There will be adjustments to the Explorer and Classic difficulty levels throughout the alpha/beta, and Tactical and Hardcore difficulty levels will be added at release.
There will be a tutorial added before getting to the beach at Fort Joy.
If you freed a dragon earlier, he can kill the shriekers; they shouldn't just die, though. There is another piece of equipment that can give Source Vampirism, or you can teleport past the shriekers.
It is possible to learn the Bless skill (in the illusionist's cave, "Madman's Enclave")
After the next update (going through QA currently; no ETA yet) I may start a topic for known issues.
