So I finally found my first Skeleton spawner and built up a drop farm for them. After playing for 20 hours at 1 heart (bloody Ghasts did me in), I finally have some bows, arrows, bone meal, and a few loot bags dropped regen potions. w00t! Back to full health!
With a fully upgraded ExoSuit and a magical forest nearby I think it's time to fly over there, build a wall, and spawn some chickens. If I do that I can use mutandis to get some more trees, netherwart, slime balls, etc, leading into the botania fire protection amulet. I was hoping to have that before I went back to the Nether and hunted down some Blazes and soul sand. Blaze rods and Netherward are my current tech progression limiters.
If you think the overworld is brutal, the Nether is far worse.
Loving this pack and the inclusion of Flaxbeard for early game.
I should probably look into Clockwork stuff soon as well. I've got plenty of Brass now.