I just am constantly dying and losing all my gold, any helpful build tips, better classes? Playing as a fighter, don't like that spells are one use only.

With Ultima I, the best way to survive is to go into a dungeon, map it out a bit at a time, and kill a few monsters. Leave the dungeon and you'll be rewarded with HP (not XP) for the monsters you've killed. IIRC the monsters spawn at the same spots each time, so you should be able to pretty much find a nice spot to farm HP after a few attempts. Just remember to stock up on food every few exits from the dungeon.

Ultima 1 is rather easy once you know how the game works. HP farming is crucial. I like to go into a nearby dungeon (any will do), and explore and kill until my HP is around 50% of what it was going in, and then escape. Upon leaving the dungeon I almost always get back more HP than I went in with. Then if necessary I go back to town to restock on supplies (or upgrade stuff - your XP determines what they sell), go back to a dungeon, and repeat.

Understand that Ultima 1 has no concept of maximum HP, at least not like most RPGs do. I think the upper limit is 9999, but that's a constant throughout the game, and you can finish the game without approaching it. You can not "recover" HP by resting or anything like that, because the game has no notion of being 100% healthy. HP is just an absolute resource, like food or money. There are ways of gaining HP other than fighting, but I don't really bother with them.

Also, Ladder Up and Ladder Down are worthy investments, even as a fighter. Especially Ladder Up when you are relatively weak, for when you need to escape from a particularly nasty encounter or are just lost.

like the others say.. pretty much go into a dungeon and just stay near the entrance at first and just kill kill kill and lvl lvl lvl.. the hardest part of the game is shooting down tie fighters lol

Stealing from weapon and armor shops is a good way to get a head start too.