I've been eying that skill tree, haven't completed it yet, but tele or phase is just so important. :-/

A fun read Freddybear. Thanks for posting :)

the Shade at the bottom of Kor'Pul usually drops an artifact stave.

Practically everything in the Maze fell to stealthy attacks of Flurries. An orc master assassin gave Snik a bit of trouble, but he fell as well, and the stingy bugger didn't drop anything either.

Trap detect and disarm helped a lot, but wasn't perfect. Lots of high level traps in the Maze.

Bad tactics cost Snik another life. The Boss Minotaur used Sunder Armor and Snik should have phased away right then, but instead she tried to get in another Flurry.

A Lost Warrior on Old Forest (1) died when an Umber Hulk came up behind us while a whole line of snakes and other pests were in front. Oh well. I suppose the Detection wand might have helped a bit with figuring out the route before proceeding.
An Anorithil on Old Forest (3) died because Snik couldn't tell her to back up two whole lousy steps into a hallway. They were facing a whole s***load of canines without cover. Oh well.
An Anaconda on Old Forest (4) had Snik in a death grip but she used Phase Door to get out before she suffocated.
Finally, a lone alchemist on Old Forest (7) died because, well, because it was Old Forest (7) and the level was practically nothing but canines and Wrathroot. Phase Door and instant healing saved the day again. Wrathroot dropped a bunch of enchanted swords and one flaming steel dagger (yum!), plus the

We know that runes/infusions are still rather unbalanced with each other along with spells, activations and wands.

Located Bill while still level 3. An extended pillar-dance ensued with much regen and a few phase doors while Snik wore poor old Bill down with her daggers. Bill dropped the Mighty Girdle as well as the Rod of Recall, plus some other enchanted heavy armor. Along the way, Snik picked up a shocking dagger and a duelists healing infusion (heal 111, cooldown 10). And of course Elisa gave her the Orb of Scrying.

Meta-note - check the cooldown rate as well as the power on runes and infusions.

I would change your note from "never again" to "never unless my level is 25+". Those extra 4 lives should have given you another health +40 boost, and extra class points to up the damage of your spells a tad more. Everything matters in such fights. I know that I will never enter the crypt unless I have finished the Dreadfell - those 3-4 extra levels, escort quests rewards and loot helps.

I agree that playing hardcore will hone the skills. (Sorry to write so much as a comment to the post, but it seemed to pour out once I started. So this is to anyone who cares to read, not directly to OP)
The game is supposed to be beatable without losing lives at all. So when death is not an option you play much more safely and smartly. You died 4 times in the starting dungeons, where 0 is the norm for hardcore. This should suggest that you use different tactics than people who regularly beat starting areas flawlessly. Mabye your build was subpar? Mabye you are forgetting to use infusions or racial abilities? Mabye you are using wrong kind of gear? Mabye maze first (after trolls I assume) isn't such a good idea? (I almost always do troll - old forest - keep - maze/sand - daikara.)

I have little experience in Tome4, just two weeks worth. Did play other roguelikes, so I play hardcore. I got one char to final dungeon, died there before final fight (I think anyway). I survived crypt 3 out of 3 times (sadly the girl died 2 of 3 but not me). Killed the master 3 of 3. What I love about the game and quest system is actually that you might need advance knowledge to successfully complete certain quests (merchant, crypt, Limmir, mount doom), but if you play your char well (and it is safely built) you should survive and still be able to proceed in the game.

I did die a lot in the early game, but that sure taught _me_ more than trekking on with a doomed-from-the-midgame character would have.

"The game starts off fairly easy to play once one gets a handle on the changes and the keys etc"

4 deaths = not THAT easy...all my attempts at making a mage char have failed, so I know I need to learn how to keep one alive first.

Doing the dungeon again...first orb on the right hand side...no message at all for declining to touch it...

Nevermind. Having deciphered the meaning of these hints it became clearer enough that I was able to discern the order.

Con was nearly maxed...take a look at the character. I managed the crypt in an earlier version (b.16) with an alchemist. From what I've gathered here from other reports the Crypt is about as hard as the Master. So to answer your question I did not know if I could beat the master or not but I assumed so. In retrospect I can see that was folly as was assuming I could do the crypt with a level 21 archmage. I disagree that hardcore will "hone" my "skills". Thanks for the advice though.

Also some advice of my own: Saying anything followed by 'but' makes it sound less than sincere. Next time leave off the commiserations and get straight to the "you suck" speech.

Have you tried redownloading it? If you're running any modified files, like custom classes, etc. the profiles won't go online.

After exploring everything accessible I found 3 poem lines. If there was more it was hidden in some way inaccessible to me. I can't go back and check now of course because my Archmage Dwarf 21 died horribly at the hands of the Crypt felons.