Yes, i chose the category, and no, it stayed 0.70.

If i run into anorithil choose hymn of perseverence, noted.

"if you do the mage apprentice quest at all, before or during the anti-magic quest - it SHOULD [as in it's intended to] not allow you to complete the anti-magic quest. However, AFTER you have done the anti-magic quest to completion, you can then do the mage apprentice quest and all is fine."

I do not see why stuff done before ever meeting the anti-magic freaks should influence what they think of you. 'They' don't even know you exist. And why would you get a carte blance to do anything after being trained? You can walk back into Zigur and chat to trainer with 3 runes tatooed into your skill, use magic in the town, and they are cool with that?

No, only way that makes sense is that the training period is when you must abstain. Monks of old, sometimes they were regular people who suddenly took vows. They might have done a lot of stuff before that.

You have not messed up because of that category point. It is a pure bonus to your char (given by your race selection) and will surely be helpful later on. At level 10 be sure to get an extra rune/infusion spot. I typically like 2 healing (or regen), 1 wild and 1 transportation (phase door or teleport)

But in my experience, getting an extra infusion/rune spot with the first category point seems to be the way to go for all races I've played so far. Because with the class-given categories I already have too many places to put points as it is. An extra heal infusion at level 10 beats opening up most trees (into which you still need to invest points you are hard-pressed for at that level). At level 20 there is more of a choice.

Keep at it, and satisfy the apprentice mage. That should open up new possibilities for you.

Fighters are considered easy, once you get shield wall up and sustained. Walking tanks. Anyone can die at level 1 by bad luck and dungeon generation.

Thank you for your advice concerning poison & escort quests. I think i messed up by putting i category point into magical combat but i'll stick with this character until i get to see what this apprentice mage wants all those amulats for.

Yeah poison is lethal if you don't cure it or run the counter down before your hp runs out. Even outside. Wild Infusions are a must have for that. Thankfully almost all characters (except undead) start with one that removes poison.

The escort rewards aren't necessarily all equally useful. You need a category point to spend on any new skill trees you earn from those. On the other hand you can get a talent with uses from the same quest instead.

It's worth noting that if you're compiling from the SVN you'll need to import the .dll files and stdout files over from a release copy.

Fine :)

If you do the mage apprentice quest at all, before or during the anti-magic quest - it SHOULD [as in it's intended to] not allow you to complete the anti-magic quest. However, AFTER you have done the anti-magic quest to completion, you can then do the mage apprentice quest and all is fine.

And, the Rod of Recall is a convince, not a necessity. Keep in mind, it's existence is only been for the last few betas. So don't feel as though you HAVE to have it.

Also, as you are talking about a fighter in particular, you have no need for staves. So, the first artifact [randart is okay too], give to the apprentice - he'll take it and that's all that he needs.

And, you can take the anti-magic quest as an undead at lvl1, just dive for the stairs and fight only when necessary - you don't even need to kill the unfinished golem.

Other than that, I do like your general plan of approach. I'm going Undead Ruins, Maze, Mire, OF/quest, merchant/cursed/urkis if I haven't done them yet, Daikara, SWL, and then depending on luck of kit I'll either do the elven ruins next or Dreadfell next. Regardless, I'm doing the elven ruins before Iron Throne. After that, it's off to the east - and doing Underwater Cave, Anorthil Cave, Spider Lair, Vor Armory/quest, head back west, do the dungeons again, then do tannen quest, do the prides outside of grushnak [so I don't need to dive down there twice], go back west and do the crypt/plane/whatever else there is now, do the east crypt/whatever else there is, then do the mt. doom dash [or do the dash before heading west the second time], limmir quest followed by grushnaak, which then turns into the slime tunnels, which then turns into final dungeon. Go through, kill shit, own me some wizards and I'm done. :)

Also, some time ago I wrote a guide about Fighters, Dwarf Fighters in particular located here - http://te4.org/blogs/finalmaster/2010/12/dwarf/character-builds-1-dwarf-fighter
It is a bit old, written before runes/infusions - but it is still mostly valid.

Have been dealt with :)

That's a beautiful example of a ditl obviously from an older version of TOME, but still great. It's a shame the spammers found it.

This place isn't horrible once you know the ins and outs of it but it is a bad place for starters.

Some things:

+ The dying and resurrect at 0 or - hp bug should be fixed in the next beta.

+ to survive the tunnels have a teleport rune or phase door rune handy (or spells if you're a mage) and follow the neutral wurms (the ones surrounded by a blue border) as they burrow new halls.

+ you always resurrect on the stairs so if you die in b.18 or earlier make sure to either immediately press the < or > keys or teleport elsewhere without moving. Moving causes the game to realize you should be dead (again) and kills you (I think) alternatively if you have a heal/regen that works too.

+ Going down before level 16 is probably a mistake unless you really know what you are doing. Even then it is an ambitious delve.