My first playthrough I did not take either, until Arx where I specced thieving on one character and I did fine, granted it was classic, but still.
Your problem is that you pick fights way out of your league it seems, even equipped that quest you mentioned with ring would be tough as level 11 vs level 13 voidwalken there. But... why? You really should not be doing that one at that point and certainly not wearing rags.
Other than that, basic equipment from vendor is all you really NEED, if you are still using level 6-7ish stuff at level 11 you will feel the pain and at some point simply having more armor/magic armor is just better than that outdated piece that gives you attribute/skill boosts.
There are exceptions, of course, but in general if you get to the point where you get oneshot, then you got to pick up some armor there - +2 Strength and +1 Warfare on that outdated piece won't help you when you are dead, but extra hundred armors can help you survive and kill the shit.
Plain stuff from vendor is not terribly expensive, you should be able to afford to refresh yourself once every odd level supplementing stuff you get from quests and chests.
Last edited by Gaidax; 30/09/17 11:46 PM.
