I agree part of the fun can be trying to figure everything out, but at the same time I prefer to make informed decisions when creating characters, and I'd rather not read to many forum spoilers beforehand. SOME information in game (or manual) is pretty crucial.
A few notes for making characters:
You can't go far wrong if you follow the same principles that worked in Wiz 7. And I reckon most of the attributes (where they correspond) work much as they do in wiz 7. Str for physical, Int for magic users, wis for priest etc. Also Spd and Agi is important. Speed is very important for spellcasters, because it affects how quickly you can get in a debilitating spell, such as silence, and whether that is before the mobs or not.
Most physical attacks are directed at one of the first two characters, so it makes sense to put warrior/beserker (saurian is good I reckon) in those slots. In any case you want to maximise HP for those.
Ranger and scouting is useful. Also get the detect secret spell as early as poss and use it in all areas that are likely to have hidden walls. Buttons can be hard to spot, especially when scouting is low.
Some races appear to have very low mana regeneration as we discussed earlier. This is probably a bug. Currently though Wolfin, Aeorb, burrower, fairy have best mana regeneration. And so maybe right now humans & drow do not make the best spellcasters. I like fairies (!?) for speed etc. and aeorb for spellcaster, but don't take more than one fairy or aeorb, because they require special gear and I doubt Cleve has made lots of it.
When you roll a character and have spare points left over you can use those points as a bonus, which can be put into hitpoints, attributes or skill points (you have to put all of them into just one). I tend to put these into hitpoints for all characters, since that is most useful at the start. Note though that you have to roll certain amount more points (15? not sure) than it takes to qualify for a class before you get any bonus, so you can't ever get bonus points for some classes, such as metalsmith and other require high rolls (the maximum roll is 32). But, also note it isn't all about high rolling, because there is also an additional random element involved in how much hit points and mana you get to start of - so carefully check your character after rolling.
Hope some of that helps. Hardly comprehensive, but in the end as long as you follow the usual principles you should end up with a good party and the rest is about how you prefer to play. Not too much point trying to make an uber party anyway, since the game isn't so hard as to need that. It is difficult at the start though, depending on where you start, because it is almost impossible to "penetrate" with the crap stuff and skills you have at the start.
