Dangers of martial party

[Ziggurat]

I'm at Ascension Peak. My party is not cutting it. I think with too many people who can do instant kill (crits), they don't develop other combat skills fast enough. My theory. I'm only lev 21 and can't handle some of these big battles without someone geting killed. I can win but have to back off sometimes (and the Rapax B* is spawning too many at this time, definately backed off). So I went elsewhere and still get someone killed. A warning on going for a critical-kill party!

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

I gave up on my Crit. kill party way early on. The only exception is the Ranger. He'll get them a fair amount of the time. The best way to achieve crits is from the items that do this. I know lots of my forum brothers and sisters will disaree but that's the beauty of this game.

[HolyWarrior]

Hmm, L21 seems rather low for Ascension Peak. Have you done everything else? I have a L20 party that's just made it to Rapax Rift.

[Ziggurat]

Just went to lev 22. Yes, have done everything except mess around killing stuff. I did some of that, too. And it is a party of four. Does seem a bit weird. I'm usually around 25 at this point. Maybe I had less battles without realizing it. I didn't hang around Arnika as much as I normally do.

[Ziggurat]

I am adopting a stategy. Hang around Ascension Peak and kill alot until I raise my levels. Then tackle the Rapax army.

[ScottG]

yup, Arnika is quite the level-up place. In particular I use the bank guards for my training (and cash supply).

[Kakero]

I might be missing something here but doesn't martial art characters are Ninja and Monk? I never seem to have problem with them because I train their stealth to 100 before I got out of the monastery. monsters seems to ignore them always.

Whoah you guys really train up. I beat the game level 20-21. And the last fight was pretty easy for me.

[God Gundam]

I have to agree with SecretMaster. When I first beat the game, my character levels averaged 19 or 18 and the battles were just fine. My fights with the Rapax at their castle went either way and it contributed for much more suspense and excitement not to mention more FUN. It isn’t fun going to battle OVER LEVELED coz there won't be any challenge anymore.

My guess is the points you've earned at level up was wasted on useless attributes for the character and the spells you chosen were not really needed in the long run.
If you did the right thing of allocating the points to the proper attributes and picked the right spells and still had a hard time beating the Rapax at their turf, then you must review and rewrite your overall strategy.

One good and reliable strategy I've been using for years is not using spells that hurt or kill but using spells that effect their ability to fight or cast spells, once that is done then I start using spells that enhance my party's abilities, when that is over too then I can start using spells that really hurt and kill.
One thing to add; Going to battle OVER LEVELED isn’t fun at all. You'll get bored in the process when the challenge is gone.

one of the 4-person parties i completed the game with was a ninja, monk, rogue, bard combo. I was going for the CoC so decided everyone should go cursed. so not only did we not have magic (except for the monk's psionic book up to lvl 4 spells), but neither did we have significant ranged attacks (the monk could throw, the bard only started using bow after i got fang, having used bloodlust most of the game, and the rogue was using dual thieves' daggers).

early on (ie through trynton and the don), this party was incredibly difficult to keep alive. and they had a really tough time through the magic-heavy areas (ie mountain wilderness sprites/fire monsters, bayjin) due to lack of resistances. BUT by the time I got to the rapax castle this party was by far the easiest i've ever played. as we fought our way through the throne room to get up to the templar area, we had 30+ rapax, including priestesses, warlocks, samurais... and my monk and ninja would each critical virtually every round. in one memorable sequence, my ninja got 3 criticals and my monk 2 in one round. whereas early the rogue and bard was carrying the bunch, by the end they hardly got a look in.

when we left the castle, the ninja had a 125 criticals (incl class bonus) and the monk was wearing the assassins cap to have 120 criticals of his own. and ascension peak was a huge anti-climax. even the army, which we had to close with, was little trouble with the help of all those death bombs the rapax drop. (that's a strategy tip )

if anything, this "critical party" was among the best party experiences i've had. it differed from the norm (for me), it involved different challenges at the different stages of the game, and in the end was quite a lot of fun.