I haven't even played it completely through with one charactor, though I have built all 3 classes to at least the mid 20's and have a warrior class at level 40. Even though I have not played it to the end, I have a strong opinion that the warrior class has the potential to be the most versital charactor.
Because all 3 spell trees are available to all classes. It is possible to build a warrior class with many of the casting spells maxed out. Especially with the aid of spell books from merchants. I always build a class to its strength. Because for a warrior 1 point in intelligence only equals 3 points of magic, I don't put points in intelligence but get the magic in equipment first with silver charms (80 mana, then gold 100 mana in the unique drops). For a mage class I don't put points in constitution but get it from equipment for the same reason.
So all chactors can be built as a caster or summoner. The warrior class is more versatile because it can be the best melee charactor. You can melee with the other charactors but you can never get the same damage because if you have 100 points in strength for a warrior you will get 40 extra damgage on top of what your weapon stats do. The other classes will only give 10 extra damage for the 100 strength points. Now mages need mana and prefer a mana leech weapon to restore mana. (though its is certainly possible to be strictly a castor and never melee at all) But if you have a 5% mana leech weapon, the warrior class would leech more mana than the mage class because the % comes from the total damage which is higher for a warrior.
The warrior class can be effective at melee with no points in sword expertise. This skill gives greater % chance to hit and faster recovery time. The max to hit is based on your offense with is impacted from equipment with agility and + offense stats. If you get your agility over 125 later you can hit around 85% of monsters your same level. If your lucky you can get a sword with speed on it. My sword has speed 8 so my warrior has a recovery of 2. I could put 1 point in sword mastering and my speed would be maxed. So that skill helps early on but is not mandatory. The stats that give additional daage from poison and fire also are luxery skills because with enough strenthg the warrior class already has plenty of pop. So in this game you can get by for melee with very few points in the warrior tree. My level 40 warrior has 28 unused skill points. Charm weapon and augment defense are maxed. So it has plenty of points to use only magic to finish the game.
So I found its easier to make a warrior a mage than it is to make a mage a warrior. For this same reason it may be more fun to make a mage class into a melee charactor for the sake of the challenge.
I started a game on hard difficulty and it seemed like my drops were not as good. I didn't want to miss out on nice items so went back to normal difficulty, which you can make harder wheneever you want just by equipping 2nd rate items. But its always fun to out on your best equipment at least on Sundays.
I don't like to use this unless I am totally bored. But the warrior class is the one class that can use fade from sight as a super cheap boss kill. Using whirl does not make a warrior visible which means Josiphine can die without ever hitting you. (like I said cheap and should really be fixed but its there)
Now the survivor actually rates better at defense than a warrior class but this is not noticable because the offense of the warrior compensates for that.
Life and mana are not that big an issue for any of the classes as silver charms become readily available early in the game. Its just a matter of getting enough money to buy them.
