Thanks for the replies. Some more questions that have arisen:
1) How useful/necessary are Robes of Resistance (I have Cold, Fire, and Electrical so far, IIRC)? So far I haven't seen much need of them, but hesitate to sell them in case they are more useful/necessary in the end game (which I've never seen). Got them stashed in Beregost.
2) Is a Robe of the Archmage really worth 16K to a fighter/mage? It didn't seem that impressive to me for that much money. What am I overlooking?
3) What is the range/sensitivity on "Detect Evil"? It seems to vary. I have Ajantis use his special ability occasionally. Sometimes, he detects evil chars way off in the sector, other times he reports nothing when there is a group of inimical monsters fairly close.
4) There are several instances in the manual referring to a seemingly generic "Hit Dice," e.g., in some spell descriptions ("the wizard conjures 8 Hit Dice of monsters" & "monsters with 4 +3 Hit Dice or more are unaffected"). What does this mean?
5) Recently got the Cloak of the Wolf - thought of playing around with it, but couldn't figure out how to invoke the transformation! <blush> No keys seemed to work - how do you do this? Also, is this really even worth using, other than playing around, i.e., is a wolf a good addition to a team? It wouldn't seem that good in combat - maybe as a scout?
6) In some cases, an enchanted armor (e.g., Chainmail +2) will give the same AC as a heavier plain armor, thus saving weight, allowing the char to carry more stuff. However, using the enchanted armor won't allow using a item of protection +1 with it. If I understand how things work, I would think that overall, the +1 to saving throws would be more valuable than the increased carrying capacity. Comments - agree/disagree?
7) How often do you run into skeleton warriors? One guide I've seen calls them one of the most potent monsters in the game (worth 4000 XP). Is it worth giving chars proficiency or specialization in blunt weapons or missile weapons (sling bullets seem to count as bludgeoning weapons) to have a counter for skel warriors, or aren't they worth worrying about? Regular skeletons aren't that formidable, but I haven't yet seen the more potent version. If you only see a couple of skel warriors in the game, it doesn't seem worth worrying too much about them, but if in some late stage of the game, you face room-fulls of them, maybe it would be.