One really crappy thing is that when a character does not fight in a combat, they regenerate lost hit points and magic points. That s not the crappy part. That is when your opponents have that same ability. It made for some lengthy combats. Magic in this situation really helps.
Any ranged attacks help.
Later in the game I decided to see if there were any cheat codes available. So I downloaded the patch, and this did change the layout of the combat screens. It made them way better than before, and made combat a little easier. I applaud JC Research for this great patch. The scrolling text boxes were annoying when talking to main storyline characters.