In my current game I had kind of gotten into a situation where the fights were a bit too tough for me (tired of resting every couple of minutes after exhausting my magic,) so I held off on letting my team level up. I had read that the monsters' levels are based off of your team's level. But I seem to still be running into monsters that are based off what my level should be. Everyone is currently 9th level and I just entered The Swamp. Most of the monsters I'm running into are 10-12th and in big packs. Does the game calculate the odds based on Experience (and thus, my ACTUAL level) or based on what level my team currently is (in this case, 1-2 levels lower than their experience would dictate?)

offshore33,

The monster spawning IS based on your actual level (the highest level in your party actually). The game though does not generate monsters JUST at your level. Every area has a minimum and maximum level for the monsters it generates, lets say levels 10-24. So some areas will generate monsters that are above your party's level regardless. If you are playing on expert then monsters will be generated slightly higher in level.

Since your party is level 9, then level 10-12 monsters would not be unheard of. I would suggest leaving the swamp until you gain some more levels. The swamp can be a little tough at level 9. Even level 10 will seem easier. Arnika, Trynton, or the Umpani areas would be good places to explore at your level.

with regard to the level of the monsters your party encounters, it is the level of the highest character that is significant. what i tried in the early stages of the game (up to about level 12 or so) was to only hold back characters who were levelling up ahead of the others, like rogues or fighters. in this way there wasn't a big spread of levels within the party which can happen lets say if you have a bishop and a fighter in the same party. otherwise, after a while, the fighter can get 2 or 3 levels ahead of the other. just an idea.

On a more fundamental level, here are some tips/questions that may help:

(a) Camping to recover from dealing with random monsters can be a sucker bet if more monsters spawn than you can kill before resting again. I've seen posts from folks who get themselves into all kinds of trouble that way -- Arnika Road and Bayjin being two prime problem areas for that, but I'd think the Swamp could do the same thing.

If you think this is the case, then you need to back out of the area -- as some have already suggested -- and retool your party a bit so that you are better prepared for these monsters. Other things that might help could include camping but interrupting your rest when you've mostly (or all) recovered, yet before the 8 hours have fully passed. You don't *need* the full 8 hours sleep a lot of the time, especially at lower levels and/or with a bard in the group. Also, you might want to consider what difficulty level you have the game on -- if you're on expert, you might want to set it down a notch before camping, just to take a bit of the edge off the spawns.

(b) The swamp, like Arnika Road, tends to be a hangout for huge swarms of critters, as you noticed -- rather than smaller but tougher beasts. If you haven't developed the magical resources to deal with swarms, then they will wear you down fast. Generally speaking, you need to be able to either incapacitate the large groups (for example, insanity, hypnotic lure, freeze flesh)or do big-damage area effect spells (like fireball). Cone-effect spells can work, but only if you are fast enough or have set things up so the monsters can't just surround you.

Holding back levels is a good strategy to survive Arnika road. Especially, sine the difference between level 5 and level 7 monsters is huge. Later, not levelling isn't very useful.

Especially if you have offensive magic, you want as much firepower as possible. In your case, if you're able to level casters up to level 11, do it. You can learn level 5 spells. Especially neat is the portal spell.

The swamp is a wide open area. Nonetheless, avoid battles in the open. Use x-ray to see the enemies comming, and then run to the next wall before the fight.

When you find crock, his house is a good place to rest. It seems to be off-limits for monsters.

Holding back levels later can be good to build up a specific skill, such as stealth. I let my Samurai go to Rogue for one level (lev 12) and kept him there to build it up, then changed him back when it was 25 or so.

Yeh I had this problem too - I had an old party for export from Crusaders and you get given enough exp to 'ding' 5 times. The first time I played my CDS group I naturally trained all 5 levels meaning I had a real tough time of it in the monastery (I was meeting hordes of slithering and metallic slimes) and I eventually had to abandon the savegame and start again cos I got hemmed in on both sides by two large groups of undefeatable monsters somewhere on the road to arnika. Second time round I only 'leveled-up' my party to 3rd (to defeat the Gregor) and didnt do any more til I got to Arnika.

don't forget the Blonde Brigade method, either.

hold down SHIFT and run like a silk stocking. ;)

V***V

Hello
Here are my 2 pennies. If you want to class change but don't want to lose the ability to practise/raise a skill that would get blocked then you could just not level up. You won't be able to pump your skills but at least they will still go up. When the skills have been practised up to a level you want then level. This way you dont' waste the levels just to raise certain skills which could be better used say to gain bard levels, higher level spells etc. I'm sure people already do this. Just thought I'd mention it.
If the monsters don't get harder if you chose not to level up then overall they should get easier since you practise your skills and improve. You've practised as much as a 7th level but you're still a 5th.

IAmThumper

Ziggurat mentioned this case.

For the difficulty: some areas seem to have a mimimum monster level, and some monster groups seem to be fix. Being low level doesn't help you here.

I once wanted to change my priest/mage/alchemist to valcyrie/samurai/ranger, only to use the infinity helmet (and continue to play like pure spellcasters). I stopped levelling at level 11, until i had enough experience to gain 5 levels (to avoid being unable to practice spell skills). But in the Rapax areas, i encountered level 17 Samurais nontheless.