Character types and races have been through several changes throughout the Might & Magic series. M&M 1-5 had you pick both a race and a class for your characters. The class determined hit points, spell points, and which equipment you could use. The race determined innate resistances, and applied certain
bonuses and penalties to your statistics.
In Might & Magic 6, only human characters were available, and only six classes.
Each character had certain skills available to them depending on their class, though some were universal and could be mastered by any class. In M&M 7, the races were brought back, and the number of classes expanded. Skills were also much more exclusive now; while many skills could be learned by different
classes, the level of mastery possible varied. For instance, most characters
could use a bow, but only the Archer could reach the highest level of mastery with it.
Might & Magic 8 uses a combination of the systems of 6 and 7; for the first time in Might & Magic history, there is no difference between a race and a class. There are eight character types to pick, three of which are human. The other five are of different races by their very nature.
The classes are also more exotic this time. The only classes that were imported from previous games are the Knight and the Cleric. The Necromancer is the third human character, and is similar to the Mage in earlier M&M games. New additions
include the Dark Elf, the Troll, the Minotaur and the Vampire, all fresh and interesting characters. Finally, one or more of your characters can be Dragons, and they're every bit as powerful as you might expect.