Sorry, me again. Hope I'm not bothering anyone but I'm having some troubles with the dinosaur in QFG3.

I've come across a dinosaur two or three times in my travels (mind you, I'm on day like 34 in the game, so that seems like pretty much nothing to me), but every time I would encounter one I KNEW I wasn't nearly ready enough to actually kill one, so I would always just run away. Now that I'm actually to the point that I need to kill one for the horn, and hopefully my character's stats are high enough that I actually can now, I can't come across one to save my life! I have spent several in-game days looking around outside for a dinosaur, but I just keep coming across giant ants and crocs. Am I doing something wrong? I can't progress in the game any further until I kill a dinosaur and get the horn, so I'm stuck if I can't find one.

Also, I'd appreciate some tips on how to kill the dinosaur too. Thanks!

EDIT: And, of course, as soon as I posted this I came across a dinosaur FINALLY. So, disregard this! But, my own tip for defeating the dinosaur is to slide the skill lever all the way to the bottom before going into the fight. It was the only way I could defeat him.

Alternatively, just pepper him with thrown rocks/daggers or flame darts, fleeing if necessary to drink a waterskin of Erana's Pool water to recover your stamina.

Funny, I couldn't even make a trip between the Simbani village and Erana's pool without encountering at least three dinosaurs on the way. My character being a pure mage, I used the Fire Dart spell, which I had perfected in the first two games.

It is also possible that the skill setting matters as to what monsters you encounter. So on hard dinosaurs may be encountered more often than on normal, and on easy they may be really rare.

P.S. If you still have trouble dealing with dinosaurs, stop and practice your skills, you will be fighting much tougher opponents later on.

Thanks to everyone who added their tips. They're all great. As a note, I did try fiddling with the skill level to see if that would enhance my chance of meeting a dinosaur and it didn't seem to change anything at all. So, I don't know if that actually has anything to do with it not. All I know is it didn't effect my game, at least.

Thanks again for everyone's input! Hopefully this will help someone else who has a hard time defeating the dinosaur.

I'll second what was said above: if you're having trouble killing a dinosaur then you need to work on your combat skills, or (if you're weary of fighting ants and crocs), spend some time doing other things that will improve your physical stats. The spear-throwing and bridge-wrestling practice in the village is good for both, but you can also head out into an empty savannah area, pick up rocks, and throw them for both throwing practice and Str/Agi training.

If you have any cross-class skills (especially Climbing) then practicing those may also help.

Garran is right; skill building is an important part of QfG gameplay, and this is true for the entire series. There is either an unlimited amount of time, or sufficient amount of time between important game events (QfG2), to spend whole days training. I usually have my own training schedule, like practicing combat in the morning, handing out roses in the afternoon and casting spells in the evening, or something similar. Sounds repetitive, but I respect the game for their realism in this regard.