And I couldn't get it to post. If you find it to be rambling and incoherent, blame Vicks, a Proctor and Gamble Company.

First of all, it's not that simple. An assassin is a melee class that is extremely beginner-friendly. A thief has a lot in common with an assassin, but due to the system of "thief points" is probably not something you want to start with.

Warriors can be very beginner friendly, especially at low levels, but at higher levels gear knowledge will become more and more of a concern. Also, the sheer number of options for customizing a warrior create a situation where some builds are much better for learning the class than others. A sword spec, for example, is a lot more fogiving to learn on than a dagger spec.

Rangers are, like assassins, excellent for a new player as they have high survivability and can hide extremely well in the wilderness.

Just for learning your way around Thera, an assassin or a ranger is almosst certainly the way to go. Both are often coveted groupmates, and both have the ability to hide and heal themselves. For alignment, there are benefits to both good and neutral, but best to stay away from evil at the beginning (in my opinion.)

When it comes to mage classes (all priests are non-newbie-friendly) on one end of the spectrum is the necromancer and anti-paladin, both of which are far from being good choices for the new player. On the other end is the Orderly-Good Conjurer, which is one of the best choices for exploring in the game. Conjies of other alignments are not good choices to begin with.

In the middle are invokers, transmuters, neither of which are probably a good choice and shapeshifters, which (like warriors) are very customizable. Some of these builds are very newbie-friendly. Others are not.

Another issue to think about is the wand system. Each mage has certain protective wands semi-unique to them that they can search for. (Whether or not the wands are essential is a matter of some debate.) If you don't know how to get around, it's unlikely that you'll find your wands, which is one reason to perhaps not choose a mage for a first character. To further complicate the issue, both Orderly-Good and Orderly-Evil conjurers can often get away without using these wands.

I said there were no easy answers.

Let's see if I can make a little chart.

Warrior:
Pro: Strong at low levels; coveted in groups; very customizable
Con: Gear dependent; weak at higher levels in the hands of the inexperienced; very customizable

Assassin:
Pro: Can hide; can heal; coveted in groups; excellent survivability
Con: None (but I'm biased)

Thief:
Pro: Can hide; very customizable
Con: Customization can be complicated

Ranger:
Pro: Can hide; can heal; coveted in many groups; excellent survivability; very customizable
Con: Most skills work better in the wilderness; some skills only work in the wilderness; certain customizations are much more newbie-friendly than others

O/G Conjie:
Pro: After level 35 has super-excellent survivability; can identify objects (all melee classes can 'lore' items, but identify is better); familiar is extremely useful for exploring
Con: Hunted by BattleRagers; Hunted by Outlanders; Hunted by Imperials; Hunted by Scion; Hunted by various other evil characters

Defense/XXX Shapeshifter:
Pro: Survivability
Con: Hunted by BattleRagers; can't communicate in form; forms are assigned randomly and the ones you get might not be great

All in all, there truly is no answer. If you ask me, I'd say to roll up an assassin, learn your way around the game. Once you get can to all of the major cities and a few of the major ranking areas you can either keep going with the assassin or you can roll up whatever else seems like fun.

The important thing to remember is that it's a game and if you're not having fun you're not doing it right. Good luck and welcome to the fields.