Hi all!
I have enjoyed the fact that this game is so well designed that I keep to about the right level of money/hit points/armor just by following the quests as I go. I hate it when games force you to waste time doing the same thing over and over again to build up your character, even if you've been killing everything as you went.
I am right before High Garendall - I have gotten through the crypt and into HG, but I do it by using tons of potions and keeping getting wailed on. I have really close to the best armor/weapons that I see other people posting in their end game characters, though! Is it just the fact that I haven't sat and built up my skill points with 3,000g potions? 
I have the Symbol of Garendall quest and the Tome of Elixers quest, both of which are set in HG, and then the statue for the ship quest (I cheated by looking up the island name after reading about it here, oops), which I have no idea where to get the statue for. Is there another place I should be going/questing right now? I tried going down to Cyclops coast, etc., but cyclops are also kind of hurting (not much, but enough to make me go through some potions), and there didn't seem to be anything there... I didn't explore down to the Sea Giants, I'm pretty sure I don't belong there yet from the descriptions on the boards... 
Anyway, I'm really hoping I'm just missing it, and I don't have to just build up my skill points to progress effectively further.
FYI, I have the elven full plate, ring of the awk (which I'm assuming is Hawk), boots of lightning, crown of stones (I can get the necklace to upgrade, I know), battle axe of misery, elven bow of destruction, lillith shield, etc.
Another note - I too am having problems saving in OS 8.6 (it freezes), and increasing to 120MB of mem didn't help.
Also, I'm assuming there aren't any skills besides the first two, which is disappointing, but I think I would have heard about them on here by now if there were...
Oh, combat style - I have the best (that I've found) shield, but using that and the battle axe misery seems to suck compared to using the elven bow of destruction, just because the shield doesn't seem to block too many hits, even when I use it before the enemy swings (the sound, not the graphic, I know), and the axe seems to hit way way less and is slower to boot. Question: does marksmanship only help bows, and dex helps to hit with melee weapons? Has there been a list anywhere of what does what in terms of your skills? Do people really tend to think that shields help enough to make using a melee weapon worth it? Or do you just use a two-handed melee weapon? Hmm...
Anyway, that's it (oh, is that all? ;-)), first post, yay! 
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-Joe
"Tolerance is
important. You never