>If I think I have half or even a quarter of a chance, I don't
>mind running into the fight, but when if I have no chance,
>then there's nothing I'm really going to learn.

Wrong. You can learn a lot from a fight you lose. You can learn about what tactics people choose against you, so you know what to expect. You can learn that a disarmed person that can hit really hard doesn't really hit you very often. You can learn that groups easily able to kill you panic when suprised and you end up getting them all killed somehow.

> Definitely as
>a lowbie, it's important to have as many spells up as
>possible: fly, detect invis, invis (though I don't see much
>value to it),

Invis is very important. It often gives you the element of surprise and the ability to evade certain groups. It is particularly useful at lower levels when people can't afford to have detect invis up all the time.

> and uh....that's about as far as I've gotten so
>far. Haste perhaps, except that it decreases regen.

Haste makes you fight a LOT better. You really notice it as a fighting class. As a mage class, you might not, but it can help a bit.

Slow is good for when you are not fighting, if you are regen'ing. However, that's part of the reason invis is good. You might be able to jump people whilst they are still slowed. You fight really badly when slowed.

> Slow is
>good because it increases regen.
>
>It's also not my character's role to usually pick a fight,
>even if I see one coming. It's more his role to hope the fight
>won't happen and then try to survive/win it when it does.

My chars are far more likely to strike first and worry about hurt feelings later. That's because I learned that if you let the other guy strike first (or wait to see if he is peaceful), you will find yourself attacked about 75% of the time and dead at least 50% of those.

> The
>one time it fit my role to pick a fight, I learned a client
>program is probably a wonderful thing. The opponent really
>impressed me. He picked a fight with a mob I would have to in
>role defend, and so I went running into the room to pick the
>fight, forgetting that I need to type murder, not kill, to
>initiate combat. Anyway, it looked in my scrollback like he
>fled the moment I ran into the room, then ran back in while I
>was typing where and killed me in 4 hits, from when I was at
>100%. I was able to enter one command in that combat before I
>got pounded into paste, and that command wasn't flee. The
>lesson I learned was: that appeared to be one well-thought
>trap, maybe I should think of using a client other than
>telnet, and remember to use murder, not kill, although he
>still would have beaten me with ease.

Actually, whilst a client is very useful (for example, you could have blinded him before he fled, thus not getting hit at all, assuming you have either the spell or a scroll), the issue here is not "murder". Murder is sometimes the command to open with, but not very often, unless you are a shapeshifter, and even then often it is not. Usually you want to open with a targetted skill or spell, although there are times you won't because of counterstrikes that can be made if you do.

> Each fight does teach
>something valuable, and it's a matter of putting the pieces
>together eventually.
>

Yep. The secret here is to know that people will almost always flee when a defender arrives and then aim at you. However, if they flee, you can then move the other way past the mob, and then hit them again when the mob has re-engaged them etc. Or at the very least, you should expect to be the one he's going to aim at.

>I'm still looking for preps. It would help newbies if there
>were a table of preps somewhere, but I understand that
>learning preps is intended to be part of the learning curve,
>and that's fine. I finally found out where I can buy recall
>potions, so that's 1 down, buncha other stuff to go.

In all seriousness, you could ask for basic prep info from most people in game and they'd tell you. Not "where can I get preps", but "where can I buy a potion of teleportation?" or "where should I look in order to get flight potions". Some, like reduce and enlarge, are slightly less likely to be revealed, but an ally would probably still do it.