Classes of Areth

Although there are plans for 12 classes, only 9 are presently considered complete to the point of playability. New classes will not be added until those classes are completely finished.

Class	Characterization
Warrior	Warriors are the medieval equivalent of football players. They're the big, brawny oxen who hack and slash, causing a lot of damage, but have little technique aside from being able to put a lot of muscle behind their swinging weapons. Warriors know two things: how to hurt people, and how to hurt them badly.
Mage	A magician who practices "impersonal" magical arts - enchanting items, blasting mobs with powerful forces, and a few armor spells.
Cleric	A holy person whose powers center around life energy, primarily on its transfer and restoration. In a limited sense, the cleric is able to direct this to cause harm, but a cleric's blasting ability is quite limited.
Rogue	A sneaky little guy with no sense of honor who'll do anything to stack the odds in his or her favor. This includes poisoning weapons and backstabbing. They make decent tanks because they rarely get hit, and a poisoned backstab is a definite plus. They're also the most craven class, sometimes forgoing hitting ability to dodge better.
Psionicist	A master of the mind, who has developed telekinetic and telepathic abilities for protection, attack, and utility purposes. Archetypes: Jedi Knights, B5 telepaths, and "The Shadow".
Samurai	The Samurai are masters of sword technique - with an appropriate blade, a Samurai is the fastest, most accurate swordsman in the world. Samurai get more hit points than a ninja or rogue, but less than a warrior. Archetypes: any number of Japanese dudes.
Ninja	Ninja sneak around and assassinate people. Their dodging ability is slightly above that of the Samurai, but their hit points are slightly lower. Sword skills don't stack up either, as much of the ninja's time is spent learning tricks such as poisoned weapons, etc.
Paladin	A paladin is a holy crusader in the cause of his/her deity. The paladin wants to enlighten the world and abolish evil or good, depending on his or her own alignment.
Martial Artist	Martial artists are nimble sorts who use their bare hands, feet, and chi to cause damage to their opponents. While comparatively weak in the lower levels, martial artists gain the use of many additional attacks at higher levels and can stand on an equal footing with weapon-wielding classes.