Professions

BARBARIANS

These nomadic tribesman from the outlands are warriors who have learned their skills of fighting, not from a school, but from battling fierce monsters on a daily basis just to survive. They are able to use any weapons skillfully, and can wear any armor, but often shun heavy armor preferring the improved mobility, and increased stealth of the softer armour types. Due to their harsh lifestyle, they possess great stamina, since those who are weak never live to become adults. They are also a superstitious lot, and their religion teaches them to despise all things majical. Barbarians are without question the best pure fighters in the Majic Realm. They are tougher than warriors when it comes to hit points, have better chances of hitting their opponents, and both their speed of attacks and chance of hitting goes up more quickly than anyone else. The disadvantage of this profession is that they require more experience to progress in levels than a normal warrior, and that they don't have access to majic items. At low levels, the lack of majic is a negligible loss, due to the scarcity of such items, but as they achieve higher levels this will start to mean a lot more.

JESTERS

Jesters are those members of the thief class who have taken to the study of sorcery to use majical spells to augment their ability to steal. Some thieves discovered early on that the ability to make themselves invisible, see in the dark, detect majic, and other spells of a sorcerous nature gave them a considerable edge over their guild brethren who did not share these skills.

They share the same armour and weapon restrictions as normal thieves and combine all the abilities of both sorcerers and thieves. Their physical combat is no better than that of thieves, but their access to the full array of offensive sorcery spells makes them formidable opponents, though they do tend to advance in levels slowly.

MONKS

Monks are best described as the ancient shaolin priests of old. They have many of the skills of a thief, yet their religious meditations and discipline grants them access to spells of a priestly nature. These thief-priests are somewhat better than their two component classes when it comes to fighting in that their dodging skill makes them harder to hit as their level increases, and their speed and damage when hitting with their hands does as well. This profession combines the many useful abilities of a thief with the power to heal, and superior combat ability.

NINJA

Members of ancient assassin guilds, the ninja have traditionally practiced the arts of stealth and assassin- ation, honing these skills to a razors edge. Ninja are able to use all weapons, and have a great deal of skill in moving silently and picking locks. Their skill with weapons also allows them to swing to kill on an op- ponent, giving a good chance of inflicting a great deal of damage with a single blow. Since their skills require speed and stealth, they are unable to use armor better than robes, but they get harder to hit as they advance in levels. Ninjas are a hybrid between warriors and thieves. They get most of the abilities of both, but they pay for this mix by taking more than twice as many experience points to go up a level. Ninjas, like thieves make excellent explorers, and their skill with weapons allows them to fight their way out of a situation if they have to. The only disadvantage they have over warriors and thieves is that they progress in levels so slowly.

PRIESTS

These are the religious men of the land, able to call upon the might of their God to aid them or their friends in time of need. Though many priests are peaceful and abhor bloodshed, those that travel about with adventurers tend to be members of the more militant branches of their orders. These priests tend to be steeped in the rituals of their religion, and while these may vary from religion to religion, some are constant. For instance, for reasons lost in the distant past, most shun the use any edged or pointed weapons. They can wear armour as heavy as chain mail and carry shields. They can also throw majic spells, mostly of a curative or protective nature, but with some offensive capability.

RANGERS

Members of this profession have historically lived in the wilds in clans devoted to protecting nature. Through their years of communing with nature, rangers discover many of the more powerful secrets of the world, both sorcerous and priestly. Their nomadic outdoor life, and their spellcasting skills require that they wear light armor, no better than leather, but they can use any weapons. This profession encompasses the skills of warriors, sorcerers, and priests in a single package. This combination is without question the most powerful profession to be, especially at high levels of experience, but their level advancement is also the slowest in the Majic Realm due to the sheer volume of what they must learn.

SAGES

Sages are specialists in majic and are students of both sorcery and of priestly majic. They can cast both sorcery spells and priest spells. As with sorcerers, sages have very poor combat skills, and rely on spells to get along. Though sages benefit greatly from their ability to cast spells of both types, they progress in levels more slowly than either. This is a potent class due to the combination of both offensive and defensive spells, but it is also extremely slow in terms of gaining levels. High level sages are deadly opponents, for those who have the patience to make it.

SAMURAI

Samurai are warriors that are skilled in the martial arts. These players are known for their skills with both weapons and hand to hand combat. Because of the freedom of movement needed for their style of fighting, they cannot wear any armor heavier than leather, but their skill at parrying the weapons of their opponents, and dodging makes them harder and harder to hit as they gain skill. like ninja's, they can do critical blows, and their study of philosophy enables them to utilize priest spells as well. These characters are a hybrid between priests and warriors and combine the skills of both classes quite effectively. They fight like warriors but benefit from the fact that they can heal themselves when they get wounded and press on. The disadvantage they face is the high amount of experience they need to gain levels, almost thrice that of a straight warrior.

SORCERERS

Sorcerers are those individuals who are trained in the manipulation of raw majic. Rather than earning their glory in the front lines of combat, they prefer to overcome their enemies using majical spells. Due to the nature of these spells, they are unable to wear armor, as this would impede their movements. Likewise, the rigorous study required to become skilled in this profession doesn't allow them time for weapons training or exercise.

Sorcerers are one of the weakest classes when it comes to hand-to-hand combat, but their spells make up for this. They have a broad selection of spells, but they tend towards an offensive nature. Sorcerers have a hard time of it at low level if they have no one around who can protect them. But no other class can match the majical power they wield when they achieve the higher levels. When sorcerors reach a level where they can enter the training rooms, they must choose whether to contyinue their training with Vogon or

SPELLSINGERS

Also known as "bards", these characters are musicians who have taken up adventuring. The share some of the characteristics of warriors, thieves, sorcerers and priests.

WARLOCKS

Members of this profession have learned to combine the use of sorcery with weapons and can utilize both skillfully. They have all the benefits of warriors with regards to combat skills, and those of sorcerers with regards to majic powers. Their only loss insofar as their warrior skills is that their spellcasting skills prevent them from wearing armour more restrictive than chainmail.

Sorcerers side of this class has the disadvantage of poor hit points, low armour protection and poor combat skills; the fighter side of their training makes up for all these deficiencies quite effectively. Experience progression is slow, but not as bad as many of the other hybrid professions.

WARRIORS

These are the pure fighting men of the Majic Realm. They can wear all normal types of armour and weapons, including plate mail and two-handed weapons, and many majical ones as well. Their skill with weapons is one of the best and they are often in the front lines of an adventuring party guarding the mages and more fragile spellcasters from direct contact with the monsters. As they advance in levels, the number of attacks they get in a combat round increases, as well as their probability of hitting their target. Warriors tend to be tough in a fight, and advance personal levels quickly.

The table below shows a breakdown of some of the advantages and disadvantages of being a given class.

(*) indicates that a given ability is average

(--) indicates below average

(+) indicates above average.

Naturally, the more plusses or minuses a class has, the better or worse that ability is.

PROFESSION	COMBAT ABILITY	MAX HP	XP	SORC	PRIEST	WEAPONS	ARMOUR
Barbarian	+ + +	12	140%			Any Non-Majic	Any Non-Majic
Jester	--	5	240%	YES		Any 1-Handed	Leather
Knight	+ +	8	290%		YES	ANY	ANY
Monk	+ +	7	360%		YES	Dagger & Blunt	Robes
Ninja	+ +	8	210%			ANY	Robes
Priest	*	6	150%		YES	Any Blunt	Chain & Shield
Ranger	+ +	7	410%	YES	YES	ANY	Leather & Shield
Sage	--	5	270%	YES	YES	Staff & Dagger	Leather
Samurai	+ +	8	300%		YES	ANY	Leather
Sorceror	--	4	120%	YES		Staff & Dagger	Robes
Spellsinger	*	8	300%	SONG	SONG	ANY	Chainmail
Thief	--	6	80%			Any 1-Handed	Leather
Warlock	+ +	7	240%	YES		ANY	Chainmail
Warrior	+ +	10	100%			ANY	ANY

NOTE: Though some classes can use "any" armour or weapons, this does not include those items specifically tailored for a specific class or race, it refers to all "basic" equipment.

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Given below is a table listing the special abilities of each of the different professions.

Most of them are self-explanatory, but a DOUBLEBLOW (aka BASH) is a hit that does double damage, but is harder to land. A KILLBLOW is an attempt to do a critical hit (Low chance of hitting, but does a lot of damage when it does).

Special weapons refer to a samurai's special weapons which they can find upon completing a successful quest for them.

Dodge refers to a natural increase in the players armor class as he or she rises in level.

Open Hand Combat refers to the ability to do hits with increasing speed and damage with hands as the player's level increases.

PROFESSION		SPECIAL ABILITY
Barbarian		Doubleblow, Sneak
Jester		Mage Spells, Disarm, Backstab, Hide, Sneak, Pickpocket, Unlock
Knight		Priest Spells, Doubleblow
Monk		Disarm, Backstab, Hide, Sneak, Unlock, Dodge, Open Hand Combat
Ninja		Doubleblow, Killblow, Hide, Sneak, Backstab, Disarm, Unlock, Dodge
Priest		Priest Spells
Ranger		Mage Spells, Priest Spells, Doubleblow
Sage		Priest Spells, Mage Spells
Samurai		Priest Spells, Doubleblow, Killblow, Special Weapons, Dodge
Sorceror		Mage Spells
Spellsinger		Songs, Disarm, Hide, Sneak, Unlock
Thief		Disarm, Backstab, Hide, Sneak, Pickpocket, Unlock
Warlock		Mage Spells
Warrior		Doubleblow