Grimrock

I finally got this after 4 hours of trying. Normal 3:49s

Some hints:
Do on normal.
Create party, dont use premades. Do this Fast, if you take longer then 40s to be ingame you wont clear the level in time.
once you have done your characters press ESC key to bypass intro.

Party=
2x human warriors - 16 str, 17 dex, 4 points in unarmed combat. Traits= Agile & Fist Fighter
2x human mages - Max out Willpower and dont worry about other 4 points = 16 Willpower. 2 points in both Fire and Spellcraft. Traits= Aura & Strong mind.

As soon as your in the game press escape, check your statistics for time, if its over 40s do it all again.
Once you have it done in 40s, save this as DR-01 or whatever you want to call it...

Now the idea is to do segments of the level as fast as you can.
Start to 2nd iron gate = 48s
2nd iron gate to switch on 3rd iron gate = 54s
3rd iron gate to 4th iron gate = 1:09s
4th iron gate to key in wooden door = 1:22s
wooden door to switch for iron gate = 1:27s
From there you have to kill 2 snails, retrive key, then unlock wooden door = 1:56s
Now head left and retrieve first Gem. Fight only 2 snails. When you come back from there and are standing in line of sight with the Gem face it should be 2:35s
Now head right side. Kill 3 Treemen and retieve the other Gem, come back and open Gem door = 3:23
Dont fight the Skelly just backup till you can get past it then run like crazy to stairs.

Cool! Thanks for manual

3:49 as well, with 4 fistfighters. Got a nice rhythm going with the swaps. Also for the first gem, you can drop 2 snails into the pit instead of fighting them, and set the torch on the button that closes the gate so you don't have to wait for it to open again.

Thanks to your guide I managed to join the Dungeon Runner club

Finish time was 3:52 with 2 fistfighters and 2 mages. Pretty much followed your creation guide but only took the fistfighter and aura traits.

I got very lucky with the snails section in my winning run - I only had to kill one snail to get the gem. The tree section was the worst for me as I had to kill 3 of the suckers and the fight didn't go particularly well in terms of misses and damage.

I'm sure that very fast times are possible as I have previously beaten the tree section whilst only having to kill one, and with a few save points along the route I am sure that someone can get close to 3 minutes. Anyone want to start a leaderboard?

This would be much easier if the character creation time wouldn't count. Why to start this on normal and not easy?

Do it on normal because monsters walk faster - it's easier to dodge the monsters when they move faster.

4x Human Fistfighter,
Get maximum damage with:
- 4 points in Unarmed Combat,
- Fistfighter and Aggressive Traits
- Ability points in Strength then Dexterity for accuracy

After a few goes you should have this down in close to 40 seconds, worth spending the time on it because the extra damage really speeds up combat.
I was getting a number of misses but the fact is you're not going to do this first time, so might as well leave more to chance and hope for a lucky run.

Always start from the beginning until you can see the eyeless head in just over 2min.
Combat is a bit manic but you'll get the hang of attacking and switching rows.
Going right, you'll probably have to fight 3 of the herders and can dodge the 4th. Just head right for the switch and know which ones you have to kill and which you can avoid.
Going left, you could get lucky - on my winning run I did badly on the herders but then I only had to fight 1 snail. Use the torch/snail slices to weigh down the inner plate before going in.

I has this also. Took lizardmen unarmed for the front row, maxxed Str the rest on Dex. Fist Fighter + Skilled with all points on unarmed. For the others, two insectoid mages with all points on fire, didn't bother distributing skills to save time, the damage benefit versus time taken to do so wasn't worth it. Was out of character selection at 0:35.

I checked statistics and saved to a new slot every time I had to wait for a door to open, also at every door I would select the fire rune so it was ready for quick casting at the next snail.

My biggest issue was how random the enemy placement could be. Going for the left blue gem, it would fluctuate between 1 and 3 snails behind the grate. Sometimes when there was one or two, the third snail would sneak up behind me and block my way back to the dragon's head. In my final run, I was lucky enough to have just one snail in the room (dropped a torch on the pressure plate to make for a quick get-away), and was able to make it out without any further fights.

Another tip worth mentioning, as you run past torches, the cudgel, rocks, etc. pick them up and put them in your off-hand on all characters rather than even attempting inventory management, items come in handy for pressure plates. Also remember you can still press buttons and attack while you have an item picked up, such as a key you're about to use.

ARGH! i missed by 21 secs!... i'll get this done and join the club!

YES! made it by 3:56 with disasterrific's method!

I did it with 4 mages.

For each mage, put as many points as you can in willpower (16 max) and put 3 points in ice magic so you can cast ice shards. You will start in the dungeon at 20-25 seconds.

Ice shards hits all squares in front of the caster so you can hit more than one enemy at once.

For the first two snails, they are in line so you can kill them both with 3-5 castings.

For the gem snails, I lure them all into the pit so the mages fully recharge.

Then run into the broccoli shrooms and if you line them up you can wipe 3 out of 4 with one round of casting if they line up in last room with the switch, then just dodge the last one.

Then grab the second gem and head for the stairs! Dodge the guard, of course.