ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Ok, brand new to this game. Just rolled my second character, an alchemist. Everything was going very well, until I switched control to my golem and my character decides to automatically use phase door, even though there was absolutely no need for it and it was probably the worst action possible. Now, instead of being separated by a from a powerful enemy by my golem, I'm now right next to it, no possible escape and dead in three turns. Awesome. How can I prevent such a stupid and needless death in the future?

Switch control to your golem, right-click on your alchemist, then use the tactical talents usage menu to disable anything you don't want the alchemist doing while you control the golem.

Obviously, do this before you get into a combat situation. You probably also want to set the leash anchor (for your alchemist) to the golem and set a reasonable leash distance to make sure your alchemist doesn't wander too far away from the golem. Put a high weight on a safe skill you want your alchemist to use (like channel staff). The tactics screen is a powerful game feature, but there are a lot of options. Take the time to experiment with it.