Some assistance would be nice...

[RAM]

You may be suffering from Bug830. If so it can be fixed by editing one of your font files. Try loading <T.O.M.E. directory>\lib\pref\font-win.prf in notepad(make a copy of the file first) and changing all the instances of 0x7F to 0x01 the instances of 0x1F to 0x07. Also, if your display isn't updating properly, so that some things stay behind when the screen moves, toggling bizarre display in the window menu might fix it.

I find that for a necromancer it is useful to set yourself to running berserker and use the starting necromancy power to stun critters before I hit them. Necromancy seems to get a bad name but I find using magic to stun tough creatures safer than just bashing them and more efficient than trying to use spells alone...

Don't be afraid to run away to give your SP and HP a chance to recover. Also consider taking a potion or two of heroism, cure light wounds, or a scroll of blessing from the temple. These temporary items can do alot for your ability to hit things and/or survive. I try to evade the thieves and go directly for the bandit, you can get a half a dozen levels at once that way...

DO NOT SAVE IN THE BANDIT QUEST AREA!!!

Pressing m should bring up the magic menu, some things get added to this as you gain skills so your favourite magic might change which letter you need to press to use it, just a warning...

Pressing @ will bring up the macro menu. You may want to make a macro on something like ctrl-F1 that looks something like this:
\e\e\e\e\e\e\e\e\e\em@Cast\sa\sspell\r*
or this
\e\e\e\e\e\e\e\e\e\em@Use Necromancy\r*
\e is code for Esc, pressing Esc would cancel the macro, so it needs a code. The reason for all those escapes is that if you have any <more> messages or a command waiting for an input then it might mess up the start of the macro and then who knows what the later key-presses will do.
m opens the magic menu, so that you can use magic.
@ lets you type in the name of the type of magic you want to use, so that the macro never picks the wrong one, even if they move around. Note that this use of @ is specific to the magic menu.
Cast a spell casts a spell from a spell-book, you need to get the capital letters and everything right or else it won't work. \s is code for a space, and you can use spaces instead, but it will turn them into \ss when it saves it so don't be surprised when it changes.
\r is code for carriage return, or enter... if you press it then it will finish the macro, so you need a code if you want the macro to do it instead.
* makes it display all the options you have, so for a spell it will list all of the spell-books in your inventory.

Pressing = should give you the options menu, you should go through all the options at some point...

? will give you help, new players -> exploring -> commands should get you a list of the game commands, I expect that you will be using the original commands, and not the rogue commands

I don't really do much with summoners, mostly just grab a single point in it so that I can manufacture some victims in an emergency. But I could imagine it being more fun if you summoned one big critter and treated it like a sidekick...

Abilities like extra blow do whatever they say, some give you new actions, some trigger automatically, and some grant a pretty much constant benefit. Explaining what extra blow does is a bit much for me at the moment...

You should be able to throw anything using the v button the pressing the letter that corresponds to the slot in your inventory in which the item is.

[madmonk]

May I suggest you try a Sorceror? Much easier to play at the start since you have access to all spells (although you might not be of high enough level to cast them).

At the start 'b'rowse your spell book to see what you can cast. One of the early spells you should have would be Manathrust and this will be your bread & butter offensive spell for much of the game.

Set your speed to running and your tactics to berserker via the 'C'haracter sheet!

Practice casting the spell at the town people, and remember to keep your distance from them. You won't gain XP doing this but it will allow you to get the hang of the spell-casting part of the game.

So to cast Manathrust as a Sorceror, type in m ... a ... a

You should then be able to fire it off at your target.

[overtrix]

Running yes ... because to have +4 speed is cooler than something very cool.

Berserker no ... making yourself even more vulnerable in return for it becoming slightly less impossible to hurt anything - sorcerors make great cowards !

--- edit ---

Hmm, wait - really early on - is melee an option, can't remember. Should have used head before keyboard maybe.

[madmonk]

Running yes ... because to have +4 speed is cooler than something very cool.

Berserker no ... making yourself even more vulnerable in return for it becoming slightly less impossible to hurt anything - sorcerors make great cowards !

--- edit ---

Hmm, wait - really early on - is melee an option, can't remember. Should have used head before keyboard maybe.

The important bit is to set the running up...