I've been enjoying the game so far. I'm not sure if this is going to bite me in the end, but I went ahead a created a team of ancients all around ages 300-500 years old. I have no idea if age has any impact on the gameplay (do they die of old age?), but I noticed immediately that it boosts the bottom value of their initial stat roll. According to the game their age can go up to 999.
The game has a classic Wizardy feel to it, with a good class system. After a lot of experimentation with different classes, my core team is:
1. Lord - Dwarf: great tank and damage dealer, and surprisingly turns into a good healer too
2. Fighter - Dragonnewt: great tank, great damage, and fire breath
3. Brawler - Werebeast: crazy good because of combo attacks, highest kill count by far
4. Thief - Hotlet: i haven't reached class mastery yet, so she's just throwing boomerangs and disarming traps
5. Bishop - Elf: slow mage and priest spell progression, but i'm in it for the long run
6. Summoner - Devilish: they're like pokemon trainers adding a 7th member to the party. They're like their own fun mini-game collecting monsters.
I've been swapping out these classes to mix things up:
7. Alchemist - Devilish: great class, really useful spells, rotates into my 5th slot replacing the Bishop
8. Bard - Human: does so many things, damage dealer (with iron boomerang), mage spells, music instruments and tarot cards. I really want to like the class, but I've had enough tarot card failures that completely f'd my party (they backfire) that she's been on the bench.
9. Shaman - Human: slayer of demons and undead, uses musical instruments, and her class weapons allow her to attack from the back row. I rotate her into the 5th or 6th slot.