I see some people struggle with starting weeks. I tried this game for the first time, without guide, and thought it's too easy, especially economy wise despite my combat specialization. Since I disagree with some tips and remarks posted in this thread, here are my 2 cents.
- Don't waste time on exploring before you get good team with chainmails and first offensive spell (about week 2 in my case). You can do it but it's not worth the effort and time spent healing.
- You can forage food and buy it from merchant before assigning someone to cooking.
- Talking with people is by far the most effective tool. No cost, great effect.
- As a waypoint I had about 100g/daily income per week, so 100 after first, 200 second and so on. Early on more money comes from reapatable missions.
-As long as you can manage economy, magic specialization is perfect, you get half cost (!!!) on one of the main resources (mana - so you dont have to grind sex scenes) and your spells will 1 hit most enemies.
Finally: Tooltips and descriptions provide every info you need. If you follow some outdated and biased guides you miss on the fun.
You don't have to do any questionable things that people advise.
-I never used farm/laboratory
-Never captured anyone (save for main quest). Enslaving people early is more trouble than it's worth anyway and later you won't need it.
-Never jailed anyone