Choose the knight for greatswords skill tree.
The first thing you'll want to do is look at the map and look at the forest seeding. You want thick forest close to Ostbrook, to easily hunt moose. If the seed is bad then restart.
^That's a bad seeding^ -
Moose will only appear in this type of area. Moosehide gives 14 coins per inventory square (selling to the tailor), cooked venison 19 (Ormond - butcher) and moose antler a whopping 65 (!)(Bert - merchant).
To make it as effective and easy as possible you need to pick
Heroic Charg at lvl 1. That is how you hunt, so you'll need to buy a War Scythe as your first weapon. When you reach level 2 you should put a point in
Courage. Put all ability points in strength in the beginning.
Do yourself a favor and pack light, so leave your purse and lockpick. This is how it should look like:
^Obviously not the first pre moose hunt. Vivifying Essence (the potion) should be two Healing salves in the beginning, and the cooked venison will be some other food of course. You won't need more than this. Don't forget to forage a lot of Pinecap mushrooms in the beginning to save food.
This is what the catch of a good hunt will look like:
And after selling everything to the right vendors the profit was this:
If the tailor runs out of money, invest in boots and gloves that give protection. Any gear that gives less than protection is a waste of coin.
Take care in the beginning. I invested early money repairing the starting cuirass and getting Vivifying essence (it can save your ass).
Spending one and a half in-game week hunting should set you up with great gear at about level 2.5 - 3, giving yourself a good starting position to play as a melee character.
Happy hunt!