First: I just beat Alraune.

Took several tries... this boss is very bind-resistant so I was only sporadically able to bind it (her?), and never had all three binds at once so I couldn't use Ecstasy, and Alraune can do a lot of damage... the hits-all move only does a bit more than I can heal, but there's also one that almost kills one party member, and she can head bind your characters -- and given that my Medic had to be using Salve II every turn, that was a problem that killed me once or twice...
Oh, and my Alchemist was useless. Alraune is lighting resistent, and it's far too hard to hit her with poison to ever hope at succeeding. That made the battle take a lot longer, but I don't have any other characters I could swap in, and my Alchemist has no points in Fire or Ice (and I have no Troubadour to do a weapon enchantment that is high enough level to survive Alraune's attacks).

So winning took a while, with only the Darkhunter and Landsknecht really doing damage... but eventually I won.
... What else can I do to put off the final boss fight...

(Only four quests available currently, and they are all really annoying item collection ones that I don't really want to do...)
sennin said:
It is not possible to use a Hexer until B16f, hence I'm sure Black Falcon didn't rely on a Hexer during the 1st 3 strata. The other only option is that he used Dark Hunter. I've always wanted to try out a binding party... I guess now is a good time as any.
I thought I explained that, though, in one of my posts on this page.
My original party: (used until I unlocked the Hexer on floor 16)
(front)
Landsnecht 1
Darkhunter 1
(back)
Alchemist 1
Medic 1
Troubadour 1
My current party: (now in the upper 60s levelwise)
(front)
Medic 1
Darkhunter 1
Landsnecht 1
(back)
Alchemist 1
Hexer 1
My second party: (levels in the 30s, not used all that much)
Protector 1
Ronin 1
Medic 2
Alchemist 2
Troubadour 1
edit: Offense is the best defense. On the 5th Stratum, the sleep inducing plants spawn as 2* Muskoid and 1* Kingapis (hornet/wasp like mob) OR 1* Armoroll. I will use Flame during the preemptive round to get rid of 1 Muskoid, and use 1st Turn + Flame during round 2 on the 2nd Muskoid. Kingapis can use Venom to counter against turtling intents. The same principle applies to Clawlords, 1st Turn + Flame them before they have any chance of taking an action during a round if the Survivalist's Ambush did not kick in. 1st Turn is useful for both offense and defense, naturally if the party is dying your first order of business is to use Immunize/Defender/F. or B. Guard/SalveII.
Yeah, my problem is that the thing that kills them -- the Alchemist/Landknecht (Thor+Shocker) combo -- doesn't work because the enemies with sleep usually attack before my Alchemist does, and I don't have a Survivalist here for First Turn. The Landsknecht does go before them, though, so currently my best hope is using Allslash, which hits like three or four enemies, and expecting that at least one or perhaps both of them will die.
Earlier on, though, my only hope was to run and hope that I'd get away before I was wiped out. If you can't either escape or kill at least one of them before your party is put asleep, you're probably dead.
Oh, and Thunder works well on Muskoids too.
As for status ailments, there are generally 3 ways outside of Therica to deal with them. Sleep has not yet left an impression deep enough to trigger my maniac mode, I'm assuming these general tactics will work.
i.) Medic's Refresh, which is expensive skill points wise, as it requires 8 points to heal every single ailment.
ii.) Equipment with Ailment Resist Up. Amber Ring and Toxic Gage.
iii.) Troubadour's Recovery.
If I'm not mistaken, only Pixie is capable of inflicting Petrify. Curse is a bitch too, uggh, it actually neutralizes Apollon, unless you are rich and pack 5 NectarIIs/Medic with Revive whenever you go dungeon crawling.
Yeah, the fact that only one kind of enemy can petrify really does make it much less of an issue. Now if lots of enemies could do it, then I'd need to really worry about Therica or more points in Refresh... Sleep and Bindings are a bigger pain -- because you can't use the medic to remove bindings when the medic is bound... Landsknechts have arm heal of course, but that only affects arms and only works on them. So Therica A it is.
Now as for why gamefaqs users advocate strongly for combat medic, this is more apparent after one has access to unlimited cash during the 5th Stratum. $ can be a replacement for:
i.) Revive. Farm Sap Wine and Dry Peach to unlock Nectar II.
ii.) Thericas are free as long as you're willing to mine for materials to convert into cash. This negates the need for Refresh/Recovery.
Items have another distinct advantage over skills as anyone in the party can use them.
In other words, the skill points saved from Recovery (8), Unbind (5) and Revive (10, or 13 if you only put 3 points into Cure 3 without the intention of maxing it. Every Medic will benefit from a higher Healer stat.) can be redistributed into Atk UP and Caduceus 10. I have to disagree that combat medics are useless during the lower strata, as I've consistently used one from the start, and Caduceus out damage Protector's Smite, while normal hits out damage a Survivalist's bow strikes short of Multi-Hit and Apollon. This can hold true since Atk UP 10 is a 100% increase or 2.0 multiplier on the Medic's damage! Further, some enemies resist slash and pierce, but are weak to blunt weapons, hence a combat Medic is useful not just for Immunize + Salve II, but for contributing to the total damage output/round.
Despite my love for combat Medic, evidence to the contrary that "combat Medic is the ONLY way to go" is easily refuting it as an observation cemented in objectivity, since it was a sweeping statement in absolute terms to begin with.
I have Nectar II unlocked, but Nectar III more easily accessible would be so awesome... I have a couple from chests or something, they're great.
But still, Revive is better, though you don't need to put more than one point in it really. Consumables take up inventory space that you want to save for drops, after all... after consumables and unremovable items (taking up five spaces of inventory permanantly...

), I usually only have like 15-20 slots left for actual items, which fill up fast... annoying.
The main reason I kind of did a partway combat medic -- 10 Atk Up, only 1 in Revive, only 6 in Refresh -- was, as I said, for damage. Without a damage-dealing character in the fifth slot (that is, with a hexer) the medic really has to be able to do damage... otherwise things take longer because you only have a few actual damage dealers. I don't quite have Caduceus, though... I just reached 10 Atk Up at level 66, which is my Medic's current level. I started boosting Attack late...
I use a separate Survivalist designed to have 10 points each in Chop, Take and Mine. I'd bring her along with 4 others from my main party as escorts to material points and farm to unlock items I need, like Nectar II. The other 5 Survivalists are all levels 4~5, with 5~6 points in Mine each, they are the B21F money pot party. All in all, my merry band is packing 7 Survivalists.
I'm sure it's an easy way to make money, but that kind of grind just isn't any fun for me...
I never bother with these after the 2nd Stratum. Avoid "Fond Memories of you", as it is a bugged quest where the quest item stays in your inventory forever, depriving you of one precious item slot. =/ The rewards are usually $, which I don't need, or items that I've already unlocked. I'd look more into these later, and unless there is some unique reward I'm likely to skip them all.
I did that quest a long time ago. It is annoying.
I do do the quests though, because while just pointless grind is annoying, when there is an actual goal -- like mapping something, or doing a quest -- I like it more. So I eventually do them... but my least favorite kind are definitely the ones that require you to collect certain kinds of items.
This is the reason why I rested my Landsknecht to change from 2-weapon to Chaser build. Chasers are cool skills!
Blazer/Shocker/Freezer are the Chasers, yes? As I said, yes, some of my favorite skills. The only problem is that the Alchemist is so slow and often goes after the enemies, and I don't have First Turn with this party... oh well. It's still great.
One other bitching I'd like to do is directed at the limit placed on inventory slots. There should be quest rewards to increase the baggage limit. Also, EO needs a Thief job. It SUCKS that Alchemists and Medics, 2 of the most starved for skill points jobs, are home to Scavenge, which from a roleplay perspective is totally meaningless. Where's the classic Thief, with a classic role to deal with increased drop rates? =/
Because I pretty much did a Lightning-focused alchemist, with only 11 points in Poison skills versus 31 in the Volt ones, I really haven't had a big problem with skill points for the Alchemist... but if you are trying to fully cover two categories, yeah, then it'd be tough. And the Medic... brutal. So many things that need points, but you can't put stuff in all of them!
LegatoB said:
An important point: the Landsknecht will only follow up one character's attack of that element. So if you have a Ronin use an elemental slash before your Alchemist launches their hit-everyone-with-an-element spell, the Landsknecht will only follow up the Ronin's attack that turn. It's not an issue as long as you only have one guy using elemental attacks each turn; just be careful!
Worth knowing, but not really a major restriction. Shocker/Blazer/Freezer is an incredibly, incredibly useful skill to have.