The first time i played ToEE I also played vanilla, and I didn't know about crafting. Nor did I manage to find any uber magic items other than the one you need to enable the final boss battle. It was tough in some places, but definitely doable and certainly epic. You will need to depend a lot more on spell buffs, careful gameplay and clever tactics rather than magic items. You may find yourself with a huge money surplus at some point midgame. But maybe not, it is easy to unknowingly take wrong decisions that close off parts of the story. You can always craft a few mediocre items if u want without breaking the game balance or eating too much exp.