Assassin

The Assassin is essentially a souped-up Thief. The bonus to hit humanoid advantage is nice, but only when you have to fight humanoid critters. However, the Assassin does have good weapon skills. With Dodging showing up as only a Minor skill and severe armor restrictions, the would-be Assassin would be well advised to dump level bonuses into END and work on being VERY sneaky. The limited magic ability of the Assassin almost forces reliance on potions, but if access to the Mages Guild can be had (hint: buy a "Bouyancy" spell and practice it until you're sick of it), development of Illusion skill can make the Assassin almost equal to a Nightblade in short order.

Best advice: Kill a few townies in an out-of-the-way province at the start of the game to get access to the Dark Brotherhood and its potion maker, burgle alchemist shops for ingredients and have fun.

ASSASSIN
PRIMARY SKILLS: Critical Strike, Backstabbing, Stealth		ADVANTAGES: Bonus to hit Humanoid DISADVANTATES: Leather only, No Shield
MAJOR SKILLS: Sort Blade, Long Blade, Blunt Weapon
MINOR SKILLS: Axe, Archery, Lockpicking, Pickpocket, Climbing, Dodging
HP/LEVEL: 10	Increased: Decreased:	STARTING SPELLS: None

Monk

“When you can snatch the pebble from my hand you will be ready to go forth and open a big ol’ can of whup-ass on someone.”

The nice thing about a Monk is that he can hit anything. The sad thing about a monk is that he can usually be hit BY anything. The Resistance to Magic is very handy because of an unfixed bug in the game. Most ill effects (paralyzation, poison, diseases, etc.) are checked against Magic Resistance first, giving the Monk a better than average chance of avoiding such nastiness. Add the Resistance to Shock and the Monk has a reasonable chance of not being killed by the first Wraith or Vampire that he comes across. The Monk starts with enhanced AGI and SPD, but lacks the better staying power of higher Health Points. Pump END up to 70 as quickly as possible and then pump up STR so that you're doing more damage with each hit.

On the downside, the Monk is another one of those classes that demands a very cautious style of play. He can be quite a lot of fun, though.

MONK
PRIMARY SKILLS: Hand-to-Hand, Critical Strike, Dodging		ADVANTAGES: Resistance to Magic, Resistance to Shock DISADVANTATES: No armor, No shields
MAJOR SKILLS: Swimming, Medical, Blunt Weapon
MINOR SKILLS: Axe, Long Blade, Archery, Short Blade, Jumping, Climbing
HP/LEVEL: 8	Increased: Decreased:	STARTING SPELLS: None

Archer

The Archer is a variation on the Warrior, but with more restrictions. It's a playable class, especially with the extra health points. But Archery as a Primary will help only if you can see your target before your target sees you and Hand-to-Hand is a difficult skill to develop to high skill levels. If you decide to invest the effort in developing it, dump as many points as you can into STR (so you do more damage with each hit) or SPD (so you hit more often). The Archer's increased speed, agility and health points made Privateer's Hold pretty much a cake walk, but the armor restrictions were a minor hindrance. Best advice is to invest in lots of Healing potions/items, develop those Minor weapon skills as quickly as possible, rest frequently and take the Short Blade/Ebony Dagger options when answering the background questions.

ARCHER
PRIMARY SKILLS: Archery, Hand-to-Hand, Dodging		ADVANTAGES: Expertise with Missile Weapons DISADVANTATES: No Plate, No Shield
MAJOR SKILLS: Axe, Blunt Weapon, Critical Strike
MINOR SKILLS: Long Blade, Short Blade, Climbing, Jumping, Running, Swimming
HP/LEVEL: 13	Increased: STR, AGI, SPD Decreased: INT, WIL, PER	STARTING SPELLS: None

Ranger

Have you hugged your tree or kissed a Spriggan today? I rather like the Ranger as a class. The lack of a Tower Shield is not much of a disadvantage and he starts out with excellent combat skills. Don't know that I've ever had much use for Spriggan, though. The Health Points of 18 per level are not fully offset by the shield restriction, so it is more difficult than average for the Ranger to gain levels. But on the other hand, the extra points are very handy and the Ranger has a few good weapons to choose from. As long as he pursues combat-intensive quests, the Critical Strike and Dodging skills will develop quite nicely. Keep Healing potions handy and join a temple (Julianos would be my preference) to compensate for the lack of magica.

RANGER
PRIMARY SKILLS: Long Blade, Axe, Climbing		ADVANTAGES: None DISADVANTATES: No Tower Shield
MAJOR SKILLS: Swimming, Archery, Critical Strike
MINOR SKILLS: Blunt Weapon, Hand-to-Hand, Short Blade, Running, Dodging, Spriggan
HP/LEVEL: 18	Increased: STR, AGI Decreased: INT, WIL, PER	STARTING SPELLS: None