I refuse to cheat up. I know not to go to the moathouse at level 1.

I've read in several places that the best starting tactic is to kill giant spiders
to get to level 3; it's easy.

No, it's not easy. I tried over 10 times and got slaughtered.
Anyone have any helpful tips?

whats not the easy part, leveling up or the moat house at level 3?

read up on a good balanced party.
read up on good magic to use.

on magic look for stuff that boost your fighters and skirmishes abilities to hit and thier attack rolls. also magic that lowers your opponents attack rolls. I myself found entangle, a first level druid spell, very helpful in keeping my guys from being overwhelmed by too many creatures at once.

Do some none combat related quest around Hommlet. It's a lot of running around and talking to people and rather boring but it net you a some Xp without fear of dying.

Also, if you got the gold, hire Elmo the Man-at-man. Substance abuse problem aside, the guy is lvl 4 and got really great equipment at get go and can turn most things you meet in the moat house into road kill.

Yes, my tips would be:

- Do as much as the Hommlet quests as possible
- Hire Elmo
- Travel to the Deklo Grove
- Do the moathouse in parts: enter it -> kill some baddies -> rest in the tower or return to Hommlet -> go at it again.

Oh, and never rest in the wild to heal: you can catch diseases that cost a *lot* to cure, since your cleric (should you have one) won't have leveled up much yet. Diseases have an incubation time of several days. So your party might become sick, and you'll notice it only when it's already to late. Very annoying :)

If you dont want to be harrassed by the random battles coming and going from towns, have one of your characters put points into the survival skill, you will then get an option to avoid random battles on the road.

I actually didn't know about the disease part, cool. Oh yeah, for clerics, press shift to convert any spell into a healing spell. For Druids, press shift to convert any spell into a summoning spell. Very useful.