Starting world of Xeen soon, any recommendations?

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As soon as I'm done with Drakensang: River of time (great game, by the way), I plan to move on to Might & Magic 4-5 World of Xeen. I've heard that there is quite easy to make the game unnecessary hard, by doing something wrong during the party creating, and as this will be my first real attempt at a M&M game, I'm asking for some beginners advice.
So when designing a party, is there anything I should/should not do? Any stats that are extra important?
Also, is there anything that I should remember while playing the game, to make it more enjoyable in general? Any pitfalls worth watching out for? Any skills/stats that will be a waste of time to raise/get?
 
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Perhaps someone more experienced with World of Xeen in particular will chime in; if not, thieving, repair, and the town portal/lloyd's beacon spells are quite important in the latter M&M games. I do not know if their counterparts even exist in Xeen, but it's something to consider.
 
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IIRC it is very important to use the right Race/Class-Combination. I used a human Mage because the Elves looked retarded and had always much lower Spellpoints then these pointy-eared Übercasters :(

Another Problem I had was the money - late in the Game I had big problems to train my Party; I guess it's important to deposit a lot of money at the bank as soon as possible.

There were some "Spell-Stages" for the Casters; Rangers and Druids would get both the Spells from Wizards and Clerics, but couldn't learn the powerful Spells. Rangers reached their limit sooner than Druids. I can't remember if Paladins and Archers would also max out before the pure Casters.

Every (arcane ?) Caster had his own Lloyds Beacon, this was very handy.

Edit:

Ranged Weapons were important. I can't remember anymore if Casters could use Bows or Crossbows in Xeen, but if they are able to use them, they should.
 
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Also, is there anything that I should remember while playing the game, to make it more enjoyable in general?
This is probably redundant, but if you want to have somewhat smooth difficulty curve, play through the whole IV first and then go to V.

In my one and only playthrough of WoX I´ve finished the Darkside before ever setting foot in Clouds so when I finally went there everything was 1 hit kill :).
I did so, um, for the sake of additional challenge in V, but in retrospect it wasn´t worth it because the advantage of 20 levels you can gain in IV evens out quite quickly in V, I think.
Still, even when I abstract from the fact I´ve ruined IV this way, I remember Darkside being overall a lot better than Clouds, so turning Clouds into steamroll fest by visiting parts of Darkside might not be a bad idea if you´ll find Clouds boring/tedious/etc.

To create your own party, go to a tavern and replace the pre-rolled guys and gals, iirc you can travel between worlds via pyramids and … I rather leave the rest on others since my memory is really rusty in regards to WoX.
 
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Taking into account some of the advice in this thread, I created a party (which contains one of those horrendously ugly elves). Also, there is an archer in the party, to deal with some of the ranged combat.

But I'm running into a bit of a problem. There seem to be a lot of death traps, things that can outright kill one of my characters, and there does not seem to be any indication of when one of those will strike. Am I missing something, or do I need to save before I open a chest/crate or walk into a long corridor?
 
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There is a skill called Find Traps. Make sure to have at least one character with that skill.
Unless I'm thinking of MM3...
 
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All chars can use bows and you should get some quickly. For the later parts of the game, you need strong casters. Therefore, choose 2 pure casters (at least) and then make sure the others have some secondary casting abilities for when your sword just doesn't 'cut it'!! :)
 
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Sorcerers, Druids, and Clerics cannot use bows. All others should have the best bow you can afford. Unlike many first-person Crpgs of the era, you can whittle down or even wipe out enemy groups with ranged weapons or spells, and never engage in melee with them.

The Spell Clairvoyance will help prevent a lot of damage, as it detects things like traps. Observe your UI! Wizards Eye is good to have as well. Lloyd's Beacon and Town Portal are two of the most important spells to have handy.
 
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Ranged weapons for the win early on and even later. There were many encounters where everyone's ranged attacks killed enemies in one round. Made them untouchable for most of the game, and helped a lot early on when they were fragile.

Definitely get 2 arcane casters for 2 lloyd's beacons. Saves a lot of time while exploring and returning to town to sell loot and make the well buffing circuit.

Make 1 dedicated sorcerer and one dedicated cleric and a backup secondary for each so that your main caster isn't wasting pointson heals, lloyd's, town portal and other routine spells. I had a paladin and archer for the secondary casting rolls.

You need a robber/ninja with thieving skills. I picked ninja because he is a better fighter.

2 good fighters up front: I picked the knight and the paladin.

Put money in the bank all the time. You'll need the interest to pay for levels. At the end, at levels 150-170, I had enough XP for 10's of extra levels, but couldn't afford it. Turned out I didn't need the the levels to win either…

You're in for a lot of fun! Enjoy!
 
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There is no "find trap" in the secondary skill list in the manual (but then again, it also states that it is just "some of the skills available").

I went with one Knight (who's armour seem to break all the time…) one paladin (who still has not lost a single piece of armour), one Robber, one sorcerer, one cleric & one archer, so I have two of each "magic school".

Thanks for the bank advice. I had not even thought about putting things there, but I'll do it now (or as soon as I have bought a few spells & bows).
 
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Bring a lot of time. Both Xeens are long games, and the combo is even longer. Easily 10 times as long as DraSa: River of Time.
 
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Save before opening the bigger chests and other nice things. The weapons floating on the clouds in the early game will be your best for awhile. Make sure and save before grabbing them, that way if you get a lousy/unusable item, you can just reload.
 
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You can use this site for reference if you wish for some skills/spells/monsters description or general advise.

http://shrines.rpgclassics.com/pc/mm4_5/index.shtml

Bring a lot of time. Both Xeens are long games, and the combo is even longer. Easily 10 times as long as DraSa: River of Time.
I don`t find WoX particularly long in gaming time. Yes it is quite long but not even near M&M6 or Wizardry 7 for example. I remember finishing it in three days with some 30 hours gameplay time. That was the second walkthrough. Don`t remember for the first time but shouldn`t be more than 50 hours.
 
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Thanks for the link. The weapon damage/material effects tables seem like something that should have been included when you mouse over a weapon/item, but oh well, at least there is a website that deals with those things.

50 hours is still a considerable amount of time for a game, at least by todays standards. I don't think I'll be able to clear the game in 3 days though, even though I have the week off.
 
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It was considered fun gameplay to pay a merchant to tell you material effects, and then write it down in a notebook. I've updated the tables with some cases that were missing. HARDCORE!. ;)
 
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I'm a lazy bugger, so I prefer when things like that are obvious ;) I don't mind challenging puzzles, that requires me to take notes, but I'm not fond of documenting effects like that.

By the way, I have noticed that my characters are accumilating a bit of age. Is it possible to lower their "current age" to their "natural age"?
 
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YES! There are 2 ways to remove unnatural aging. One is on the Lightside, and is a bit tedious. You need to find druids. The second is on the Darkside and is very easy once you've solved a side quest.

To avoid natural aging, make sure to use llloyd's, town portal, and teleport spells as much as possible.
 
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You mean the 4 season druids? Ah, then I should probably finish that quest, I have already found all 4 shrines.

Also, what the heck was up with the sudden ending & easy last boss? There is still plenty to do in the world, and have the dark side to do as well, so I am by no means done with the game, but I reached the last boss in M&M 4 (rather short & easy game, I must say), whacked him once with my knight, and he just died. All he did was kill my cleric when I ran up to him. Probably the easiest final boss I have ever seen in a game.
 
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Yeah, the sword is the trick. Without the sword, you die…. It's almost a cheat for those who want to finish the MQ as fast as possible. The DS MQ has no instant-win button. You should enjoy more of a challenge there… ;)

There are some areas in Lightside that are still tough after you beat the LS MQ. Beware! Also, some areas on the LS are locked out until you do things in Darkside. Mostly, though, it's a very non-linear/open gameworld. But dangerous.
 
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Ah, that is nice. I like the DS world in general, it feels more alien and different.

And I think I found one of those tricky areas in LS. The lava region had a hydra that was able to just obliterate my party, without me even being able to hit it. I might just have been unlucky, but I decided to stay away from there, at least for now.
 
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