Might and Magic VI Notes.

1. The most critical thing you can't figure yourself out is the bridegroom at Gharik's forge:

To get through, flip the upper northwest lever, the lower northeast lever, the lower southeast lever, the lower northwest lever, and the upper northeast lever. Then return to the secret room, collect the loot, and continue through.

2. When you are searching for the Prince of Thieves in the sewers you must cast "Day of the Gods" for maximum stats boost to find the Sewer Key at the Sewer Grate. Save before you enter the sewers because you may need to do the search for the key many times. You must enter the sewers from Sergio Carrington's house and search the SECOND sewer grate around the corner, NOT the one you see first when you enter. Go north open the door with the key and loot the room, then go to the far west end, you will find a hideout with a bed, he is hiding beneath the bed, click on the bed to capture him.

You can't proceed in the game if you don't do these two quests.

3. Master in Light Magic: DO NOT finish the council quests. Collect the three objects:

A. Lord Kilburn's Shield

B. Hourglass of Time

C. Devils' Plans

Then, go to Silver Cove Island and stay at The Grove Inn until you can travel to Eel Infested Waters, Ki Lo Nee, is behind the A Stone's Throw Inn. Leave a beacon there. Warp to Kriegspire, talk to the Hermite, warp to White Cap go to the temple, donate until you get a Respectable reputation, then talk to Stromgard and return the three objects to Wilbur, Albert, and Osric, on this same day. You'll get a Saintly reputation. Warp back to Ki Lo Nee and he will teach your Clerics and Sorcerers Light Magic Mastery for free. You don't need to care about your reputation after this.

4. Decks of Fate

1st to 7th = +1 (5th stones you, 7th eradicates)

8th to 14th = +2 (13th Dead)

15th to 21st = +3 (no bad effects during this week)

22nd to 28th = +4 (26th stoned, 27th Dead)

Jan = Might

Feb = Intellect

Mar = Personality

Apr = Endurance

May = Accuracy

June = Speed

Jul = Luck

Aug = Fire

Sep = Elec

Oct = Cold

Nov = Poison

Dec = Magic

5. Skills.

Do not load spellcasters with miscellaneous skills, because magic needs too many skill points.

Paladin: Sword, Bow, Shield, Plate,

Body, Mind, Spirit,

Diplomacy, Perception, Repair Item.

Archer: Spear, Bow, Chain

Fire, Air, Water, Earth

Disarm Trap, Identify Item.

Notice that the Archer has one less weapon skill and one more magic skill. And yet the Archer will consume more skill points because Shield will stop at 10 and magic skills will stop at 12. So it's 11 + 12 = 23 skill points.

Your paladin can also have the Axe skill that only needs to go until 4, and this will take 2 + 3 + 4 = 9 skill points more.

Cleric: Mace, Bow, Shield, Chain,

Body, Mind, Spirit

Light, Dark.

Druid: Staff, Bow, Leather

Fire, Air, Water, Earth

Body, Mind, Spirit.

Sorcerer: Dagger, Bow, Leather

Fire, Air, Water, Earth

Light, Dark.

All: Merchant, Learning, Meditation, Body Building.

NPCs to hire: Merchant and Locksmith. When later acquire some gauntlets Of Thievery and master the Disarm Trap, you can replace Locksmith with a Banker. And much later, when money is no longer an issue, replace them both with an Instructor and a Teacher, who will give you an XP bonus.

Skills to acquire first.

You begin with:

Paladin: Sword, Shield, Spirit, Diplomacy.

Archer: Bow, Air, Identify Item, Disarm Trap

Cleric: Mace, Shield, Body, Spirit

Druid: Staff, Leather, Earth, Body

Sorcerer: Dagger, Leather, Fire, Air.

Your first money should be spent to hire the Merchant and Locksmith NPCs and to buy Blade's End and Bucaneer Lair Memberships. Skip Magic for now since you can't afford it...

The very first evening in the game, you must get Merchant for all characters and Perception for the Paladin. The next day you must get Spear for the Archer.

On the third day, you must go to Castle Ironfist and get the Bow skill for the rest of your team and Composite Bows. 

On the first visit, you can get two Composite Bows and one Elven Bow. Save before the shop and reload again and again until you can get them. You can easily find a Pirate Cutlass, a Stout Spear, and a Dark Hammer somewhere in Goblin treasure boxes and you can buy a Piercing Dagger at the Knife Shop. Now you can fight effectively. When you have more money visit Castle Ironfist again and get Chain and Plate skills and two more Composite Bows. 

You must also pay a visit to Mist Island at the end of the first month, to get a Serpent Spear for your Archer and an Emerald Staff for your Druid. If you are lucky enough you will see an Ornate Trident, grab it immediately, because you most probably won't see it again. You must also have enough money to get Learning skill for all your characters. At this point, you must start buying magic and start from buying magic guild memberships.

If you manage to liberate the Seer's Mountain in January you can get Pilgrimages. There is a Shrine of Intelect (February) in Mist, a Shrine of Luck (July) in New Sorpigal, a Shrine of Electricity (September) in Castle Ironfist, and a Shrine of Magic in Blackshire that is unguarded and available to you if you manage to reach Free Haven before December. However, you need to know Cure Disease for the +5 Magic Well there, or it will cost you dearly at the -most expensive- Blackshire Temple.

Keep in mind that the beginning is the most difficult part of the game because the team is not yet ready for a fight and you can easily get killed by ordinary monsters, even Goblins. You can't cure disease you can easily get from Rats and Bats and cost you a lot of money at the temples.

Money matters a lot in most parts of the game, you can't advance level if you can't pay at the training grounds. 

Save often to prevent disasters...

First skills to expert:

1a. Identify Item so that you don't have to lose money at shops for equipment you find.

1b. Spirit Magic because you need the Bless -and Heroism- team booster ASAP.

Use all four petals you will have by now, on the Archer so that she will get 8 additional skill points to help her reach expert level at Identify Item and Air Magic faster.

At level 2 you will have 5 skill points that give the Archer rank 3 at Identify Item, with the 2 first petals the Archer reaches rank 4. At level 2 the Sorcerer and the Druid will have rank 3 at Air Magic. (If your choice is a Druid the game will be harder financially because the Druid will be much more expensive than the cleric and this explains Loretta's obsession with money alright...) 

2. Air Magic so that you don't lose treasure dropped in dungeons. A major difficulty is that you have to Fly to reach the instructor of Air Expertise. You can find one spell scroll on the wall of the Bank building of New Sorpigal. So this means that all your characters must be ready to become experts and you must have 2000 GPs or 3000 GPs to spend.

At level 3 the Archer will have rank 3 at Air Magic, and with the 2 final petals, the Archer reaches rank 4. At level 3 the sorcerer and the druid reach rank 4 at Air Magic and one unused skill point. At level 3 the Paladin and the Cleric will have rank 4 in Spirit Magic and one unused skill point.

3. Learning for all characters. My advice is to reach rank 4 at this point anyway and when you have 8000 GPs you expert the skill.

At level 5, all other characters will have 11 skill points and the Archer will have 10 skill points. Rank 4 in Learning will take 9 skill points, so everyone can get it.

4. Disarm Trap because your Locksmith will keep you safe for a while but not forever...

At level 7 the Archer will have 11 skill points. Rank 4 in Disarm Trap will take 9 skill points, everybody else will have 12 skill points so that the Paladin can expert Repair Item, the Cleric/Druid can expert Body Magic and Sorcerer can expert Fire Magic.

After level 7, all skill points are allocated in skills uniformly with the following priority rule:

1. Weapon

2. Armor/Shield

3. Magic

4. Perception and Diplomacy for Paladin (the Archer has one more magic skill than the Paladin)

5. Meditation, Body Building, and Merchant for all.

At some point, you'll get 2 more petals in New Sorpigal.

Spellcasters will end up with 18 more unused skill points than the Warriors when all skills are rank 4 and expert (but not the Druid, the Druid will need 18 skill points more). The Sorcerer will use all of them plus all the petals to master Water Magic ASAP. All skill points of the Sorcerer go to Water Magic until it is Mastered. The reason for this ABSOLUTE priority is the Town Portal spell that saves money and time. The Cleric will use them to advance her magic uniformly. The Druid will be used as a Cleric, so self magic will have priority against elemental magic.