Shattered Kingdoms

Best class for a newbie is paladin or priest. Both are pretty much forced into RP, both can create food and water, and paladins even get to recall their amroz if they die. I fiddled around on SKs for a long time before I made my first paladin and really started playing.

best class for a newbie is -not- a paladin.

Paladins have insane RP requirements that demand that you have enough RPG experience to play one.

I'd say best classes for newbies are priests/sorcs/shamans.

Considering the original poster has played MUDs before and wants RP, a paladin isn't a bad suggestion. But yes, for a complete newbie a priest is a good magnet for people contacting you, rather than the newbie having to constantly break the ice and meet people in the other direction.

The only downside with scouts and newbies is they might not be able to find decent pets since part of that process is exploring and discovery - something that might not come easy to a complete newbie. Definitely agree it's a good solo class though.

I found that I, with no previous paladin/hellion experience, RPed paladins in a far more awesome fashion than people who had grown up with such things (eg Nimolthar).

The help files and priests can give you all the info you need to know about playing a paladin. Playing tabletop or anything of such a nature hamstrings you more than it helps you.

I have to agree with Jardek.

He, having no previous experience with RPG games such as D&D, created a Paladin in the fashion SK wanted Paladins whom I though was damnable, but he was more awesome according to SK standards. In D&D he would have been blemished over and over.

I on the other hand, created a Paladin closer to D&D standards, who was awesome according to these standards, but was less than awesome and even questionable or blemish deserving according to SK standards. A couple of Imms also called me an edge walker.

Conclusion. Forget all you knew about RPG games, and read the Helpfiles. These .txt files have all the wisdom you need to know about any class/race/alignment.

I'd also advice a priest if you seek a spellcaster, or a Barbarian/Mercenary if you seek a melee class.

Thanks for the help, all! This definitely sounds like the place I am looking for. In fact, the very first time my character saw another living soul (not counting NPCs), she walked in on two people having an in-depth IC religious discussion. Not ONE PERSON so far has broken character with her, aside from all the newbie syntax help and such. It's fantastic.

My original character is a bard. I'm still not sure if I'm going to keep her or start fresh. If I restart, I will probably play a priest so it will be a little easier for my character to meet people -- thanks for the suggestions on that.

I totally expected that sentence to end in another way. Whew.

Aww! I think I helped you!

New person here. A bit confused on the pk rp policy. Is it appropriate for an elf to just walk in and kill a deep-elf onsite without any interaction other than he laughed, my pc snorted and walked off? He followed, killed her, took everything she had and left? Doesn't seem like rp at all to me, so thought I would check. Thanks!

Not really out of concept, but it is rather dickish to do to a lower level or newer player. You try getting anyone else to go after them IC?