WARRIOR CLASSES:
The warrior classes are the best at fighting, but they cannot steal like the thief classes can and cannot cast spells like the mage classes can. They are divided into:
The Warrior
The Warrior is a powerhouse who is able to utilize any type of weapon, shield, and piece of armor. They level up quickly and have lots of hit points. Perhaps most importantly, they can wear plate armor, which is the only type of armor that can be enchanted. Having enchanted armor will be
a huge boon to the Warrior late-game. Unlike most RPG's, Arena's Warrior class has no problem with ranged combat, either. Too bad that they never get critical strikes, ever.
The Archer
The Archer sucks. They obviously specialize in ranged combat, but Arena constantly forces you into close-quarters fights, meaning you will have to pull out your melee weapon anyway. True, the Archer can reach an impressive rate of fire and do a lot of damage quickly, but
late in the game that can become impractical: if the game has a memory leak (it will), your rate of fire will slow down through no fault of your own.
Getting critical hits with bows can be nice, though.
The Barbarian
The Barbarian is a fleshy tank with more hit points and damage output than the Warrior, but no ability to use plate armor. They are also immune to poison.
The Knight
The Knight. You know him. Goes around slaying dragons, doing favors for maidens, retrieving holy grails, and generally making the rest of us normal guys feel inadequate. Knights are immune to paralysis, automatically repair damaged equipment in their inventory every once
in a while, and can wear plate amor. They cannot, however, wear leather armor (that stuff is for peasants!), and thus are vulnurable to attack early on, until you can find chainmail.
The Monk
The Monk is a light-on-his feet and agile fighter. Unfortunately, he accomplishes this by never, ever wearing armor. The game won't
even let you put it on. He can wield any type of weapon, and can make
critical hits with melee attacks, but honestly, you'll be dead before you have a chance to hit your opponent. Go put some clothes on.
The Ranger
The Ranger is a versitile fighter who can wield any weapon, wear any armor (including the all-important plate mail!) can can use any shield except tower shields. As expert navigators, Rangers travel between
cities faster than the other classes, which is useful on timed missions.
MAGE CLASSES:
They cast spells. Damn, that's useful!
The Mage
The Mage cannot use any weapons except for daggers and staffs. Mages also cannot wear armor. They have a huge pool of spell points, though, and at high levels that more than makes up for their lack of gear.
The Battlemage
The Battlemage specializes in offensive spells to do damage to opponents. They can wear leather armor and wield any sort of weapon. Jagar Tharn, our archnemesis, is a Battlemage, so from a story point of view, being a Battlemage is officially Cool. To kill an evil Battlemage, send a good Battlemage. Makes sense to me.
The Healer
The Healer is sort of the opposite of the Battlemage. They are best at defensive and restorative spells, regenerate hit points very quickly, and can even wear chain mail! Basically, the Healer is a damage sponge.
The Nightlbade
The Nightblade is a mage/thief hybrid. They can pick locks quite well, and are the only mage class to be able to preform a critical stike with a weapon. They can wield several types of weapons and wear
leather armor.
The Sorceror
This is a wierd one. Sorcerors cannot regenerate spell points normally. Instead, they absorb spells that their enemies cast at them. So, if you are hit by a fireball, you won't take damage, but instead gain spell points. This makes fights against enemy spellcasters laughably easy. However, if there are no enemy spellcasters nearby and you are out of magic potions, be careful! You're likely to run out of spell points, at which point you are pretty much defenseless!
The Spellsword
The Spellsword is a warrior/mage hybrid. They can wear leather or chain armor, wield any sort of weapon, and can cast spells. They do not have as many spell points as the other mage classes, though, and cannot preform critical strikes.
THIEF CLASSES:
The thief classes are good at picking locks, plus they can pickpocket people and steal items from houses. Unfortunately, stealth in the sense of "avoiding enemies" does not really exist in Arena, limiting the
practicality of these classes. With the exception of the Bard and the
Rogue, thief classes can wear only leather armor.
The Thief
The Thief is good at lockpicking and stealing. They also have a small chance to preform critical hits in melee combat, and they level up faster than any other class. Thieves can wield any bladed weapon, as well as bows.
The Acrobat
The Acrobat is extremely agile, and has the best chance of any class to dodge enemy attacks. They are also fast runners and skilled climbers. Acrobats can wield daggers, swords, and bows.
The Assassin
The Assassin is the worst of the thief classes at, you know, thieving. However, they are the best of the fighters, able to wield any weapon and possessing a good ability to score critical hits.
The Bard
The Bard is a jack of trades. They can do practically anything (Except, apparently, play music), including casting spells, but excell at nothing. This is your generic adventurer sort.
The Burglar
Please don't pick the burglar. Their skills are too situational to be good. Burglars are the best at unlocking doors and containers, picking pockets, and stealing without being detected. Then they get into fights and die almost immediately.
The Rogue
The Rogue is a combat-trained thief. Rogues can wield any sort of weapon and wear chain mail. They lack the vulnerability of the other thief classes, and are almost as good at fighting as the warrior classes.
