I am finding the order you do things in is incredibly important.

My last character Smashface, a level 13 fighter skelly (made for the fighter report week on the forums) had to be put down (as a rabid dog) after discovering that he would not be able to obtain the rod of recall which basically hosed him for the rest of the game. He was on his way to completing the antimagic quest, had already done the fortress (barely surviving vs a nigh unkillable boss!!) and had done the maze, the old forest and the cursed/merchants quests. He obtained 2x Hymn of preservation from escorts while losing one escort quest to a suicidal warrior.

After this fiasco, I have decided the order in which this character needs to be built is as follows:

+ Get out of the start-up dungeon. (level 5 after killing the boss waiting near the exit.)

+ Prepare before you leave the start-up dungeon: Make sure to collect enough staves/jewelry to do the apprentice mage quest and complete it on exiting the start-up dungeon. Also try and do a vault if you can find one that has infusions to replace your runes with so you can at least have some defenses while on the antimagic quest. I have found infusions to be incredibly rare outside of vaults, though very infrequently you can find them lying about on the floor.

+ Go get the antimagic quest AFTER completing the mage quest. You might end up having to do the trapped quest early because walking around looking for the apprentice mage can take quite awhile since he spawns within a huge radius of Anglowen.

+ Be sure to get the orb of scrying asap (you automatically qualify since you should have picked up the Cloak of Deception from your dead master's corpse.

+ Do the Trollmire! (be wary of using gifts from escorts yet. You can have them but you can't use them or you will negate the antimagic quest.)

+ Do the maze. It is harder than some of the other starting dungeons but it is slightly more rewarding and you can find some interesting items there on occasion. The Labyrinth boss is not a pushover but if you get a little lucky you should be able to stun him which will give you time to back away from him/heal/regen/etc. Shield Wall x4-5 is essential to keep yourself from being smushed here.

+ Then do the old forest. The hardest part about this are the nests and escort quests. The combination can get you killed if you are trying to keep your escort alive (almost impossible in some scenarios as they are prone towards extreme depression and suicidal tendencies because of some drama in their recent past.)

+ You should be able to do the fortress now, and since you don't need to breath it should not be too much trouble to get to the next level from the water filled parts.

Be ware of He Who Walks (orange (h)orror/wurm) as he can kick your butt even if you are maxed out in shield wall etc. Other than him the level shouldn't be too hard.

The boss below on the other hand is either easy or hard depending on whether you can get him stun-locked. Not an easy feat I found, though I was able to do so readily with a berserker at the start of beta 18.

After capturing the Fortress you should be level 15-16 which is minimally right on time for the antimagic quest (since you can't take it before level 5 as a skelly) though perhaps a bit early. I haven't tried it since I failed with my rogue but I suspect a skelly fighter will have an easier time of it. You might want to do the other two Into the Darkness quests first to level up for better results. The two last monsters I hear are the hardest.

Anyway I plan to follow this on my NEXT skelly fighter in an attempt to make a character report for the forums use.