Classes

After choosing your character's race, you select his character class. A character class is like a profession or career. It is what your character has worked and trained at during his younger years. If you wanted to become a doctor, you could not walk out the door and begin work immediately. First you would have to get some training. The same is true of character classes in the AD&D game. Your character is assumed to have some previous training and guidance before beginning his adventuring career. Now, armed with a little knowledge, your character is ready to make his name and fortune.
The character classes are divided into five groups according to general occupations: warrior, wizard, priest, rogue, and Special. Within each group are several similar character classes. All classes within a group share the same Hit Dice, as well as combat and saving throw progressions. Each character class within a group has different special powers and abilities that are available only to that class. Each player must select a group for his character, then a specific class within that group.

Warrior	Wizard	Priest	Rogue	Special
Fighter	Mage	Cleric	Thief	Monk
Ranger	Illusionist	Druid	Bard
Paladin	Other	Other

To help you choose your character's class, each group and its subordinate classes are described briefly. The groups and classes are described in detail later in this chapter.

Warrior

There are three different classes within the warrior group: fighter, paladin, and ranger. All are well-trained in the use of weapons and skilled in the martial arts.
The fighter is a champion, swordsman, soldier, and brawler. He lives or dies by his knowledge of weapons and tactics. Fighters can be found at the front of any battle, contesting toe-to-toe with monsters and villains. A good fighter needs to be strong and healthy if he hopes to survive.
The paladin is a warrior bold and pure, the exemplar of everything good and true. Like the fighter, the paladin is a man of combat. However, the paladin lives for the ideals of righteousness, justice, honesty, piety, and chivalry. He strives to be a living example of these virtues so that others might learn from him as well as gain by his actions.
The ranger is a warrior and a woodsman. He is skilled with weapons and is knowledgeable in tracking and woodcraft. The ranger often protects and guides lost travelers and honest peasant-folk. A ranger needs to be strong and wise to the ways of nature to live a full life.

Wizard

The wizard strives to be a master of magical energies, shaping them and casting them as spells. To do so, he studies strange tongues and obscure facts and devotes much of his time to magical research.
A wizard must rely on knowledge and wit to survive. Wizards are rarely seen adventuring without a retinue of fighters and men-at-arms.
Because there are different types (or schools) of magic, there are different types of wizards. The mage studies all types of magic and learns a wide variety of spells. His broad range makes him well suited to the demands of adventuring. The illusionist is an example of how a wizard can specialize in a particular school of magic, illusion in this case.

Priest

A priest sees to the spiritual needs of a community or location. Two types of priests—clerics and druids—are described in the Player's Handbook. Other types can be created by the DM to suit specific campaigns.
The cleric is a generic priest (of any mythos) who tends to the needs of a community. He is both protector and healer. He is not purely defensive, however. When evil threatens, the cleric is well-suited to seek it out on its own ground and destroy it.
The druid class is optional; it is an example of how the priest can be adapted to a certain type of setting. The druid serves the cause of nature and neutrality; the wilderness is his community. He uses his special powers to protect it and to preserve balance in the world.
A third type of cleric is known as a "specialty Priest". This type of cleric is usually the adventuring type, and represents a single deity instead of a mythos. They gain powers and spells not available to clerics.

Rogue

The rogue can be found throughout the world, wherever people gather and money changes hands. While many rogues are motivated only by a desire to amass fortune in the easiest way possible, some rogues have noble aims; they use their skills to correct injustice, spread good will, or contribute to the success of an adventuring group.
There are two types of rogues: thieves and bards.
To accomplish his goals, for good or ill, the thief is a skilled pilferer. Cunning, nimbleness. and stealth are his hallmarks. Whether he turns his talent against innocent passers-by and wealthy merchants or oppressors and monsters is a choice for the thief to make.
The bard is also a rogue, but he is very different from the thief. His strength is his pleasant and charming personality. With it and his wits he makes his way through the world. A bard is a talented musician and a walking storehouse of gossip, tall tales, and lore. He learns a little bit about everything that crosses his path; he is a jack-of-all-trades but master of none. While many bards are scoundrels, their stories and songs are welcome almost everywhere.

Special

This is a category for classes that don't really fall under any of the others.
A monk a holy man, but not quite a priest. They concentrate on their mental and physical orowess and try to embody all of the teachings of their chosen deity. They do acquire some thieving skills, but aren't quite rogues either, and they definitely do not share the hit dice of those two categories.

Class Descriptions

The complete character class descriptions that follow give the specific, detailed information you need about each class. These are organized according to groups. Information that applies to the entire group is presented at the start of the section. Each character class within the group is then explained.
The descriptions use game terms that may be unfamiliar to you; many of these are explained in this text (or you may lookk the terms up in the Glossary).
Experience Points measure what a character has learned and how he has improved his skill during the course of his adventures. Characters earn experience points by completing adventures and by doing things specifically related to their class. A fighter, for example, earns more experience for charging and battling a monster than does a thief, because the fighter's training emphasizes battle while the thiefs emphasizes stealth and cleverness. Characters accumulate experience points from adventure to adventure. When they accumulate enough, they rise to the next level of experience, gaining additional abilities and powers. The experience level tables for each character group list the total, accumulated experience points needed to reach each level.
Level is a measure of the character's power. A beginning character starts at 1st level. To advance to the next level, the character must earn a requisite number of experience points. Different character classess improve at different rates. Each increase in level improves the character's survivability and skills.
Prime Requisite is the ability score or scores that are most important to a particular class. A fighter must be strong and a mage must be intelligent; their prime requisites, therefore. are Strength and Intelligence, respectively. Some character classes have more than one prime requisite. Any character who has a score of 16 or more in all his prime requisites gains a ten percent bonus to his experience point awards.
Once a character qualifies to advance to a new level of experience, they are required to train to gain this level. This training requires a period of time equal to the new level of experience, plus an expenditure of 100 gold per week of training. For example, Rath increases in level from 1st to 2nd level. Rath must train for two weeks at the cost of 200 gold (100 gold/week). This training must continue until the character reaches 10th level.
The exception to this is the Monk. The Monk must train for the same period of time at the same cost, but the Monk must return to their monastery for training. In addition, the Monk must continue to train until they reach 14th level, where advancement depends on the results of a Trial by Combat.