So I started playing the game this afternoon and was wondering what everybody's combat strategy was. I feel that mine is not really that tactical and I am finding fighting the groups of Legionary Skeletons fairly hard. I should mention that I am only starting the 3rd level (the one that starts with the pillar of light). so my guys are not that well equipped.

My strategy, if you want to call it that, is pretty simple: Using the default party (Human Fighter, Minotaur Fighter, Human Rogue, Human Mage), I equip a Shield + sword for the HF, a mace and shield for the MF, a spear and throwing weapon for the HR, and staff and torch for the HM.

Once in Battle, I basically cycle between the main weapon attacks and will occasionally use a spell. I dont really know what to do with the rogue and basically use her as a third warrior. Aside from that I try and make sure that when I fight I back myself into a corner, ensuring that I can only get attacked from one side. Also I've noticed that the poison cloud spell doesnt really affect the skeletons. Can anyone confirm this?

TL;DR Just post your combat strategy and party make-up and hopefully we can hash out a super effective set-up!

I went custom and have a Minotaur and a Human fighter up front and a Lizardman and Human mage in the back.

The Minotaur is skilled in unarmed and the Human is skilled in Sword
The Ranged dude at hte back is focusing on missiles and the Mage is about even atm between Earth, Fire and Ice.

I have found that to be fairly efficient so far.

As for the Skeleton dudes, I have found that moving diagonally to one side and forward of them and waiting for them to move one square and the circling and hitting them from behind is good, though they are definitely quick to turn to the side, so the backstabbing benefits are lost if you aren't quick enough.

I think one of the reviews was pretty spot on about the control interface. I found it quick clunky for the first hour I played, and then just got into it for the second hour.

Are there quick attack keys for the different characters though? All I know is to right click over their "hands" on the little character display. I suppose I was hoping for something a little more automatic, like sorting spells and weapons out and then just having to click on the monsters to attack and having the cycle times define which person attacks when. Is there something like that?

You've got the same setup I do.

You need to actively move around to avoid attacks, which is especially important when fighting those skeletons since they attack so often. You also get bonuses for attacking the opponent's rear if you have the right skill.

I don't like how you can't queue up a spell, like stick in a couple of runes, hit 'Remember' and bam, right-clicking casts that spell automatically.

Hello,

i played to the third level too, so my experience is rather small with grimrock. Here is what i found out.

Skeletons seem to be immun to poison, which makes sense, because skeletons are dead already and have no flesh to be poisoned.

The Fire Blast spell hurts all enemies in the frontal square. So avoiding their frontal attacks plus casting fire blast on them, would be a good beginner tactic.

Bludgeon weopons like the mace seem to effect skeletons more then sharp weapons like axe and sword.

Basic fighting style for all monsters is hit them in the side, avoid being directly hit. Observe your enviroment and plan your retreat to a bigger room when fighting in narrow corridors. Look for trapdoors and linked activators to get rid of monsters quickly, by sedning them down the trap doors.

Party setup 2 warriors for front, two mages for second row. Why?:

So as party setup i would use two warriors with different weapon types like mace and sword or mace and axe to abuse monsters vulnerabilities most. I would spent my starting attributs all on dexterity to maximise my hitrate. Then i would spent my skillpoints soily on one weapon type, one warrior for mace one for axe or sword. Hit and damage is improved by skilling your weapon type.

Two mages for different spell schools. Fire is standart repertoir for a mage. Air was usefull in every dungeon crawler in the past. I think of spells like Fly or Levitate. Don't know wether this kind of spells are in Grimrock, but i will find out. When one mage is fighting, the other mage can conserve his mana. When the first goes out of mana, the second can jump in and continue the fight. Each mage will go for 1 spell school in my party setup if possible. One Mage fire and spell crafting, one air and spell crafting. Its better to concentrate on one damage school like fire for area effect damage then on two or three schools. One make will learn air for navigation.

Rogues are obsolete. Assassination skill seems to do nothing. In these kind of games its really hard to backstabb anyone,because the monsters try to face your party all the time. Perhaps backstab is used in sidestabbing also. Don't know. Ranged damage is really low, compared to melee attacks. And those pesky skeletons are not hurt by arrows. No traps to disarm or locks to unlock, so the rogue class seems pointless for efficient gameplay.

Races used for Mages Insectoids and for the Warriors humans. Minotaurs have to much penalty on hit for my taste. Humans get more skillspoints per level so they seem to be the strongest race for power gaming measures. Traits used skilled and agility for warriors, and strong minded and skilled for mages.

Have a nice day romping your favorite dungeon.

One of the early Assassination evolutions gives you an ability to melee from the rear. So then in effect you can have 3 melee fighters.

And I wouldn't rush to judgement about the ranged weapons. Yeah, thrown weapons like knives and shurikens are weak but in all my 20 years of playing RPGs I haven't seen a game where speccing for thrown weapons would be a sensible idea. So Grimrock is really traditional in this :)

We will have to see about the bow and arrow though. I just met a skeleton shooting frost arrows at me and it was quite annoying, solid damage too. So let's wait and see.

What's the strategy for those green plant thingies on lvl 2 that have a ranged poison attack or something? It damages everyone in the party at once.

I have no spells I can use so I've been cycling between my custom 4 guys - the fighters are lvl 2, mage/rogue are lvl1 - with melee (they still miss a lot) and occasional thrown missiles. So far, not working. I'm sure I'll figure out a way after a few more reloads but...lol. Good stuff.

Go dancing... and step aside! And then beat the snot out of them... :-D

From my understanding there are no hotkeys for attacks. It's pretty annoying to have to constantly select the spell you want but I generally leave the spell for my last attack. When I am keying in the runes to make the fire ball or poison cloud spell, all my other attacks are generally cooling down.

I guess I am too used to turn-based rogue-likes to have thought to move around. Will definitely give it a try and see if that helps to mitigate some damage.

Like many others who posted here, I take advantage of the movement system and circle around by focusing on attacking from the side and quickly moving away before the monster can turn to face me and attack. Since there is usually some warning of an upcoming monster, I mentally plan my backwards retreat in order to lure the monster into a larger area. I completely disagree about the effectiveness of Rogues. My initial party has two Rogues (1 in front and 1 in back) and they are both landing attacks with good amounts of damage. No, backstabs does not work when attacking from the side. However, you can plan you attacks in advance and nimbly maneuver your party around to set yourself up for a backstab with enough practice; the end result is impressive. Final thought, Rogues are designed to be evasive secondary attackers, so they are never going to deliver the same amount of damage as a fighter. But if you carefully plan how you want to develop your Rogue and adapt your play style to take advantage of their skills, they can be very helpful additions to your party.

The tree guys are tough, especially the room where there are two or three of them (sorry if you haven't gotten there yet.. but I wouldn't exactly say it's a spoiler :p) You basically need to try to not get cornered and be conscious their poison cloud sticks around for a bit. That, and they don't seem to have a "front" so they can shoot in what seems to be any direction at any point. What I've been doing is wait until they start to move a square and I dart in for a hit or two. This won't allow them to get an attack in, which in turn causes fewer gas clouds sitting around for me to get caught in.

As far as group composition, I think you could get away with whatever you want. I have a mage in the back, and her lvl 2 fire blast, or whatever, spell is great for groups, and is almost exclusively what I use her for. My rogue is also in the back, using the assassination talent that allows her to attack from the back row, and has thrown weapons in her off-hand so I don't have to go into the inventory to switch to and from melee.

That being said, try stuff out and pick your own groups - you'll have more fun that way :)

So what I was doing is about the size of it. With my mage, at least for the first attack and if there is time, I will key in the spell, and then leave that until I have used the other characters and then have a quick spell to launch before moving away far enough to be able to key it in again. That is my only gripe, instead of looking at the game area and monsters, I'm looking at the bottom right of the screen and missing out on the action.

Do spears have a related skill? I finally went back to the start to make my own party and I can't seem to find one.

I'm guessing rogues become more important later for evading certain traps or magic damage? Maybe ranged weapons fire faster? Otherwise I can see the plus side to dropping a rogue for another mage... the lure of maxing out spell schools faster is tempting but then there's that fiddly spell casting interface. 2x that is not tempting.

Be nice if the hard mode added attacks of opportunity, maybe a half strength blow, anything to put a bit more risk on circle strafing beyond accidentally running into a dead end/trap. Its a bit easy to strafe & turn for free hits.

Until you find enemies that turn AND hit at the same time, like Mr Ogre.

Well I guess some of my personal "trouble" is that I seem to suck at strafing with the tile based movement. :D The fast response speed on my PC (or something) has me turning in circles instead of 1/4 turn, when I think I've just hit the key once, and then I become all discombobulated, haha.

I tried using the mouse click arrow menu instead but that's not much better since it means I have to move the mouse all over the place (arrows to portraits etc). I am getting better but the speed thing is just very weird for me. :/

Human Fighter, Minotaur Fighter, Human rogue and Lizard Mage in the back. The lack of ranged ammunition early on, made my rogue rather useless on longer fights, so I eqipped her with a spear (reach weapon) and some throwing knifes.
Down to level 3 in Grimrock and so far I had no major Problems with the circling strategy. Of course all this goes to hell, if you're getting swarmed or if there's no room to maneuver.