Well, being brand spanking new to Eaxia in its current form, I think I can respond to what new young adventurers are facing starting out. I was able to fight rats and didn't find them to swarm too overly much, except up the stairs in the abandoned building. It is nearly impossible to retreat out of melee if you have more than one at melee. Initially that spelled death to my character twice in my early forays out to hunt.
2nd level obviously got better. Now at 3rd. I'm still totally unable to retreat when I feel I'm about to be overwhelmed.
Finding healing seems to be a major problem for my character right now. Unless she died, and was kindly rescued by Krondor; or one time happened to be around the STS when a healer was offering aid... I'm assuming ofcourse that more injuries equals less ability to hunt, and easier to die from melee hits taken. Not real sure just yet.
Is there NPC healing or a place to buy healing agents for characters that I just haven't found yet?
Sorry for getting slightly veered off track in my response, but in many ways the healing thing is part and parcel of the hunting forays and concerns for new adventurer's, imho.
~Newbie Scarlata