How can I get my party member “in range”?

Question

Every time I've entered combat in Legend of Grimrock, I find that the party member in my third slot (3) can't attack.

Every time I try and attack I'm met with the message "Can't Reach!" I've tried swapping him out with the party member in my second slot (who I thought was using a longer weapon), but that just makes the character I swapped with unable to reach the enemy.

How can I ensure all of my party members are able to attack?

Answer 1

Party members in the back row cannot attack enemies, unless:

1. They're wielding a melee weapon that's labelled as a "Reach Weapon", e.g one of the spears those skellingtons drop.
2. They're a Rogue with 12 points in the Assassination skill, which lets them attack from the back row.
3. They're not wielding melee weapons, but are using ranged weapons (like rocks, bows & arrows, throwing knives, or spells)

So, in order to make sure all your party members can attack: put spear-shakers or rock-hurlers in the back row, and bare fists or melee weapons in the front.

If you had a character in the back row with a Reach Weapon who still couldn't reach an enemy, then something weird is going on; maybe the enemy was too far away in general? There might be some more mechanics involving Reach Weapons (like maybe a character in the front with a spear can attack at a greater distance than normal) that could be giving you the wrong impression about effective weapon ranges.

Answer 2

At first only the 2 front (1, 2) characters can reach the enemies. That's how these games are made. But that also means that enemies in front of you can't hit the guys in the back.

The two back characters (3, 4) can only reach with missile weapons, spells, thrown items.

But the skeleton spears can reach from back there and the Rogue can learn a skill that makes him able to hit from the back row (require 12 in Assasination).