Thieves are complicated and their paths are complicated. If you DO decide to play a thief, take one path all the way to the end before you start branching out. Dio's has a link to a page on the diku that helps enormously for planning out thieves. I highly recommend writing down every single skill you plan to take as a thief and how much they cost to be certain that you can afford it all.

Ranger PK in the low ranks is easy, at the mid ranks it's easy, at the high ranks it's weird. However, he failed to mention that rangers have pathfinding which is HUGE for new guys learning the areas. It means they almost never run out of moves. I highly recommend rangers until you know all the wilderness areas.

Also, unlike him, I recommend human (focus on strength) for the first ranger you play. No vulns, low xp penalty. If you go assassin or thief, I will echo human or arial (for permafly).