The problems I had with this approach were threefold. First, after a while the monsters kept passing out, greatly slowing progress. I addressed this by seeing if I could cast Stamina on the monsters, and it worked. Second, the monsters would sometimes hit each other. Therefore I tried casting Heal Wounds on the monsters as well, to keep them alive. Third, every time I tried this, the power of the rest of the monsters in the monastery would escalate while I was engaged in the training.Eventually, I gave up on training a single skill at a time. Instead, I started loading my magic users up with spells that do not do direct damage, and having them deplete their spellpoints in all realms repeatedly while training other skills. I also found that by using my bard to put all the monsters to sleep, I could drop out of combat by doing nothing for two rounds, thus enabling stamina to quickly regenerate for the monsters as well as my characters. By camping (actually catnapping) every time I dropped out of combat I could double the hit point and spell point regen between combat sessions. Furthermore, I found that persistent spells, such as Light, need not expire to get full credit towards skill progression. Casting Light at power level seven with at least one combat session between castings is very effective at pumping the Fire realm. The mage can pump Divine with Enchanted Blade, while other casters can cast Heal Wounds on monsters being used for target practice with arrows and bullet stones. Character wounds can be healed during catnaps, with the Bard keeping the monsters asleep between catnaps if neccesary.
I have not tested it enough to be absolutely sure, but it seems that with this strategy escalation of the power of monastery wandering monsters can be minimized while training sklills.
Actually, I have trained Shield and Iron Skin this way, but assumed Stealth only got trained when "approaching" monsters, and so depended on "surprising" sleeping monsters in intermissions where I would not camp, instead forcing combat as soon as the Bard's stamina was recharged.
With this technique, "automated" training of specific skills can be alternated with "micromanaged" training of magic and distance weapons, as practical. Let the training run on automatic till the monsters start passing out, micromanage through raising each realm by at least one skill point, while recharging monster stamina and allowing wounds to heal in the process, repeat. Saving when dropping out of combat guards against not getting back to micromanage in time.
It seems that putting the monsters to sleep to recharge stamina is more efficient than casting stamina on them, although casting stamina on them during micromanagement helps, and pumps the water realm skill points as well.
Dale LaRoy Splitstone