There are six classes: Mage, Cleric, Thief, Warrior, Necromancer, and Druid, and these offer a world of possibilities. Many character types are hybrids of two or more classes, others are straight one class. Here are detailed some of the more specific character types.

(Note that gender specific pronouns do not indicate which sex is better; the gender of a character has no impact on that character's ability.)

Once you have a general feel for the different types of character specialization, you may want to look at our Guide to Equipment Sets. This helpful guide can give you pointers and advice on what type of equipment to acquire for your character.

By far the most widely known character type, The Warrior Tank is pure stopping power. He is capable of taking tons of damage due to his extremely high armor class. He trained his constitution very high, meaning he's got tons of hitpoints, great for taking punishment. He doesn't have a lot of damage dealing capability, which is why he's mostly only functional when in a group of adventurers.

The Magic Tank is common as well, having high Mage and Cleric Levels. This allows them a wide range of defensive spells, and the ability to heal themselves. They may also achieve a high armor class with equipment that has been enchanted, or even have equipment that is resistant to spells and magic.

The Necromancer Tank has his minions tank in addition to himself tanking, and they use their spells to create powerful defensive equipment.

To be valuable to a group, any Tank must be familiar with the rescue skill. The tanking, protect, and defensive fighting skills are also very common.

Generally a Warrior/Thief class, the hitter is capable of dishing out lots of damage. His hitroll/damroll is high, but because of this, armor class suffers severely. His attacks per round is usually high, allowing him to get hits in while a Tank takes the damage. Hitters generally also know the double attack, berserk, and cleave skills to allow them to do the maximum amount of damage in a short period of time.

To be a hitter you must have a high strength, to wield heavy damage-dealing weapons. A few supplementary skills such as kick, bash and disarm could be useful. A Hitter who knows cure spells or blasting spells is even more of a valuable asset. Again, this character type is not much good alone, but when coupled with a tank and a few other Hitters, he becomes a lethal tool.

A high level caster, The Blaster dishes out MONSTER damage. She's usually outfitted with cast level equipment, making her spells much more potent. She has trained her intelligence and wisdom to very high levels, to allow her a large amount of mana. She must be familiar with all the classes of offensive spells, so that she may be able to deal more effectively with different types of enemies.

As an example, ball lightning is an electricity based spell. If a monster is resistant to electricity, then she should be able to switch to a fire based spell, such as fireweb. If that doesn't work, perhaps a cold or crystal spell will have more effect. Each caster class has mulitiple high-end, high damage spells available.

If necessary, blasters should be able to use area effect spells, but theses are potentially dangerous - incidental hits from area effect spells may make the vulnerable caster a tempting target for other creatures in the area.

The Healer is a primary cleric who is adept in all the major healing and protective spells. Between heal spells, bless, armor, sanctuary and refresh, Healers can keep tanks and group members alive as well as restore movement and keep hitters in the battle.

Groupcasting can also be a very important skill for a healer. This allows the healer to efficiently cast spells on everyone in the group, including group healing and possibly other spells that may be too difficult to cast alone. Groupcasting can only be used outside of combat though, and is generally used in camp to recover from battle.

Named for his primary class, the Thief does not care much for groups. He's a well balanced character, knowing a few spells, has a decent hitting ability, and a low armor class. He doesn't truly shine however, till he sees something he wants.

Most thieves have a high dexterity and are very good at parry and dodge. These allow him to fend off a monster till he can do what he wants to it. He is often very adept at steal, pickpocket, and disarm, allowing him to take gold, weapons, equipment and keys from mobs without having to kill them.

Some thieves avoid killing to as large an extent as is reasonable, but don't be fooled - a Thief with a high damroll can horribly wound someone with a backstab.

A rather uncommon class, this type of mage has a WIDE range of spells. He should have a high amount of mana, but doesn't require as much as blasters or other straight mages. He often doesn't have much mana because he has spent most of his practices on spells. Cast Level equipment is optional, because the spells he casts are not that complex, vital or mission-dependent.

This class generally makes a good leader because it does not get heavily into the fighting, and can watch more closely the whole team's condition. It's called the "Utility Mage" because it is a Mage (with secondary of cleric or druid) who is adept at all the useful little spells a group requires. This includes but is not limited to: Fly, Water Breathing or Gills, Invisibility, Infravision, Detect Invisibility, Refresh, Famine, Curse Ward, Bless, Sanctuary, Heal, Armor, Summon, Locate Object, and Resurrect. These spells are what make the world go around, and having them all in the group leader can greatly improve the group.

What happens when in a group doing a corpse retrieval and none of the Level 30 Mages in their +10 Cast Level gear know animate dead or can carry the stuff? Call the Utility Mage! What happens when you need someone to sit outside a room and summon the plebes who recall or die back? The Utility Mage!

Some people design their character with Player Killing in mind. He doesn't know "swimming", he doesn't know "locate object". He's pure, hatred-breathing, blood-letting mayhem.

His skills include bash and trip to throw spellcasting players to the ground, disarm to take his opponents weapon. Steal to take their gold BEFORE they die, so no one else gets your kill's gold. Famine, Feeble Mind, Noxious Cloud, and Blindness severely hamper your opponents fighting ability. The Fear spell will knock your enemy out of a safe room and into your arms. Backstab and Sneak are good. Summon is important, for cleaning those hard to reach places.

His equipment is a solid mix of hitroll, damroll and armor class. He might also have a cast level set handy to switch in and out of. A high constitution is good so he can regenerate hit points fast and get back into the fray. Editor's Note: Keep in mind that the game is constantly changing, and that playerkilling strategies evolve rapidly to keep up with game changes. The information presented here is by no means intended to be comprehensive.

The ultimate in balance, The Solo Player is for those who aren't exactly what we'd call sociable. He's got a decent hitroll, damroll, armor class, hit points, mana, spells, skills etc... He's the way he is to avoid having to take time to adapt to his situation. He's usually rather experienced, and knows what he's doing.

A solo character doesn't do huge amounts of damage and generally isn't optimized for blasting, but can handle himself in a group if things fall apart. Solo characters are infrequently found in groups simply out of personal preference, but when they do group they generally lead.

A character with necromancer as his primary class makes an excellent solo player. With the ability to summon minions to fill the roles that other players normally would, even a low-level necromancer can become a group unto himself. Druids also make good solo players with the wide variety of spells at their disposal.

Most solo characters are big on exploring and experimenting with obscure aspects of the game.