Hi, I'm a big fan of CRPGs, I heard nothing but good things about Betrayal of Krondor so I picked it up. Unfortunately, I'm kind of having a rough time of it. I'm wandering around the map in the first chapter, trying to get a feel for the game. Just when I think I'm getting the hang of things this happens:
My party gets into a battle, there are no enemies. These rods grow out of the ground. I can't target them, nothing is happening. I move my characters between the rods and they get electrocuted to death. This seemed unfair and frustrating, I couldn't even escape the battle. This happened to me once before, but there was an enemy I could target. I don't know if this is a bug or what.
Please tell me how to avoid that from happening, I'd hate to have to quit on such a venerable game over something stupid like that.

You wandered into a trap. The point is to cross on the other side of the battlefield. Rods of the same colour will electrocute you, so you need to find a way around them or disable them, if possible. It depends of trap type (apart of rods, there can be fireballs and crystals).
The one you describe has only rods, so all you need to do is to navigate between them.

ok thanks

Also be aware of the cannon traps that you'll encounter later which can shoot a fireball at your characters if they cross its line of fire. In some instances there will be certain objects that can be pushed in front of them to block their line of fire so you can move past the cannons without taking damage. But there are other times when you'll just have to send the character with the most hit points (usually Gorath at full strength) through the cannon's fire in order to escape the traps.

I could be wrong, but I don't think it's ever necessary to just take the damage. It seems like there's always a way to get through the trap unscathed. Some of them are pretty complex, but they're doable. One thing to be careful of is that you have to be careful about where to send your characters. If you try to get to a spot all in one turn, your character may idiotically wander between the lightning poles (you'd think they'd be smart enough to go around, but no) and get killed. You just have to use more turns and travel shorter distances to prevent this. It's annoying, but since there usually aren't any real enemies in the traps, it's not that big of a deal.