My characters are level 6 and 7, and I find it impossible to traverse Arnika road. I'm always encountering LARGE groups of enemies when I try traveling. Things like: 13+ Higardi (with and without knives) of lvl 7, 7-9 Acidvines with 1-5 Ironweeds, 3 crimson poppies (the sleep clouds are crippling).

With nowhere to back against, I am immediately surrounded and my mage is killed in a few rounds. While my fighter does 20 damage, my samurai and ranger still do 6-9 damage.

I've tried camping to allow new enemy groups, but they are basically the same. I've tried changing to Novice level, but only helps a little. I've even tried cheating by loading high-powered weapons, but the guys in the back still get killed before I can take out all of the enemies.

I'm thinking of giving up on the game, but I've had so much fun before this. What am I doing wrong!? Any useful comments, tips, etc.?

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Yeah it's tough starting out. The "trick" is to be observant as possible, if you see a group of monsters in the distance, go around them. This is a normal tactic in Wiz8, the creators set about making the game realistic, to that end there are times when you're out-matched and the saying "run to life and fight another day" is important until the party "toughen" up.

Once you get to Arnika, things will get better, stick with it.

[img]smile.gif[/img]

You CAN run away from them and go to Arnika there is it wery good to train up your party a couple of levels then Arnika road is not so bad and remember when you fight get your back against a montain , wall or something then your mage and so on is protected from atack!! :D

Agree with Megabot, discretion is the better part of valor [img]smile.gif[/img] Meaning run to Arkina. When you come out of the Monastery the real problem is your equipment sucks, you can really stock up in Arkina. I would try to fully explore the city first and then go back on the road.

When I first emerged from the Monastary the first time through this game, I also ground to a halt. Run to Arnika avoiding the fights that you can't win, which will be most of them. Later you can come back and rail on the Brigans and Rouges.

Or set the difficulty to novice ;) .

Also, for when you can't avoid the conflicts, your most important weapon against the plants is missile shield. It's a level 2 mage spell, and it will block most of those spikes and daggers, thus protecting your whole party, and especially the mage if you have your formation with someone blocking him from melee attacks.

If you have the "blinding flash" spell it is also useful to disperse mobs with.

Insanity is another one that's useful even at low levels.
Stealth and speed are good here, and getting off the road as much as you can.

There is also a theory that if you leave the monastery at level 5, you will face less monsters, or easier monsters. People also say that it is easier to go out at day time, but I haven't seen any noticable difference between day and night on that road.

If you have rested alot in the monastery, I think that it may be safer to go out. I know I rarely have any trouble on the road, and this may be the reason. Or perhaps it's the newest patch...

In my experience keeping the levels down before getting to Arnika really reduces the difficulty. I just did a solo Ninja and didnt level up past level 3 before getting to Arnika and didn't have any problems. As an experiment I then replayed it maxing my levels before leaving the monastery (level 8) and the Arnika road was muder - mine!