I just started too and I gotta say this is the only time I've actually had fun playing a game this outdated. I had to give up on Akalabeth and the first Ultima but after getting an hour into this I am hooked. The monster variety and steady pace to the grind (level ups aren't too infrequent) as well as intermittent awesome loot make for a great time.

Looking forward to getting to the ones with better graphics though lol. I'm guessing you're going to be at least level 13 by the time the game ends, since that is I believe the level required to cast the highest level spells.

Also, unless you haven't figured it out, Hit Point gains at level up are random, which sucks. You could get 2 or you could get 10 or more. The maximum a character can get is equal to his or her level 1 maximum... so if your level 1 character has 12 HP, you should save/load until he gains 12 HP at level up if you want to maximize his growth. I didn't figure this out right away so a few of my chars have less max HP than they should (I had to do this trick in Baldur's Gate 1, too, hated it then as well).