The secret of staying alive in the Realms is pretty simple.  You need to keep your armor in good shape and keep updating it as you advance in level, you need to gain as many HPs as you can when you level, you need to keep yourself healed, and when the time comes, you need to know when to run away.

Stats in relation to HPs, Mana and Practices.
Your character has 5 major statistics (stats); STRength, INTelligence, WISdom DEXterity, & CONstitution.  A players maximum stats will be determined by the class the character is.  There are four types of stats.  Prime stat (which can rise to 25), secondary stat (which can be raised to 22), deficient stat (which can only rise to 18), and ordinary stats (which can be rise to 20).  You can check the class helpfile for hints as to what your classes primary, secondary and deficient stats are.  By typing "score", you can view your current stats and base stats.  This will be shown in the following format:   current stat number (base stat number).  You want to get your INT, WIS, and CON as high as you possibly can before you gain a new experience level. INT affects the amount of mana you gain (used for spells), WIS affects the number of practices (used for training skills), and CON affects the amount of hit points you gain (your life blood). Spells, weapons & armour can all be used to increase or decrease these three stats. Finally, STR affect the amount of weight you can carry & your DR, and DEX affects the number of items you can carry and your HR.

Keeping Yourself Alive
There are a number of ways to help you keep your HPs and keep yourself from dying. The most common ways; Spells, Pills, Potions & Healers. Curing spells can be cast on you by other high-lvl chars, as long as you are both either deadly or non-deadly. Pills are objects that cast spells on you when you eat them, the most common being "a head of lettuce ", available in Tullfuhrzky Manor. Potions are objects, that when quaffed, cast spells on you; the most common being "a maroon potion", which you can get on market street in New Darkhaven. And Healers are mobs that cast helpful spells on you while you rest near them, such as the healer amongst the cage mobs. In order to use pills and potions, they must be in your active inv., and are invoked by typing "eat <pill>" (ex: eat lettuce), or "quaff <potion>" (ex: quaff elixir).  They can also be in a container.  This is a little trickier.  You must type the "command <item> <container>"  (ex: eat lettuce sack) or (ex: quaff elixir sack).  You may also find other items that are classified as staves or wands.  These must be equipped in order to use them.  If it is a staff it will be brandished.  If it is a wand it will be zapped (ex: brandish cane)or (ex: zap book).

The Art of Running Away
There are 3 basics ways of leaving combat; Fleeing, Recalling, or Dying. There are 2 ways to FLEE; the first way is to simply type "flee" during a battle and your char will try to run away, the 2nd way to flee is to set your WIMPY. Your "wimpy" is an amount of HP, that you can set, at which you automatically try to run away from a fight.  It is suggested that your wimpy should be set at about 1/3 your total HP. (ex: "wimpy 20" will force you to flee when you drop to 20 HP). Setting your wimpy to 1/3 your HPs gives you a little bit of an edge if the mob decides to give chase or summon you back when you flee.  To RECALL during battle, simply have a "recall" or "escape" scroll in active inv. and type; "recite recall". Recalling doesn't work 100% of the time while in battle. You should also know that some areas are set as NORECALL zones and you will not be able to recall from these areas, or, if you're cursed, you cannot recall unless you use an "escape" scroll (recite escape), or have some means to remove curse. Either way, when you flee from battle, you WILL lose some experience points, but it's better than dying!
 

*Information as of July 28, 2005