I'm starting MM8 as I have really enjoyed every other game in the series. I'm not big on MM8 encouraging the player to change and upgrade your party members though. Is there any disadvantage to sticking with a group once I find a composition I like or would you advise me to regularly swap around members? When you played the game how did you organise your party?

Really, it’s up to you and how you like to play. As for me I usually stick with one group for the whole game. I think it’s much better that way you can pick and choose the skills you want with level 5-10 guys instead of high level guys who have a bunch of useless skills you’ll never make use of. It’s also annoying, for me at least, when some characters have learning and they advance faster than everyone else. Some high level characters have expert of higher level learning but some characters can’t even learn expert! Play whatever way you like though because it really doesn’t matter much in the end.

I like to gather a team and then build them the way I like as far as skill points, spells, weapons, and armor, things of that nature. Plus with black potions to increase stats, I don't think there are any benefits to swapping out characters later in the game.


P.S. If you want a challenge from MM8, Don't recruit the dragon. They are way too over powered. Or recruit two or three if you want to go HAM.

Even without them the games far easier than 6 or 7. I never use dragons.

In general, you should probably pick your team and stick with it throughout the game, though some of the level 50 characters are insanely good and don't require the training that your regular party members require. In fact, if you want the game to be anything resembling a challenge, don't recruit any characters that are above level 5. There are some pretty powerful characters who make the earlygame a joke if you know where to find them.

In particular, if you are willing to dodge some basilisks in the Murmurwoods, you can recruit the level 50 Dark Elf Patriarch, who has all the elemental spells up to master level and can be obtained immediately upon reaching Ravenshore. And of course, even disregarding that there are the always ubiquitous Dragon characters, all of whom break the game.

The game is still much easier than VI and VII regardless though. It just depends on how early you want your team to turn into a bunch of steamrollers

I usually figure out what classes I want early on and then 'upgrade' the characters belonging to those classes when a better character is available. So I don't really swap characters in and out, exactly; once someone gets the boot, they stay booted.

With one exception. I don't normally use a Vampire, but there's one spot I recall Levitate being convenient, so I'll usually switch a Vampire in for that segment and then drop them afterward.

The best way to play is MM6-7 style: to create an entire new level 1 party from scratch, using the editor for the remaining 4 party members.

Being able to assign the skill points how you want is a big advantage, so recruiting allies at the lowest level you can is better. However, if you want to maximize the amount of experience your main character gets throughout the game, you'll want to keep your party size to a minimum and this means only recruiting people for specific missions and trying to do everything else (really as much as you can) by yourself. Eventually, when you need to fight hard anywhere, you can recruit the strongest allies available, then dismiss them.

Necromancers are usually overpowered or is that just the one I recruited? I think the spell is called Poison Storm or something but it kills most enemies in one hit.

You're right about the Necromancers, with Poison Spray. It's just a beginning spell, costing 2 spell points, and it can do so much damage the Necromancer will take out almost everything by himself even if no one else attacks. This is an example of bad spell design, and it's also true in MM7 but they didn't have the problem in MM6. If you want more challenge, though, "just don't cast Poison Spray", I'd say. It more fun if big-damage-dealing spells cost more spell points, so leave it to Dark Magic or such spells as Incinerate and Implosion, to have high ranks in.

no need to doge if you get the lvl5 dragon from garrot gorge, train him a couple of levels, get master in dragon ability and then fly over murmurwoods :P

Really? i actually found that knights felt way stronger then dragons in the later portions of the game (allthough dragons really are overpowered in the early parts)

you don't really have to lvl up any other character except your starting one if you want a good score. the lvl50 chars are very well developed (lich, priest, dragon, champion, mintoaur, troll and dark elf patriarch). the lvl50 nosferatu is horrible. if you really want a vampire in your party then I suggest you either start with one or develop Elsbeth Lamentia(lvl5 in Dagger Wound Islands). Also, if you want an early necromancer I highly recommend lvl15 Nathaniel Roberts from Shadowspire(has a lot of skill points already spent + unspent).

Don't use any other dark elf(except if you are starting with one) other than lvl50 Cauri Blackthorne which you can get extremely early in the game(you either need the lvl5 dragon Ilthigore with Fly or run like hell through Murmurwoods and dodge the whisps and basilisks).

Here is a guide on how to start the game with some very powerful and useful characters:
- once you get to ravenshore deliver the letter to the merchant guild and take the next quest.
- head over to garrot gorge
- take the Dragon Hunter Camp quest about the Dragonsbane flower
- also take the Champion Promotion quest(rescue Blazen Stormlance and find Ebonest)
- head to the Dragon caves, pickup the lvl5 dragon and the other Dragonsbane flower quest
- collect 2 Dragonsbane flowers and complete the 2 quests mentioned above
- this will give enough xp to your party in order to train your dragon (awesome movie) to lvl 7
- get his Dragon ability to 7 and then train it to Master rank => you get the Fly ability very early
- go to Alvar and get the "Find Cauri Blackthorne" quest
- go to Murmurwoods and collect the Stone-to-Flesh scrolls from one of the houses near the tavern
- using Fly, go near the circle of stones(Stonehenge:D) and rescue Cauri
- head back to Ravenshore and pickup Cauri => lvl50 Dark Elf Patriarch when your main character is probably still lvl1. Cauri is GM in Merchant(extremely useful) and has also mastered all elemental spells. Her other skills are just bonuses
- go back to Alvar to finish the Find Cauri quest
- while in Alvar, go to the elemental spell shop and buy: Fly, Invisibility and Town Portal => there you go, easy transportation and ninja spell :D. you can also buy other master elemental spells if you like. teach these spells to Cauri
- head to Shadowspire
- pickup Nathaniel Roberts(powerful lvl15 necromancer) and Gethric Mercuntura the lvl15 Vampire(useless so just drop him)
- cast Fly and Invisibility and head over to the Laboratory
- there you can slowly creep yourself through all the enemies and explore the dungeon
- you will find Lich Jars(pick some for the Lich promotion quest), a Puzzle Cube for another quest in Shadowspire, Ebonest and Blazen Stormlance
- in order to rescue Blaze you will have to talk to him about a cure then head back to Ravenshore and talk to Dervish Chevron(near the second tavern). He will give you the cure
- return to Blazen and free him(like Cauri, you will have to return to Ravenshore and get him)
- go to Garrot Gorge and finish the Champion promotion quest

There you have it, with you main character still at lvl1, your party will also include :
- lvl 50 Dark Elf Patriarch
- lvl 50 Champion
- lvl 15 Necromancer
- lvl 7 Dragon

At this point you could go to Ironsand Desert and use invisibility to explore another Dragon cave north of the town. Inside you can pickup a lvl15 Dragon(Flamdrig) which can replace the one you have or the Necromancer.
Now you can only focus on developing your main character and only swap your other low level ones if you want to.
I usually keep Frederick Talimere(lvl5 cleric) till the late part of the game instead of the Necromancer because it may be required to heal yourself once in a while although with such a powerful party it is quite rare.

From here on out the game is very easy and you can experiment with all sorts of spells and tactics. You will not have to lvl up.

Blazen is about 60 years old which cauzes him to have some low stats. In the later part of the game you will be able to recruit another lvl50 champion which is somewhat better. But by that time Blazen can be trained to lvl60+ which will compensate for his initial drawbacks. You will also be able to replace Cauri with a lvl50 Lich(Vetrinus Taleshire) which is GM in all elemental spells+dark magic. So you will be able to use Town Portal near enemies and you will also have access to Lloyd's Beacon.

Have fun! :)