i have everything i need to go to doom, but i want my avatar to be a couple levels higher, is there anyway to raise him quicker?

My usual tactic was to climb into an area of the mountains that could not be reached (with plenty of food) and hold down space bar for a while. When I climb back out, there's tons of monsters to fight, and since it's hill/mountain spawns, it's usually the ones that drop lots of loot and give lots of experience. Then have the avatar as the only active character so he gets all the xp.

I'm pretty sure it was Ultima V I did that in, anyway. Some of the features of III, IV, and V blend together after so long.

Be sure to kill your enemies in combat, not using spells; Ultima V doesn't award experience for magic kills. And kill them, too; only the actual giver of the death blow gets experience.
My preferred hunting ground, incidentally, is the bridge just east of Britain - sit there for a while and hammer trolls in to the ground. That's generally where I go to start out and gather the necessary stuff to launch my party into the wilderness.
General advice:
- Note that top level is level eight, with 240 hp. In Vas Grav Corp may well be your best friend, especially when challenging mongbats show up in numbers enough to swarm over a small eastern European satellite nation.
- If you're feeling especially cheeky, go to Blackthorn's Keep, get tagged by the guards, and refuse to go quietly; sure, they have crossbows, but if you have heavy armour and some good support magic (Quickness, Protection, Invisibility and the like) you should be able to pull out a few high-experience victories. Blackthorn also has some other nasties about that are quite willing to fight you; just don't challenge the Lord himself (he's indestructable), and bail out immediately if any of the Shadowlords decide to pop in for a visit.
- The Magic Axe is your friend. Heavy damage, and you can throw it across the map. The Halbard or Morning Star are also handy - you can hit over obstacles with them, which can be very useful in dungeon rooms.
- Camping can get you ambushed; that may not be an entirely bad thing. (using the camp to gain experience is asking to run out of food, though)
- Lower levels of the dungeons have room with some powerful bad guys in them. Gargoyles, daemons and dragons are worth large bunches of experience - especially the divisible gargoyles. Be careful about fighting daemons; their ability to possess party members turns an easy win into a party slaughter, and deprives you of much-needed points. Don't challenge them too quickly unless you've got some way to negate magic.
- um... you do have a way to negate magic, right? (you should, if you're talking about taking on Doom)
- Finally, exploring the Underworld can also lead to many riches and much experience. And it can get you really, really dead.

Want to level up super fast and without the risk of getting injured? Well, head to the dungeon Wrong and get down to its 8th level. You'll start in a room that seems to be bugged on the DOS version. The room is seemingly empty but there are 4 dragons behind each corner wall, meaning that there are 16 dragons in the room who cannot attack you. Equip your party members with morning stars or halberds and attack them through the walls risk free. Dragons net you an insane number of experience points, and if you leave one of the 16 dragons alive you can keep re-entering the room to repeat the "battle". After a while you should be able to get a maximum level party. Just remember to buy enough food for the journey.

You don't lose Karma from running away in Ultima V. At least not in dungeons and the underworld. Not too sure about the overworld though.

You still get the "Ran away" notice. Things like that can be a blow to the self-esteem.

thanks for the helpful replies! i managed to beat Doom with a level 5 party, it was hard, but i managed to survive.

Zoiks. Congratulations.

Good to note.. I tried this, and it works, but it seems that if you hole up and rest anywhere in the dungeon (or, at least, in my experience, on level 8), the room unbugs and resets, and then you can't escape.

Thanks for all the advice.
On the version that I got for the Mac (Ultima 4&5&6) the Ultima V Wrong dungeon, at level 8 I could only find two rooms. One is like the one described above, but instead of Dragons has Daemons. And only 3 per corner instead of 4. But everything else applies.

The down side is that there is no treasure in that room.
But no problem, in level 6 of Wrong, if you can handle level 8, you should be able to get the easy picking there for chests. (Underlining that you should have a mean to negate magic, otherwise, it will be quite a challenge).

It will still take a while, but slimes are gold mines for experience. Go into Destard or Despise and wander around the first level until you encounter slimes. Equip one character with a weak weapon (like a short sword) and use ONLY that character (set him active) in the battle. The weak weapon will ensure more non-fatal hits on slimes which will ensure many divisions. You'll get experience for every slime killed and you should be able to get over 100 experience points per battle which isn't shabby considering the low, low risk.

Slimes in Ultima V are strictly non-poisonous so while the rest of your party will be getting hit, they shouldn't take any serious damage because of how weak of a monster the slimes are here.

Exp and treasure together: Dungeon Covetous, L6 room coming up from L7. You'll need to use a Des Por from L5 to L6 for easiest access, head through a center room to L7. Prep items are the Crown, the Sceptre (or a mixed dispell field spell), and some form of invisibility (rings from Bucc's Den work best). In this room are 5 dragons and 1 daemon, plus other treasure already in the open, not to mention scrolls and potions. The ladder in the middle of the room is the only way out, which means all creatures are stuck. Take your time passing the exp around and never kill the daemon - magic axe will on occasion kill the daemon (only downside). I will usually use a non-attacking player to block the daemon in the southern part of the room. The dragons then drop their guard against not being able to see anyone and die in one hit from a stick if needed - instant exp. Claim the treasure, forget the running away message, repeat until sick of it or Level 8 exp achieved.

Karma cure - Visit a shrine using the gold from the above plan and donate 900 each time until karma is maxed out (or at least above 75 to enter the highest category). Good ole Ctril-K!

A few tricks involving intentional deaths (but be aware that there are drawbacks to using them):

1. If your Karma is low, leave everyone but the Avatar at the inn, and then die on purpose. This will cause a major loss of XP and levels (at 0 Karma, you will be reduced to level 1 with 0 XP), but your Karma will be increased to 75 if it's lower (if it's higher, it will remain as is).

2. If you have maxed out Karma, there is a way to avoid the RNG needed to leveling up. If a character has enough XP to level up, just kill her and then revive her. At maxed out Karma, there is no XP loss on resurrection, but your level will be recalculated. Be aware, however, that you forfeit the usual stat gain that normally comes when leveling up.

3. If your Karma isn't quite maxed, gain a level (and the stat point normally) and then get killed and revived. If you lose enough XP to lose a level, you will lose the level, but not lose the stat point you gained. You can keep gaining/losing the level until your stats are maxed if you're patient.

(It's worth noting, in case it matters, that the XP loss and level recalculation occur on revival; if a character dies when your Karma is low, you can avoid the XP loss by maxing out your Karma before reviving her.)

(One more thing: These tricks don't work in Ultima 6, but points 2 and 3 are less important due to the fact that you can control level up stat points. In Ultima 6, you still lose XP when revived, but your level never changes. Casting Help manually does not count as reviving the Avatar for this purpose, though dying and being revived by the automatic Help cast does.)