I picked this game up in the Winter Sale and it looks like a lot of fun. I want to try being a mage, and the advice given was to head to Harbour Town. So I pretty much went straight from being shipwrecked to the Novice's Farm, and from there to Harbour Town.

I've completed some quests, but my character is so weak and broke that I'm having a hard time getting the recommendation from the Commandant.

Basically where I'm stuck now is getting the plates / bowl for the fella at the warehouse. Vasilyev (sp?) has two of them, but I can't afford to buy them and he beats the tar out of me. I did buy Nico's ring (+3 strength) and I have stolen Jack's ring as well (+10 piercing resistance) but that's all I've got going for me at the moment. I haven't trained anything, because I've been saving my LPs for magic skills.

I've run Cid out of town and it seems like most of the rest of the quests involve fighting someone.

I've read online that it's best to go to the bandit camp first, regardless of what faction you ultimately want to join. I don't care much about min-maxing but I do want to make sure I'm not stuck here. Any advice for beating up those jerks who stole from the warehouse? I can probably afford to train strength once, but I doubt that'll make a big impact.

You didn't get there "too early". My current character went to Harbour Town right after spending the night at the Novice Farm and I saved most of my learning points as well as I wanted a mage character.

What level are you, what items do you currently have for combat (did you find the sword and the shield on the way to Harbour Town?), how much gold do you have overall and what quests have you down (list them please)?

There was a shield? I did find the sword. Off the top of my head I think I'm at about 180 gold. I'm Level 2.

I've helped out the mage in the Gutters with giving out potions, and I solved the break-ins for the Order and got Cid to run away. I've also helped Nico buy the fishmonger's and I've helped the blacksmith take a break, and finally I've helped out the poor farmer right by the gate.

Maybe I just need to get a better handle on combat. I'm trying to avoid reading walkthroughs too much so that I can discover things on my own, but it also seems like I can't leave Harbour Town right now so I wanted to make sure I didn't rush on a bit too early.