No classes???

Not really. Just not conventional coding for classes. You start off as an adventurer...as in...

There are 4 visible mortals present:
[20 Cle Hum] Zematia the *Priestess of Bhaal*
[23 Mag Elf] Quillow the Enchanter
[8 Adv Dwa] Maurrglum almost to warrior :-)
[2 Adv Hal] Jollo the Halfling Pickpocket

Essentially, the idea is that the TRAIN command does NOT train stats like strength or things like mana. Instead there are certain class attributes that indicate what your character does with their spare time. The skills that you may practice with the PRACTICE command are determined by what class attributes you have and how well they are trained. There will be 8 attributes for each of the four class types--cleric, fighter, thief, and mage--and anyone can train in any of these attributes. But skills are often the result of combinations of highly trained attributes, so if you train all 32 equally (you get 6 trains per level) you will be ineffective at everything. Perhaps "turn undead" requires Faith 5/Devotion 5/Ritual 5 to even practice. When you train all attributes of a class to a certain point, lets arbitrarily say to the 9th circle for now, you are officially considered a member of that class. If you want to spend time multiclassing go ahead, but it will certain cost you.

After the baseline class-level requirement, characters may continue to be generalists or become more specialized. Certain specialized paths may emphasize skills only obtainable by training 3-4 class attributes to extremely high levels. Thus characters can pick and choose how they want their characters to grow and make a very personalized mark.

Cleric Faith-- Devotion-- Sacrifice-- Ritual-- Supplication-- Prophecy-- -- Pr--

Fighter Martial Arts--hand to hand combat (punch, kick, etc). Weapons Mastery--use your weapons more effectively. Endurance--for those long forced marches and outlasting your opponent. Tactics--know your opponent as you know yourself. Leadership--inspiration for your troops; gain loyal followers. Riding/Handling--essential for mounted travel and combat.

Thief Manual Dexterity--the better to pick locks and pockets with... Stealth--moving quickly, quietly, and gracefully Acrobatics--tumbling, jumping, tightroping, and the like Confidence--as in confidence man, as in running a con while keeping a poker face. Streetwise--you know the slang and the right names to drop for shady deals. -- -- --

Mage Divination--magic dealing with revelation and knowledge. Conjuring--spells that create items (and creatures). Illusion--creating and maintaining items and creatures of smoke and shadow. Necromancy--invoking the energies of life and death. Abjuration--protective magic and ritual. Summoning--spells that draw creatures to the caster. Alteration--transforming one item into another. Runes--the symbols by which a mage's spells are transcribed

An example of specilization for the mage class is the creation of schools of magic. Necromancers would use spells requiring insanely high Necromancy and Alteration attributes, while an Illusionist would need to spend most training on Illusion and Conjuring. For example, animate dead might require Necromancy 18&Alteration 16, so that a specialist would have access to it at a much lower level than a generalist. On the other hand there are a great number of spells which require a broader range of mage attributes. Some of these spells may be out of reach of a specialist. For example, let's say 3 cool spells require 1)Conjuring 2)Divination&Illusion 3)Alteration&Abjuration. Maybe these spells only require training to the 15th circle in each attribute, but after the baseline requirement of 9 in everything else you focused on training Illusion and Conjuring. None of the three cool spells are available to you to learn.