Welcome to the boards, Wolf Rider2! May your journey through the Gael Serran be fun and profitable...
The salads are the single biggest challenge encounter in the game. A tip o' the hat to the developers... they positioned the salads so they'd sneak up on your back while you're in combat with something else. The effect is devastating.
For a first-time player, the thing to remember is that there's no wrong way to play the game; only choices. Some choices make the game harder or easier than others.
My biggest advice to you... save up skill points. Specialize in a magic school and/or weapon type. It's far better to have one skill at 5 than to have 15 skills at 2... and while I don't remember the *exact* conversion, that's probably not far off
My next biggest... put your attribute points in to INT. That determines how many skill points you get at each level-up. Major important...
My third... there's one exception to the last rule. That's to make sure that you have enough attribute points to let you join other guilds. Guild-hopping is the term, and it lets you take a class-change quest, join the target guild, then drop the class-change quest. You need minimum attributes of 10 across the board and 12 in one or two areas. Once you've connected to all five guilds, put everything into INT until it maxes out.
My last... save your ankhs until later. You can train an attribute up to level 20, and ankhs can let you get up to level 24. Save the ankhs (and other attribute-raising loot) until you get that skill to 20.
Now get out there and save the Gael Serran!