Might and Magic VI -- three knights, one druid party

Remove all ads!

Nice one.

I've actually dug up my CDs. I'm going to enjoy some good old fashion dungeon crawling (if I can get used to the graphics).

 

It was a really funny bug. I didn't felt like listening to Silvertongue ramble, so I went ballistic on the ESC key, and when I re-entered, sure enough, they ARE there as dialogue NPCs, but they're nowhere to be seen in the scenery. Glitch and Magic?

 

Well, the three Knights one Druid run is done. I stashed aside skill points for Blaster, which was quickly cranked up... and I also had Town Portals right next to the Expert and Master trainers. The three Knights were far from lacking in the HP department, so 3 Knights + Blaster Master + Haste = Shredding through the Hive in a ridiculously easy fashion. It was fun... I just might try an all-Knights party, or I might just be insane enough to do a magic-based party consisting only of Elemental and/or Self casters. Still weighing my options.

Oh, ended up at level 106. I popped up a Lloyd's Beacon and when the whole party mastered the Blasters, we did a bit of Dragonsand spring cleanup. This place is a ridiculous treasure horde... not to mention how killing dragons fatten up a party's XP...

 

All knight party wont work I think. Since you need the Fly spell sometimes.

How about an all spellcaster party for MM7? Or would that be too easy? I remember very little about number 7. Is that the one where you get the castle?

 

Bah. Some parts are going to be harder without Water Walk/Fly, true... and if I desperately need Fly, I suppose I could hire a Wind Master... even though their price is a ripoff for an ability that can be used once PER DAY.

 

Didn`t even know one could hire someone like that. But then again, i never used hirelings in any of these games. Too greedy.

 

Scholars are VERY useful... 5% bonus to XP and unlimited Identify item... making the skill of the same name worthless meaning more skill points in your pocket to boost another skill. Worth it, IMO.

 

I always take the scholar. He's also pretty cheap considering how good his services are. Unlimited identify also means your party acts as if ALL members had a maxed out skill - no moving items to one character to identify everything everyone is carrying (this was a pain in MM8). If you take a Banker (+20% gold) it'll compensate for the fee charged by both and net you a small profit on top of it, but I also like to take the other NPC that gives extra XP. The expenses add up but money in MM6 is nowhere near the problem it was in MM3-5, and the extra XP is always nice if you want to get to really high levels. An undocumented feature is that mastery in Learning will also apply to the XP bonus given by NPCs, so that +5% becomes +15% when you master Learning.

 

I didn't know that... interesting. So this means if you find a Instructor, who grants 15% bonus to XP, add to that the 15% bonus from Learning, which would mean... 30% more XP? Hmm... this is worth checking out.

 

No, I think you'd end up with 60%... 3x5 from Scholar and 3x15 from Instructor... at least I think that's how it works. I'm trying to find a source for this but nothing comes up. From what I remember the percentage from the NPC simply gets added to your regular skill level, where it naturally becomes subject to expertise and mastery. It does make any XP-granting NPC insanely good once you get Mastery. Too good to be true, especially if I can't find any sources for it.

 

Hmmm... I almost feel like picking up my old party, grab both NPCs, and go dragon killin' in Dragonsand... and maybe do some math.

 

Let me know what you find if you do

 

I've given some thought, and I'm going to use the Temple of the Snake to experiment with your theory, Ziad. There is a Gold Dragon ripe for the killing which should be a perfect subject... and my test is going to be in two parts -- killing the dragon WITHOUT the trainers, and then reload, and kill the F'N bastard WITH the trainers, making note of the XP difference, and then maybe I can calculate some hard data.

I think I still have a party who hasn't done the Temple of the Snake... not 100% sure, but I think I do. Would be quick and provide a definitive answer.

*EDIT* The test is going to be done using ONE teacher and ONE instructor.

EXP OF THE PARTY, BEFORE:

K1: 2,208,268
K2: 2,202,254
K3: 2,197,153
D1: 2,184,657

CONTROL - KILL THE DRAGON, NO NPC/LEARNING:

K1: 2,211,118
K2: 2,205,004
K3: 2,199,903
D1: 2,187,407

K1 got 2850XP
K2 got 2750XP
K3 got 2750XP
D1 got 2750XP

Without learning or NPCs, a Gold Dragon yields ~11100XP.

INSTRUCTOR+TEACHER+KILLING THE DRAGON

K1: 2,213,538
K2: 2,207,424
K3: 2,202.323
D1: 2,189,827

K1 got 5170XP (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
K2 got 5170XP
K3 got 5170XP
D1 got 5170XP

5170-2750 = 2420 extra XP EXCEPT for K1 who got an extra 100XP for a reason I'm not too sure of.

 

That's almost double! What was your skill level in Learning and did you have expertise/mastery? If my calculations are correct you can master learning at skill 7, which will give you 21% extra XP (mastery triples the benefits from the skill level). Now add in 15+10% for each of your NPCs, IF they add a flat percentage unmodified by Learning mastery you would get a total of +46% XP. But IF they just add to your skill level (like a lot of other NPCs do for other skills) their bonus also gets tripled, for a total of +96% XP, or +2640XP, which is a little less than you got (+2420). Mmm.

The reason your Knight got some extra XP is because they should've each got 2775 XP from the dragon, but for some reason each of the others "gave" him 25XP, which adds up to him being ahead by 100. Not sure why this only happens without NPCs though.

I can't figure out how the games does this now... but it does seem that the XP benefit from the NPCs is huge.

 

Party was level 66, all had Learning Mastery at rank 18. I'm not sure I understand the full mechanic behind it, but this does clearly show that those NPCs are invaluable... extra XP here and there stacks up, just think about the extra XP if one was insane enough to raid Dragonsand... I got a few errands to run, but I'll try various types of dragon and see if we can't figure out the mechanics of the extra XP.

 

I can't figure it out. If they just apply a flat bonus to XP then you should have gotten less XP... and if they raise the skill and are then subject to mastery you should have gotten more XP!

I have no idea how this things work. But you're right, the bottom line is the same: lots of extra XP. And we all know that's good

 

I cannot figure it either. I tried killing other types of dragons... more XP than a flat bonus, more than a prorated. I got between ~2400 to ~3700XP depending on the type of dragons, but regardless of how much I grind down the numbers, I cannot for the life of me figure it out.