I just started this game and I'm liking it. I can see why some don't like the combat system, but it isn't bothering me too much. However, I'm having a little problem here in the early game.

I just got to Outlaw Canyon. Maya is a level 4 with 54 HP, Grubb is a level 4 with 43 HP (or something close to that, and Runner (that's the robot-dog-thingy's name, right?) is a level 4 with 84 health. So my first question is: Should my characters have more health at this point? Should they be a level or two higher?

I'm asking because, while not necessarily difficult, the battles tend to slowly wear down my health until I need to use bread. Unfortunately, I am now out of bread and it seems like a waste to use a root. I mean, why use something that can restore 250 HP when none of my characters even have that much?

So should I go back to Oasis and get more bread? Should I do a small amount of grinding to get my level and HP up?

Any help would be much appreciated.

I would say grind a bit. Your level is good for the area but if you find you are running out of bread that fast go ahead and grind a couple levels and that should help. Use the money you get from grinding to pick up the best equipment you can at this point. I found as I played through this game that whenever I felt like I was too weak for an area grinding a few levels helped.

Thanks for the reply! I figured I would have to grind, but I still wanted someone else's opinion.

Don't worry.

It will only get worse.

Mid-game you will grind so much that I am sure that you will get upset with the game and maybe stop playing.

Oh, uh, thanks for the encouragement. Um, yeah.

But I've already stopped playing to play Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Not because I am tired of Septerra, but because ever since I bought Amnesia, that is all I've thought about, and now I can't bring myself to finish Septerra before I play Amnesia. So Septerra is on hold for the moment.

I'll chime in with some encouragement - I found the late game a bit boring but only because it was easy and I was winning all the non-boss battles the same way - casting one or two affect-all spells. I'm a completionist sort of guy, so I cleared most areas once, but that was the extent of my grinding - kill every mob in an area the first time through. And I could have done less, since I found late-game battles trivial, including most boss fights (although the bosses did sometimes take a while).

Just steer clear of the "strong fighter" team members - all the slow, high-power ones (esp Runner and Badu) are actually pretty bad in a fight, because their damage per time is low AND they miss a lot thanks to low agility.