Edit:

It's incredible how much a change of pawns and slight equipment modification can make this game easier :D

Finally beat it. Yay!

@Morrow:

Chimeras? really? Well ok i'll try some basic tips:

• since you just visited the duke, the vendors will once again upgrade their inventory, so new gear should help you out
• meteor shower thingy spell is your friend against large enemies couse it hits an area, this spell can pretty much one shot a Chimeras at high spell power levels, Cyclops can be perma stunned with lightning spells, Saurians are weak to ice (normal ones anyway), undead to light magic, etc
• to get off big long cast spells, get the faster cast time augment, the augment that makes you harder to stagger/knockdown during casts, and if you're still ahving issues with that an Ogre ring
• as a mage you should not be in the thick of it or getting hit at all, get a tank pawn a warrior with the shield drum skill and guardian/migitator despositions to help out
• keep one or two quicker casting spells on you for smaller enemies
• Gold Idol, look it up on gamefaq's (i don't have a link on hand right now), doing a quest to get it and giving it to one of the merchants will tremendously increase their stock and give them some top of the line gear to sell, barrig that a Silver Idol quest is self explanatory on the board and that will also unlock mroe gear albeit a bit less
• switch to Warrior proffesion to get the very first augment the greatly reduces physical damage taken, you can then switch back to sorcerer proffesion without any need to level warrior
• having a good scather/migitator ranged pawn in your party like a ranger/strider can also help out with the smaller enemies

Also don't worry too much 30-40 is this games "hump" during this period a lot of people feel they become way overpowered and the game gets too easy from then on untill well some other stuff. Up untill 20-30 it can be indeed tough going when you meet stronger monsters for the first time and don't yet know their weaknesses and threats they pose.

But yea gear can be a bit of a power bottleneck before meeting the duke.

@Tennmuerti:

Thank you so much, that's really some useful info! :]

Some things I found useful:

Spend some time selecting your hired pawns, try to find ones that complement you and your main pawn and/or have skills that are beneficial to what you're planning to do. For example, too many elemental enchantments will just lead to you or your pawns wasting time overriding each others enchantments, possibly with less optimal ones. As a rule of thumb I think 2 should be plenty for most situations, Holy and Fire (or just Fire) for 'early game' and Holy and Ice (or just Holy) for late/post game. Similarly, I avoid pawns with more than one lightning spell - lightning is good/useful to have btw.

Give your pawns healing/stamina items. Apparently people don't do this and complain that the Mage they hired 'didn't do anything'. Large Mushrooms can be found in abundance or are cheap otherwise. Alternatively, fish is good for replenishing stamina, especially if you keep it around for a while (day or so) and they go 'rank'.

If Gold is a problem and keeps you from enhancing or replacing your equipment. Idols and Idol Forgeries provide a discount at shops when kept in your inventory (not storage). Gold Idol gives the highest discount (30%) and making a forgery (~187,000) is probably well worth it. Likewise when selling stuff, it could be worthwhile hiring some (Sorcerer/Mage) pawns with the 'Suasion' augment and/or enable it on yourself and/or your main pawn. It does stack, so the more the better. It allows you to sell items at a higher price, which is ofcourse more beneficial when selling already valuable items or large quantities.

Higher level pawns can make things easier as well, also because they might have better knowledge about monsters, areas and quest apart from potentially being more powerful/capable. How much higher level depends on your own ideas, but keep in mind that typically during a quest or mission you'd level up once or several times anyway.

@d0rks:

Thank you!

btw nice Paprika avatar :]

If your on 360 I'd say send me a friend request then you can take my lvl 90 pawn around for free and have her wreck stuff for you. =p

@Demoskinos:

Aww, that's too kind, but I'm PS3 only ^^

I had trouble when I first played the game, and that was because I just did the main quests and didn't really bother exploring and doing all the side quests. I re-started the game a few times before it clicked for me and I was able to play and enjoy. I played as a Fighter and then moved on to Warrior, because I love melee fighting.

What I found helped a lot was to explore every area I was into, like I went around every corner of Cassardis, same with the Encampment and the area around it, and same for Gran Soren. I also kept changing my support pawns and chose pawns that complemented my main character and my main pawn. My main pawn was a Mage, so I always got a Ranger and a Fighter (I found the Fighter really helped my Warrior be even better in battles).

But also, I always had a huge stack of curatives in case I came across a really tough enemy. So when I first stumbled across Saurians in that sewer in Cassardis, I used a lot of curatives and defeated them. I also sold all the items I accumulated over time, to keep my money up. I spent a lot of time going back and forth between vendors, inn and other vendors, lol.

Also when you come across a big enemy like a Chimera, if you're a fighter or a strider, make sure you try and climb on the beast as you are more likely to make them fall to the ground that way and make more damage. And as someone else pointed, get the augments from different classes to make your character stronger.

Hope this helps a bit.

Also learn to use your spells to full effect. High Frazil makes it very hard for enemies to close with you because you get an aoe with you at the center. Necromancy creates floating skulls that attack enemies that approach you and make it easier to get off spells. Fulmination will outright obliterate enemies while also protecting you if you stand around other people in your party and chain mobs into multiple auras at once.

Also don't be afraid to just run your ass away if the rock meets the hard place.

@Libertin: @Karkarov: Thanks guys :)

Great advice from everyone, I agree with others especially with switching to warrior class to reduce physical attacks for the augment. Also using ranged pawn like a strider or ranger will help greatly with melee targets. And beast up your equipment to 3 stars if you can especially fire-based magic to set the Chimera ablaze. You also should grab a warrior or fighter pawn that has a mendicant inclination to help protect you as well.

Instead of starting a new thread, I edited my first post.

Edit:

And a new problem arises. I'm currently lvl 55 and struggle hard in post-game. I think that's pretty unusual, considering some ppl beat the game lvl 40-ish. My damage seems to be ok, but me and my pawns take severe damage. I tried upgrading my gear as far as I could, but still.

I can handle the smaller enemies in the new Everfall, like hellhounds and grimgoblins, but as soon as I have to fight a boss monster, all the smaller enemies around it chop me to pieces. Especially that one attack that looks like a giant tornado from that Wraith enemy is annoying as hell. Any advice would be greatly appreciated ._.

I'll post my current stats, so maybe someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong...

lvl 55 Assassin

Attack/Magic 527/620

Defense 456/362

What classes and levels are the pawns? Have a mage with high anodyne that can heal your party. With the Wraith knock out with a bow using fivefold flurry if my memory serves me. great rapid fire that does pretty good damage.

Also it's best to take down the smaller enemies when they are grouped with the large bosslike enemies, leave the pawns to deal with them and only run to them when your pawns are down.

If you have a sword, intimate gambit is excellent with the boss enemies when they're stunned.

You can hire my ranger pawn if you'd like, I'm on PS3: SkyTown Drifts (level 84 I think? everything dragonforged).

Let me know if you need anymore help

@SkyTown_Drifts:

Thanks a lot :) I can't afford a lvl 84 pawn tho xD I'll try switching my pawns out... I've been using a melee main pawn and two mages because I had a feeling magic attacks make lots of damage. But I think they get hit before they can cast...

I don't know if it'd ruin the gameplay experience for you, but I have a level 100-something pawn, and from what I recall you can hire pawns from your friends list for free. You're damn close to the epilogue though.

@Morrow said:

But I think they get hit before they can cast...

And yes, I'd keep only one mage or sorcerer in the group, their spells do great damage in boss fights, but they have a habit of always waiting until the spell is overcharged before casting it, which could take upwards of 8 seconds if it's one of those top-tier spells, very prone to interruption in situations like the one you described with several enemies running around.

@Demoskinos: I'm pretty sure I used your pawn for my entire playthrough, thank you very much.

@Opus:

Thanks, but after some slight party and equipment adjustments, things went easier and I'm now close to lvl 60 on my second playthrough :)

@musclerider: Well thanks for using her. I'm glad she's been of use to people.