Shackleton
currently running a crew of:
- samurai (faelpurr) using katana + shield
- ranger (dracon) dual-wielding a hand-axe and a club
- priest (dwarf) using a flail (from what i gather it seems to be 2-handed, haven't bothered checking emonoya's website) + shield
in the back row:
- monk (rawulf) using M-range Spear (was disappointed Monks apparently don't learn Psionics spells in Gaiden 4; they do in Empire series and in western Wizardry titles 6-8)
- bishop (elf) using an M-range bullwhip (definitely 2-handed)
- mage (rawulf) completely nekkid
i really like the game but man is it a fucking pain to transfer items in order to identify them w/ your Bishop and my god, i have never missed so much the ability to cycle through characters... this is a major nitpick since DOS/Apple II wizardry titles allowed using numerical keys as hotkeys for partymemebers 1-6.
and argh, jesus fucking having to rest everyone 1 by 1...
anyway i found a cool thing: in the first floor of the 1st dungeon in the "Storage Area" there is a hall with 2 rooms, and in 1 room there is a switch you need to press in order to progress and right next to that switch/room is another mini-room with a wicker box you can "Search" and open and then a black cloud of bats/whatever attacks you and they give 1400+ E.P. when defeated.
if you stay rooted in the wicker box the first time you "Search" it and defeat the black cloud of bats you can continue using "Search" and and continue defeating the bats over and over racking up 1400 E.P. every time. as soon as you leave that tile though the wicker box goes dead (no more bats).
i mention this because it is almost certain that this same "trick" will work with any other Encounters that are triggered in a similar manner.