So, I've been playing Geneforge 1 after the recent Indie special weekend, and I've decided, for the moment, to drop it.
I've been finding it hugely grindy, either just able to handle a single encounter, or sometimes not able at all-even with the first, lots of returns back to a friendly town to get through any area. I'd consider myself midgame, about level 14/15 IIRC. Try multiple different uncleared locations and have this problem in pretty much all.
As the title says, I'm a shaper. Some strength, to accomodate items that seem to be moderately neccesary to cope, little Dex, som magic, most active skill points have probably gone into leadership and mechanics and some luck. As well as a few on shaping (fire) and healing. Use a cryoa.
So, I guess what I'm saying is, is it the fault of the build, the fault of the player for missing something (have tried to clear most areas fully to get those canisters), or is this a common experience?

I'm a first time player as well, level 14 Shaper so not an expert by any means but your lack of creations might be a problem.

Every few levels I put a point into INT, so I can afford a few creations with a decent amount of essence left over for spell casting; I now have a Fyora (from the start), a Cryoa and a Glaahk, giving a good combination of ranged and melee.

I use the Speed/War Blessing spells a lot which means that usually everything gets 2 shots (and a good to hit chance), so any single opponent is faced by 4 ranged shots from the Fyora/Cryoa plus another 2 shots from my character before the Glaahk runs in with a melee attack. With multiple opponents I concentrate on one at a time.

Don't worry I go back to a village on a regular basis but now that I cured the looooong load/save delay it isn't a grind anymore.

There are some areas that you aren't supposed to go to early as well, don't forget that.

DT1 is right but this info I will share is straight from the forums of spiderweb.

"A Shaper (Lifecrafter) should emphasize intelligence, and buy some healing craft and shaping skills. Don't invest in offensive magic, a Shaper doesn't need fancy spells when they can have a wingbolt army . Go for maximum party size (more creations the better) and upgrade creation types when you get access to a new creation that has a higher starting level. Keep all the healing-boosting items and items that boost your creations (sharing belt, etc). Also stay with 2 creation types for maximum boost. For example as a shaper you should have many different types and ways for your creations to damage people. So use fire creations for artillery and battle creations for tanking. Or magic and fire, or magic and battle."

The best way to getting past the game is by using different types of damage for different types of opponents. If an enemy is resistant to ice, use fire, physical then use poison. That info is straight from the forums.

Right, so multiple, less invested creations are better than what I have, which is one very heavy duty critter?
So, what would you guys suggest for creature builds then? my current creature (the solo one) is mostly invested into strength and dex, with some on endurance too, but obviously with smaller creatures the balance would be quite different?
Haste is a lifesaver, no doubt about it.

I play agents and guardians and this is why I know the shaper. Because the shaper is much much different than the agent and guardian. Agents and guardians are almost forced to accept a much smaller horde. Like mentioned on the spiderweb forums, there was a thread on this that basically stated the more bodies that are there, the less chance some rogue will dash through the lines and destroy you.

You have a few routes to how you make your shaper. You could do what a few shapers do and go a route of finesse and pump dexterity and make your batons a weapon of choice. This will make your shaper have much less of a need on battle magic spells and make your shaper harder to hit which is good. This will also free up points to spend on healing magic for your creations. That is one route. By mid to endgame you will find equipment that will help boost missile weapons skill so you don't waste points.

Another route is to go basic shaper and pump a little healing, and focus more on battle magic and mental magic spells to support your creations. Either route needs a heavy focus on intelligence and at least 1 shaping focus of the 3. Shapers don't need that much endurance to survive but a little isn't bad.

As for your creations, strength enhances to hit for all skills (melee, ranged, magic) Not dexterity. All dexterity does is enhance your evasion. Intelligence is good but only for 2 points. Low creations that are weak are better off with strength and dexterity as if they get hit, they generally die. Stronger creations need strength and endurance as they are tougher. You can still use strength and dexterity for strong creations, but it needs to be high to have an affect and you must be using stronger creations.

If you have any further questions there are many more people that can help you on the spiderweb forums. Im not a power gamer like a lot of the people on the site are. I play on normal and have only beaten one of the gene forge games. The people on the site go through on torment and use builds that I couldn't think of.

More creation are always better because they spread out the damage and allow you to inflict more in return. If you keep creations alive, even early creations such as fyora can be powerful and cost efficient additions to your party as they level up. Investing essense to boost creation attributes can be tempting, but in the long run it will stunt the size and effectiveness of your party. It's always best to work on creating a varied and effective core of veteran creations IMO, and if you are going to invest essence, do it on weaker creations such as Fyora which have a low cost for stat boosts. Upgraded forms of creations are rarely worth it in my opinion, as the cost in essence rarely justifies what you get out of them, unless you are using them as disposable canon fodder.

I beat GF1 on torment with a shaper, my build had lots of intelligence, I never added points to strength/dex/endurance (as far as I remember). I traveled light, leaving stuff on the ground when I needed to, my shaper basically was in the back casting spells or using batons (just to do something), creations did everything. I had mostly vlishs/drayks/glaaks, as many as my essence allowed me.

Alright, thanks. If I start getting bored with Warlords Battlecry 3 (Damn you GoG, why do you put nearly a quarter my wishlist on sale over two weeks), I'll try all the advice out. This may take a while......

That needs to be clarified.
Upgrading a creation has a very high cost and gives marginal returns compared to making an additional creation.
For the price of increasing a creations capabilities by ~10% over base you could get a second creation instead. For the price of increasing it another 10% of base you could get 2 more (cost of additional creations is static while cost of upgrade gets progressively more expensive)

Make sure to always put 2 levels of int for all creatures or else they will randomly turn on you, and being instagibbed by your own creature sucks.
If you want them to be AI controlled you can reenable AI control

I assume you mean buffing your creations with extra essence? As opposed to learning an upgraded form of that creature (like the cryoa instead of fyora)? I agree that buffing things with more essence is less useful than simply summoning more of them, but in many cases the improved alternative creations can be much better than the standard ones. Not always, but sometimes, especially with the more powerful ones.

yes

investing extra essence in a creature is an order of magnitude less effective than summoning another creature, with the exception of the first two points of int necessary to avoid it turning on you all the time.

learning an upgraded form has nothing to do with the above choice and is always a good thing.

Cool, just making sure. I think the only time I used extra essence for creations was when I didn't have enough left for an additional creature. But even then it can be better to save it for spells.

Its all wrong, one of the creations wasn't listed. Tom Cruise is a lvl 0 creation. He has the trait completely inept from Avernum and is so low in lvl, he is easier to destroy than an ornk. If you don't believe me watch his credibility with his strange behavior in Hollywood.

He should stay at home so he doesn't get injured from the fyoras and other creations that are nasty. One bite will give him a fever and maybe even syphilis if hes unlucky.