Lower Monastery Combat

[Dixie]

Hey, everybody, we're new to the game and are having terrible problems in the Lower Monastery. We made it to the Bridge Room and we went down the falls to get the resurrection potion. We're in the process of retracing our steps back to the Bridge Room.

The problem? The creatures we meet are overwhelming. Our party seldom wins a battle and when it does there's no time to rest up or even save the game before it is attacked again. These creatures are much more powerful than the ones we met when we first went to the Bridge Room.

We are fighting as many as three metallic slimes, three seekers and seven wolf spiders at the same time. The average damage per blow that a member of our party can generate is from two to eight. We just get blown away battle after battle.

What are we doing wrong? We seldom win these battles and when we do, we don't have time to save or rest up before the next battle begins.

We'd sure appreciate your help.

Dixie and Foxy

[Tal'Missra]

Hello and welcome. One thing you can check is under the options screens...there is a setting for difficulty...novice, normal, and expert (or something to that affect). If you are really having problems you could change it to the easiest level and then switch back afterward.

Good luck!

Tal'Missra

[Dixie]

Tal, thanks for your reply. We have the difficulty level set on novice. We're still getting killed.

Any other ideas?

Thanks,

Dixie and Foxy

[john]

Make sure your using any and all sleep spells or powders,if you have a bard use poet's lute.Anything to slow or imobolize your enemy will make a big difference till you get a few level ups..Hope this helps..If it seems like its not working start a new group and follow the manual closly as to race and profession this makes a very big difference in game play!!...John

[LordOgre]

How much did you level up while still in the Monastary. Many groups make the mistake of hitting the little white cross everytime someone raises a level.

Monster encounters are based on the average of your group. So if you don't hold back that warrior/bard, etc... from outleveling your bishop by 3 levels at the beginning, you will start to encounter highly difficult battles that the lower members of your group are not ready for.

My suggestion is to not level up past 4 or 5 while still in the monastary. 2 functions this serves. One is you won't be outclassed by the mobs in the monastary itself, and two you won't be HEAVILY outclassed when you leave to run the road to Arnika.

Being level 6/7+ on the road to Arnika after leaving monastary will pretty much spell your doom, unless you get lucky and don't have any big encounters on the way. My first group was 6/7 when I left the monastary and ran into a nice 4 group of Apus and 6 group of Higardi bandits, plus a few wasps for good measure. Took me 6 reloads to win the battle without loosing more then 2 people (since I had 2 resurrect powders).

The next time with my good party, I didn't level them up past 4 in the Monastary. I just let the experience add up and didn't hit the cross to level them. They made it to Arnika without much trouble at all, and then that is where I let them finally do their level-ups.

Even now, with my group, I don't levelup until at least 4 members of my 6 will be the same level after hitting the cross. I had to hold back my bard and let 1.5 million exp rack up on her before the rest of the slower levelers made at least 15/16 before letting her go from 14 to 17 in one shot. Of course my Bishop and Ninja are bringing up the rear of my group, as they have the highest exp requirement.

My troops now are 17, 16, 16, 16, 15, 15.

[ 02-02-2002: Message edited by: LordOgre ]

[Throg]

Dixie, one of the reasons I kept dying in the lower monastery was that my magic spells were soweak and my fighters had no ranged weapons. I kept running into monsters who would stand away at some distance and keep shooting bad stuff at me. It took a while before I realized I should use my first turn to run straight at them, where my fighters' swords would be effective. Battles got a lot better after that.

Throg
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My cats knead me

[Dixie]

Hey, Tal, John, LordOgre and Throg, thanks for your help. LordOgre's suggestion did the magic. We started the game over, not creating a new party, of course. It wasn't much of a problem as we weren't too far along anyway.

Having the whole party level up together did the trick; it kept the bad guys from becoming so overpowering. We are now at the bridge a second time, having slipped down the waterfall, picking up the resurrection pouch. LordOgre, thank you so much for your insightful help.

We appreciate the rest of you helping us too.

We'll be in touch as we progress through this fascinating game.

Dixie and Foxy

[chimera99]

One other thing to be aware of. This game is very random when it comes to monster generation. Sometimes just reloading from a couple saves back (save often) will change what you are fighting. I've had different lvl 6 parties in the same place fighting compleatly different monster levels.

[Dixie]

Thanks, Magister, we'll keep that in mind. We appreciate your help.

Dixie and Foxy

[Knip Dyolf]

Good luck Dixie and Foxy.
Wiz 8 is very combat orientated and you will need a strong party (fighting and magic) to have a decent go at it. [img]graemlins/fight.gif[/img]
Just a general comment....put a lot of thought into character creation and distributing of level up points. This will make the diff between winning battles or constantly resurrecting dead bodies. [img]graemlins/crying.gif[/img]
And come back here when ever you want help. Most of us here have gone through your pain and are more than willing to help

Knip