Last time in Might and Magic Book One, I just finished mapping Portsmith, so I decided to map what lies underneath the town. As it turns out, I wasn’t able to complete this task. Instead, I I’ll share what I did map, as well as some thoughts.

The Caves Below Portsmith

Apparently, I can only access a tiny part of the dungeon/caves below Portsmith. The way to the rest of the place is blocked by a door which I can’t get through. When I try stepping towards the gate, I just get sent back to the same tile.

The part that I did map was a total of 8 rooms, containing a total of four different encounters, each appearing two times. The encounters consists of groups of various ranks of orcs and ogres. The weakest have mostly basic orcs and some orc leaders, while the strongest encounters are mostly made up of ogres and ogre chiefs. Since I have a hard time just defeating a few ogres right now, ogre chiefs are a definite no-no. Even orc chiefs give me trouble in larger groups.

Might and Magic Book One - Portsmith B1, Partial Map

This is all I’ve managed to map of the dungeon below Portsmith.

So basically, I can defeat two of the four encounter types, with the other two being too hard. I also can’t get further than these 8 rooms. I guess all I can do right now is to go outside and explore the B-3 area around Portsmith. Hopefully, I can get to B-2 or C-3 and from there, back to C-2 and to Sorpigal. However, I’ll definitely map as much of B-3 as I can before I even try that. The thing about Might and Magic Book I is that it’s extremely non-linear, which is awesome.

My Party

Since I can’t talk about what I did, I’ll say something about my character party. I made it without doing any research, based on my experience with other CRPGs and some common sense. I probably made some serious mistakes, but there’s no indication I made the game impossible for myself in any way, probably just a bit harder than it should be.

Lancelot, Male Dwarf Knight, Level 6

7 Intellect, 17 Might, 12 Personality, 15 Endurance
8 Speed, 13 Accuracy, 11 Luck

Not that good, apparently. Now that I’ve played the game for a bit, it looks like some of the stats are completely useless for some classes. A knight, for instance, has no use for intellect or personality. Those stats only affect sorceror and cleric spells, so they absolutely nothing for Lancelot. On the other hand, any class benefits greatly from speed and all non-casters can use accuracy. As it stands, Lancelot still misses quite often and he’s among the last to act.

Percival, Male Human Paladin, Level 5

10 Intellect, 14 Might, 13 Personality, 16 Endurance
13 Speed, 10 Accuracy, 10 Luck

Paladins get clerical spells later on, so Percival could have probably used more personality. His might is lower than Lancelot and it definitely shows in the amount of damage he does. It’s much, much lower. His accuracy also sucks, but at least his speed is a bit higher, so he acts sooner. That doesn’t really matter, though, since he rarely hits anything.

Robin, Male Elf Archer, Level 5

15 Intellect, 11 Might, 9 Personality, 9 Endurance
14 Speed, 18 Accuracy, 12 Luck

Robin is actually quite well built. His speed isn’t that low, so he acts relatively soon and he hits most of the time, for pretty good damage. Overall, I’m happy with my archer. He gets sorceror spells later, so his intellect could have been higher, but it’s pretty ok right now.

Alana, Female Gnome Cleric, Level 6

10 Intellect, 12 Might, 15 Personality, 13 Endurance
12 Speed, 10 Accuracy, 11 Luck

Sorcerors and Clerics in Might and Magic Book One benefit from a high speed stat, though clerics can get away with being lower. The best time to heal is after you take the damage anyway. I should have definitely gotten a higher personality, though.

Aleen, Female Elf Sorcerer, Level 5

17 Intellect, 13 Might, 13 Personality, 9 Endurance
10 Speed, 11 Accuracy, 11 Luck

I got the right amount of intellect with Aleen, but she would have been so much more awesome if her speed was way higher. I’ve been reading up about what the CRPG addict has to say about it and he agrees – a high speed means I get to act before the enemies, which means I can decimate them with a strong spell right off the start. As it is right now, I’m usually among the last to act, which means the monsters outside of melee get to do their shooting before I hit them with my Fire Ball.

Rax, Male Half-Orc Robber, Level 6

11 Intellect, 12 Might, 8 Personality, 13 Endurance
14 Speed, 11 Accuracy, 10 Luck

I really massed everything up with Rax. He should have either had a high might and be in melee, or a high accuracy and attack with crossbows. As it is right now, he’s rarely of any use. He even messes up most lock picking and trap disarming, since his luck is so low.

What Would I do Differently Now?

The rules are simple, really.

High speed for everyone!
High accuracy for knights, paladins, robbers and archers
High intellect for archers and sorcerors
High might for knights, paladins and robbers
High personality for clerics and paladins
High endurance for everyone
High luck for robbers, moderate luck for everyone else

Or we could do a breakdown by class, with the more important attributes going first. If the attribute is not mentioned, then they don’t need it at all, period.

Knight: Might, Accuracy, Endurance, Speed, Luck
Paladin: Might, Accuracy, Endurance, Speed, Personality, Luck
Archer: Accuracy, Speed, Intellect, Endurance, Luck
Robber: Accuracy, Speed, Luck, Might, Endurance
Cleric: Personality, Speed, Endurance, Luck
Sorceror: Intellect, Speed, Endurance, Luck

All of this is just my personal view, of course. I’m not even sure what luck does, but I’m guessing everyone can benefit from it. Every class that deals damage with weapons benefits from accuracy, absolutely everyone benefits from speed, end it’s always good to have more endurance. With the paladin, I feel it’s more important that they’re able to do damage with their weapon than to cast spells, but they should have personality that isn’t too low. Someone else might feel personality is more important, though. The same goes for archers and intellect.

Might and Magic Book One - Orc Encounter

This is the second strongest of the four encounter types below Portsmith.

As for rogues, it’s a hard choice, but I feel they need might, because they often end up in melee range, so they can’t use ranged weapons. Because of that, just accuracy isn’t enough. Archers don’t have this issue since they can use ranged weapons in melee range.

Since I have to cross a draining trap to get to the cave, I don’t rest at the inn.

So basically, I didn’t do too well with my party, but for now, I’m sticking to it. The good thing about might and magic is that you can always create a new character to replace one in your party. Sure, you have to train them, but they get the benefit of hanging out with 5 high level people who can help them with that.

One thing is for sure though, now that I’m stuck in Portsmith, I wish I made an all-girls team.

A Link I’d Like to Share

On a side note, I’ve been googling about Might and Magic Book One, hoping to find some other blogger who’s doing the same thing I am, but with no luck. I did, however find someone who did a bit of analysis of the game. I pretty much agree with most of his points and it’s definitely a good write up, so I thought I’d share.