And here's the story of how I created my first novice.
First, I didn't bother rolling the stats, since I'd raise them all anyways, so I got 6 STR, 7 DEX, 7 INT and 5 LUK.
During the first levels I was raising STR to increase my damage, when I reached 40 (required to become a novice), I switched over to INT.
I could have switched to DEX, but I picked int, since it increases the amount of MP you get on level up, so by getting INT earlier I got more MP. In hindsight perhaps it would be worth it to raise INT to 40 first, and THEN switch to STR, then DEX, or something.
Anyways at level 8, I started adding INT, and dint' stop untill I had 40 (required to become a Novice), then I started with DEX, and then LUK. At some point I also added 10 more to STR because my damage sucked. (Though, it still sucked with that extra 10 STR)
So, on level 30 I had 50 in STR and 40 in DEX,INT and LUK.
I was ready to advance.
I traveled to Orbis, and found all the NPCs, though, I had to do it twice, because it didn't register the first time for some reason. I heard sometimes you need to do it up to 3 times, cause it's buggy.
Finally, I did it, I became a novice, and I got the Novice skillbook with all the crazy skills. (See the screenshot gallery)
Reading the skill descriptions, Way of Warrior was an obvious first choice, because it includes MaxHPIncrease, so taking it early gives you more HP in the end.
But that wasn't exactly true.
For a long time I couldn't make myself put the point in, because honestly, I was bored of just using the melee attack and couldn't wait to see my flashy new moves.
So I returned to my old Assassin for a couple of so for a couple of weeks to have some fun. Then I returned to Novice, my will stenghtened, and took the WayOfWarrior, and bought some warrior equipment I could equip now.
Also, I discovered that Novices do lose EXP when dying, the hard way.
More of the story later.