Yay, I finally got a character to level 20 warrior.
Now, I need to decide on weapon specialization,
but having no experience with any of the skills
in the helpfiles I could really use some help
making an informed decision.

The main thing I see is that sword specialization
gets the use of "florintine" style, which allows
a warrior to dual wield without as much of a
defensive skill loss. That seems like a huge
benefit to me as a player, but I have no idea
what the other cool things the other specializations
due to balance it out.

Perhaps this is because as a new player I don't know
a lot of potions or good armor and I get hit much harder
in Pk duels than more experienced players.

I did a search on warrior specializations,
and while I did learn a lot I didn't see
anything that addressed this particular question,
except for a post on unarmed combat that seemed to
conclude it was a good idea to wait until level 40
to get it because damage is level based and you need
some of the higher level specialization defensive skills.
If I missed anything, please let me know!

For a new player, my take for survivability will be:
1. Swords
2. Staff/spear

Swords have good offense and defense capabilities, coupled with ability to riposte. This gives you very good advantage to stand toe to toe with mobs and pkers. However you cannot maledict.

Staff/spear have very good defensive spin and can maledict a person, including bleeding him. However offense-wise, you may lose out to those like daggers, swords, axes, maces.

All said, in the right player's hands, any specs can be deadly, as you can see from another Unofficial website logs forum.

A lot of people tend to focus on defense to learn the game. IE, staff specialist, swords, etc. I tend to subscribe to a different belief. Take axe, whips. You won't be 'very very good' no matter what spec you take, but learning timing, tact and how to eat a death is a lot more valuable than learning how to tank. You can either do your best to learn to avoid death and thats what you'll be good at, or do your best to learn to kill your foe before they get to kill you, and then you'll get good at that. I'd rather start off being good at the latter, because generally speaking the former is far easier to pick up.

Be sure to read the help files for all the spec skills. Some tend to compliment certain kinds of warrior better than others, but even so there's really no "wrong" one to pick. Some may also fit your playing style better.

Nepenthe is exactly right, in that all the specs are good. My advice is to pick the one that sounds the most fun. As a first-timer though, I would steer you away from dagger, hand to hand, and whip/flail. All of these require finesse that comes through experience, and in many cases are better as a second spec (for a new player) than a first.

Since you mentioned sword... yea, good choice! Swords, in my opinion, are the ultimate in mob killing. Its offense and defense with out a lot of flair - but flair doesn't do much to mobs. With swords you'll be a wanted groupmate, and great at raiding.

If you have specific questions about specific skills, feel free to ask!

All of the spec choices are good, honestly. It's been a gradual process of years of balancing but there isn't one I wouldn't pick now. It all depends on what you want.

The helpfile on warrior specializations lays out a lot of it. Sword, since you mentioned it, really excels in tanking / avoiding damage well without giving up a lot of offense or number of attacks. What sword isn't good at is utility -- if pure attacks/damage aren't the answer, sword doesn't have a lot else. Sword also doesn't provide you with command denial options beyond those that are part of the warrior class. In all respects but these two, it's great.