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There doesn't seem to be much activity in this subforum, but I'll go ahead and post this anyway since I find it so interesting. Perhaps moderators might put a blind eye to the necrorule if an Arena fan happens to stumble upon this thread in some 5 months or so.

While browsing around various tutorials and guides for Arena, I've often encountered statements such as a Redguard Warrior makes a great combo due to the level/3 bonus to attack and damage and the warrior being the second fastest class to level up. I don't deny that a Redguard Warrior is a good combination, but it is a myth that the warrior should benefit especially from the Redguard race compared to the other classes just because it levels "faster" than any class except the thief! I shall now demonstrate why:

By studying the experience table from the manual and knowing that after level 10 we multiply the experience required to reach the previous level with 1,5 to to find out how much experience is required to reach the next one, we can figure out that the function which determines how much experience a warrior needs for a certain level is as follows:

y=0 IF x=1
y=900*1,875^(x-2) IF 1<x<11
y=900*1.875^8*1,5^(x-10) IF x>10
where y is the experience, x is the level and x is a positive integer.

Compare to the formula for the warrior sub classes:

y=0 IF x=1
y=1100*1,875^(x-2) IF 1<x<11
y=1100*1.875^8*1,5^(x-10) IF x>10

The only difference, and indeed the only difference between any of the classes, is the initial factor K. For the theif, K=800, for the warrior, K=900, for the mage and thief subclass, K=1000, for the warrior subclass, K=1100 and for the mage subclass, K=1200.

What this means, mathematically, is that the ratio between the different functions is CONSTANT. What this means in everyday language is, that no matter how high level you get, the difference in level compared to what you would have been if you were a class with a lower or higher experience factor, will always be the same. And this difference just so happpens to be no greater than 1 between any two classes. This means that if you for instance just leveled up to level 30 with a warrior, you would instead have been level 29 with warrior subclass, theif subclass, mage or mage subclass, yet a far way on the way towards reaching level 30. With a thief you would also be level 30, but slightly on your way towards level 31. This is true for ANY level x. If you were a level 5000 warrior you would have been a level 4999 warrior subclass and so on.

As you can see, this means that any class benefits more or less as much from bonus per level abilities. At least, the difference is so small that it's negligible.

To further clarify my reasoning, study this table:

Between levels 2-10, the difference in level between any given classes at any given amount of experience is always less than one.
After level 10, the difference in level between the theif and the mage subclass is exactly one, and between the other classes it's less.
After level 13, the same pattern continues indefinitely.

If you are familiar with the dungeons & dragons 3rd edition system, you'll recognize that the difference between the theif and mage sub classes can be described as the mage sub classes having a level adjustment of +1 compared to the theif.


The conclusion of all this is: Don't pay any attention to how fast a class gains experience when you want to pick your class, it makes more or less no difference!

The only reason for picking a warrior instead of a ranger would then be if you prefer having the extra armor bonus from the tower shield instead of +1 damage per level. But in that case you might just as well go with a knight to get immunity to paralyzation and ability to repair, you don't need leather armour anyway.


A power gamer has spoken.