Choose a race with the best combination of health, strength, defense,
and agility - maybe gnome or orc. Raise initiative to 5 at the start,
pump strength as you level until it caps, then defense. Sell your
barbarian resuscitator, buy a decent barbarian weapon, some armor
(probably mace + round shield + head chainmail + chainmail), a couple
duelist insignias, a teleport pass (this saves your position if you
use it to get out of the dungeon), a lockpick, and some heal potions.
Save your early points for the shield spell (start at 4, then raise a
point per level), clubs/axes and athletics abilities. Use your common
sense from there. Points do not necessarily have to be spent
immediately, and you don't have to raise spells to max if that means
the new mana cost of casting them will be too high.