I have the feeling I've been too ambitious... I'm now in the catacombs off the Buried Village under Ragpicker Square. TNO has just turned level 5 fighter, and Morte is well into level 4... And TNO must have died a dozen times down here already. Of course, we can't get out, Pharod's gang won't let us, and we can't even rest! TNO can just keep returning at full health, but Morte is on his last few HP.

Now... I see on TNO's stats that he has 3 unused weapon proficiency slots. Is there any way I can use them to increase his combat ability while down here? Or do they need proper training? I have found some enchanted weapons, so I can deal with one wererat at a time, but they don't arrive that way... And the other exits are way beyond me (except the one with 3 Ghouls and what looks like me with my arm ripped off in an irom maiden - I already have the arm & know it's mine, but TNO hasn't made the connection with the body).

Any advice other than starting over?

You can't use your unused proficiency points before you get back up to Sigil. You need a trainer.
If can't kill one enemy before you die and can't run past enemies far enough to awake at another location you're really screwed.
You can ask Martha (the woman where you wake up after death) to look inside your body and buy stuff from her (like poisonous teeth for Morte) if you haven't found out yourself.
Try talking to her and everyone else you meet, maybe there's an option to ask them to watch over you while you rest.

What are your character stats ?

You really need Dakkon. Pick him up in the Smoldering Corpse bar.

I met Martha, she poked around & found the stuff Inside me. But then I talked to Pharod, agreed to help him out, and I'm in the catacombs. His gang on the gate won't let me out until I find his McGuffin, and when I wake up I'm still in the catacombs... I CAN kill things, but I have to keep reloading save games to keep Morte... erm... 'alive'... as I already raised him 3 times, and I can't rest. Can I leave Morte behind somewhere but pick him back up later? He's my only companion as of yet, and very handy (where the hell is Annah, anyway, her name was mentioned by an NPC...)

Stats:
STR 10
INT 16
WIS 16
DEX 12
CON 11
CHA 12
I also seem to be carrying around my own intestines, as well as my own severed arm. Soon I'm going to be able to create my own clone...

EDIT: yes, I can leave Morte behind, but it also seems like there's an infinite number of Lesser Varguilles in that room - The Shattered Crypt or something...

Well a strength of 10 is half your problem I suspect, as good as wisdom & intelligence are for the conversations, for a fighter you need muscles that aren't made of spaghetti

You should indeed be able to leave morte at the entrance but you'll suffer the lack of him pretty quickly when all the enemies can focus on you.

You can only get annah after you get pharod's mcguffin (which I think is one of the most important items in the entire game) which is a pity since she'd come in handy

Don't worry about raising strength at level up, it will take too long to benefit. Con is the combat stat. Raising wis to 18 will yield the biggest benefit, you get a luck bonus and extra XP.

You can always leave party members behind and take them back if you're able to return to this location.

Did you try getting killed at the door in the buried village ? If Pharod's guards won't kill you you can try having Morte force attack you (make sure he's not hostile any more when you awake), maybe you awake at Marta and can go back to Sigil through the Trash Warrens and do some easier quests there.

Yeah, but it's the first time I've tried the smart approach - and you do get a load more topics of conversation, I must admit! I just forgot the 'proper' sequence, and jumped to the interesting bit - forgetting the old Chinese proverb...

If I remember my D&D (I detest the D20 system, but I do know it), I should get a +1 to hit at 13 DEX, so next level up. Meanwhile, I read, there's a magic weapon in the Shattered Crypt that will prove very handy if I can keep killing Lesser Varguilles... It's OK in the confind area of the catacombs, I'm getting somewhere killing things one at a time - but relying on being resurrected time & time again rankles with me! Never thought I'd actually be anxious to hear Sheena Easton...

Try to bribe Pharod's guards. Once he reaches for your money, grab his arm, twist it and force him to let you in. After that, he'll let you in, no questions asked. You can then rest at Mebbeth's hut.

I had relatively low fighting stats (playing a mage) and succeeded, so the check involved should be pretty easy. Unless you want to be Mr. Nice Guy of course, then you may be out of luck. ;)

Another idea: use Morte's taunt ability in combat. This has saved my hide many times, as the penalties the enemies get make it very hard for the enemies to actually hit him.

No, you won't get a bonus to hit, even with 25 dex. Dex only grants a little bonus to AC (+1 for 15,...,+4 for18-20,...) and 13+ dex allows to succeed in a few unimportant dex checks.
High strength (16+) grants bonuses to hit and damage and if you raise wis from 15-17 to 18-24 you get an additional luck bonus which has about the same effects as +1 to hit and damage in combat.

Nah, I was thinking of RuneQuest. Nonetheless, through a multitude of deaths, I beat the Lesser Varguilles, gained a very nice weapon, but decided to leave anyway. The idea of tricking the gate guard worked, but they then set about me anyway. They lost... eventually...

And then the Hive Thugs set about me when I tried to leave the Buried Village! So, another mass of deaths...

But I am now, finally, back out in the daylight! And looking for a fork, apparently...

Thanks to all for suggestions & advice.

You did indeed rush things a little. Before you went to Farod you could have recruited another party member. Doing some more quests around the hive would have gained you a few more levels which would have helped you here.

Aside from that there are very, very few fights that can't be avoided in some way. You can just run past most enemies towards the exit to avoid them.

Unfortunately, I seem to have annoyed the undead in their section of the catacombs, as they all set about me the instant I enter - there's something monstrously powerful amongst them too, doing 20 or even 40 ponts damage compared to everyone else's 10 or less!

However, I can now enter or leave the area, so I'm working on level building. Unfortunately, Dak'kon is now the lowest level party member, as he joined most recently, so he's a bit of a liability if we do get in a fight.