I'm looking over the class/skill system and trying to figure it out, but I thought I'd ask a couple of questions to get started with character creation.

First off, I'm new to MUDs, although I'm pretty sure I can work through the technical stuff as I get used to it. Right now I just want a good starting point for rolling up my character, so I don't have to make a new one after I've gotten the hang of the game.

My limitations/framework are such:

1) I do not intend to spend RL cash on this game. If that's a requirement for certain builds I'm after, please let me know so I can consider alternatives.

2) I'm after a playstyle of PvE Bashing/RP, with PvP much lower in importance. Crafting of some sort would be nice for RP purposes, though not something I'm dead set on.

3) I've narrowed my race choices down to Human, Elfen, Faeling (maybe), Furrikin (maybe), Lucidian, Trill, or perhaps Viscanti.

4) As far as class/profession/whatever you wish to call it, I'm after a Red Mage / Arcane Lancer type of class where the idea is that dealing damage > taking damage.

Ideally, I'd like medium to heavy armor, a 2h weapon (greatsword or lance) or dual weilding (swords/rapiers).

As far as magic, I only need enough healing to keep myself going, perhaps toss assistance to another adventurer on occasion. If potions are the way to go, that's fine too. A few debuffs or even direct nukes would be great, though I know I'm asking a lot, so I'd like to see what's workable first.

If I'm reading the skills chart correctly...I'd go Body out to Blademaster as the primary, then choose between Spirit -> Hex, Spirit -> Healing, or Mind -> Necromancy/Sacrament as my secondary?

The RP concept is a mage-knight, a character who supplements his fighting with debuffs, buffs, and a few minor heals or DOTs.

Help would be appreciated.

EDIT: Oh, and I'm going for a Neutral to Good alignment

For your class, you may go for Mage with Telekinesis since they take damage via forcefield and do damage with staff pointing and other abilities.

For the kind of magic you're looking for, I think Healing and Rituals may suit you (Warriors from Cities can get Rituals, Healing is for Celestians )

Heavy armor... well the best type of armor in here depends on stats like 90/90 or something like that. Fullplate, I heard, goes around 100+ each.

And weapons as well depends on its stats, either good in damage/wounds/speed. Depends on what you're gonna be.

So far that's all I can say. Hope that helps

From my understanding of what you'd like, it sounds like any of the warrior archetypes would work for you at least somewhat. They all get some sort of assistance from the third guild skillchoice that they can take, and usually have at least one option that includes some debuffs.

So are all the races fairly balanced then, as far as that's concerned? I looked over Achaea, and I know Horkvar were universally considered the single "uber" race for melee characters of any stripe.

A good majority of the races are fairly balanced against each other in my opinion, the good majority can do well in certain combinations. Humans do well in any archtype. Faelings are horrible for warriors unless youre in Glomdoring. Just for examples.

Keep in mind that the skills will be limited due to what archtype you choose, if youre a mage/Druid/Wiccan/Guardian you'll want Int. Warriors want Con and Strength.

Certain archtypes can only choose certain skills, an example: Guardians can only choose Rituals, Cosmic, Highmagic and for the third skill Tarot, Astrology and the last one varies between healing and hexes depending on what City you belong to.

Okay, first thing you need to know is that skills are only limited to certain classes. I.e. Hexes are only for Nihilists, Shadowdancers, and Moondancers, and Healing is only for Celestines, Shadowdancers, and Moondancers.

Warriors in general require more credits.

And, um, so I think you want a warrior. You have Ebonguard, Serenguard, Ur'guard, and Paladins. Ebonguard and Serenguard have totems, with Serenguard having a stronger defense than Ebonguard. Additionally, faeling Ebonguards are very good. Paladins have a pretty strong defense, but they have pretty crippling offensive skills as well in Sacraments that are much complained about. Ur'guard have Necromancy, a skill that is more offensive than defensive, though the trans skill (Lich) means that you come back from the dead with no xp loss...or something like that. However, a trans skill is very hard to get (1710 lessons or so).

You can't REALLY be a mage and a knight at the same time - Knights have rituals, but not wholly full-blown spells like mages and guardians. And weapons are pretty much useless for mages and guardians.

For an org, you seem to be towards the 'offensive' orgs, so generally Glomdoring or Magnagora. If in Magnagora, Elfen are not allowed.

For a warrior, elfen suck unless in the Serenguard, faeling suck unless in the Ebonguard, furrikin...dunno, and lucidian and trill are not built for warriors, basically. Viscanti have a pretty major sip penalty, but regenerate in Tainted land, so unless for pure RP, other races might be good.

The Geomancers might be a nice choice. They are a highly offensive class with little defense. Basically, they set up 'demesnes' in Tainted ground and...they attack your enemies. Also has a nice starting attack (blast), and second, higher up, 1200-lesson-in staff attack that can also give defense/offense abilities. They are mages, however.

It's true that warriors require more credits to 'max out', but to just be competitive they only need trans knighthood.

I disagree about Necromancy being offensive and Sacraments being defensive. It's quite the opposite. Sacraments has heretic, dazzle, judgement, and inquisition. Necromancy's best offense is crucify, which isn't so bad after being buffed multiple times, but still doesn't compare to Sacrament's offense. Now for defense, Necromancy has putrefaction, drain (for attrition), ghost, and lich. Sacrament's has numen, sacrifice, and special nerf edition trueheal. The Ildaudid crowd may argue the merits of these skills, but I will just say that if I wanted to play a character that never died, I would choose Necromancy over Sacraments.

That said, the closest thing to a mage knight that favors offense over defense would probably be Paladin. No warriors have bad defense though; even trackers are passable tanks.

Works for me, I'll give human Paladin a shot. Thanks for the help!

One thing you should know is that alignments are not based on moral standards. Good/bad is more accurately translated as "something that benefits/harms" you or your organization.