What should I be doing at this point?

[amills1]

I've started my first game on the medium difficulty. My party choices were: soldier, paladin, cleric, bard and thief. I've cleared all of the enemies I can in the mushroom forest. All that is left seems to be random encounters and the field of large mushrooms. My party is about level 4 if I recall correctly.

The problem is, I'm not sure how to advance from this point. If I try a random battle I tend to get my head handed to me by the mushrooms - it doesn't help that the large ones can poison my party. I don't have any fights I can win outside of the random encounters either. There is that field full of large mushrooms and I found a note suggesting I could try slipping by them. I've attempted this a few times but always get dragged into a fight.

Should I just keep trying to grind levels via the mushroom fights or what?

[zorlag]

You can sneak past the big mushrooms. Place your mouse cursor over a group and press right mouse button (I think?). It should show you the aggression area of that group as a big circle. There is a route past them, you have to go downwards a bit and then it turns back to north. Eventually you get past them and the big ogre that guards the road to north to the next area that has the Golden Forest (main quest related place).

[amills1]

Thanks. That reminds me, I got a quest saying I need to clear enemies out from the beach. I'm not sure where it means though, the beach area near the start of the game has no monsters and I haven't seen another one.

How though is the ogre to fight, assuming that's how I get past him?

[alienstookmybeer]

From the west town exit you can find the other beach area that needs cleared. The ogre will be way too tough for a while so you need to tiptoe around the mushrooms to circumvent him. You should be able to dispatch the town of it's guards soon too, if not already (grab some blessings to help with that)

edit: just noticed you have no mage. I'm still on my first playthrough so may not have the best advice, but I'd seriously reconsider a reboot and finding room for a mage in your party since you're not far in.

[amills1]

Ah, I forgot about the other exit out of town. Thanks. I was considering a mage but the guides I've seen suggests they lack power later in the game.

[kaibioinfo]

I don't think that they lack power in the later game. Their ability to stun or freeze enemies is still worth to take a mage.

[amills1]

Maybe I should restart then. I've been a bit unsure about my current party if only because I can't have my bard song work on everyone in the party (4 in the front, 2 in the rear).

[kaibioinfo]

I guess your party composition is okay. However, a mage could make the game a bit easier. My party was Barbarian, Paladin, cleric, mage, thief. So similar to yours. I would say that the paladin was not that useful. His protection aura is okay, but otherwise he had no good skills (I never used him for healing as the cleric was much better in that). He was a good character, but only because he had a mace and the stunning skill. So I would start a new game with the soldier instead of a paladin.

[amills1]

I found the paladin protection aura to be useful at the end of my last session when I took on one of the gate guard groups. Previously they were pounding me into the ground, but the defense aura blunted them enough that I only had one person get taken out. You are right about the healing though, it's more like an emergency heal.

[alienstookmybeer]

Yep I like the Paladin too and especially that protection aura. The Party Stats shows Combat which gives you a somewhat good idea of each teammate's combat effectiveness (but keep in mind how often some characters use defensive/healing magic instead of doing damage). I guess this is the overall % of damage these characters have done? At level 30 right now and I have Combat stats of :

Gaulen 14%
Paladin 22%
Cleric 13%
Thief 21%
Mage 23%
Divine Summoner 7%

[Hexprone]

I just checked my combat stats, and to my confusion my Paladin has only 8% of my damage, compared to 10% for my Divine Summoner.

My Paladin is healing and buffing some of the time, but she is in the front line. My DS rarely attacks at all, and when he does, he does 1-2 damage with his never-upgraded staff skill.

Does the combat stat for the DS also incorporate damage done by his summons? Is it really Raznet who is out-damaging my Paladin?

[amills1]

I am starting to regret not taking a mage if only because some environmental hazards (eg. fire) seem to require a mage spell to bypass without damage. I know I can buy or find them as scrolls but they cost money. Or is there a way to get through these hazards without taking damage?

[Celerity, Executor of Impunity]

Most of the early ones can be bypassed with a different path. The later ones make you deal with it but the removal spells are much less of a resource then.

[Shillen]

Game is a lot harder early on than late. So even if mages do fall off later in the game they are totally worth having to make the early game easier.