Thank you!
To answer your questions:
1. Leveling up and advantages give some leeway after rolling a bad character, but your character will probably still struggle more than others. However, it's not as bad as it might look at first glance, since there are three other things that smooth it over a bit:
- Besides the odds being fairly low that you roll five 1s in a row, the character also starts with attribute bonuses gained from their background, which means they never start with only 1s, even if they have a ton of bad luck.
- The combat system does not rely on character attributes except in special cases like for saving throws for monster attacks and the odd class ability that the player has chosen themselves.
- Issue 02 contains downtime actions characters can take to increase their attributes and learn new talents outside of the normal leveling increases. This system has a higher chance of success for characters with low stats.
2. I've played a bunch of Caves of Qud! I love that game, and even though it wasn't a direct inspiration it must have influenced my thinking about TEA in some ways while writing it :)