How about just choosing a party of characters that start out weak, but will be powerful later on? (I don't know about y'all, but the monastery/Arnika Road is the WORST for me).
I just started a 4-character party:
Dwarf Valkyrie
Faerie Ninja
Mook Gadgeteer
Elven Bishop
This one, on expert, is a killer at first.
You've got a relatively weak magic user (shoulda started him as a mage and switched later, maybe). You've got 3 characters who have no ranged attacks in the beginning. No Bard to smooth the way.
Those 5 crabs at the gazebo almost did me in.
And just by dumb luck, I got caught by 11 roaches(not the weak ones, the next level up) at the same time I went in to kill that slime and open the chest.
Those damn roaches were nibbling away at me, and without a bard I couldn't seem to keep them asleep for more than a round. Oy! My bishop and I had a serious discussion about training after that one. [img]smile.gif[/img]
I chose this party because, except for the bishop, they were classes I had only played in big parties. It's turned out to be quite a challenge. They should rock later in the game, though. The Valkyrie already gets some big point hits in occasionally, and the ninja suprises me once in a while. It's sad when you have to make the bishop hand over her ring of protection to the ninja.
She's still whining. [img]tongue.gif[/img]