I MUST be doing something wrong!

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

Rest all is only lvl 3, which is pretty quick for a pure user.

[Nightwing]

You can have your bishop mix potions and sell back to venders for extra cash. Buy, mix, sell, rinse and repeat. I think at alchemy 15 you can mix some potions that get some good money if your bishop isn't there it's well worth it. You will want most of the Alchemy spells anyway later. if you want a list of what you can mix go to Flamestryke.com for info.

[Dedzy]

You're at the hump part of the game from my experience.

You are just before any of their melee skills get good. The trick is to fight fight fight lots of little things. Don't try to kill things quickly with high powered spells. Instead, use lots of low powered spells and drag the fight out forever. Like other folks said, rest is important.

[CursedShadow]

It turns out that you were exactly right, Dedzy. Shortly after I made this post and switched bloodlust to my samauri I seemed to suddenly pick up a lot of offensive power and at least have a fighting chance during most of my enemy encounters. So once again, thank you all for the advice.

[Gadgeteer Tom]

Another tip - I try to ressurect characters BEFORE end of battle (but not too early or they just die again), so that they can share in XP...

And it can be quite difficult (and perhaps expensive) to kill all opponents using ranged weapons - I prefer to use ranged weapons to 'get to position' then get close to allow close combat weapons to be used, they generally do more damage and are reusable (quarrels, arrows, shuriken, darts, throwing knives and bullet stones must be replenished).

Take heart, the difficult battles deliver the most XP, so the characters should 'level up' soon too !