Eye of the Beholder

>>4069747
Make sure you have two pure fighters in the frontline with maxed strength, dexerity and constitution. Have them dual-wield a long sword and a short sword. Keep two magical maces in the inventory for pierce resistant enemies.
Don't use any NPCs until EoB3 as they reduce exp gain.
Don't bother with ranged weapons. Their damage is not worth the tedium of having to pick the ammo back up again after every single battle.
In the first game there is no identify spell so use the stat screen to figure out the effects of magical items.
Keep some extra items oof each type in your inventory for puzzles.

The best tips you can have are:

1. Use or draw a map. It's an old school dungeon crawler, you're going to get lost.

2. The most dangerous area is the spider level on floor 5. Getting poisoned is essentially a death sentence early in the game. A 7th level Cleric can remove the poison, but you won't be by then. Your only options are finding antidote potions (few and far between) or making it to the Dwarven town and having the Cleric remove it off of one of your party members. The latter can be assisted by the second level Cleric spell Slow Poison, giving you a little more time between damage ticks (but you still can't rest and will ultimately die from it).

3. Make sure you have a balanced party. There are doors that can be picked and wasting keys on them can screw you later. Having no Cleric means no access to Create Food & Water (important!), Neutralize Poison and Raise Dead; along with no heal on rest option. Mage spells like Stoneskin and Haste become invaluable in tougher encounters later. Also, try for a variety of races. There are runes that only specific races can read. Elves are needed to read the Drow runes, Gnomes to read the Kobold ones (for some reason...), Dwarves to read the Dwarven ones, et cetera.