Long battles

[Ziggurat]

There are some really long battles in this game, as has been noted by many here. After seeing Ferro in the Rapax castle for the first time, I was attacked by 39 opponents! They included: Concubines, Courtesans, Archers, Veterans, Berserkers, Warmages, Patrols and Bowmen. Is this a great game or what!? This battle lasted over 45 minutes, with them moving around and all. It can get a bit tiring but is rewarding as well. I just felt I deserved more than the 150K experience afterward. The Rapax don't pay off too well for their level of difficulty.

[Wereboar]

150 K experience for 39 opponents? They must have been very low level, or the combat endet without all of them death (happens if a part of a group approaches you, and a part stays back).
Wait a minute. No Samurais? Sound unusual.

I think there are usually 6 groups of Rapax in the main level, when you enter the castle (i mean, 6 places where Rapax are; in each place usually two different types of Rapax). I try to fight them one at a time (first running to Ferro in Combat mode to avoid being seen, then run to a group to give them few time to move). A group usually grants 50 - 100 k experience for a 4-5 character party.

And it surely was rewarding. Didn't you get items worth some 100k gold from them?

For me, it seems that the higher level Rapax are very good sources of XP. Once i entered the Rapax Away Camp at quite low level. I gained nearly 3 levels from the fights (4 character party).

[Ziggurat]

We ran to the alcove where you first come in to the castle. Had to kill a few to get there, but you can fight them two at a time in close combat in that little room. The concubines and courtesans where in another room behind us so they never made it to the battle. A good strategy, you don't want full magic and combat at the same time if you can help it. There were no Samurais, who are level 17. Most were lower level so maybe that, and the lack of Rapax courtly prostitutes, is why the payoff was so low.

[Ziggurat]

P.S. I wasn't counting the loot. Just experience. When you first meet the Rapax in Trynton, they are hard to beat and seem under valued to me, exp pt wise, for the trouble they cause. Maybe it is my imagination.

[the mighty stamar]

Well in the same area basically, I fought 78 rapax. I was right next to where they were generating, which was near the open area with stairs. By the time I finished killing one group another had added itself to the battle.

[Ziggurat]

Fighting 78 enemies seems like a looong battle. An hour, maybe 2? That inspires another question. The longer battles seem to raise more of the stats, but are they raised only by one point each? Do you ever get more than one point raised in a stat after a battle? Is there some "memory" of what stats should go up next, i.e., as if the game would have given you more but has to wait for the next battle to do so because of the "one point at a time" restriction?

[GAfalconer]

Zig, the game does allow you to up a skill more than one point per encounter, if you use that skill often enough (successfully using it seems to count, too). The "skill training" and "exercise" you may read about here relies on that to pump up a specific skill to very high figures in a single combat of thousands of rounds ... basically you've got two ways to increase a skill: Allocate points to it during level-up, or use it over and over and over again.

I ran a Cheese party once - so named because someone referred to endless combats and charm spells and knock-knock training as "cheesy" - just for the heck of it, and found that at low levels, it seems to take about 10 rounds of usage for a skill to go up a point. If your character is continually using that skill - such as a Shield on defense mode - after some 20-25 rounds the Shield skill will have gone from 0 to 2. It's not always 10 rounds, probably because whether the usage of that skill succeeded or not may play a part in whether that round "counts".

Magic usage goes up differently. It didn't appear to be as dependent upon sheer # of rounds, you have to factor in the power of the spell being cast and I think the number of spell points used in one realm vs split across realms. The result is the same as with combat spells, however: if you use it often enough in combat, it may go up more than one point by the time the combat is over with.

The higher a skill is, the more usage it will take to get that next point. The "10 or so rounds" I mentioned above only applies at the very low skill levels.

Once you get past the lower and middle levels, your characters probably already have 90's or more in their most-often-used skills even without training.

Cheese party was interesting at the start, mostly just to find out how things worked. It got real boring real fast and I never did finish even though the characters were easily whipping monsters several levels higher due to the skills.

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

I think the best part though is being able to get up and get something
to eat, mow the lawn or whatever and have all the enemies dead when you
get back! In some cases this is true, in others you gotta stick around.

[ChaosTheorist]

That inspires another question. The longer battles seem to raise more of the stats, but are they raised only by one point each? Do you ever get more than one point raised in a stat after a battle? Is there some "memory" of what stats should go up next, i.e., as if the game would have given you more but has to wait for the next battle to do so because of the "one point at a time" restriction?

I just finished stealth training my solo Bishop (in Rogue mode), and one combat raised Stealth from 35 to 87 and Shield from 14 to 70. So that's a definite "Yes" to the question. In fact, the increases happen in real time: if you open a character's inventory screen and select the "Skills" display, you can see the skills increase during the battle. I.e., the increases are not saved up and applied at the end of the combat. You get the notification at the end of the combat, but most of the increases probably happened earlier.

[Wereboar]

You get the notification at the end of the combat, but most of the increases probably happened earlier.

It happenes immediately.
A while ago, my monk started to get multiple attacks with the Staff of Doom in the middle of a fight.