[twillight]

At least, an attempt.

This is Hard diff, so I go the easy way. What's the easy way? Choose a character with useful skills. And go for an easy-to-handle build.
This means I won't bother with mages, and as"survivor" aka. rogue, aka. thief is a weakling (the female variant starts with good skills though), that leaves warrior. And the male one, because that's The Supposed Character. It starts with both the skills you get an extra point in for free just by saving and reloading. Yep.

Now on the skills: there are aplenty, but they fast can be thinned down.
Bolded skills are available from start, other have to be learnt later either bya teacher, ora skillbook, or by achieving proper character-level. There'sa button which shows all skills (except Divine tree) independently from clvl.

#1 Powers of Matter:
- all these skills cost mana, which is pretty bad. Most of them are attack-spells, but I can attack free of cost by weapons, so nah.
- telekinesis is a utility spell here, heard you'll need it on lvl 2, and that's it.
- do NOT use polymorph from these, 'cause instead of duration, the spell is permanent, whatmeans it is gamebreaking.
- Hell Spikes

#2 Powers of Body and Spirit:
- Wizard's Sight is useless
- Bless costs too much
- Restoration: THE healing spell
- Withering Curse: the enemy will resist this, don't even try. Most enemies will have a lot of Spiritual Resistance, soall skill related to that is bad by nature. How bad? Any enemy with less than 50% Spiritual Reistance can be killed on sight with a skill, that's how bad the situation is.
- Aura of Guarding: why not just use Restoration?
- Magical Might: meh
- Spellshield: again, use Restoration whichdoes the same
- Fade from Sight: just quaff a potion instead

#3 Elemental Powers:
- all these are attack-spels, thus useless to us.
- avoid Freeze, it isnot just too strong, can also crash the game if used on bosses. Also aviod the attribute on weapons for the same reason.
- Meteorstrike

#4 Power of Summoning
- these spells are either too weak, or too strong. Also demands specialisation.
- Summon Demonic Aid might kill an important NPC related to the main quest, so avoid
- Life Leech, the only non-summonic skill of the branch is Spiritual Resistence Related (SRR), thus avoid
- Summon Vermin is availble only at the start, and I man, it is infamously weak

#5 Path of the Specialist:
- all skills are ready from the start here, except Shield.
- man, the sword option is just overpowered
- Hammer is SRR
- bow/crossbow are pretty useless, given the screenis small, and the enemy is fast
- shield is ... ok I guess, but chance-related. It is at least not elemental damage

#6 Path of the Ranger:
- Elven Sight is the skill if you get annoyed by the Fog of War. Convenience-skill, but the best from this type.
- True Shot: bugged in all version, does nothing.
- the rest is various arrow-related skill, which is already bad. They are also not boosting your weapon, but replacing its damage. AND they cost mana. So nah.

#7 Path of Warrior's Lore:
- Augment Damage a damage-boost. Nothing fenomenal, but reliable, and very helpful at the start.
- Repair frees youfrom going to the shops and spending too much money. 1 point is enough.
- Stun: SRR, but still ok
- Augment Defense: a good skill to invest
- various (elemental) weapon damages: some extra damage, and even that only by chance. Dump here the remaining points I guess, otherwise not much.

#8 Path ofthe Warrior Gods:
- Enchant Weapon when it comes to play is ooooh-yeah!
- Feign Death: useless
- Boomerang: it is a bad skill. In theory you could make Diablo's throwing amazon with it, but too complicated.
- Shadow Warrior: a summon
- Spiritual Damage: some extra damage, but always works what is a plus.
- Reflect Missiles: bad
- Death Strike: SRR. Doesthe same thing as the Hammer Expertise, but for all weapon.
- Flash Attack: useless

#9: Path of theThief:
- Assassin's Kiss: this is the"Dagger Expertise" skill, but aside a chance to double damage - works on every hit - does not give further bonuses.
- Lockpick: requires consumable lockpick item above the skill level, and randomfactor, and all. And to get lockpicks when you need, is just not that simple. Ye, everyone wants this skill, but it is overly complicated.
- Pickpocket: yes, there are stuff to steal. No, this skill is not needed. It is a bit complicated to use anyway, and itis told you won't really have money-issue - unless you are a mage of course.
- Evade Trap: wouldn't have any use IF there wouldn't be some polymorph traps in the game, and they wouldn't turn you permanently to a rabbit or sg.
- Deadly Gift: you can lay traps with this. Two are garbage, the third is overpowered, and can evencrash the game at certain situations. Avoid.
- Elven Stamina: useless (unless you use the warrior's special skill a lot, which you shouldn't - getting sorrounded is BAD)
- Embrace Shadows: just quaff a potion.
- Poison Weapon: you need to craft potions for this, and recharge when depleted ... I just can't bother with crafting. Has the fame of being a strong skill though.

#10 Path of Lore:
- Identification: costs a lot of money and time, so invest here
- Alchemy: you can craft potions with it. You need 2 points in this to be able to pick up herbs/mushrooms. NEVER mix various size potions - they decreese in quality. Recipes:
health potion: potion + red mushrooms/herbs/cacti
mana potion: blue mushrooms/herbs/cacti
stamina potion: yellow mushrooms/herbs/cacti
poison potion (green): white mushrooms, rotten food, poison barrels, cacti
bright blue potion: temporary for +100 poison and -100 spiritual resistance, out of the Drudanae plant
Red + Blue = White:brings back mana and vitality points
Yellow + Blue = Black: invisbility
Yellow + Red = Orange: boosts strength
Yellow + White = Purple: boosts resistances
- Know Creature: only for casters. You spot the creature, pause the game, look at stats, choose spell... Inconvenient.
- True Sight: useless, especially if you are melee
- Blind: useless before applying 5 points, very-very good after that they say. Costs mana, and isa single-target spell, shich takes away from it in my eyes.
- Skin of Poison: same as Poison Weapon, but works if the hit you instead of you hit them.
- Curse: sounds ok.
- Necroshift: waaay to short duration.

#11 Path of the Talents:
- Traders' Tongue: effects prices. Should be useless.
- Ranger's Sight: use Elven Sight instead. Same, but bigger effect.
- Wisdom: absolutely garbage
- Charm: SRR
- Magic Barrier: c00l
- Aura of Command: way too powerful
- Heaven's Gift: free money, otherwise the skill tellsyou it gives garbage items
- Survivor Instinct: too slow. If you need healing, just teleport to a bed, and sleep.

#12 Path of the Divine:
- this whole tree is quest-related, so no starting skill option here
- translocate: comes too late to have any use
- Divine death: mostly useless
- Spirit Form: 1 point must have because the main quest demands it. Has no other use.
- Scorch: attack spell
- Heaven's Blessing: nice duration and effect
- Divine Eye: useless
- Temporal Storm: tooshort duration, andI heared it shakes the whole screen, making it inconvenient
- Lightning Cascade: attack spell

Crafting recipes of good use:
- beehive + honeyrack = drop of honey
- drop of honey + empty honey jar = statboosts, and 50 mana and HP heal
- two stacks of straw = Haybed. Combine two stacks of straw on the ground to make hay and then use as a bed. Hay can not be moved once it is made

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Playing through:
#1 you wake in a room. Basic rule of rpgs: get verything that's not nailed down. Actually, just get anything what is food, or has stats. The rest are not even option for sale. Glasses/jars are also option to take, because of alchemy.
#2 you soon find your first NPC, and are in a village. Basic rule of rpgs: always be nice to everyone. Another basic rule of rpgs is: save before touching anything. This time if you don't get told you are a thief, you can take that item (NPC must not look at your direction and/or not be too close, hard because most NPC follow you, and stay atfixed location most of the times).
#3 do not click on beds unless you want a full heal, and time spent. The game is (99% I heared) not time based though.
#4 there'll be an event nearby: an elf gets frozen. Try the door of the mage's house and talk to the elf again. NOW go and visit each empty house in the village - including the elf's. Loot. All house have a key in the village. DO NOT leave the village. Enter well, free the elf
#5
#6 heal the two patient. Do NOT talk to either the dwarf or the lizard before both patient are healed. Do NOT talk with the lizard - he gives a freepoint in restore, but you can reach lvl 6 in the village (in theory, I'm trying right now, ok?), so you should be able to put a point in it yourself, then get the second point from the lizard - else you'd have to wait until clvl 13! But you MUST make the healings before finishing the local dungeon.
#7 if you are that kind of person, still NEVER ATTACK CATS. Cats are good.
#8 thereare 2 ZombieJake Events in the village. Both times the guy gives hugh chuncks of exp. Problem is, he's though in melee. If you have the Restore skill it is way more easy, because you can heal a ton. But at least on the surface he can be chased around by bow, because you can run but he can't. You can get a bow by a second event of the village which you get when going near another house. There a shopkeeper gets threatened, and when you enter you get invited to a room inside. This means the shopkeeper leaves all his stuff ungarded in the first room, so take everything (usualy an armor, shield, bow, and some more stuff).

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Bow is required, at least for a while, that's obvious. Zombie Jake can be outrunned to start with. Also Skeletal Guardians who likes to oneshot you, and I see not the distance I'd've to walk to be able to stand against them.
Come to think of it, this "that's just too much requirement" is also true for all kinds of equipment. First, you need like 25 in agility to not miss too much. Second, you need like 25 STR to beat normal things w/o too much fuss. Then comes the problem: bows require 30 agility, hammers like 65 STR, axes 30 AGI + 60 STR... And there are zero maces to grab. Not to mention most equipment cmes with 1/1 durability and if they brake you can't fix 'em with slvl 1 repair...
Even a twohanded sword has ridiculous requirement of 40 AGI 65 STR. So don't be surprised if you have to fall back on fighting with brooms. Ye, those count as weapons. No, I did not have to use 'em... yet.

Either way, get 2 points in Identify for convenience sake. The Slasher will be ilvl 4, so that's how you know it you found it. It is a good axe, but not that impressive as you find 4 other axes nearby, and they aren't that much worse, and you CAN use the exp.

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Character build:
- you want to use the equipment right where you find, put your first points to get 2 Identify. Will report later how common higher tier stuffes are.
- third and fourth point goes into repair (the maximum durability does NOT drop, so 1 is enough for the whole game) and Elven Sight because you use bow, and you need to see where the enemy is. More is not demanded, and probably more than 2 point here is overdoing.

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Monster fighting:
- skeleton guardians are giant-size skeletons with axe. You can outrun them on a long corridor, or circle around in a room. They can onehit you, so use ranged attacks. Loose interest fast (low visual range), soyou need sight (1 point in Elven Sight = +2 sight does it)
- skeleton conjurer: summons skeletons and skeletal archers. Can onehit you. Use ranged attacks on miniboss versions. I think I founda "normal" quality of it on catacombs lvl 3 in the upper right corner (had low HP, died in melee).
- ghoul: again a walker, which likes to plant spider-traps around. Use ranged attacks. Its traps are annoying: you goclose, it activates and starts running after you, blow up on hit. You can only outrun it from one direction not both.
The ghoul usually loose interest at a point, face a walland stop moving. Abuse that. Usually will have a trap atits corpse, so save before looting.
- archer/caster skeleton boss: finda platform you can circle around. Its projectile will stuck in the platform (test to be sure), but your arrows do not.