thanks for the quick support Raze!
It turns out, since I had to try again, I started with a different strategy, attacking from far away and using lots of "shields up" to avoid the CWGD - Chicken weapon of game destruction.
I actually noticed that two polymorph skills - chicken and medusa head - are very powerful... once I included them in my repertoire, I started spanking some higher level enemies.
Overall, I feel this is indeed a great game, with great combat mechanics, graphics/scenario, skills, versatility for combat and elemental effects, and it deserves all the awards it got.
I sure hope you keep all the excellent improvements I saw in DOS games so far, and join forces with the folks who wrote some of the cool plots and dialogues of Baldur´s gate, planescape torment, etc.
