Thanks you all for your feedback.
Some people seem to think that I'm unable to kill orcs at all...that's not true. I can slice and dice them with the best of them, killing many of the lesser orcs. It is when the big boys (the giant orcs) come out that I get toasted. It seems strange to me to put a monster who seems to be roughly equivalent to Asmodeus in classic AD&D alongside a bunch of cardboard foes.
Ok--so my strategy so far has been to explore around a lot, maybe that's my problem. I went from the starting town to the dwarven bread inn to the castle to the captain and then decided to wander. I can kill all of the snakes, bees, corpses, trolls, etc,. but it's those big baddies that get me.
Re: my comment about Europeans, rereading it today it looks like it could be offensive, but I meant it as a joke, it's just most of the games that I've met nearly impossible obstacles have been European.
