MM6:
I entered the Baa Temple near Castle Ironfist and there were around 20 skeletons 20 acolytes in the same room.
Does it make sense to just raise the bow skill for the knight (level 9) currently i have both sword and bow at 4(expert level).
At this point I am planning to skip sword until reaching master level in bow.
What the hell...
Feels like you (and all the other MM6 noobs that popped up here recently) are playing the game all wrong.
MM6-8 are
all about mowing down yuge hordes of enemies.
As such, you want to somewhat optimise your monster-killing strategies.
Most importantly - you need to decide on what is your primary monster-killing method:
melee - at least 3 characters in the party need to be melee-capable (as in being able to dual-wield, for which they need to master spear + sword, as well as being able to reach expert dagger). Magic buffs (mostly clerical) are mandatory to reach good results.
When you play melee, you don't fucking waste your time shooting pointy sticks and pooping magic rainbows, you move in for the kill.
ranged - Max bows, focus on recovery time reduction so that you can machinegun later in the game (much harder to do in MM6).
You will fucking suffer in cramped dungeons, but you will be able to breeze the outdoors due to unlimited kiting available to you.
magic - the EZ way. At least 3 elemental magic casters. Focus on fire (fireball+meteor shower) + air (sparks) magic, with minor investments in water (poison spray) + earth (rock blast in MM6, much less useful in later games). Plus you get all those powerful utility spells as a bonus.
You get the two hirelings that boost your (elemental) magic skills. Then you abuse the fuck out of sparks and poison spray, which are the most insanely economical (dmg/mana) and versatile spells in MM6-8 by far.
Meteor shower in outdoors when you need to kill big things fast, fireball/rock blast when you need to kill large + tightly clumpred groups fast.
Dark magic is overrated AF - spells are way too expensive for their effect (except for armageddon, that shit is fun and OP in MM7-8).
Where was I? Oh, yeah, don't mix the playstyles, you will suffer for it.
Correct hirelings are YUGE.
Temples are your friends. Don't be afraid to retreat to heal up and rest.
Turn-based mode for precision and faster killing, real-time for kiting or saving time when you feel like being generous with your party's hp and mana pools.