I think it's argueable of close combat being the greatest base class. True, it holds many of the essentials to many classes, but the game is easily passable by ranking up shield mastery alongside complementary skills to firebolt. Heavy armor mastery might be needed, but you can always just grab some potions then. The shield prevents you from being killed and the firebolt will kill most things in 1-3 hits.
I think what you really need to address is that the player needs to empower themselves and to answer the original question, how to obtain more money. When a newbie asks me the same question, I tell them to become strong(alongside advice on their chosen class). Although close combat is one of the easiest ways, and renovation should also help with this, it simply isn't a great way to deal with mobs at the higher end game.
One of the greatest flaws in becoming strong is the fact that it is hard for newbies to obtain levels, and therefore ap early on in the game. This restricts their growth and puts a bottleneck on their growth. My remedy for this is to try and get a newbie into a guild quickly where there are people that can help them with their chosen talent and also help them level so that they become strong enough to tackle activities that earn moderate gold.