> Urgh. Still having problems. Raised my hit points, which has helped a bit, but I'm still getting smoked. Are there buildings that I should be able to enter, that I haven't (without killing those red parties?)

You're still missing two hit point caches in places you've been over. However, you should still be able to take care of this party. I'm not sure why you're having so much trouble. Like I said, I haven't heard that anybody else had a particular problem. My only guess is that you're not realizing what the more deadly invokable items really are. (Hint: they aren't the ones that just do straight damage.)

Barring that, have you tried using spells to target specific powerful characters and dispatching those upfront? That way they won't be beating up on you while you're taking care of the others.