Some battle strategies if your getting stuck with certain monsters.

Brute Force (ktc)
Use your characters and just whack the enemies. Try to put the strong characters with the weak so that the strong takes out the bulk of the hp, and the weak picks the enemy off.

Thunderstorm spell(shaz)
Early on, if you get the Thunderstorm spell from Raquel and have Gavin in your party, he can wipe out enemy parties with that. Excellent against the flying toads if they don't put everyone to sleep first, and great in Brightwood Forest!

Lullaby (ktc)
Use Nicolas and put the enemies to sleep. Than keep whacking them. Periodically use Nicolas to put them to sleep again.
Note: (whisperingmist)
if you put enemies to sleep, there's a much higher chance they will wake up if you whack them with regular attacks. So, if possible, it's probably best to keep using magic when putting enemies to sleep.

"Iya" them (Phoenix Sphere) (ktc)
With monsters like in Ice Cavern and White Pass, Iya's a huge help. Monsters there have lots of hp and attack power. With Iya though, they are all a piece of cake. Level Iya up to the point she knows Radiance Song. The monsters in White pass and Ice Cavern are especially weak against her spells. If you level her up to high 60's + radiance song, Iya can pretty much handle most enemies.

Poison/Plague (whisperingmist)
Gavin's poison spells, as well as Ean's Plague (Behemoth form) are very helpful, too. They usually take a pretty good chunk of HP from the enemies every turn
Can also buy the Plague spell at Bogwood .

Chicken Curse them (Bought at Bogwood ) (ktc)
Chicken Curse can "freeze" the monsters for practically the whole battle. It also curses the whole party making it extremely useful since you don't have to be selective with which monster to curse.
Example:
You're facing a group of Vampire Bats from Land of the Dead.
Have Iya curse them using a chicken curse spell. If she is successful, the enemies will freeze and you can kill them at ease since they won't attack you.

When all else fails: Run (ktc)
Most of the monsters are fairly easy to avoid. So if you don't have to fight: don't fight.


All Locations (nearly) (Shaz)
When coming to a new nature area where you're in for battles, follow the path as quickly as possible right through to the end, avoiding encounters on the way. You'll usually find a village or city at the other end, where you can upgrade equipment, weapons, restoratives, etc, that will make battles in that area easier, and you have a "base", usually with an inn, that you can return to when you are running low. Using an inn is WAY cheaper than using your restoratives, so take advantage of them!