[Klutz]

Beautiful. Ah, love does the strangest things to people... sounds like Zach about tripled his number of kills there! Poor boy...

You said a while back you were trying to figure out where to put proficiency points. I was surprised that Zach hadn't yet glommed onto the fact that many of the warriors he's seen strap these big wood and metal boards on their arms in battle that, when an especially vicious attack is imminent, they use to... cower behind! Well, of course Keldorn and Jaheria would no doubt patiently explain the strategic benefits of being able to block incoming attacks to more efficiently deliver your own, but Zach would ignore everything except the cower factor. He would naturally demand the biggest such "shield" he could carry, and spend pretty much all of his adventuring expertise in maximizing his ability to cower behind his newfound best battle buddy, learning to use it to hide from those annoying missles people keep shooting at him while he's fleeing (read: ** in Sword and Shield style). With his low strength he may not be able to use the big tower shields, but he should at least be able to equip a small shield, and there's some very nice enchanted ones that he'd love for their superior cowering potential.

Next, our little pigsticker might notice that he spends lots of time running away. He's already discovered the boots of haste, which maximize his ability to do so as quickly as possible. He might realize that if he wants to do anything with his pigsticker while running away, it might be a good idea to... just throw it! Pigstick without even getting close to those scary baddies! I'm sure Zach's buddies would be more than happy to round up some throwing daggers of various types for him. (He probably won't go through them very fast, so ammo isn't a huge consideration, but with his 10 strength watch the weight. Too bad he hates poison; those are pretty decent.) His ultimate returning thrown-pigsticker item won't be available until the Underdark (you have no arcane spellcaster to start the Limited Wish quest which could make one available earlier). Also, you may need to make sure you have the latest Baldurdash patches to ensure that you can equip a throwing weapon with a shield.

Lastly, as to the gauntlet question, I think it's no contest: once Zach tries on the Gauntlets of Dexterity, he will be absolutely overjoyed at his superior ability to cower away from melee and missle attacks of all sorts. As a side benefit, he will find his accuracy as a ranged pigsticker noticeably improved. Leave the Gauntlets of Ogre Power to one of the tanks, who will take advantage of its THACO and damage bonuses more often.

Keep it up!