MMX One race parties

[Bones_xa]

Has anyone ever made a party in MMX consisting of all one race only?

I've read about MMX across various forums on the internet, and I have not heard of anyone else doing this.
Everyone always has parties of mixed races.

I've done this in MM7. Made parties of all one race.
In particular I went all the way to the end MM7 with an all dwarf (light path) and all goblin (dark path, but no lich) party.


Here is what I did in MMX as well as my experience playing this game for the first time.
I made 4 parties right off the bat, and played them all, keeping them all pretty much close to the same levels and at same acts in the game.
This way I could see all character portraits, and also try out all classes.
My Human party has mercenary, crusader, crusader, freemage. The focus and priority for the party is getting to and exploring towns first and doing quests from there.
Elf party has bladedancer, ranger, ranger, druid. Focus is exploring all the open outer world first and fighting at range whenever I can.
Dwarf party has defender, scout, scout, runepriest. Focus is one going into dungeons first and exploring those.
Orc party has barb, hunter, barb, shaman. Focus is on exploring the outer world in more tight places and fighting in melee.

So far my experience playing this game has been alright. Very slow progress though, since playing 4 parties at once for the first time.
This game has differences than the other MMs, but it is still ok I guess (so far, I'm in act 3).
Things have been going ok so far, each party has different strategies of killing. At different points it has easier and harder for all the different parties.

When I first completed act 1, I had that option to go to the forge blanked out, because I have been playing offline.
At first I thought, maybe there is some other way to get there, and this option will become available after I get there first.
I searched all over but couldn't find any way. I even killed the cyclops with my dwarf party, at like level 10, and found that the cave was just a dead end. That was a long and tough battle, but was proud of myself for doing it.
I also killed the ghosts with my elf party, and then once entering the place they were guarding, realized I could not progress in there.
Later, I then found out by reading forums online that you have to actually connect the game online to get the option to go to the forge. So I moved the computer to the other room to do it and to move on to the next part of the game.

[Avonu]

MMX is different from other MM titles in that case, you can't choose classes for your characters freely. All classes are bound to races, so you can't make Dwarven Driud or Orcish Archmage, while in previous games you could. Only exeption was MM8, but in that game you could also exchange party members at will, unlike in MMX, so it wasn't problem after all.

Another thing is that you can't enter some locations if you don't have specific race in party:
- Temple of Ylath is available only for Humans,
- Sacred Grove is available only for Elves,
- Sudgerd is available only for Dwarves,
- Pao-Kai Nest is available only for Orcs.

Granted, they are not imporrtant dungeons (needed only for class promotion quests) but there are some unique monsters, some good loot and the most important additional XPs, which you always need.


Unfortunately, with one race party characters will lack many important skills as there are heavy restrictions per race - most in available schools of magic. In previous games you can balance this but choosing various classes, here you simply can't.

Last but not least one race party means that you always have at least doubled one class, as there are 3 classes per race and four members in party. Some people prefer choosing party with multiply same class (like 4 Druids in MM6), while others like to have various classes in party.

When I first completed act 1, I had that option to go to the forge blanked out, because I have been playing offline.
(...)
Later, I then found out by reading forums online that you have to actually connect the game online to get the option to go to the forge.

Really?
I will check this but if it's true then this is another stupid desing choise in MMX. *facepalm*

[Bones_xa]

Hmm yeah, I've realized that there is likely going to be areas in which I can't enter, like those ones you have mentioned that are specific to certain races. Which means, yeah I'm going to lose out on some exp. I'm not yet at any of the promotions, I pretty much just completed act2 and got to the Crag.
It should still be doable though. I'm playing these all on adventurer mode, and from what I've read, the game is not that hard on this mode. I hope...

My worries right now, being about halfway through the game (I think) is that I may run out of skill points for skills I want to get.
I figure that I will be able to grandmaster at least 1 skill with each character, thinking maybe even 2. But I also got a lot of other skills at expert for my chars to make them more balanced. Skills like secondary magic, expert endurance, dodge, arcane res, and a few others depending on the chars.
I'm not really going with mysticism or a lot of points in spirit, since there are mana pots in this game that can restore to full.

I will see how far I can get though.

Later on I'd like to do a mixed race party on the more difficult mode.

[Bandobras Took]

That's how I started MMX.

And why I restarted, since all the difficulties Avonu mentioned are not something I could deal with as a beginner.

[Avonu]

My worries right now, being about halfway through the game (I think) is that I may run out of skill points for skills I want to get.
I figure that I will be able to grandmaster at least 1 skill with each character, thinking maybe even 2. But I also got a lot of other skills at expert for my chars to make them more balanced. Skills like secondary magic, expert endurance, dodge, arcane res, and a few others depending on the chars.
I'm not really going with mysticism or a lot of points in spirit, since there are mana pots in this game that can restore to full.

IIRC you will have enough skill points to achieve GM level at least in 2 skills. However, you must plan your characters skills from begining and only level important ones and don't learn others, not even to Expert level. While it's easier task for Might and Magic classes, Hybrid classes have thoughter development path, as they have many important skills and it's hard to choose correct ones.

This is another drawback of MMX, where you simply can't fully develop your party and you have to plan their skills from begining of game and you can't make any mistake. Not to mention that in MM6-9 with each 10 levels you got +1 more skill point more during level up (1-10 -> 3 skill points, 11-20 -> 4 skill points, etc.), while in MMX you always get the same amount of skill points. MMX also lacks of Horseshoes/Clovers, Decks of Fate/Genie Lamps and Challanges which were very helpful in mastery of skills in previous games.

[Arret]

This is one of the weakest areas in MMX. Skill points are flat (it costs the same to go from 1 to 2 as it does 13 to 14), so wasted points can't ever be recovered. Also unless you camp the game for respawns you won't get much higher than level 30, so there just aren't that many points to go around.

You shouldn't have any real problem completing the game with those parties, but the DLC could be frustrating if your magic skills don't matchup correctly.