Dungeonmans

Skill/Class Advice

Rangermans is the least difficult 'standard class'. Good for learning the game. Otherwise, there's no reason to not play the Dungeonmans, which allows you to freely spec your character's skills from the start.
Always have a ranged damage skill. If you're focusing on hitting things with a weapon, this usually means splashing into Foominology, Necronomics, or Iron Marksman. Shields are mutually exclusive with bows or staves, so keep that in mind.
Only the first Bannermans skill tree, Starlight Soldier, requires polearms. You can splash into The Herald Militant/Triumphant with any kind of character and they are extremely worth it.
Choose one skill tree from Armour and You with a character and stick to it. You cannot use the skills associated with a class of armour if you are wearing any other class of armour.
Southern Gentlemans skills are best left alone until you can play the game at a pretty good clip. The class's resource, Ire, drains in real time.
Fieldwork is simply not worth investing in unless you're absolutely sure you know what you're doing.

Always have an exit button for when you're in a bad place, be it surrounded, low on health in the open with a dangerous ranged enemy in sight, or so on. Movement skills are good for this, but you can also get by with keeping a stock of blink scrolls available and conservative play.
Always turn in academy items at your earliest convenience. Make sure to use your proofs of stremf to increase your stats and to melt down the heap of unnecessary gear you've picked up along the way.
Buff up with consumables and skills before entering challenge portals, not after. Champion potions are especially useful.
In fact, approach consumables in general including health/stamina/magic potions with a buffing mindset and not a "Oh no I'm going to to die next turn" mindset because they restore over time and they may not be able to save you at that point.
Respect champions. They have tricks up their sleeve their lesser brethren do not.

The quirks vary wildly in power at time of editing and can have a massive effect on your play experience:
The good ones are Electrolyzed, All Weather (if you're playing as a wizardmans), Tireless, and Mad Thirsty(!). Mad Thirsty is by far the strongest quirk, allowing you to quaff a potion each turn as a free action.
The okay ones are Southern Born (for the stun resist), and World Champion (more proofs of stremf).
Everything else is bad, even the one that gives you 20% more turns for 15% more damage taken (your health can drop to zero in a bad situation shockingly quick already, and it can be weird playing around the world moving at a slightly different pace from your character).

Masters Programs are secret skill trees that are unlocked by fully exploring certain combinations of skill trees. You can discover them for yourself if you like, but they're also listed below with their prerequisites.
Disintegral Calculus: Foominology + Cryoscience + Tricksonometry
King of Battle: Shieldcraft + Starlight Soldier + Cartography
Grimdark Darkmans: Legendary Armsman + Deadcrafting + Necronomics