What you wish you knew before playing mm7 for the first time?

[Snowbird]

Little backstory, I played the might and magic games as a kid with my dad, but I was usually much too young to actually fully beat them (or even read for that matter). Anyways, I just beat MM6 for the first time, and there were definitely some things I wish I knew before hand that would have made the game experience more enjoyable and flow better without having to resort to outside sources as much, such as

-Writing down locations and simple maps. Expert teachers and Master teachers and Quest givers were often straight from memory
-Writing down more information for quests. If you are only doing 1 quest at a time, it's not a big deal, but many times I would have 9+ quests going, with extremely little information in the games UI, and even going talking to the quest giver again gave me no information. It almost required me to 100% explore everywhere and randomly chance upon something (which happened a few times), or to go look for outside help in a manual or something. I didn't like that but I felt it was necessary for my sanity.
-People were wrong about might being too weak. The way people talk about it online is that might is considerably weaker in MM6, but it was perfectly fine at every point in the game for me. (Knight, Archer, Cleric, Sorc) I was waiting the entire time when I'd have to start relying on Archer/Sorc magic more but it just never ever happened. The consistency, stability, and lack of need of a mana pool made might a lot more enjoyable than loyds beacon abuse (it really feels like abuse when using it just to get more mana for sharpnel) when I tried focusing more on magic. Super high 2handed axe level and light magic (high heroism + bless) gave me 70-110 damage at a very fast rate which took out everything fairly quickly. So on that end I feel like good advice is that there is a lot of bad advice (such as might being too weak) and you have to know how to sift through it.
-Get a high level learning / merchant early, and/or followers to help with those skills. I sort-of figured that out around level 30 or so, but it probably would have been better earlier.

I've played a little bit of mm7, but don't remember much. Are there things I should know before playing to have an enjoyable experience? Should I draw maps of teachers/quest information, or is that not as necessary in this?
Some things I kinda remember:
-Save wands (there are lots of goo's or something in a main quest iirc)
-People say knight is so good you shouldn't use a monk, but that sounds like the same advice of using only magic in mm6. I'm sure other people have said monk is perfectly fine. I'm not trying to make a perfect nazi team, but can you get away with using a monk or theif or archer instead of knights?
-Staff/Unarmed GM don't work together? This is a faint memory and I don't know if I'm even thinking of the right game.

Anything else I should know before playing?

[Baronus]

MMVII is the more simple game than MMVI. If you done it there will no problem with MMVII. Don't take wand from Malvick because later is uninteresting problem with it. Game maybe blocked. You must waiting for respawn. Year! Maybe two. It's boring. There is a lot of wands. If it will be too simple for you you can hinder gameplay.

[Anubis]

- GM Axe effect doesn't work
- Taledon's Helm bugged (No bonus to Light Magic)
- Glory Shield bugged (No bonus to Spirit Magic)
- Monk's GM Staff/Unarmed used in conjunction becomes bugged. Only focus on Unarmed if playing Monk

- Taking Malwick's wand triggers a quest later in the game which gives you an interesting dilemma
- Refusing Malwick's wand doesn't trigger a later quest.
- Luring dragonfiles to town to kill Malwick lets you take his wand but doesn't trigger the later quest.

- Lighting all three fire pits in Harmondale (good luck finding them, lol) and then sleeping for one day summons a Goblin army somewhere and you're able to acquire Grognard's Cutlass from the battle

- Do quests ASAP when you've received messengers telling you to help Queen Catherine/King Eldrich out so you can access the Trumpet quest. Waiting too long after receiving the messengers (a month or so) makes you miss out on the elusive Trumpet quest. Getting the trumpet and giving it to one of the following three people gives you a specific banner for your castle.

- Catherine > Erathian banner
- Eldrich > Tularean banner
- Judge Grey > Independent banner

- When doing the Dwarven Barrows, make sure you have at least expert perception

- http://www.zimlab.com/wizardry/recovere ... items.html > Lists some items that have sex/race restrictions
- http://www.zimlab.com/wizardry/recovere ... s_mm7.html > For more information overall
- http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/143119-might ... faqs/27762 > Character chart so you can plan a party accordingly

Don't read further if you don't want to know what Malwick's quest entails.

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Malwick's quest: He sends you to go meet someone named Niles. Niles in turn tells you to steal a painting from your respective ally's castle (Castle Lambent or Castle Gloaming). If you steal the painting, you'll have to wait two years or so before you can talk to Gavin/Archibald again. You could train or go to jail to advance time quickly. However, you can refuse Niles' quest and wait until his deadline has run out. In that case, he sends a goblin army to attack the civilians in Harmondale and any deposited gold in your bank is removed (Gold on your character is safe).

[Bandobras Took]

Preservation doesn't protect you from death attacks/eradication.

Recovery time is more important than armor rating.

Rangers have the easiest first promotion quest in the game.

Be wary of overusing invisibility; failing to kill monsters results in being underleveled, which makes using invisibility seem more and more necessary.

[Arret]

Disarm skill can be completely ignored
Regeneration is one of the best spells in the game.
Rangers are bad at everything.
Stealing is pointless because you don't really need to worry about gold.
You can sell for high value in Stone City the instant you kill the troglodytes.
You can invisibly pass the first minotaur group in Thunderfist on the way to Nighon.
Gems from the trees in Tularean Forest fund almost anything.
Merchant master requires the Cleric promotion to reach despite Clerics not having to be promoted to theoretically learn master.
The first rogue and Paladin promotions are a mess.
Basic dark magic for paladins and archers is useless, but basic light has a lot of uses
Paralyze is stupidly overpowered.
Most importantly, Lich quest is bugged in V 1.0.