If you are a beginner, start here.

[BLUExephos7612]

I typed a big thing up, and it got deleted, so I will try to keep this short.

Invest in dexterity to get that tohit rating up
get the bless spell, its usefulf or battle,
get the arrowblocking spell before the game
I would recommend at the beginning to get 3 points in cartograpy and get one point in lockpicking and heavy armor and swords skills.
Also if you want to know how to get the strongest weapon in the game, keep reading, *extremely mild spoiler alert*. You will meet a pirate in a big city telling you to kill a woman named lilith and to give him her passkey she had on her. Go and kill her, open the chest with the passkey yourself, and boom, strongest weapon in the game. sword that does 11 damage. (strongest that I know about.)
If your getting your ass handed to you, just camp and kill the enemies that spawn, it's a relatively easy, but time consuming process to level up.
Also whenever in a tough battle, use surroundings to your advantage, explosive barrels, and gate to lower on enemies to kill them instantly is great! also a fun little trick is if you have several hard enemies at once, walk into a door way and walk one more space ahead of the doorway, now you only have to fight them one at a time! It's super useful!

Make sure to have fun! Also if you think this is good advice for a beginner, please leave a comment saying so, or if you are a beginning, just say hi! It's always nice to know people are still playing this game. If you like the game, buy eschalon book 2 and 3 for $20 on steam. Have fun!

I know you beginners have no idea what to hit rating is, but its important. Also if you don't know how to atack barrels, chests, or doors, or friendly people, hold down shift and then left click. Have fun! and happy holidays!

Alright, I won't make this a spoiler alert, so trust me, I won't ruin the ending. But when you get to the end, instead of doing what your supposed to do, kill the only guy in the room instead, and then kill all the guys that barge into the room, a really funny message will be recieved afterwords in gaming, it's really funny and its a fun little challenge to do after the game, I don't think you'll regret it!

[Serrorffa.C]

Why dont tell them how to useing chests or barrels as well as they can?
Each times, before you open a new chest or check a barrel, press f2 to save the game, then open the chest, if there is nothing you like, restore the game, back to the game before you open the chest, then open it again.
with this method, you can well-armed your character in the first map.
Also it's a good way to earn golds at the begin, try it repeatly, and pick up those high-value items to sell.
Soon you'll become to a Mr.Money Bag.

[Smilingdeath]

Save the game before picking locks and before disabling traps as well, then you only have to buy a couple lock picks if you have not looted them already.

DO NOT pick alchemy during character creation, there is a book that will teach it to you, called the Alchemists Cookbook.

When creating your character pickup the cleaving weapons skill. There is an amulet that gives a +3 to cleaving skill you can get early in the game that helps a lot in some of the fights, also you can then cleave chests and barrels easier. Also keep a spare cleaving weapon in your pack and use that one to beat on things with.