I'm trying to turn a locally unimportant peasant into a rogue warrior, with 3 knives and a bow. My first difficulty was that I couldn't even be a hearthperson, and nobody would come with me, meaning I had 1 day's radius of travel. I went on a quest the lord told me about, killing some kobolds, which he apparently didn't like much, with the help of a travelling dwarf pikeman. I also learnt to swim without drowning (had to savescum the first time) and used a stack of bolts in the hall to get a better archer and bowman skill. Tough. On the way back from the Kobolds, my now-named (before me, though it was something to do with pimples) companion got killed in a 2v2 battle with a hammergoblin and a swordgoblin. I managed to scare the swordgoblin off from on top of me by shooting her companion after he finished off the pikeman though the guts at point blank range, a startlingly effective tactic. This got me a name: Kemus Seereagles the Ships of Steel. Though goblin got my nose, but I returned to the lord and now 1 person from the halls will come with me to fight. I also killed a troll, with a 3-word-long name, so some big cheese, and I'm currently massacring goblins with an unsuccessful stakeout no a night creature lair.
All this is a lot easier than my Plan B, if I couldn't become a hearthperson: run to the big city and get some drunks to come with me.
Also, I know NPCs and cavies respawn upon leaving then returning to them. Is the same true of NPC's inventories? Cuz then I have an expensive but infinite supply of arrows.