Is it me or is this game TOUGH??!?!?!?

[destro]

The Monastery was just nice, tough baddies but nothing I couldn't handle. The road to Arnika and Arnika-Trynton however, was DIFFERENT! I get my ass kicked by cutpurses and modai's and sige's. At least one member dies at during each battle. The spellcasting Sige's and cutpurses render half or more of my party afraid/paralyzed and it's near impossible to rest around that area! HELP!! Is it meant to be this tough?

[ThulsaDoom]

try novice for a little bit just so your party gets a little more experiance .

[Aeolian]

i'm playing novice and so far, its been pretty easy going. the toughest monster i've had to deal with so far was 4 dreadmares. try switching from normal to novice if you find it hard going. also, avoid camping outdoors at all cost.

[vesselle]

yep.
you're not alone.
that part was terrible for me. i hung out in the monastery till i was about lvl 7-ish. (the upper monastery was hard for me, too)

then when i got outside, gaaaaaah!!! i was frustrated, upset, afraid for my party....... just about every emotion in the book.

so, after much weeping and gnashing of teeth (most of it on the forum here, looking for help), i turned my play level down to Novice, and got thru it.

i am up to Lvl 9-ish now, and everything is coming together really well. my team is getting strong, and i know which person to rely on during different attacks. my girls are all strong in their fields and can do some really amazing things, too.

a bit of advice, besides lowering the difficulty setting, once you are outside, do NOT walk in the open. hug the sides of the road. you can cover your back that way, and sometimes even find some great stuff. also, use the locked inn as a way station. (you can rest safely behind it!) when you can, walk up on top of the ridge that lines the road, so that you're close to hills that run back there. that really helps a LOT!!

just perservere and save all the time!

V***V

[Sazerac]

One other thing: if you're going to do the novice thing, do it BEFORE you enter an area. Monsters spawn randomly based upon A) your party's average level, and B) your difficulty setting. So if you've been wandering around at Expert spawing 24 Juggernauts at a time, jimmying the setting back down to Novice after the fact isn't going to help much...they don't go away magically! [img]graemlins/uhoh1.gif[/img]

-Sazerac

[Dajjer]

There is no need to turn down the difficulty level to novice. I have my level set at normal and while there are a lot of tough battles, especially when first coming out of the monestary I have not had to adjust the level.

No offense but the problem probably lies in the way you are approaching the game.

Unlike most other RPGs this game requires a stratagy when you are in combat. It will not do to have just a strong fighter and a power mage. Your magic people must use holding type spells (freeze, sleep, paralyze, terror, etc) in additon to damage spells. Buff up your party with armor and bless spells alway before going into battels. Sir Tech gave us very tough monsters in this game but they are beatable.

And always, I repeat alway fight your batttles in the most advantageous terrain. Never allow your party to be surrounded. Try to stick close to the mountains. usually there are crevices that you can slide into which will allow you to only have two baddies in front of you and the rest of the badies waiting in back of the front two.

BTW, at first, I too got my but kicked by the plants and the rogues but they are easily beatable. Look at it this way maybe you remember in Diablo one, there was a room with about 100 skeleton archers. You couldn't go in the room and take them out you had to lure a couple out at a time. It's basically the same thing in this game. most of the monsters that are at (or above) your level you really can't go toe to toe with. But if you see them coming, lure them to a spot where you only have to fight one or two at a time instead of 6 or more at a time.

Good luck, once you get the hang of combat you are going to find a very different CRPG.

Modais siges and dreadmares Oh My!

I thought I had it tough with Higardi Cutpurses, Brigands and Crimson Poppies!

Hang in there, making the trip is well worth the trouble.

(I waited unti I was level 6 or 7 before leaving the monestary too.)

One thing I did notice, if you go back to the monestary and camp til the next day, there'll be a whole new set of monsters to replace the ones you were dealing with before...this saved my butt when a pack of venom crabs ambushed us on our way out. The next day they were gone.

So, if all else fails, do go back and camp until the next day and set your game on Novice before leaving. It may still be hard...this is no easy game but it is so worth it!

[Virgil]

I would recommend not lowering your difficulty to novice, but instead playing the game on expert. That way, you get more encounter through out the game, your characters are higher level and their skills go up more quickly. If you play on novice for parts of the game, you will get to later sections of the game at too low of a level, and have to play catch up.

[Dan Speziale]

Here are some other things I've noticed while playing. Some of these are on the tips board, too.
- Make sure that your fighters are in the front and able to hit the enemies. Check the formation button.

- I discovered that some of my fighters had more attacks and were better at hitting with their swords than their range weapons. Sometimes it can't be helped, but if I saw some creatures from a distance, I would move right away and get withing striking distance of my swords. I'd have far more success at hitting them (and more attacks, as well), so these battles went a lot better.

I agree completely that once you get the hang of fighting, the game is different. If I were to start over, I'd definitely be fighting the creatures differently, using the techniques above.

Dan

[TomeTraveler]

I have to agree with those who state that there is no need to reduce the game setting to novice; though tempted a few times myself, I made it through the whole thing, rethinking what I was doing whenever I ran into a troublesome spot.

Terrain, intelligence, tactics.

Terrain: Whenever possible, fight with your back and flanks covered, using whatever is available: a rock, hillside, building, a tree. The fewer enemies who can face you at a time, the less damage you'll take.

Intelligence: Right-click on all the opponents, learn what you can about them. Early in the game when your characters' mythology scores are low you won't learn much, but just knowing hit points is a valuable advantage: spells such as fireball are invaluable when facing a dozen monsters with say, less than 50 hp each, but many monsters have over one hundred, some *well* over one hundred. They'll have to be brought down mostly with physical attacks, and your spellcasters may wish to concentrate on spells helpful to your blade-users in these situations: bless, paralyze/freeze flesh, insanity, web, and so on. Later on, when they have grown skilled enough to ascertain specific magic resistances, you can target your spells to attack the enemy weakness.

Tactics: If you're getting creamed standing toe-to-toe with a particular opponent, shoot arrows, rocks, and spells at it from a distance instead. Several opponents which gave me grief in direct melee proved simple once I'd softened them up at long range. And the reverse is true, also: if the opponent has a devastating distance attack, close as fast as you can and beat 'em to a pulp before they can use it to greatest effect.

I just can't overstate how pleased I am with this game: in almost every category there is something superlative about it, and the battles are no exception--truly challenging, but not impossible.

--TT