Samurai

The Samurai is one of the strongest classes in the early game, and thus an excellent choice for beginners.

Samurai are lawful and human by default, though you can choose male or female.

Samurai start the game extremely well-armed, with splint mail armor, a bow, a katana (an amped up long sword), and the largely worthless wakazashi. Note that when playing a Samurai many of the item names be in Japanese names such arrows, lock picks and food rations become ya, otaku and gunyoki, etc.

The Samurai Quest artifact is the Tsurugi of Murasamaa, a powerful two-handed katana with the ability to kill your enemies outright 10% of the time.

STRATEGY:

The samurai strategy is very simple: If it moves, stab it. Samurai aren't much for spellcasting, but the katana and splint mail you start the game with will make the first couple levels a breeze. As long as you use your head and take things slow, you shouldn't have any problems making it at least to the Quest.

As far as weapons, don't even bother with anything that isn't a long sword. The katana you start with is the finest one-handed non-artifact weapon in the game. And since the samurai can reach Expert level in two-weapon combat, you will actually be quite a bit better off swinging two long swords/katana than one of any larger weapon.

SHOPPING LIST:

The best artifact weapon for you long-term is Frost Brand. The most damaging all-purpose melee attack in the game comes from a samurai double-wielding a +7 Frost Brand and a +7 katana. (Assumes 18/** STR and EXPERT in 2x weapon and Long Sword.) Next comes Fire Brand, then Grayswandir, then the Tsurugi of Murasama.

Other artifacts you might want to consider: the Magic Mirror of Merlin is excellent for samurai, as is the Mitre of Holiness. Samurai have no natural source of magic resistance, so any artifact that provides it would be worth having.

In the non-artifact category, gray (or possibly silver) dragon scale mail is a must-have, as is a good pair of fireproof speed boots.