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I think II was by far my favorite, simply because it was the one that I felt best integrated the different character types into the game. There are unique things for each of the three character types to do (although, admittedly, the Fighter still gets short-changed in the sidequest department, but at least there's one set of Fighter-unique events, which is one more than any other game), unique solutions for most of the puzzles depending on which class you are (most notably, most of the elementals as well as the final sequence), and a timer that generally doesn't restrict your activities while keeping the plot on target. It's the most fun to mix abilities in, as well - did you know that even as a Fighter, you can cast spells in combat if you DROP SHIELD before being attacked, then GET SHIELD when you're done? Most of the other games restricted the class-specific sidequests to collecting spells, breaking into a few houses (and III didn't even do that much for the Thief), and a Paladin quest or two in the last few games. III advanced the series' technology a fair bit, but removed most of the fun in the bargain - I agree with the list of good parts, but I argue that those are almost the only good parts. IV tore down most of the walls between classes, since Fighters and Paladins got Climbing and the buggy interface forced the Paladin to gain Magic as well, which results in collecting some spells you can't really avoid (and definitely want to, in at least one case). I hope I don't need to go into V's flaws, although the things it managed to do well were a treat.

I think you could solve all of those problems quite simply by having a free or cheap-as-free melee-range spell in each school, which D'Arc will learn before he has to engage in any combat. Now the player has an option for when he's out of mana or when he just wants to conserve for a while. It's garbage, but it's an alternative to running and trying to dodge, and could even kill an enemy if they're that weak. Melee combat without the weapons.

In an interesting twist, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is one of the projects where I've seen the British/American dichotomy actually become an aspect - the author's notes used to have a pretty extensive list of the changes being made as the story was cleaned up into British English. Then again, the Scholastic publication of the novels in the U.S. made a few changes the other way.

I thought they were pretty easy questions myself. CAPTCHAs aren't intended to be difficult - in fact, I've seen some that just tell you to "type the word 'whatever'" and that's it. It's just to prevent automated systems from being able to sign up and post by being just complex enough that the bot won't fill them out correctly. Generally, if you have to think about a CAPTCHA, you're barking up the wrong tree.

I'm pretty sure any combination that isn't set to a specific room goes to the same empty room. I gave it a try just to see what would happen.