirect offensive * MP-----10 * Normal--- Creates a zombie out of a lifeless creature that will fight creatures hostile to the party until it is slain again. Creature will have 20 HP per point of skill in Dark magic, up to its normal maximum amount. * Expert--- Zombie gets 30 HP per point of skill. * Master--- Zombie gets 40 HP per point of skill. * Grand---- Zombie gets 50 HP per point of skill. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Toxic Cloud * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----15 * Normal--- Does 25 + 1-10 damage per point of skill. * Expert--- Faster recovery rate. * Master--- Faster recovery rate. * Grand---- Fastest recovery rate. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vampiric Weapon * Type---Indirect offensive * MP-----20 * Normal--- Enchants a weapon with the "Vampiric" property. Duration is 1 hour per point of skill in Dark magic. * Expert--- Faster recovery rate. * Master--- Faster recovery rate. * Grand---- Fastest recovery rate. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shrinking Ray * Type---Indirect offensive * MP-----25 * Normal--- Shrinks a creature so that it deals only half its normal amount of damage. Duration is 5 minutes per point of skill in Dark magic. * Expert--- Creature deals 1/3 its normal damage. * Master--- Creature deals 1/4 its normal damage. * Grand---- Can be cast on a group of creatures. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shrapmetal * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----30 * Expert--- Fires 5 metal fragments in a spray pattern. Each fragment does 6 + 1-6 damage per point of skill in Dark magic. * Master--- Fires 7 fragments. * Grand---- Fires 9 fragments. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Control Undead * Type---Indirect offensive * MP-----35 * Expert--- Target creature will fight creatures hostile to the party, and the spell will not be broken if you attack it. Duration is 3 minutes per point of skill in Dark magic. Only works on the undead. * Master--- Faster recovery rate. Duration is 5 minutes per point of skill. * Grand---- Fastest recovery rate. Spell lasts until party leaves map. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pain Reflection * Type---Indirect offensive * MP-----40 * Expert--- When cast on a character, any creature that deals damage to that character will recieve damage equal to the amount dealt. Duration is 1 hour + 5 minutes per point of skill in Dark magic. * Master--- Spell affects entire party. * Grand---- Duartion is 1 hour + 15 minutes per point of skill. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sacrifice * Type---Healing * MP-----45 * Master--- Slays a single NPC hireling. Caster's HP and MP are fully restored and all averse conditions and magical aging is removed. Also, the party's reputation in the current area will decrease significantly. * Grand---- Faster recovery rate. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dragon Breath * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----50 * Master--- Does 1-25 damage per point of skill in Dark magic. * Grand---- Faster recovery rate. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Armageddon * Type---Direct offensive * MP-----55 * Master--- Deals 50 + 1 damage per point of skill in Dark magic to everything on the map, including your party. Can only be cast outdoors, and can only be cast 3 times per day by the same caster. * Grand---- Can be cast 4 times a day. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the commentary for this section/subsection/list item is unavailable at this time. Please look for this in a future update. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Souldrinker * Type---Direct offensive/Healing * MP-----60 * Grand---- Does 25 + 1-8 damage to every creature in sight. Party regains HP equal to the total amoung of damage done, distrubted as evenly as possible amongst your characters. The attack spell to end all attack spells, Souldrinker has almost frieghtening destructive power. Not only do the spell's effects target every enemy in sight and do tremendous damage to them all, it also heals your party by evenly distributing to them HP equal to the amount of damage done, which as I just mentioned, is quite a bit. As you might expect, the MP cost is ungodly, but the effects are well worth it. While you probably won't have the MP supply to use this spell on a constant basis (unless your cheap ass is using Lloyd's Becaon to go recharge at a temple every five seconds), you'll be glad to have access to it in many a sticky situation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB T / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / T B / \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \ B T \ *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* \ T B /\ | ~XX~ ~XX~ | \/ B T \ * * \ T B /\ | XX. Other Stuff | \/ B T \ * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * \ T B /\ | ~XX~ ~XX~ | \/ B T \ *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* \ T B \ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ / B T / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / T BTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB A number of characters and various NPC's in this game are either vague or direct references to various areas of pop culture, inside jokes, or just pure irony. Some examples: * Various NPC's in the Tatalia region, such as Wacko and Your Conscience, were names of posters on the 3DO message boards. * The original arbiter, Judge Grey, has a name that is more or less synonymous with neutrality. While this is not only relevant to his job as arbiter, it is farther relevant taking into consideration that it is under his watch that your team remains on a neutral (undecided) path, as opposed to later in the game. * The masters and grandmasters of all the magic skills for the most part tend to have names descriptive of the schools of magic under which they study. Avalanche, Blayze, Torrent, and Gayle are the best examples. * Many other teachers tend to have names descriptive of the skills they teach, such as Dalin Keenedge, Petra Cleareye, Gizmo, and Raven the Hunter. *The Barrow Downs was taken directly from a book in The Lord of the Rings trilogy (The Fellowship of the Ring). * Harli Quinn, a resident of Deyja, refers to either the Batman villian or, more likely, whoever the hell she's named after. Some clown, I think. * William Setag, the evil Villain is a veiled stab at the one and only Bill Gates. Setag is "Gates" spelled backwards. * The Crusader/Hero, Charles Quixote is an indirect reference to that idiot who ran into a windmill in a book once. * The grandmaster of the Body Building skill, Evander Holyfield, is a direct reference to a boxer of the same name. * The grandmaster of the Unarmed skill, Norris, is a reference to Chuck Norris. * The master of the Disarm Trap, for some unknown reason is a more or less direct reference to Lynyrd Skynyrd. Apparently, the makers of Might & Magic VII think that Lynyrd Skynyrd and its fanbase are all a bunch of backwater, toothless hicks, much like the in-game namesake, and... well... they're probably right. * Is it me, or does the lady from the Air Guild look exactly like Angelina Joilee? * Also, it is my opinion that Silk Quicktongue, the grandmaster of the Disarm Trap skill, strongly resembles Owen Wilson. * The Strange Temple area, accessible by using the Temple in a Bottle item hidden in the final region of the game, strongly resembles the 3DO office complex and is full of people whose names correspond with people who worked on the game. There are a few Blaster Guys wandering around here, though. * Lastly, a lot of the NPC's got messed up in one way or another. Usually it's just a female wandering around with an obviously masculine name or vice versa. Don't even get me started on the creepy guy/girl from the Mind guild. In more severe cases, the NPC portraits obviously don't fit the character or region. For example, a male goblin in the pit turns out to be a human female when you talk to him/her?. For that matter, a few NPC portraits, as I'll allude to in section XXIII. of the FAQ, weren't even used in the game at all. It's a shame, too, because at least one of them is a pretty good-looking lady. BTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB T / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / T B / \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \ B T \ *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* \ T B /\ | ~XXI~ ~XXI~ | \/ B T \ * * \ T B /\ | XXI. Hints & Tricks | \/ B T \ * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * \ T B /\ | ~XXI~ ~XXI~ | \/ B T \ *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* \ T B \ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ / B T / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / T BTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section XXI: Hints & Tricks|/ /\ \ _\ /_ | оооооооооооооооооооооооооооооо/ \о \ \/ / | O / /\ \ _\ /_ | A. Exploiting the A.I. | о/ \о \ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \ _\ /______________________________ | о/ \о \ \/ /|Section XXI: Hints & Tricks|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm As you might have figured out, the enemy A.I. for this game is painfully simple. The result is that there are a number of ways you can exploit it. In short, whenever you reach a certain proximity of an enemy, they will notice you and break away from where they are standing to hunt you down and kill you, or at least try to. Their two major exploitable flaws are that they will advance directly towards you in as straight of a line as possible, and that they won't take the time to alert anyone around them before charging after you. Examples of exploiting both of these behaviors are given below, both taken from Emerald Isle. The massive Dragonfly hordes that occupy the northwestern marshes of Emerald Isle are far easier to deal with little by little as opposed to one gigantic swarm. As you near the hordes, slow your movement rate and inch towards them. When you get near enough, the ones on the outer fringe will break away to fight you, while the rest of them stay put. Why they don't think to alert their friends as to your presence is beyond me, but the major point I'm trying to drive home here is that the "divide and conquer" approach works wonders in Might & Magic VII. The second example takes us to the Temple of the Moon, and towards the one and only Sal Sharktooth. Pop an arrow in his ass and then let him chase you back to the main chamber of the Temple of the Moon. Hop down to the bottom of the small ledge (to the right of the small stairway) and wait until Sal makes his way over. He'll stand at the edge of the ledge and swing futilely at you rather than heading on down the stairs a few feet over so he can actually approach you and make mincemeat out of you. Granted, a lot of creatures do have the capabilities to hope down ledges or fly even, but the "head for you in a straight line" mentality is still there. This fact is exploitable in many possible ways, another example being attacking a part of a large enemy sticking out from around a corner while the enemy remains safely on the other side running its retarded ass into the wall. One might also consider it a flaw that creatures far beneath you still suicidally throw themselves at you, honestly thinking they can kill you. Of course, in that same vein, this is not something unique to Might & Magic VII. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section XXI: Hints & Tricks|/ /\ \ _\ /_ | оооооооооооооооооооооооооооооо/ \о \ \/ / | O / /\ \ _\ /_ | B. Exploiting the Economy | о/ \о \ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \ _\ /______________________________ | о/ \о \ \/ /|Section XXI: Hints & Tricks|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Even easier to exploit than the game's horrifically simple A.I. is it's insanely greedy economy. So many things are possible to do to cheat your way into huge sacks of free cash money that it's not even funny. But before we get into any get-rich-quick schemes, we're going to start with a little trick that I think I can safely say a lot of us are guilty of, myself included. As I discussed in section I.H. of the FAQ, shops will change their inventories on a fairly rigid schedule once you have entered it and started the clock. And then, once their inventories are updated, the clock won't be started until you enter that shop again. Well, you should also note that the shop's inventory won't be set until you enter it to start the clock, as well. This means that you can save just outside a shop, the go through a process of saving and reloading until you see some wares in the shop that you might want. To me, this is merely an issue of convenience moreso than anything else, as shops will always sell at a consistent treasure level, anyways, as I discussed in section I.J. of the FAQ. But that being said, if you have the patience for it, you will be likely be able to find some really good buys, especially in places like Deyja and Bracada, to the point of which I would almost consider this tactic to be cheating. Note that this exact same tactic can also be used with the oresmiths in Erathia, as each the item, weapon, or piece of armor each piece of ore will become is not determined until the ore is actually transformed into said item, weapon, and piece of armor. And when you consider some of the large amounts of powerful ore available throughout the land (namely in Bracada and Deyja), if you are the kind of person with the patience to do this with each individual piece of it, you can get a serious advantage in the equipment department very early in the game. At this point, I honestly and seriously do consider this tactic to be cheating, and limit myself to going and having all of my ore processed before looking at all of the results and determining whether or not I want to keep it all. The final application of this trick applies to looting carcasses. Granted, most caracasses are barely even worth the effort to try this with, but when you consider that the best items in the game are available almost exclusively from the bodies of slain dragons, this suddenly becomes a very interesting prospect. Of course, if you're going dragon hunting, you're also advised to check out the next section (XXI.C.) below, as it also deals with this very subject. With that out of the way, let's move on to some of the quick and easy ways to make yourself lots of money. Your options in the early game are fairly limited, unfortunately, but Alchemy is still a fairly good way to turn a profit. Consider that 3 gold's worth of ingredients can be mixed by someone with the Alchemy skill into a complex potion that can be sold for a bit more, and you at least have a way of making a tad bit of money early on. It's not much, but early on, it's all you've got. Complex potions are a step up, so if you're interested, you might make it a point to become an Alchemy expert as soon as you can (if you can, that is). Even better is the ability to mix white and black potions, as their values are 750 and 2000 gold a pop, respectively, which isn't bad given that they all cost around 10 to 20 gold to make, assuming you buy the ingredients and use the cheapest ones available. More effective ways of increasing your wealth involve either a grandmaster skill in the Merchant skill, the master-level Water spell Enchant Item, or both. In the event of both, you're dead set, and need never worry about money ever again. Hell, even with just the grandmaster Merchant skill alone, odds are you're not going to have much financial worries from here on out, but I digress. If you ever find yourself in need of money, simply buy something, enchant it, and sell it back to the shop at a profit- simple as that. Grandmastered versions of the Fire Aura or Vampiric Weapon spells also work, but only with weapons. However, even without grandmastery of the Merchant skill, you can still turn over a nice profit by enchanting everything you sell beforehand. Of course, you should take care to carefully read the directions of the Enchant Item spell before you use it so you don't accidentally end up breaking whatever you were trying to enchant. And if you're really greedy, you can try the save/reload trick I mentioned earlier in this section until you end up with the really good, pricey enchantments (namely the "antique" enchantment, which multiplies the item's value by 10). And lastly, the quickest and easiest way to make money in this game is, for all practical purposes, cheating. This trick is only available to players on the path of light, and concerns the Archmage promotion quest. You may or may not have noticed that the object you are instructed to retrieve is also an item which can be sold for lots of cash money. And for as long as it remains a quest item (read: before you hand it over to Thomas Grey), you can keep getting replacements from Judge Fairweather if you somehow lose (sell) it. Hell, you can go inside, get one, toss it on the ground outside, then go back in for another. Stockpiling lots of Divine Intervention books will lead you, the player, to large cash rewards, but I think the question that is on everyone's minds right now is how is it that Mr. Fairweather have a virtually infinite supply of a long-lost artifact that you went to great risk to rediscover after eons of it being away from its rightful owners? wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section XXI: Hints & Tricks|/ /\ \ _\ /_ | оооооооооооооооооооооооооооооо/ \о \ \/ / | O / /\ \ _\ /_ | C. The Multi-Loot Bug | о/ \о \ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \ _\ /______________________________ | о/ \о \ \/ /|Section XXI: Hints & Tricks|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Yet another fun bug in the game to exploit, and again one I am very guilty of exploiting is the infamous "multi-loot" bug. This refers to the fact that sometimes when you loot the bodies of fallen dragons, they sometimes don't disappear, meaning that whatever you just got was an added bonus in addition to whatever you eventually end up getting from the dragon. The bug works infinitely, but like I said, it doesn't always happen. Assuming you're using the "save-reload" trick I discussed in the section above (XXI.B.), simply save your game after multi-looting and continue on as if nothing had just happened. I'd still advise you to stop whenever you loot something that you really want, and just accept anything you might have gotten as a result of multi-looting as a nice bonus. If you loot something that you find you could really use, don't let your greed allow you to give it up merely for the sake of continuing to multi-loot, as that's a very good way to pass up on some kick-ass treasure. I mean, if it's Wormthrax, I might understand your hesitancy, as it's the last dragon you'll see until later in the game, and you want to maximize your profits from him. However, if it's later in the game, then it's no contest; there's plenty of dragons abound for you to kill in the name of treasure, so tally ho! wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section XXI: Hints & Tricks|/ /\ \ _\ /_ | оооооооооооооооооооооооооооооо/ \о \ \/ / | O / /\ \ _\ /_ | D. Death Blasters | о/ \о \ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \ _\ /______________________________ | о/ \о \ \/ /|Section XXI: Hints & Tricks|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm And lastly, the deadliest glitch in Might & Magic VII's arsenal. It involves, as you might have guessed, blasters. If you thought they were fast before, you ain't seen nothing yet. You'll need a pretty damn high skill in Armsmastery, meaning you'll either need a Knight or at least a piece of equipment with a strong "Of Arms" enchantment on it. Unfortunately, I do not know the exact number this has to be, so if anyone can give me any information concerning that, I'd much appreciate it. Anyways, what you're after is the Armsmaster bonus to weapon recovery time. You'll also need a Dagger expertise of at least expert, or a Sword expertise of at least master. With a blaster in your main hand, another weapon in your off hand, and the appropriate skill in Armsmastery, the game gets confused and slices your recovery time on down to 0. In case you haven't already guessed, that pretty much equals a nasty beam of death emanating from your party at all times. Ouch. BTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB T / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / T B / \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \ B T \ *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* \ T B /\ | ~XXII~ ~XXII~ | \/ B T \ * * \ T B /\ | XXII. For Veterans of Might & Magic VII | \/ B T \ * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * \ T B /\ | ~XXII~ ~XXII~ | \/ B T \ *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* \ T B \ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ / B T / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / T BTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB Have you played through Might & Magic VII more times than you can count? Looking for new ways to spice up the game you think you've mastered inside and out? Well, if you've answered at least "maybe" to these questions, then this section is for you, my friend! In this section, I will discuss a number of things one might do to add challenge to the game, ranging from simple rules and handicaps, to the most extreme challenges thinkable for all you hardcore vets out there. Let's get started, shall we? First and foremost, you'll notice that a great deal of the game's challenges lie within the party you choose to guide you to victory. I talk in great detail about party creation in section I.K. of the FAQ, and in there I mention the concept of a party created with the sole intention of a good challenge in mind. Challenge teams are not limited to the two I mentioned there, but they are the two more popular ones, at any rate (and in the grand scheme of things, probably the least challenging). If you really wanna bust your chops, try an all-Ranger team. The possibilities are, well, virtually limitless. So go with whatever strikes your fancy. And keep reading. Most of adding challenge to the game, aside from the afformentioned team issue, more or less involves rules the player establishes for themselves. Basically, you play the game in such a way as to make it more challenging. This takes a certain amount of self-discipline, as you might expect. For example, one of my personal favorite vet rules is that I won't use any unidentified equipment. Now, I know I certainly can, but it's just one of the things I do to add challenge to the game. Other things I do include avoiding things that make the game way too easy. Which, again, takes some amount of restraint. But hey, I assume we're all here because we wanted a good challenge, am I right? Let's move on. There are a lot of things in the game that are, well, let's not kid oursleves, completely cheap shots. The hardened vet might consider avoiding some or all of these things for the sake of a decent challenge. For starters, just about everything I mention in section XXI. of the FAQ falls into this category. If I'm not on drugs, then Lloyd's Beacon (or at least absuing it) does, as well. If I am on drugs, throw in Divine Intervention and Souldrinker, too. Grandmaster Regeneration is a damn cheap shot in my book, also, but assuming you've already got a party on your hands consisting entirely of low-HP classes, then in the grand scheme of things, it ain't that bad, I guess. The cheap shots that don't involve magic spells all pretty much involve skill points. The major no-no is abuse of the wishing well at Eeofol, where enough patience and lots of saving and reloading can ultimately net you enough skill points to mow down an army of titans in .03 seconds. Not as bad as that, but still bad to varying degrees involve other various methods of earning lots of skill points. The genie lamps, used at the proper date(s), are worth a hefty 8 skill points each, and a decent alchemist won't have much problem tracking down and easily winning all of the various contests, tests, and challenges. The horseshoes are a gray area here. The skill point bonus from them isn't significant enough to be considered cheap, per se, but is still is kinda cheap to start off the game by travelling to each region and picking all of the horseshoes up. One last cheap shot I really wanna talk about (before we get into the good stuff, that is) is the exploitation of the various ore located throughout the land. I made specific note of this in section XXI.B., but it couldn't hurt to mention it again. There is almost nothing cheaper, in my opinion, than collecting all of the Eurodine-laced ore from Deyja, Tatalia, and Bracada extremely early in the game and using it to gain a severe drop in the equipment department nearly right off the bat. That being said, there's still plenty of good stuff one might still not hesitate to legitimately locate ASAP, such as the Faerie Ring, the Ghost Ring, the bows from the Tularean Forest, and the powerful equipment sold in places such as Avlee and Stone City. That isn't really cheap so much as it is good planning. And last but not least, the challenges for the truly hardcore. The first challenge I'll mention is the solo game. That is, as you might expect, traveling through the game with only one character, killing off the other three at the outset of the game and never reviving them. A less-challenging variant of this game would be to travel with just two characters, but there's probably not much point in going for a three-character game, seeing as by that point most of the challenge is gone. I digress, however. If you are going to attempt a solo game, the one thing you must put some serious consideration into is the character class you will be using. Each class has their own advantages and disadvantages in a solo game. Druids can hold their own in the magic department fairly well, but the floor will get mopped with them in the physical department. Knights, conversely, have a tough time what with their total lack of magical abilities. Thieves have the advantage of possessing a lot of the skills either necessary or extremely useful to have while playing through the game, and seem like the kind of class that should be traveling alone, anyways. That being said, no matter what class you choose, you're going to have a lot of weaknesses to compensate for throughout the game. Whether you be Sorcerer or Monk, odds are you're going to find yourself scouting out hirelings to make up for the skills you lack, so be sure to take full advantage of them. Any and all physical classes should make heavy use of potions, scrolls, and wands, with a very strong emphasis placed on potions. Of all the physical classes, the Thief gets the nod here for their ability to create compound potions for themselves, the effects of which you should know mimic a variety of useful expert-level magic spells. And seeing as creating potions for one is a lot easier than for four, it's almost as if the entire potion list was created with a Thief solo game in mind. Another big challenge involves a four-character party, but completing the game with them at level 1. Contrary to what I said above, Horseshoes and Genie Lamps, along with contests and the like may very well be your only salvation in a game like this. The wishing well at Eeofol is also something you might want to strongly consider using. Extremely low HP and MP maxes are yet another outstanding issue to worry about. Having at least one Sorcerer amongst your ranks with the Lloyd's Beacon spell, while in my opinion one of the cheapest shots in the entire game, is probably something almost necessitated in this situation. You'll probably get a nice score if you don't take a gazillion years to finish the game like this, but if it's a high score you're interested in, keep on reading. The final major challenge is a speed game, or a score game. The two are closely related, given that your time is a major factor in your final score (the other factor being your characters' fame). Basically, the formula for calculating your final score is your fame (visible from the quick info window that pops up when you press Z) divided by time. The majority of your fame comes from completing quests, with just a little bit of it coming from defeating powerful monsters. And seeing as just about everyone and their dogs who are reading this section can acquire lots of fame from completing all the quests, the only real way to increase your score is to decrease the amount of time it takes you to play through the game. While you can't expect to have very high levels at all, this challenge does differ from the level 1 hero challenge in that with a speed game, you're probably going to want to find time to level up at least a little bit. A good opportunity for this involves the mandatory four months spent dealing with the Elf-Human War. Now, I mean, don't get me wrong, it may very well be possible to pull off a speed game at level 1, it's just that I've never known anyone crazy enough to try it, and it more than likely involves heavy abuse of the wishing well at Eeofol. BTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB T / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / T B / \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \ B T \ *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* \ T B /\ | ~XXIII~ ~XXIII~ | \/ B T \ * * \ T B /\ | XXIII. St0rmcat's Might & Magic VII Editor | \/ B T \ * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * \ T B /\ | ~XXIII~ ~XXIII~ | \/ B T \ *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* \ T B \ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ / B T / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / T BTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB Here's a nifty little piece of software, created by the one and only St0rmcat. With this, you can open, examine, and alter the game's save files as you wish. You may also use it to view and/or extract the various audio and art files from the game, though you are sadly inable to use it to view the video files. As for the background music, those are easily accessible as audio tracks on the Might & Magic VII play CD, so you don't need a game editor to listen to those, anyways. First and foremost, of course, you must acquire the editor. I just happen to host St0rmcat's Might & Magic VII Editor on my website, and you can download it at my website. Check the end of the FAQ for a link to my website. From there, follow the link to my FAQ page where you can download an uncensored version of this FAQ, along with the editor. Anyways, once you've got the editor, the instructions contained within are fairly self-explanatory. Even if you aren't using it for the purposes of cheating, there are still a gazillion things you can do with it. Granted, if you plan on using it to cheat, you don't need my suggestions of advice, so dig right in. You can use this editor for all sorts of game-related things, some of which don't necessarily have to be cheating. If you accidentally spend some skill points in the wrong area, for example, you can go edit things to the way you want them to be. Or change an ugly Peasant Hat to a beautiful Regal Crown. Or replace a hideously ugly NPC Hireling with a photo of a more eye-appealing one (though you might want to create a backup copy of the pics you're replacing so you can put things back the way they were when you're done or if you fire the hireling later). The possibilities are endless. Explorarion of the game files alone is a fun function of the editor. There are so many interesting things to be seen within the various game files. You can view and export many of the game's files for personal use (I personally have a few of the game's art fiels I like using as wallpaper), and you can even check out the many things that are in the game's programming, but for some reason or another didn't make it into the actual game. Might & Magic VII got a lot of crap for using the same engine as its predecessor, Might & Magic VI. Well, if you look close enough, you'll find that it's not just the engine from Might & Magic VI this game was based on- it was the whole damn program. And there's a lot of stuff from Might & Magic VI still left in there, which is perhaps a sign of how lazy video game programmers can be sometimes. Lastly, perhaps the most useful function this editors serves is as a workaround to some of the glitches in this game. More specifically, the Lich promotion quest. I mentionined when I was discussing the Lich promotion quest that sometimes the game likes to screw up and take away your Lich Jars. St0rmcat's Might & Magic VII Editor is a nice way to give the glitch the finger. BTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB T / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / T B / \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \ B T \ *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* \ T B /\ | ~XXIV~ ~XXIV~ | \/ B T \ * * \ T B /\ | XXIV. Game Availability & Tech Support | \/ B T \ * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * \ T B /\ | ~XXIV~ ~XXIV~ | \/ B T \ *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* \ T B \ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ / B T / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / T BTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB Though I felt compelled to include both of these subjects in my FAQ, please forgive my lack of knowledge on either of them. Still, I hope that the meager information I can provide here will be enough to help you on your way. Game availability, especially today, is a serious issue concerning this game. As of the publication of this FAQ, the game is no longer available in stores. It was released originally in 1999, re-released as part of the Millennium Collection in 2000 in a package that also included Might & Magic 4, 5, and 6, and it was re-released one final time in a package that also included Might & Magic 6, 8, and 9. Unfortunately, none of these seem to be around anymore, and seeing as Might & Magic's parent company, 3DO, finally went under, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for another re-release. So what can a truly determined fan do? E-Bay is probably your best bet on this one, though as a last result, feel free to contact me on this matter, and I will help you out (my contact information is at the bottom of this FAQ). As far as tech support is concerned, I shall attempt to address a few of the common issues one might experience while playing the game. By I, I mean the Might & Magic VII guru, Klaravoyia, because there's certainly no way I could have explained any of this shit. According to Klaravoyia, most problems in getting Might & Magic VII to run nowadays are XP-related. The main fixes that we've been using for years are usually what works, though. In the game configuration, disable 3D accelerated audio, even if you have no speakers (as the software for it is still in your computer). If that doesn't work, what usually will work is changing from hardware mode to software mode. And in all honesty, you're not missing much in either event. The 3D accelerated audio isn't much to witness, and the hardware mode produces several strange effects without showing much improvement at all. As a last resort, you can right-click the shortcut to Might & Magic VII, either on your desktop or startup menu, and click on the "compatibility" tab. There, you can instruct the game to run in compatibility mode for various former incarnations of Windows. According to Klaravoyia, the best option to choose for compatibility is "Windows 98/ME". Another issue I would like to address is the ability to play Might & Magic VII in a window. It's nice to do, as it allows you to multitask as well as looking far much better due to it's small size (you never quite realize how pixelated the game is in full screen mode until you've seen it in a window). However, a lot of people (myself included) have experienced problems in getting the game to run in a window. I've discovered two major things that must be done in order for it to work. First of all, assuming you're playing on a system with Windows XP, you must be running in compatibility mode, as I mention above. Secondly, you must be running in 16-bit color. A common mistake people make is synonmizing "16-bit" with "16-bit or higher". This is not true. Might & Magic VII cannot be run in a window under 24-bit or 32-bit color- you must be running in 16-bit, period. Lastly, one quick in-game issue I'd like to deal with is the turn rate. Sometimes, players complain that their characters turn at a vomit-inducingly high rate. This can be remedied quickly and painlessly by pressing escape to go to the options menu, going to "configuration", and setting the turn rate to "smooth". I'm not quite sure why 32x or 16x exist, as both of them seem to make you turn at the speed of sound and light, respectively. I can only imagine that in 1999, there were some machines that were actually so slow that those were considered to be relatively decent turn rates. Overall, it really makes you appreciate the technology we have today... sort of. BTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB T / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / T B / \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \ B T \ *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* \ T B /\ | | \/ B T \ * ~~That's All, Folks!~~ * \ T B /\ | | \/ B T \ * ~Version Info, Credits, & Contact Information~ * \ T B /\ | | \/ B T \ *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* \ T B \ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ / B T / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / T BTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB Well, I hope you all enjoyed version 1.1 of my Might & Magic VII FAQ. For this version, I have finished up section I. of the FAQ, put up section XVII. (though a lot of the commentary for it isn't done yet), and I also gave sections XXII. and XXIII. much-needed overhauls. It'll be awhile before I start work on my next update, what with pressing issues and all in my life, but when I do, my main goal is to get section II. done. I'd also like to get more of the commentary in section XVII. done, as well as whatever else I can get done. Until then, as always, any and all feedback from you, the reader, would be greatly appreciated, so feel free to contact me (see below for my contact information). Of course, I have a lot of people to thank for helping to make this FAQ all it could be. For all their help, love, and support along the way, I would like to thank: Brian P. Sulpher, Privateer, Herry Hardfoot, and the one and only Klaravoyia. Thank you so much, you all! I'd also like to give a very special thanks to St0rmcat. Without his/her most kick-ass MM7 Viewer, I can safely say that the majority of this FAQ would not have been possible. Check it out. And lastly, I'd like to send a shout out over to all the folks over at TELP (The Erathian Liberation Party) for keeping this great game alive in their hearts. If anyone ever has any questions that can't be answered in this FAQ, these guys are the ones to go to. Visit them at: http://telp.org/mm7/tavern/mm7tavern.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ How would you like a Word version of this guide? In addition to being completely uncensored (the "too hot for GameFAQ's" version, if you will), the Word version is formatted ten times better than this text crap could ever hope to be, and as an additional bonus it is extra formatted to look nice and pretty when printed out. My site is at: http://www.angelfire.com/comics/btb/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ My name is Chad Steele (AKA "BTB"). Those wishing to reach me may do so via E-Mail, at BTB_Enterprises@Ev1.net, on AIM (screen name: Billy T Bum), or by telepathy. Feel free to write me with praise, comments, suggestions, gripes, insults, death-threats, and marriage proposals. On second thought, the marriage proposals might (will) piss my fiancee' off. Death threats are still ok, though. Oh, yeah? That whole legal thing? I encourage the spreading around of my guide, so long as I get credit for it and you don't change it in any way. And if you want to host it on your site, I'm all for it. Just please let me know first. Failiure to inform me that you will be taking my guide is grounds for an ass-kicking, so save my foot the hassle and inconvenience of kicking your ass and take heed of my advice. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Anyways, that's all, my friends. So until next time: "Good luck and good gaming!" -Klaravoyia Written by BTB, circa 2004 Might & Magic VII, Copyright 1999, 3DO Company (End of file)