games

I believe magic missile always hits if the enemy doesn't have magic resist. It's been a looooong time but MM is usually the "In case of emergency cast level 1 spells and pray". I don't think it allows any kind of save. I used to use it against dragons and other high level monsters with ridiculous high saves. It might not do much damage but it does damage.

That's my understanding as well. I use it for easy damage and it's incredibly useful for dispelling enemy mages Mirror Images. Lmao, MM is how I took out my first dragon because none of my weapons could actually damage it.

THACO means "To hit armor class 0". It's the worst system in D&D history, but iirc the way it works is your THACO score is the number that you need to roll to hit AC0. So if your THACO is 16 you'd need to roll 16 or higher to hit armor class 0. Something like that. I believe lower THACO is better.

That's it! And I was majorly conflating THACO with AC. I don't think THACO goes negative, but AC certainly does. Either way, for both the lower the better.

Getting a thief that can sneak good can be really helpful. Sending them out to scout enemy groups can give you time to prepare and plan an attack. I think some spells even have longer range than the characters can see, so you can have your thief act as a spotter for your wizard so you can open up with a fireball before the enemies know you're there.

This reminds me that traps are everywhere and will decimate your party. I think it's almost mandatory to have a thief in the party that can detect traps. There's a setting in each companions AI, for the party thief you want to have them "Detect Traps" when they're not actively doing something else. When you're in a dungeon scout ahead carefully too, or do what I do and quicksave, run in to find the traps, then quickload and disarm them.

Some other things I've remembered this morning:

Combat is broken into rounds and turns and it's not that intuitive, at least to me. One round equals 6 real seconds, and one turn equals 10 rounds or 1 real minute. Spells have different amounts of time they last, for instance Mirror Image is one of the most useful defensive magic spells and it only lasts 3 rounds + 1 round/level, so at Level 2 the spell lasts 30 seconds. You'll want to cast that during combat, compared to a spell like Armor that has a duration of 9 hours. Spells (mostly buffs) like that you want to cast in between combat. Looking at the casting time will give you a good idea, Mirror Image is 2 and Armor is 9 I think, but it feels like an eternity. Some spells like Melf's Minute Meteors (favorite spell) are two parters. For MMM the first cast sets up the spell by generating the "meteors" and that effect is permanent until it's either dispelled or you use them all, then throwing them is instantaneous, no cast time there.

There's a field of basilisks, they'll destroy your party unless you find/buy a Protection From Petrification scroll. That encounter feels a little BS to me so I like to warn people about it, just buy or find one of those scrolls and keep it handy. Or if you have a Cleric they can memorize the spell, but that will waste a spell slot since it generally isn't useful otherwise.