@Jayde with respect to my equipment I do a compare job when I run into new things, and upgrade when I find better druid cast gear, or occasionally gear with the same druid cast level and wisdom or mana boosts, though I do now have a mana regen set.
This is working given that currently I'm level 29 and my druid spells are level 42, though sometimes I throw a few mage spells in there for variety and because I like seeing what different spells do, not to mention  course when I need elemental damage.
The one thing I do need to do is learn some cleric spells, since currently I don't have  armour, bless or faithshield, and those could be useful even at low levels with cleric being my third class and thief my fourth. I did it that way so I would have lots of mana regen.

As to alter and when things become difficult, with my previous attempt at a cleric warrior char I did find  point where the game was just no longer fun, I was stuck between regrinding areas I'd already been through, and unable to go to any high level ones. That started around level 24 and got progressively worse, and when I was getting killed at level 27 in level 25 areas the game was just plane depressing.
With my druid mage things are just so much easier it's almost funny, that annoying vampire aside, indeed he was quite a surprise given how laughably easy all the mutant creatures in the caves of pestilence seemed to be.

I'll also say I find Alter one of the easiest games to pick up and get immersed in after  absence between the game and the client there are so many commands to remember what your doing where, eg, sk to list skills by proficiency, also unlike a game like Materiamagica equipment balancing, at least when I'm going just for druid cast level is relatively easy, meaning I don't constantly have to change equipment as I do in a game like aardwolf.

Btw, interesting breakdown on necro minians, though I wonder how druid minians stack up?
Liveoaks are great tanks, but not as good for doing damage, so at the moment my usual is one live oak with a crystal coat and either a brown bear or a lion. The lion has less staying power than the bear, but does more damage over all.
that combo also leaves me some control points free for things like an earth wall and poisoned vines should I need them, indeed that might have been the problem with said vampire.

Well as I said I don't so much go for optimum gear as what I can find where, which is another  reason why doing quests is cool, though your probably right about the cleric spells.

Moose aren't usually around, unless you mean the elk? it is a great tank though I don't think the damage is as high as the bear or the lion is.

I did for the vampire, it took two goes through but he was close to dead second time around.

With druid spells tempest is a handy area attack but since you need multiple hits for it to get strong it is something of a mana sucker, for an instant damage all I prefer icefog. Fist of the earth is my staple, though I supplement sometimes with thistles or dust devil, and gust of wind is a great knockdown.

I'll admit though often I just like using spells for the sake of variety, one reason I still tend to throw a few mage spells in there even though my mage cast level isn't as good as my druid one.

Huuuuuuge tip for anyone who's a druid who cares: just in case it hasn't become obvious, charging spellstaffs is a great way to learn spells without wasting pracs, as well as a nice little bit of XP on the side.
As another little sidenote, every class has that one thing or two that just, give you a fair amount of XP for doing them a ton.  If you're a cleric, turn undead.  If you're a mage, scroll scribe and brew potions for the rest of us.  If you're a warrior, get tacticle, consider tanking on occasion for others and don't throw more than one prac into cry of victory.  If you're a thief, go get something sharp, hide under a rock with a bunch of juicy gossip, then come out and backstab your friends and enemies equally because you're no good at anything else anyway.  Well, yeah, you are, pickpocketing, stealing, sneaking around, stealthily minding everyone else's business, lock picking...
Necros?  Where should I begin?  Soulforging?  Blood bottling?  Lifetapping?  Creating metal constructs and other powerful tanks?  harvesting dragon teeth?  Yes, specifically dragon teeth over normal teeth if you want extra XP.  How about going along for a ride with a bunch of friends and protecting them when regenning by throwing down bone forts?  Or, what about, just for laughs, throwing down a bone prison around yourself every once in awhile in areas in which you won't disturb anyone?  Don't ask me why I tried it... I was bored.
Yeah yeah, someone's gonna come along and either claim I'm giving too much away or tell me I'm just flat out crazy and duh, Captain obvious?  Well, it wasn't obvious too me for a long long while; figured I'd throw it out there for anyone to fiddle around with to their char's betterment.

I have a quick question.  If I understand the rules, it is legal to have more than one character, each with their own class structures, etc., and you are allowed to play them independently, as long as only one character is logged in at any given time.  Is that correct?

Just an FYI for necromancers who might not have read the bovine channel: mummies now have a sort of mummy dust effect which causes your enemy to be hit with the asfixiation advanced poison, in addition to their usual curses. Asfixiation makes your opponent more vulnerable to breath damage and also makes their breath damage weaker and fail more often, I think. Read the help file for advanced poison to know more. Note I can't give more info because I am not a necro and thus did not use mummies, nor am I a thief who have used advanced poisons before.
EDIT: directly from the bovine channel (I replayed after like 8 hours or so after Draak mentioned this):
[bovine] Draak: asphixiation poison has threefold
effects: lessened regen on top of the normal poison effect, modest
vulnerability to breath damage and a failure chance for mobs with
breath attacks

I have a question.  Is there a setting to change so that combat either isn't automatic, or at least I am notified at the beginning of a battle?  Last night I started with a new character, and it's been over 2 years since I've been there.  I noticed that I'd walk through an exit, and before the description of the place was done, the monster I was fighting (without my knowledge) was dead.  Not 5 seconds after I entered the room, I heard the sound that you get when a corpse is sacrificed, and I hadn't done a damn thing in terms of fighting.  I made sure that my area music and other sounds were on.  No music changes were given to show battle, no voice notifications.  The only time I knew I was in battle was if a strike of theirs missed me, or if a strike of mine didn't immediately kill them, and I started getting messages.  Besides, I don't like that I have no control of a fight, that basically I can sit there and it will fight for me.  If I'm gonna fight, then I want to make the decisions in battle.

The problem I found was that I didn't have time to cast any spell or use any skill before whatever I was fighting was dead.  I thought that music was supposed to change during a battle.  Is that incorrect?

you can also type brief to turn room descriptions off meaning that you'll more quickly hear what is going on in battle. I don't personally like this option since I like the room descriptions and want them read, so what I do is immediately  control when I go through an exit to shut speech up. If something attacks me, or my minians I then start in with the spells etc, and only look at the room when whatever it is is dead, which as Jayde said, isn't quite as quick later in the game.

Also remember the rev corpse command to look at the description of a creature before it was killed if you like the atmosphere of the game and want to know what something is. This Btw is one of my favourite alter fetures and one I'm really glad Dentin implemented since there are some dam nasty agro monsters out there.