Skillbook first, usually the Snipe and Stealth that becomes available at around level 3. The game becomes way easier when you can initiate every fight with a massive amount of damage, especially with early Houndmaster Crossbow. Stealth also allow me to steal without having to set-up and distract the NPCs first.
Battering Ram is also a must-get because of the early game double knock combo for bosses like Migo. It's far easier to get Physical CC than to get Magical one because you only 1 mage or 2 at the start and Lohse can't deal any damage yet since she's a Wind-Water, not a Fire-Earth.
With a few quest done and money-portrait method, this becomes available really fast. There's also the card table with the Speck card to get all the gold (and you can kill them afterward because they tried to cheat you anyway)
After that, I start to cycle gold with buy-and-steal to make sure Lohse start learning as many spells as possible so she can be useful after I teach Ifan, my char and Red Prince all the stuffs required. If I can get +3 Thievery from 2 Rings and 1 Glove after leaving the fort, there's no money issue even after buying all the powerful Gareth stuffs at the end.
