Difficulty so high!

[Firia]

It could be that I'm just to used to the Contemporary norm American RPG's like Skyrim over the classic challenge of old school dungeon crawlers, but Grimrock II is whooping my ass!

I'm not very far, just to the caves of ... Desura? I think, that's what it's called. The one with frost elemental(s) and huge king crab monsters. I've got the default party, with my front-most fighters being light and heavy arms/armor. My alchemist is a reach-melee supporter, and my mage is spread across several elemental magics (2 fire, 1 earth, 1 water). Monsters are kicking my butt! The stone elementals outside the dungeon were a beast to beat, and the zombies in the near by bog almost always kill the front line fighters before the mage can eek out a victory with magics. Now these Crabs in Desura dungeon are taking the party down with hardly a fight.

Any suggestions on how to ease my adventure?

[Dr.Disaster]

Aye it can be a bit rough if you haven't played the first game or are not used to grid-based realtime action.

Face-Tanking is not a good idea in LoG. Any hit evaded is less damage taken so be agile, move a lot, use hit-n-run tactics, ranged attacks, special attacks and such.

When you got the feeling "oh my this is too hard" your party prolly needs to build some muscles first. Crabs are heavily armored hard hitting folks with a lot of health; not easy to down by a young group. So take a look into other not yet explored, skipped or even already explored areas; maybe they got repopulated.

[Ixnatifual]

On easy you can face tank a lot of monsters, but not all. If you meet a crab, backpedal and juke so it doesn't get to face you. This way it can't attack. Typical tactic against single creatures is finding a 2 by 2 square area where you can wait for the monster to move into the square in front of you. As it enters the square, you attack and then side step before it can face you. Repeat as necessary, although take care since some monsters have tricks of their own.

If you're in a particularly difficult battle, bombs, potions and other consumables go a long way.

It's usually a bad idea to get stuck in a corner if it can be avoided, as it takes away your ability to side step attacks.

[minmay]

On easy you can face tank a lot of monsters, but not all. If you meet a crab, backpedal and juke so it doesn't get to face you. This way it can't attack. Typical tactic against single creatures is finding a 2 by 2 square area where you can wait for the monster to move into the square in front of you. As it enters the square, you attack and then side step before it can face you. Repeat as necessary, although take care since some monsters have tricks of their own.

Close, but you actually don't have to wait.

[Firia]

I've utilized some of the advice given and my survivability is up! I defeated the crabs, and the frost elementals. It was still a challenge, but I'll be sure to stay light on my feat in the future.

[Ixnatifual]

On easy you can face tank a lot of monsters, but not all. If you meet a crab, backpedal and juke so it doesn't get to face you. This way it can't attack. Typical tactic against single creatures is finding a 2 by 2 square area where you can wait for the monster to move into the square in front of you. As it enters the square, you attack and then side step before it can face you. Repeat as necessary, although take care since some monsters have tricks of their own.

Close, but you actually don't have to wait.

I know, but waiting is simple to explain and execute.

[Frenchie]

You could also make a list in to see which attack is the best. A bit of logical thinking is not to fight fire with fire, etc. Fight slow monsters melee and try to hit fast monsters with ranged attacks. Blunt weapons for skeletons and swords for flesh monsters. Cowards life longer, but smart players shield themselves behind walls. Also keep your magic shields up and keep multiple healing and energy potions ready in your second hands. Always make enough of them in a safe area.

Edit: even if blunt weapons don't affect skeletons more in LoG they should have more effect then flesh cutting weapons. That's logical thinking! And that is also an option on the 'list' to see which attack is the best...

And I certainly hope that AH will fix this in LoG3: swords for cutting flesh, maces for crushing bones, axes for hacking off limbs, spears for puncture wounds, etc.

[minmay]

Blunt weapons for skeletons and swords for flesh monsters.

This is nonsense. There is no blunt/slashing/chopping/etc distinction in Grimrock. All physical attacks will affect skeletons (and all other monsters) the same way.
There are some weapons that bypass some amount of protection ("Ignores 5 points of enemy's armor") but this has nothing to do with whether they are swords or maces. As far as I know, there is no difference at all between swords, maces, axes, etc. in Grimrock 2.

[2_hype]

Skyrim is a casual action/adventure game they are completely different.

[Firia]

Skyrim is a casual action/adventure game they are completely different.

It sounds like you missed the point and then stopped reading. It's okay. The issue has been resolved.