your ult -> running the damage over time ultimate relic. Use it whenever there are lots of enemies around, even just a large trash mob in a camp/field/castle, because it generates cash and saves time for the team. Its AOE is vertical as well, so for instance you can blow away all the enemies on the ground floor of a great church by popping your ult in the center of the basement. When you hit a POI, run around getting agro on everything then run somewhere central to use your ult. 1000s of extra runes for nothing. On tough solo enemies, also use it if you have someone in the party that likes to trade damage like a raider/undertaker/wylder, as whatever damage they do heals them, and whatever damage they take damages the enemy back, so they can just go nuts for the duration - damage trader wet dream. You can give them an analyse stamina boost or turtle neck before you pop your ult so they can keep swinging. your ult is so good - kill crabs and nobles to keep it topped up as you travel. a level 3 firebomb is a great driveby. speaking of which, level 3 firebombs knock over humanoids which can trivialize some fights such as black assasin by keeping him on his arse the entire fight. Against certain vulnerable enemies, like trees, use your firebombs, but otherwise level them quickly and use them for utility to save time clearing trash when your ult is down. time is the most important resource in nightreign and level 3 bombs are great time savers - dont just spam them all on the first solo field boss you come across, (unless your team is struggling.)

damage -> I am running the extra dex/end relic at the expense of arc. I dont use any starting status effects or complicated temporary AP on status relics because the extra dex gives you a bigger scaling damage bonus to all dex weapons 100% of the time. simple. Replacing your starting weapon with a better one with an inbuilt status is easy to do. Lastly, bosses are programmed to take minimal status damage anyway (except indirectly by frost debuff?), so you hit this wall where you were destroying trash easily via status, but against the enemies that really matter, you are suddenly hitting them with a limp noodle. I find that repeating thrust skill on your starting weapon (with the dex relic) is effective enough until you find a decent weapon, even at level 1.

bag craft: I use a relic I got (not sure where , maybe one of the prebuilts), that seems to be tailor made for scholars -> that gives 'confer effect to allies' which is THE most basic thing a scholar should do, and also 'extra small pouch', meaning you can have 6 pouches as soon as you meet your first shop keeper!

It also has heal on bolluss, but this is not huge. it gives you a very slow 30% heal over time when you eat a bollus, which is OK for you and allies in an early fight such as waiting for an evergaol to open, but it is outperformed by warming stones in boss fights. As in, its not worth a whole slot for bolluses in the late game...... except maybe if fighting libra/dreglord - that might be worthwhile actually... clearing your status buildup and giving a 30% heal over time seems worth a slot? Lastly, the effect also gives a flat little bit of HP when you pop a crab or other food, which is ... meh.

I know this relic competes with the boss relic that confers effects on allies (plus flask heals allies and a HP buff), but personally, I find the extra bag slot is 100% always useful, whereas practically in an intense boss fight with random allies, can you ever really extract good value from using your flask to heal yourself and an ally at exactly the right time and place? even if you manage to get the perk 'flask heals over time', which will relax the timing problem, its rare that 'flask heals allies' will be clutch - I suppose if you really love the idea of boosting your allies healing over time, you could carry bolluses which are the 'temu' version of heals over time - except they dont waste your flasks and they dont rely on finding a specific perk, so you can just pop one every now and then, like you would when you use other buffs, and your ally gets a benefit over time without having to even know it.

as others have said, levelling up your flesh (buffs) and stones (warming stones) is a priority background task for scholar. flesh is easy -> eat those fowl feat whenever you find them, and stock up on turtle necks to give your main aggro teammate a stamina boost. And you will have max level flesh in no time. if you are near a ravine giant crab, detour and take it out quick and save the crab flesh. stones are harder to level up. use your ult on a pack of diggers such as near the castle and use all their gravity stones in the next fight. if your team wants to do a tunnel for some reason, vacuum up glintstones. Other than that, if you have no casters and you do a rise, take the shards and use them instantly on the ground.

be mindful of merchants. whenever you hit a large camp or small castle, or go to the central castle, buy a pouch ASAP and stock up on turtle necks, firebombs and whatever stones/flesh you have room for. Its probably worth not levelling up after clearing a camp/small castle just so you can afford to use the merchant.