Introduction

Let's Play Might & Magic VII

Might and Magic 7 is probably more fondly remembered than 6 in general, it features a remarkable amount of changes and upgrades, as well as content, considering it was made in only slightly more than a year. VI released in April 1998, and VII was June 1999. It adds more classes and races, actually has art rather than SCA cosplay for character images(players and NPC's both), fixes a number of bugs(and introduces a number of new ones that Grayface's MM7 patch fixes) and does an almost complete overhaul on magic and skills.

Considering how comparatively easy it would have been to just drop it into all the same stuff but with some new dungeons and a new linear questline, this is actually pretty impressive. Yeah, I call out the linear questline because we actually have choices in this one. Not just what to do, but mutually exclusive decisions on how to play the game beyond chargen.

Oh, yeah, and the game also looks nicer now.

First you've got a slightly less obtrusive UI(we can actually see our whole minimap now!), and if you look at the minimap you can see that rather than just having a single water colour, it actually shades from a lighter coastal to a deeper off-shore colour(not reflected in first-person but it's still a very nice touch on the maps, helps give them some life). There are empty symbols for all the default party-wide buffs over there on the right, too. Wizard Eye pops up in the dangling pearl in the upper right, and Torchlight flares from the, well, torch on the left of the minimap when it's cast. Maps are also less barren, featuring both more decorative sprites and more polygonal structures.

I know some people are split on some of the changes, but by and large I'm in favour of them. I know especially the magic changes annoyed some people back in the M&M6 thread.

Most of the background stats are the same, but the default "Magic" resistance has been stripped away and split into Body, Mind, Spirit, Dark, Light and Physical(though the latter four only appear on enemies as far as I'm aware).

Anyway, maybe this is getting ahead of ourselves. Maybe we should have a look at the intro:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC4O9RvE2IA

Just look at the makeover on Archibald there, on his fancy dragon throne. Very cool, isn't it? Anyway, this buries the lede a bit, since our party doesn't start out directly dealing with anything related to the intro. Instead, they're a bunch of shiftless jerks that entered a contest to win a castle through a scavenger hunt on the Emerald Isles, and after chargen you get dropped right into that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH4DusvihQk

Looks like an extremely safe thing to be involved in. Surely no repercussions or dangers whatsoever.

Now, guess what? We're gonna need a party.

Create Four Jerks

I'm going to need four jerks, consisting of a Name, Gender, Face, Race and Class.

Name

I'm gonna be typing this out a lot so please don't force me to deal with "Poopzilla the Druid" or "Dongs the Thief."

Gender, Face & Race

Rows in order:

Female Dwarf, Male Dwarf
Female Goblin, Male Goblin
Female Human
Female Elf, Male Elf
Male Human

Like usual, gender doesn't impact anything stat-wise, but race does. It's not a huge change, but it affects base starting stats some, and we'll be stuck with those for a while. Dwarves are tough and slow(+Might, +Endurance, -Speed, -Accuracy), Elves are frail and bright(-Might, -Endurance, +Intellect, +Speed), Goblins are dumb and sneaky(+Might, -Intellect, -Personality, +Speed).

Class

Class has gotten a serious overhaul, largely due to the changes to Skills. All skills now have four ranks: Basic, Expert, Master and Grand Master, and while a class may be able to learn a skill, it may not be able to learn it all the way to Grand Master. In fact it's common that Grand Mastery in a given skill is limited to one or two classes, usually gated behind two promotions. Some promotions also unlock skills, and as each class has two seperate final promotions depending on which way our story choices go, sometimes those classes don't learn the same skills or skill masteries.

It gets intricate!

And doubly so for spells, since each spell type is segregated into Basic, Expert, Master and Grand Master tiers. You can't learn a spell of a given tier at all without the requisite skill mastery(though more mastery does still buff spells of a lower tier). So, say, without a Grand Master Water mage, we're never learning Lloyd's Beacon.

Archers are, like in MM6, hybrid fighter/elemental casters. Their Grand Master skills are Chainmail, Bow and Perception, and they eventually learn basic Light or Dark magic. Generally a solid choice since their Elemental magic gets up to Master rank at their top promotion and they can become Expert trap disarmers.

Pure casters of the Mind/Body/Spirit schools. Their Grand Master skills are: Mind, Body, Spirit, Light or Dark and Merchant. They're passable physical combatants since they can wear shields and Master the mace.

Once again, Druids are hybrid Cleric/Sorcerers. They can learn all of the elemental and divine types of magic up to Master, but can't touch Light or Dark magic. Their Grand Master skills are Meditation and Alchemy. While Alchemy was kind of dogshit in MM6, in MM7 GM Alchemy effectively results in a +50 boost to all stats for all characters, and a lot of buffs and protections can be stuffed into bottles, they're also actually useful for healing and restoring SP, now! So not a complete waste of time.

If you want faces crushed and mashed without as little sapient thought behind it as possible, the Knight is your class. They can attain Grand Mastery in Swords, Spears, Platemail, Shields, Bodybuilding, Repair and Arms Master. Arms Master is a new skill added for MM7 which just generally makes you better at combat. It generally makes you hit faster, hit more accurately and do more damage. Having a +damage effect under the rank of Master Arms Master prevents any given type of weapon from being too easily left behind for those characters who can learn it(Knight, Thief, Monk).

Monks are a class I've never really made much use of before. Their magic use is odd, capping out at either Basic or Expert(depending on promotion track) Divine types, and their Grand Mastery categories are Unarmed, Dodge, Staff, Learning and Body Building. They could potentially kick ass, I suppose, they'd be little restricted by gear since their entire thing is not using gear but just running up to people and punching them, but they also have a low selection of utility skills(Master Disarm Trap with their low-magic promotion track) and almost no magic.

Paladins, which I totally did not forget to add to the post the first time around, are Cleric/Knight hybrids who, like Archers, get entry-level access to Light or Dark on their second promotion. Their GM skills are Mace, Shield and Repair, and they otherwise have Master access to Body Building, Platemail and Swords. They'll always be more tanky than Archers, and shore up your access to buffs and heals, but they'll almost certainly end up with a lower damage output.

Rangers are like a fighter/druid hybrid, getting up to Expert in all Divine and Elemental skills(but as per usual, not Light or Dark). Their only two GM skills are Axe and Identify Monster, which makes them feel more like barbarians than anything. Considering the new spell system in MM7, I'd say that magic which doesn't at least reach Master rank isn't deeply worth pursuing, and their shortage of GM or M combat and utility skills hurts them a bit in that case.

Masters of elemental magic and getting bullied. They obviously Grand Master all the elemental magic schools, and then either Light OR Dark, but also Identify Item and Identify Monster, and they can become Master alchemists, though the really good shit there is gated behind Grand Mastery, so if you want me to mess with alchemy, force me to bring a Druid.

Thieves are the third "non-magical" class(I consider Monks to be non-magical due to their extremely minor dip into it), being like an elemental version of the Monk who eventually gets completely negligible Elemental access in the end-game. They might potentially be at least as dangerous in combat as a Knight, though, as their eventual dagger mastery allows super-fast, high-volume, high-damage attacks, and once they Grand Master their leather armor, a chunk of their AC gets added straight to their elemental resistances. Predictably they are also potential Grand Masters of Stealing and Disarm Traps.

If someone else submits an idea you really like, please go ahead and vote for it, so I know what most people are in favour of.

And dear God please leave me with some competent spellcasters and at least one person who can disarm traps without blowing the entire party up. Amen.

Spoilers

Unlike MM6, MM7 actually has some twists and surprises. Spoiling these will make me cry to the mods and get either me or you probated. Please don't get me probated.

The Let's Play Archive

Might & Magic VII: For Blood and Honor

by PurpleXVI

Introduction

Table of Contents