1) Choosing The Right Template.
When trying to find the perfect template, one must first decide what type of character they would like to play. The templates on AsheronsGuide.com basically fall into a few categories and sub categories. The main categories are MAGE, MELEE and ARCHER. A true mage has 4 schools of magic and mana conversion available. This allows him to buff, vuln, dispell, heal and cast war using magic. The Melee characters use weapons like daggers, swords, axes or their fists. The Archers (or Missle characters) use bows or crossbows armed with arrows to battle their foe.

The templates on this site are guides. They have been tweaked by their creator and a number of editors and readers from this website over the past year. You will notice the lack of Thrown Weapons, Maces, Spears, etc. We have chosen to overlook these since they are not classified as great characters to play. They are inherintly weaker, slower or less useful then the rest.

Sub categories include Player vs. Player (PVP) or Player vs. Monster (PVM) and also Hybrid, Extreme, etc. These are not blatently exposed on the website, but notes about the character type are presented in the first two paragraphs on each page.

2) Player vs. Monster Templates.
The majority of the templates presented below are designed for PVM hunting. They allow for a number of additional skills to be added to your character that are not normally found in PVP designed characters. This includes Arcane Lore, Lockpick, Melee Defense, Leadership and High-Cost weapons such as Sword and Axe. The reason for specializing in Life Magic on the Melee templates is to allow for easy buffing of your protections and to debuff your opponents using Imperil and Vulnerabilities so that you can take them down 2-5 times faster.

Archers.

Melees.

Mages.

3) Player vs. Player Templates.
Most templates on this website are sufficient for PVM as well as PVP - but some are designed to be serious PVP characters before thinking of monsters. Templates that specialize in Creature and Magic Defense are definately in this category. OG templates work great in both environments, but were originaly designed with PVP in mind. Specializing Creature does not help a person in most PVM situations (except in the level 40-60 spot). The new Hybrid characters that have specialized melee as well as War Magic are also becoming popular since "The Great Nerf" - where mages were removed of their ability to run-cast spells at their targets.

Good luck - and choose wisely!