The creation of the character, in the beginning, will affect your gaming experience and the difference between life and death.
The difference between the races is different to the extent of stats and looks.
Below is each of the races starting stats:
Strength – This affects weapon damage for crushing, slashing and partially affects thrust weapons. For thrust weapons the damage is based on 50% Strength and 50% Dexterity. It affects your carrying capacity. The higher your strength the more you can hold in your inventory and therefore not getting encumbered as easily.
Constitution (Con) – This stats adjusts your maximum amount of hit points, the higher the constitution the more hits points. This is a primary attribute for Tanks.
Dexterity (Dex) – This stat affects archer’s ability, evade chance and thrust damage as said above.
Quickness (Qui) – Gives a bonus to your attack speed mainly.
Intelligence – Attribute for the maximum power for spell casters. Not much use for tanks.
Empathy – Determines maximum power for a Hibernia naturalist i.e. Druid and Warden.
Piety – Determines maximum power for a healer type class. Paladins also will get more power with a higher piety though not worth spending points on it.
Charisma – Determines power for a music class i.e. Minstrel/Bard/Skald.
As you can see the Avalonian has low Strength and Con. At the loss of these attributes the Avalonian has much higher intelligence and higher quickness. Personally I would advise to avoid Avalonian as your race. Tanks want high Strength and con to fight better which an Avalonian doesn’t have. They have high dexterity for shield blocks and if you wanted to go thrust but it’s not worth the trade off. Also Avalonian’s look really bad in plate armour because they have huge shoulders. Avalonians start life in Adribard’s Retreat in Avalon Marsh.
Britons are the jack-of-all-trades. They have 60 in every stat meaning they don’t excel at anything but they don’t have any weaknesses in anything. Britons are a good choice for a tank as they have good strength and con and also a respectable dex and qui. With this higher qui and dex they will be much better Sword and Shield tank (I will talk about weapons etc later on) because they parry and block better than a highlander would do but have better strength and con than an Avalonian does. Britons are a good race for people who just want to get into he game and don’t have to worry about whether they have chosen the most suitable race to them. Also Britons look best in armour, as they don’t have a stupid kilt or horrible huge shoulders. Britons start life out at Prydwen Keep in Camelot Hills.
Highlanders are your big burly kilt-wearing folks from the north. They have 10 more base stat points in strength and con for the loss of 10 points in dex and qui. Highlanders excel at dealing out damage. They are very good if you wish to pursue the 2-Handed weapon skill. With the loss of dex and qui they will not hit as fast or block/parry as much as your Briton would do. Highlanders start life out in Humberton in South Black Mountains.
If you choose Saracen you would want to make your Paladin a sword/shield tank. With the Saracen's very high dexterity he have a greater chance of successfully blocking or parrying a hit. Because they have a lower constitution and strength then they won't do as much damage or take as much. If you choose Saracen i strongly advise the 1HWeapon/shield combo to make an excellent group paladin because of the very nice skill called guard, talked about later on.
There is no correct class to choose in the game. Each class has his or hers strengths and weaknesses making them equal. I do, however, advise that you don’t choose an Avalonian as your class if this is your first time playing. They have lower attributes for fighting and so you will find it much harder in the beginning. Briton or Highlander is the best way to go, though Saracen is an interest path to take. Which ever you choose do not worry whether or not choose correctly as there isn’t a correct way and just play the game.
So now you have chosen your race. You now have 30 stat points to spend on any of the attributes. Mainly you should focus on the first 4, Strength, Constitution, Dexterity and Strength. All these attributes will make you a better fighter in Albion. Ideally you should go for 10 points in strength and con and the remaining 10 where you see fit. I would put them into Dex, as it will make your block/parry chance a bit higher. If you want to be a high damage then put them into strength. Its up to you but avoid the last 4 stats, as they will not concern your profession as a Paladin.
