dtgreene: Here are a few specific points.
At level up, you get 6 stat points, of which any given stat can get at most 3. Except for a one-time event that gives your party +5 Intelligence, this is the only way to raise your stats.
Raising a stat to 100 will give you an expert skill. For instance, 100 strength will give you Power Strike, and 100 intelligence will get you Power Cast. These skills are quite useful. (Note that, if you get a bonus to an expert skill from an item, the skill won't function if you haven't earned it. This is different from the way other skills work.)
You get 9 skill points, 3 of which can be given per skill, at level up. However, skills do improve on their own by usage, even if you don't gain a level. (This is sort of like the Elder Scrolls series, except that skill increases aren't what gives you level ups.) There are 2 things worth noting about skills:
1. A skill of 0 is harder to increase (in my experience) than a skill of 1. Hence, skills of 0 are good skills to put level-up points into.
2. A skill of 75 or higher can't be increased at level-up; from here on, using the skill is the only way to improve it. A skill of 90 or higher becomes difficult to rise, period. (On the other hand, if a skill gets that high, it is probably one of the skills you are using the most, so it at least gets more chances to rise.)
Anyway, as Garran said, soloing is not recommended for a newcomer. Random enemies scale to your level, so the higher level advantage that soloing typically has isn't really an advantage here. One (not recommended) trick I have read about is as follows:
1. Start out as a thief
2. Right away, spend hours fighting the crabs to raise your Stealth skill to (or nearly to) 100.
3. At the first level up, change to the real class.
I should warn you, this is *not* fun. Enemies won't be able to see you and will constantly defend instead of trying to attack. This is a game where the defend command actually has a noticeable effect, making battles annoying (because you have trouble damaging the enemies) and not challenging (because the enemies don't fight back).
After reading this tips, I think this game is way too confusing. I just don't have the patience for a game where they cant even tell you what the stuff does. Elminage is awfully confusing too.
What happened to similar games like diablo where everything is simple enough a cave man can do it. Jeez.
