On the devil's advocate side...
Don't kill Scabban until every one of your characters has joined the Wizard's guild. Reason: If, for example, you promote your Priest to be a Warlock, s/he can then join the Wizard's guild. However, the only skill s/he may train in at level 1 is Intellect (Sun and Stone being closed off to a prior non-Wizard character). Locating Scabban is the only quest that you may repeat at the Valeia Wizard's Guild. If you kill him, your new Warlock (or Bard, or Samurai, or what-have-you) will not be able to train to Level 2 until you finish the Ardibren's Relic quest at the Ishad N'ha Guild, which is MUCH later in the game. Why is this important? Because for the Warlock and Bard, it helps to train Mooncraft and Fiendcraft up, especially when you're first starting to learn them, and you _can't_ do that unless you're at least level 2 in the Wizard's guild. Samurai, learning Sun magic, have no problem training at Level 1, so don't worry about them as much.
The other reason to spare Scabban a while is that he has interesting things to say about keywords that you discover later on in the game (e.g.: Kerah, Anephas, Cet, Mavin, etc.) For example, you find out that Cet is who is giving him the power to control the dead. Not necessary information, but it does add to the storyline; if you're into that sort of thing.
Of course, if you're just out to bash everything mindlessly that comes along as well, then have at him. Personally, if you're wanting to get your party's experience up, keep bashing Rumphy. He respawns everytime you reload the Crypt, and he's worth a lot of XP (around 6700+ points for 1 character). I use Rumphy to train all my newly ascended characters to get them through the beginning levels quickly so I don't have to wander the wilderness night and day to get them the points they need. It's even better when you get up high enough in Moon magic, to place a Portal at the switch to open the Crypt (on the Crypt side, of course), then go beat on Rumphy, then Teleport back to the switch, flip it twice to reload the Crypt, and repeat.
Note to Balgin the Dwarf: To keep Scabban from taking the "plunge", don't say "Goodbye." Most NPC's will remain put if you abruptly end the conversation rather than saying "Goodbye." I don't think it works on Mekdawa or the Head Oracle, but other than that, the others should stay put.
Cheers,
Sazerac
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