DosMan007: I read online that if you start a new game of Diablo, you can play with that existing character and gold and eq will carry over.
Someone else made it sound as, if you started a new game AFTER you've killed Diablo, everything carries over, except for spell effects from dungeons.
What I want to know is this: Can I start a new game of Diablo, and still have my level 16 character, do I lose my character altogether, or does my character reset back to level 1, but I keep all gold and keep all equipment?
Thank you so much if you can help me out, because I really am stressing over it :P
Also, I am playing as a warrior. Other than healing and town portal, are there any spell books I should also learn, or no?
Thank you again.
You can start a new game at ANY time, with an existing character, and you start the new game with that character, and all equipment he or she is carrying, coming with you into the new game.
This is great for players who've hit their "capabilities limit" in a game, keep getting killed, and want to continue playing. You can basically start over at the higher level. Granted, you won't gain much in terms of capabilities, but you can gain SOME... you get a lot less experience killing skeletons than killing Blood Knights, after all... but it can be enough to make a different the second time you get to wherever you were unable to get past the FIRST time through.
Note, ONLY what you have on your person... money, equipment, scrolls, etc... will carry over. Typically, for me, I have piles of gear and money and so forth scattered in places around town... I jokingly refer to my huge pile of gold coins as "the First Bank of Tristram." Unless you have all this in your inventory when you beat the game (or restart for any other reason).. it's simply lost to you.
As for any advice on how to play... there are lots of paths you can choose to follow.
Personally, I recommend reading every book you can get your hands on. If you find a book you're not able to read yet, set it aside on the ground near the fountain in Tristram... as you level up (or as you find magical gear to enhance your magic) you may become able to read these. NEVER sell a book. And read EVERY book you can. Buy them if you get the chance, as well, though not at the expense of health and mana potions or repair.
My own playing style involves swords, armor, shields, and relatively minimal magic. I use healing (only as an emergency backup if i run out of potions), guardian and flame wall (mainly to drop in a room where there's a hoard, hoping to wear them down a bit before I start engaging that hoard), holy bolt (useless later on in the game, though) to take out zombies and skeletons.
But the single most useful spell for me, as a hack-and-slash warrior, is "Stone Curse." Once you have this, enemies you can barely manage otherwise become easy. Cast this, freeze them in place, and hack away to your heart's content, until their stone form shatters.
Oh, and once you get the ability to use mana, rather than scrolls, for Town Portal... use it, and sell any town portal scrolls you find. Until then, NEVER leave Tristram without a town portal scroll, however.... even though you should be "slogging up" more often than teleporting. This is basically an emergency escape route until you can cheaply cast town portal, later in the game.