I was on my way to Tyr-Sog and got a couple of encounters. I beat them and moved on, and then I got two warnings from my companions, in dialogue, that there may be a trap ahead. There was, of course, it was a man. Battle entered as normal, except four colored rods erected around him. The first time, I ran in to him and tried to melee him, and the rods conducted electricity through my companion's bodies, resulting in a defeat. I reloaded the save, and tried to go around it, but no matter how I approach it, I get the same trap. So I had my spellcaster use the spell 'Invitation' (pulled the guy in to his own rod shock). I laughed hysterically as well as victoriously, only to realize that combat still didn't end even though he was defeated. I couldn't retreat, I couldn't wait it out by having them rest, I was stuck in battle with four rods that are impossible to attack. All I can do is run in to them and die.



What do I do? I couldn't find this covered in the manual at all, and I have no idea what to do in this situation.

You have to move past the traps, to the other side of the battlefield.
BTW, using Invitation in that manner was clever.

As in all traps in this game, the goal is to navigate the traps towards the "back of the screen". Also later in the game there's a spell (skin of the dragon or something, can't remember exactly) that makes you invulnerable to everything for a short while, and with it you can simply walk through the traps and save time.

I've heard it's grossly overpowered?
I think I'll only use it if the game throws some real cheese at me.

It is. However it makes killing ghosts at Sethanon possible. Generally it's useful against magic wielding creatures (and traps).

There's also a spell (Black Nimbus) that disables a single trap-crystal with each casting, although it's a relatively obscure one.

Traps consist of several standard components. When it comes to the 'lightning rod' crystals that create lightning lines, they (usually) operate in pairs and you can avoid being zapped by not stepping between them while moving. This often requires that you navigate a square or two per turn so that the pathfinding doesn't send the character in the wrong direction.

There's always a way through without having to "cheat" (Skin of the Dragon, Black Nimbus, or simply having enough health/absorption to soak up the trap damage). The traps in the initial area are very simple, generally just involving a couple of pairs of lightning rods; later traps will add other components, some of which you may need to manipulate to get through.

I think this is the trap you mean
[url=https://notendur.hi.is//~eybjorn/krondor/com1-16.html]https://notendur.hi.is//~eybjorn/krondor/com1-16.html[/url]

Notice the white lines on the ground between the poles? When you cross those you will get hurt. you can navigate through them without getting hurt though.

In later traps you can also push the clear crystal things to trigger fireballs that will hit the trap poles and disable the crystals.

Aha!

I know it's years late for this thread but if anyone else is searching for tips on these puzzles, here's the BIGGEST thing I was previously missing -- because it's counter to anything else you do in the game, and is not at all obvious.

You can push the solid and clear crystals DIAGONALLY. It's non-obvious, to say the least, because you CANNOT ATTACK characters in melee combat from the diagonal. But with this added discovery, all of the traps in the game appear to now be solvable without taking any damage. Just keep the following in mind:

* Pushing any crystal, clear or solid, between the poles of an ACTIVE "electrical" trap will destroy that crystal; the fireball cannon will NOT destroy either type of crystal
* Triggering a fireball (with a clear crystal) that passes between the poles of an ACTIVE "electrical" trap will cause the fireball to be "destroyed" by the trap. Odd, and seemingly not the way things should work, but this means if you want to use a fireball to deactivate one of the traps, and the trajectory of the fireball would pass through another active trap before reaching its destination, you have to deactivate the closer trap off first.
* Lastly, the "electrical" trap poles WILL block fireballs -- if there is one of these poles (from a deactivated trap, obviously, otherwise you'd be zapping yourself) between you and a cannon, the fireball will NOT be triggered as you pass by.

It might help to see an actual example, so just for fun, I put up an example of this in action on YouTube.

Hope this helps someone else. I know it would've helped me! ;-)

Cheers.

This trap is supposed to be used to do the Broken Elf Crossbow trick. It's also useful for increasing Locklear and Gorath's crossbow skill. Like all traps, It can be used to increase the Casting skills for Owyn, Patrus, and Pug by casting the Gift of Sung spell for 3 points repeatedly.
The trap has 2 red poles in front, and 2 green poles behind. If the enemy Sorcerer weren't there, Gorath could walk around the righr side of the 2 red poles, then walk around the left side of the green poles, and escape. Using the Invitation spell to pull the Sorcerer to his death, will take care of him, if all u want you do is escape.
Note the position of the Sorcerer. He is 1 square behind, and 1 square to the left of the red pole. If you put Gorath or Locklear 1 square in front of the red pole, and 1 square to the right of the red pole, they will be in a diagonal position with the Sorcerer, and the red pole will block any quarrels shot at him. This allows u to fire quarrels, and even though they get blocked, your crossbow skill counts them as 'missed' shots, and increases your crossbow skill accordingly.
Typically you give one person an Elf Crossbow and a bunch of cheap quarrels, and as you shoot the quarrels, the bow wears out and breaks. You kill the Sorcerer, escape the trap, and sell the broken bow at LaMut for pennies, buy it back for pennies, buy a bowstring, which repairs the bow to 100%, and then sell the bow back to the shop for big bucks. Since the broken bow and bowstring can be bought again and again, ypur money problems no longer exist.
What most people don't realize, is that the far left green pole allows for another archer to fire quarrels which will be blocked, so u could have both Gorath and Locklear working on their crossbow skills, while Owyn stands next to the Sorcerer to prevent him from casting spells. When I'm satisfied that the crossbow skills are high enough, then I'll break a crossbow. By the way, this "trick" requires money for the 2 Elf crossbows, 600 quarrels, and 9 bowstrings (about $2,000). Best way to get a somewhat quick $11,000 (without using stack trick) is to buy and repair 8% Goblin Stickers at Yabon, if u know where to find one...