Why giant?
- you said you wanted to advance slowly, which is important when playing giants (lower int)
- bash resistance due to size (even better enlarged)
- cloud or an outlander (frequently flying), so not as common to get tripped
- polearm (distance improved by being larger); overhead (size bonus)
- giant resistance
- option to bash
-dexy races often require more item & prep knowledge, which is really hard on a newer player

Hand vs flail?
- Your choice. Flail is awesome for lowbie pk, as you can often overwhelm low hp characters with a weapon they don't know.
- Starting with hand spec will give you more time to improve your defenses, and you will not have to worry about being disarmed.

PK/PvEnviron compromise
- Instead of polearm, probably sword. Sword has decent defenses, but better passive & burst damage output. I like polearm for solo exploration, but for pk you will likely need to have a companion to supply additional damage to land a kill.

Basic prepping?
- call resist, call true. Or,
- gold or barter items, detect invis, protection, flight, stoneskin, cure blind, return/teleport. Obviously, if you are fighting vets, you may need access to additional dam reduction and curatives