Yeah looks like your party is pretty squishy. I don't think Guard Order will help you that much unless it's a very high level. :/ My Hoplite really helped that fight by preventing everyone from dying... Provoke and Line Guard really helped there. Make sure your Monk has at least Line Heal and Revive too.

Erm, I don't think you can escape from the Narmer fight, though I never tried it. Narmer will run when he's 50% or less HP though, and you can heal up then.

@HM...so I guess you are suggesting I alter my party? Gotcha on Narmer running.

@MERG At that level you should be able to beat him with any party. You just have to be patient and realize some turns will be devoted to healing and boosting your status. You might need to bind the head but I don't think I even had a wilding for that fight. Use your special skills for defense and attacks only if you have to and keep your healers alive. Always bring healing herbs or heal your prince so he can keep healing you party. If need be if not already there put the prince in the back row so he doesn't get hit as much.

I don't think you'll have to modify your party unless you really can't figure out any way to win and you keep losing. Chris gave some good advice - don't focus on attacking all the time. When you do, blind, head bind and volt attacks can help, and multiple target attacks help when he jumps into the mud. If you can upgrade your defense that would help too. Put your highest defense/HP people in the front row because Mud Throw hits only the front row.

Thanks for the advice guys...I'll keep at it.

I double checked your party and still think you can do it but you really don't have any heavy hitters in that combo. Prince and monk aren't bad but a gladiator or arbalist would be better then a ninja for now. You really do have to many support characters in your party.
Edit: The farmer is good for leveling and gathering but if he has to be in your party for boss fights give him a status effect weapon. Don't know if you have it yet or not but I got a knife with 4 to 6 blind spots in it that he uses but it only has 1 attack points so no damage but higher chance for blinding. I also have a paralyzing weapon for other players but haven't had to use it just yet. Although I now need it to get a certain item from one of the monster.

I'll keep trying on Narmer...if that doesn't work somewhat soon I'll adjust my party.

Yeah Ninja has pretty good attack but they can die pretty easily. You're too support-oriented without strong offence or defence so it'll be tough especially after the first stratum.

@Tech I've had my farmer in all of my boss fights so far. Even without a subclass he can do some really great stuff like binding head, arms and feet and lowering enemy attack. Really helped me out before.

Okay...so I guess I will retire my ninja and have a gladiator instead. Will I get bumped down to level one for the gladiator?

@MERG I believe so. You should make one of every character and put skill points in their combat study so they will level up while they sit there!

ummm.seriously? Wow...there is alot I don't know about this game. UGH!!

Also, is there a certain level when you can retire characters? I can't seem to access the "retire" button.

With combat study, would I need to create characters, level them up to 2, and then allocate 1 skill point to combat study?

@MERG You want to Rest your characters if you want to just change their skills. They lose 5 levels but all skill points are deallocated.

Characters start with 3 skill points at level 1 so put all 3 in Combat Study on your benched characters right away. Then keep adding more until the skill gets maxed.

@HM hahahahahaha...before I read your post I "rested" my ninja. Oops...I lost 5 levels.

So I should create one of each character type, put the skill points to combat study and then leave them alone?

I'm really not trying to annoy you guys with my EO3 questions but...

Should I have combat study maxed out for all of my characters?

I don't and probably wont either!

Well, after trading out my ninja for a buccaneer and leveling him up I beat Narmer on the second try...FINALLY. Now on to the second stratum.

And I assume Narmer will be the easiest of the bosses?

Very much so. Narmer is a pushover. The normal FOEs in the second stratum are harder.

Ummmmm....gee, thanks for the heads up. I'm not sure I can bear changing my party again and grinding all over again to level up. Oh well, I'll see how it goes.

You don't need to grind that much if the character is already sitting there with combat study!

Should the 2nd stratum be accesible through the menu or do I have to go through the entire 1st stratum to get to the second. And if I've been ignoring the sea should I get back to it?