What Race and Class are for me?

So, in the best interest of my reader(s?), I'll attempt to include fabulous guides on how to play Rift. Of course, it'll be hard work and much to do - and as such I'm likely to not-stick-it-out. In case you need something well written and are looking into Rift for the first time: Go and read Syl's post on "Rift Souls for WoW Brains".

I'll try the explanation from scratch.

Origin (no, not the makers of the Ultima series of games)

This is your faction. If you are playing on a PvP server, it'll determine who your friends and enemies are. If you are playing on a PvE server it determines who will suddenly pounce on you out of no-where when you accidentally heal someone who's flagged.

There are two choices: Defiant and Guardian.

Let's ignore the "Good and Evil" classification for the moment. Someone is bound to drag it up in General chat anyway.

The Guardians are chosen by the gods to do the work of good. They are immortals charged with the defence of the world for ages past.

The Defiants have taken fate into their own hands. They use technology to save the future. From everyone who stands in their way.

Stupidly, I picked Guardian at the start, because the High Elves looked prettier. Now, err, I have since managed to make reasonably attractive Defiants as well. And someone better with proportions and sliders can make an attractive character with any of those. The choice of "Fight for God" over "Fight because we can and use a ginormous-antimatter-particle-beam-of-doom if neccessary" left me feeling a bit meh. I think in retrospect I would have preferred the particle beam.

Race (no, not to the finish line)

Now, what would a proper Fantasy Game be without a selection of races. As usual, the two factions get different choices (sort of).

The Guardians have High Elves, Dwarves and Mathosian (humans) on their side, the Defiants get Bahmi (Dark Humans), Eth (Desert Humans) and Kelari (Dark Elves).

In each other game, this is where I'd list the miniscule difference in statistics and say "Pick whichever you want". For those so inclined, there is no limit to the race/class combinations. However, each race gets a racial special ability. And those unfortunately limit the racial choice to "one each".

The high elves on the Guardian side and the Bahmi on the Defiant side have a racial "flight" ability. It's a long jump that does not need ground to travel. This is ridiculously more useful than any of the others. It allows the exploration of high peaks, across chasms, into the shrubbery when you so choose. It's also targetted (unlike, say, Blink in WoW). You can even jump up on the roof of a house in the starting area to snipe down from there.

Calling (not The)

This is the class. Or rather - the available classes (labelled Souls). Warrior, Rogue, Mage and Cleric are available. The Calling can not be changed once the character is created (much like Race and Faction, really). If you start a mage, you stay a mage!

Soul (not music)

The player character is more of a Vessel for dead old people to inhabit. Think of it like your personal ancestor spirit collection. At the start of the game you'll have none (which lasts for about 30 seconds). A maximum of three Souls can live in your body at the same time (and you could play with them here).

And this is where the fun starts.

For a nominal fee you can reset the points spent in your souls. You can also learn a second set of souls (and a third and a fourth) relatively early. And this means you can respec to several wildly different sets of abilities (don't forget to retrain skills you forgot when you change spec - not that I'd talk from experience or anything).

Clerics can be Melee DPS, Ranged DPS, Tanks and Healers.
Mages can be Ranged DPS and Healers.
Rogues can be Ranged DPS, Melee DPS and Tanks.
Warriors can be Tanks and Melee DPS.

All of the Callings can have a pet class.

Most of the souls play differently. For instance, both the Assassin and the Nightblade rely on stealth and are melee dps classes. The assassin needs to be behind the enemy and deals a lot of physical damage (and I love it), the nightblade is more flexible in maneuvering and has elemental attacks (and I find it sort-of-okayish).

The best thing, though? At level 13 (that's early ... not many hours even for a totally new player) you can collect all the souls and give them all a try.

And with six character slots per server, you can have one of each .. Warrior, Cleric, Mage and Rogue. And then still have two spares for spiky hair and smooth hair!