History VideoGame / MightAndMagic

** You start with just one character rather than a full party, and you have to fill the remaining slots by hiring adventurers at taverns and houses. Said people can be fired at any point if you wish to replace them with somebody else, and to complete certain mandatory quests, you ''need'' to have certain characters in your party. Apart from those mandatory quests, you could hypothetically complete the game using only your starting character the whole time; it would just make it that much harder.

** VI, VII and IX all provide reasons for ''why'' those four characters stick together: in VI and IX, they are childhood friends that grow up in the same village, while in VII the driving force of the plot for a good chunk of the game is a shared noble title the four got in the prologue. VI and VII fail to explain why you can only hire two Hirelings, however.

** You start with just one character rather than a full party, and you have to fill the remaining slots by hiring adventurers at taverns and houses. Said people can be fired at any point if you wish to replace them with somebody else, and to complete certain mandatory quests, you ''need'' to have certain characters in your party.

* ZergRush: Yeah, the amount off enemies these games, especially the Enrothian trilogy (and especially ''VI'') like to throw at you at one time is astonishing. Even when outdoors with Flying active it's problem to withstand ''hundreds'' of enemies in ''Mire of the Damned'' from ''VI'', and indoors when you get ''surrounded'' by tens of Dwarves by triggering a trap in ''Snergle's Caverns'' is really difficult situation that can easily either at least deplete your ressources or outright kill you. ''VII'' and ''VIII'' were not as bad, but places such as Eeofol Tunnels or Eeofol itself spring back memories of ''VI'' still.

** Subverted with elemental magic schools and schools of self-magic. There are classes that can learn both, but they can't achieve Grandmastery in either, thus the Grandmaster spells or spells at Grandmaster potency from both subsets of schools are again mutally exclusive. For this reason it's better to have two specialist casters (Cleric and Sorcerer).

* DarkIsEvil and LightIsGood: In ''VII'', good characters can learn light magic and evil characters can learn dark magic. (Anyone can cast both types of spells from scrolls, however.)
* DefeatMeansFriendship: [[spoiler: After Archibald is deposed as king of Deyja in ''Might and Magic VII'', he is quite friendly to your party even though your quests led to his defeat (whether you're working for his WorthyOpponent Resurrectra or his DragonWithAnAgenda Kastore.)]]

** There's a single [[spoiler:Fallen Defender]] at the bottom of The Hall of the Fire Lord. It guards the chest [[spoiler: with Crystal Skull and it is similar to Defenders of VARN except being immune to physical attacks instead of magic]]. While stat-wise he's not that stronger than other monsters in the dungeon and he's lacking status effects, said immunity might be a bit problematic.
** There's a single Golden Dragon in the Temple of Snakes.

** Might and Magic VII clearly tries to dampen this trope with forcing spells to have skill level requirements and promotions, as well as putting more effective BeefGate levels like "Tunnels to Eeofol" where escape from Behemoths is (almost) impossible (several speedrunners *still* went to Eeofol around starting levels and have boosted themselves. That said, Bracada has a guaranteed flight scroll in a chest, and *tons* of free gold and items laying around like colorful candies, as well as super-high level ores for crafting. One clickfest, flight acrobatics and clear Bracada later, your starting party will certainly be equipped to take on the world weeks of playing in advance. Non-combat quests if you know where to look for them can level you up and make you rich just as well.
** Might and Magic VI and VII have the "Assistant" system, non-combatant specialists that take a signup payment in advance and take a bit of your money; some of them giving insane bonuses. A windmaster can cast Fly, letting your party fly everywhere to loot the hell out of the map, and a gatemaster can cast Town Portal. Even the mundane ones have crazy perks: a Scholar will bring unlimited item identification and +5% Experience earned. A windmaster and a scholar can speed up the game in days of gameplay.
** Might and Magic VIII admits defeat and takes it to up to eleven (Speedrunners with glitches finish the game around 20 minutes). If you know where to look you can acquire a low level (but nonetheless extremely powerful) Dragon and a level 50 Dark Elf very early (said Dark Elf has all the elemental spells and grandmaster -perfect- Disarm Trap skill and Merchant skill, effectively dominating the game in *every* technical aspect). The Dragon especially becomes significantly more powerful than his peers over time, because you can distribute his skill points as you see fit. Several towns also have artifacts hidden in trees and rocks right at the beginning of the game.

* TheDragon: Lord Xeen in IV, who serves Sheltem of V. Xeen himself also has a Dragon (both literally and figuratively) in the form of his pet.

* WhenTreesAttack: In Tularean Forest you can get attacked by trees. This is the result of the Mercenary Guild stealing the jewel called Heart of The Forest. A quest later when on Light-aligned path requires you to return it to the Elder Tree, fixing this problem.

* ScoldedForNotBuying: In ''VI'', ''VII'' and ''VIII'', most merchants say some comment that ranges from sarcasm to outright anger if you have at least 10000 gold and leave without making any transactions.

** If you choose the Light Path, the first Main Line quest you have to do (in order to gain Light Magic) is one where you have to enter the front door of the Walls of Mist and exit the back door - without harming any of the monsters inside even once. Unfortunately, they ''will'' attack you, they are ''very'' powerful, and the Walls of Mist is a complex maze that requires finding three keys to complete. (And it you leave out the front door, you have to start over... [[CuttingTheKnot unless you keep the keys in your inventory]], in which case they stay there even after you leave a dungeon. You can therefore retrieve keys one at a time then use them on pedestal and leave through back doors.) Turning yourself invisible is probably the best idea.

* DestroyerDeity: The eponymous entity of the subtitle is more of a PhysicalGod-slash-SufficientlyAdvancedAlien but he does have godlike powers and his sole purpose in the world is to destroy it. It's up to the PlayerParty to [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu punch him out]]. [[spoiler: Except as it turns out you wouldn't be able to, ''but'' the Destroyer doesn't ''want'' to destroy your world and invokes DoubleThink to give you the tools and information needed to stop him and leaving you free to do just that. It is the Elemental Lords, godlike entities in their own right, that kill him once they're freed.]]

* ElementalPlane: The original M&M universe has (at least) four Elemental Planes (the classic Fire, Water, Air and Earth). While an important background element right from the start of the franchise (as the Ancients' method of world/Nacelle-creation involves manipulating both elemental energies and the four Elemental Lords), the planes themselves only play an important role in ''VIII'' (portals to them have opened, and they're preparing an invasion for reasons at first unknown) and ''Heroes Chronicles: Masters of the Elements'', where the main character has to sojourn to the planes in an attempt to stop an invasion (motivated by entirely different things than the one in ''VIII'').

The InNameOnly online [=PvP=] game ''Might and Magic: Showdown'' was released on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} Early Access on the January 20, 2017. After failing to attract a playerbase, it was cancelled and the servers were shut down six months later.

In the first two games, the action was set on flat, square worlds orbiting in space. The third moved the action to a "round" ([[VideoGameGeography actually toroidal]]) planet. ''[=M&M IV=]'' and ''V'' were set on XEEN, another flat platform, with a twist: the world of ''[=M&M V=]'' was the [[TitleDrop Darkside of XEEN]], literally the flip side of the world from number four. Installing both ''IV'' and ''V'' on a single computer combines both games into ''World of Xeen'' which allows your party to travel between the two sides of XEEN and complete an extra final quest to merge them into a round world. All these games have the player pitted against [[TinTyrant Sheltem]], a Planetary Guardian constructed by the Ancients, who [[AIIsACrapshoot went rogue]] and decided to protect his homeworld by blowing up all other worlds. Sheltem is finally defeated in ''M&M V'', bringing an end to that whole plot arc.

** Might and Magic VIII admits defeat and takes it to up to eleven (Speedrunners with glitches finish the game around 20 minutes). If you know where to look you can acquire a low level (but nonetheless extremely powerful) Dragon and a level 50 Dark Elf very early (Said Dark Elf has all the elemental spells and grandmaster -perfect- Disarm Trap skill and Merchant skill, effectively dominating the game in *every* technical aspect). The Dragon especially becomes significantly more powerful than his peers over time, because you can distribute his skill points as you see fit. Several towns also have artifacts hidden in trees and rocks right at the beginning of the game.

* FlunkyBoss: Actually it might be easier to list the Bosses that ''don't'' qualify. Most have at least a small mob of normal monsters helping them, and a few have dozens. ''III'' never has a boss that isn't surrounded by minions, although the Vampire Lord has no minions in his coffin so he technically can be fought alone.

** In ''X'', [[spoiler:the FinalBattle is like this; if you attack him directly, reducing him to about half his health Erebos will drive him away for a little while; he'll always return after a few rounds, fully healed. (Driving him away and killing his faceless and dark elf minions - who are much easier - does give you time to rest and heal, however.) To win the battle and truly kill him, you have to gather all the Solar Sigil Pieces in the huge arena and put them into the machine, which kills Erebos forever if you are successful.]]
* HostileTerraforming: Kreegans do this with a healthy dose of GameplayAndStorySegregation and HordeOfAlienLocusts. In ''Heroes of Might and Magic'' we see Kreegans as stereotypical demons of Abrahamic mythology who establish towns and have human workers, slaves and collaborators and even taverns, monuments to Satanic deities and medieval technology. They like living in volcanic areas purely for comfort and prefer to raise volcanoes with magic before expanding. In the RPG series they are anything but that: Initial spaceships make well-planned hard landings to the most fertile areas and start draining the soil nutrients to feed their population and hive queens and aggravate roaming creatures. Their initial technology is biotechnological with modern hydraulics on doors, and their expansion "cities" are nothing but OrganicTechnology hives like Colony Zod which also drain nutrients from the soil but have rudimentary force fields and elevators. There are ''zero'' human underlings living with them (though they do make use of human underlings, just not directly in their own settlements) and they attack anything that comes near and are straight out of the ''Alien'' franchise.

* MageMarksman: The Archer class in Might and Magic II through VII. Dark Elves in VIII and Rangers in IX might count as well.

** Enemy [=NPCs=] would ignore townspeople and other neutral or friendly [=NPCs=] and go directly for the player characters. From the next game onwards, this is averted.
** In order to learn weapon, armor and miscelaneous skills you needed to become a member of certain specialized guilds. These guilds would be removed in the next games, where you'd learn such skills in the weaposmith, armorsmith, temple and tavern.
** Clerics and Sorcerers can learn both Light Magic ''and'' Dark Magic. In VII, they (or rather, their second promotions) can learn only one or the other, depending on whether you chose the good or evil path. In VIII, Clerics can learn only Light Magic and Necromancers can learn only Dark Magic.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: While not a first game in the series, as the first 3D game and the first of the trilogy set on Enroth it has some strange quirks regarding the mechanics:

** Every skill that character can learn can be also mastered. Related to this, there is no Grandmastery level. This has created some bizarre things like the Archer supposedly being a master marksman when ''every'' class can learn and master Bow. The sequels introduced maximum learnable expertise per skill depending on the class.

** Destroying enemy outposts in ''III'', there are four very close to the starting zone, which are guarded by very weak enemies (and there is one more if the player is willing to brave Wild Fungus, which is also weak but they have electrical attacks so armor is no help). This grants the player an armory of equipment, plenty of EXP, and enough gold to train up to around level 7. Saving Fountain Head is a breeze at that level. In addition, on the way to destroying these outposts, there is a well that boosts AC by 20. Enemies will be completely unable to hit the party for the rest of the day.

*** Likewise, you can promote your Sorcerer full way to Archmage before even getting to Free Haven. The first promotion quest is really simple, you must drink from Fountain of Magic, which is located on main continent in Bootleg Bay - which is likely third or fourth location you'll visit. The second promotion quest is a bit harder - you must essentially traverse Corlagon's estate. However, while enemies there may be annoying because of ability to curse and age your characters, they have relatively low stats, none of them have ranged attacks and mostly narrow corridors make easy to keep distance, especially if your Wizard has the Sparks spell and Air Magic Expertise on him. The only problem may be Corlagon himself, but even he's not immune to SaveScumming. And the promotion gives you instant access to Master Level Air magic.
** Might and Magic 7 clearly tries to dampen this trope with forcing spells to have skill level requirements and promotions, as well as putting more effective BeefGate levels like "Tunnels to Eeofol" where escape from Behemoths is (almost) impossible (several speedrunners *still* went to Eeofol around starting levels and have boosted themselves. That said, Bracada has a guaranteed flight scroll in a chest, and *tons* of free gold and items laying around like colorful candies, as well as super-high level ores for crafting. One clickfest, flight acrobatics and clear Bracada later, your starting party will certainly be equipped to take on the world weeks of playing in advance. Non-combat quests if you know where to look for them can level you up and make you rich just as well.
** Might and Magic VI and VII has the "Assistant" system, non-combatant specialists that take a signup payment in advance and take a bit of your money; some of them giving insane bonuses. A windmaster can cast Fly, letting your party fly everywhere to loot the hell out of the map, and a gatemaster can cast Town Portal. Even the mundane ones have crazy perks: a Scholar will bring unlimited item identification and +5% Experience earned. A windmaster and a scholar can speed up the game in days of gameplay.
** Might and Magic 8 admits defeat and takes it to up to eleven (Speedrunners with glitches finish the game around 20 minutes). If you know where to look you can acquire a low level (but nontheless extremely powerful) Dragon and a level 50 Dark Elf very early (Said dark elf has all the elemental spells, grandmaster -perfect- disarm trap skill and merchant skill, effectively dominating the game in *every* technical aspect). The Dragon especially becomes significantly more powerful than his peers over time, because you can distribute his skill points as you see fit. Several towns also have artifacts hidden in trees and rocks right at the beginning of the game.

** For a milder version, refer to the Dark Magic spell, "Armageddon".
** Occurs as a bad ending for ''VI'', if you didn't free Archibald to get a protective spell.

** In ''IV'' there are many different types of golems: Water and Earth are classical elements, while air and fire are covered with cloud and lava golems. There are also other kinds like wood, stone, and diamond.

* EleventhHourSuperpower: If you can get Blasters at all, they're going to be this. Case in point: in ''VI'' you can get them only after completing the objective in Tomb of VARN, which is also third-to-last objective of the game (the following being to acquire the weapons themselves). In ''VII'' you can get them only in Eeofol (which requires a difficult trek through MarathonLevel) and one dungeon in Shoals (which is only unlocked after completing the mission in Eeofol and is the place of final task).

* FantasyKitchenSink: ''Everything''. The series had already started as a mix of science fiction ''and'' fantasy fiction, with robots and ancient alien technology joining in as early as III. Turns out most worlds were flat artifical worlds built by cosmic elemental forces in space, led by Ancients, godlike humanoids. Around 4 and 5, the world-threatening BigBad is already established as a rogue robot, and there are many LostTechnology droids running around. The world protector Dragon Pharaohs live in technological havens for pyramids, and have a lot of high-tech equipment to manage "nacelle" worlds. In VI, it is eventually revealed that this particular world is a normal planet, but colonized by a ship from VARN with the ship personnel's passwords directly ripped from ''Star Trek'', the ship being a literal Egyptian pyramid with engines, now protected by rogue elemental constructs resembling Anubis and Djinni. Also the sixth and seventh games give an InfinityPlusOneSword in the shape of blasters, literal laser weapons to destroy the final bosses, though they can be used for annihilating all the enemies up to that point with vengeance. It kicks into overdrive in VII as the party from the third game lands on Antagarich in an escape spacecraft and splits up to support opposing factions, to either restore the Golden Age of Technology or conquer the world with weapons from a ''Star Trek'' style Replicator, respectively. By its zenith, the series had featured everything from cosmic energy beings to standard fantasy races and undead, robots, lasergun-wielding Liches and Terminator robots. The "science fiction" aspect declines sharply at VIII to mere snippets of lore and the BigBad being an android sent to destroy worlds infested by demon-like aliens by caging the Lords of the Elemental Planes and dislocating the elemental balance of the planet. In the ninth game, all science fiction seems axed and the setting is harshly pulled into Norse mythology, and it's all downhill from there.

** In general, downplayed with the Blaster weapons. They are hailed as amazing weapons from the time of Ancients. Gameplay-wise they ''are'' pretty good, as they do good damage, they are fast and their damage, being Energy type, cannot be resisted, but at that time you get access to them you usually have multiple artifacts or relics and those are still much better than blasters, and the damage output of Dark Magic leaves blasters in the dust, resistances or no.

*** If you manage to kill dragon on Emerald Isle nobody will reflect on that and Lord Markham still states that he'll issue a warning to not to go there.
*** The Breeding Zone and The Walls of Mist in The Pit and The Celeste respectively are stated to be the training ground for the respective factions of Necromancers and Wizards. In reality, monsters here don't give any experience, so good luck doing any actual training there. In fact it's much closer to the RiteOfPassage as you need to pass them to be fully accepted by given faction, so consequently, you'll visit each of these dungeons at most once (to pass the initiation test and to retrieve a promotion quest item) and then you'll forget about them.

** [[spoiler:Dunstan]] at first seems to be this to [[spoiler:Erebos]] in the main campaign for ''X'' [[spoiler:(but in truth, he Dunstan ''is'' Erebos in disguise, having killed the real one years earlier)]], while [[spoiler:Adira]] is this to [[spoiler:Duke Owen]] in ''The Falcon and the Unicorn''.

* WickedWasps: This game has wasps as enemies in Alvar. While their zone is secluded by mountains, they can fly over it to attack you if they detect you, which may be rather nasty surprise early in the game. Their dungeon is also rather confusing requiring a perfectly timed Jump spell to get to second floor, but thankfully it is purely optional.

** The skill teachers will also tell you where to find a teacher of lower expertise if you're not advanced enough for the one you're talking to yet, unlike the previous game. There is also only single expert teacher for each skill while previous games had two, few exceptions aside.