Combat Strategy
There are two main ways to die in combat in Grendel's Cave. The most obvious way is for combat hits to reduce your health to zero or less. You can avoid this by drinking healing potions or running away when you health gets too low. The second major way to die, and the one that most surprises new players, is taking a fatal blow. In this way, you can die from one hit inflicted by the lowliest monster. To protect you from a fatal blow always wear armor, even the light stuff, and a helmet.
The best way to win in combat is to avoid taking hits. Players employ several strategies. The simplest is to use long, pointy weapons that strike a monster far away from you before it can get close enough to hit you. Another is to use missile weapons, such as a bow and arrow, or throwing axes. The disadvantage of missile weapons is you have to rearm them once you use them and monsters can move in and strike while you do so. Another good strategy is to fly and strike from a distance, but you must be small to fly inside the cave and large monsters with long weapons may still be able to reach you flying. A very simple method is to strike with a long weapon at a far distance, leave the room before the monster can close in, and then go back into the room and strike from a long distance again. The general idea is to avoid taking hits.
Speed is very important in Grendel's Cave combat. You can have all the strength in the game but if you cannot hit a small, fast monster because you are too slow, it does not do you any good. Be sure, as you are improving your stats, to keep you speed up. If you have superior speed you can keep your weapon at its optimal, exact range, and out of range of your enemy's weapon. It can be to your advantage to keep track of distance, by moving your cursor over a monster. Switch to a longer range weapon to keep out of range of a monster if you are greatly faster, or switch to a shorter range weapon, like a dagger or a simple head butt, to get inside of a monster's weapon where it is unable to move back to hit you.