Well having played each class to past L5 twice (6 total runs) and comparing, I find that while the mage does serious harm with rank 2 chaos magic, his smaller army, combined with a smaller hidden multiplier on rage gain (and lower starting rage) means that he will be way behind the other classes on rage levels. Note that the two best rage entities aren't even in the demo. Since the mage does most of his damage with his spells (which give zero rage usually for him) and less so with his armies, his rage input is really bad.

Also note that chaos magic requires a fair amount of might runes in addition to mind runes, whereas order magic requires an equal amount of mind and magic runes. This means that the paladin will not reasonably ever be good at chaos magic, but that he is actually about as good at order magic as the mage is, probably a lot more so since the mage will be spending on chaos magic instead. Ressurection is possibly even better than fireball as it can be used to prevent even small amounts of troop loss, saving you a lot of coin over time. The only downside is that ressurection will not work on undead, demons, and plants so you have to switch more to using humanoids and animals.

So in my opinion, with the paladin you get great leadership, good spellcasting (in order magic) and good rage levels. In fact, the fastest way to build rage is to have YOUR units die, and if you can ressurect them this is a viable option. Finally, combine that coin savings with the trade skill which lets you make a lot of coin selling old or redundant items and scrolls and you will be able to get the really great (and imbalancing) items you normally just drool over in the store.

On a side note, the only demons I saw in the demo were these imps in the medusa tournament fight (not counting the guys on the towers) and they were horribly powerful with super high initiative, 45 hp each, they cast fireball with huge damage, and there were RANK TWO. Undead seem pretty powerful but next to demons, bleh. Imagine what a Rank 5 demon would be like. Having an advantage vs them later in the game will not be wasted.

Like Dane I will be starting a Paladin tomorrow.

Demons are very powerful))) My favourite units are demonesses. It's very funny, you know, when these ladies are in the opposing army 'cause they have the unique ability to change the two creatures' places. You get very nervous when you find a hundred of hungry demons or cerbers behind your troops while your archers are in the centre of enemy's positions:grin: it forces the mind to work hard:)

Haven't seen any demons yet.. though i am looking forward to fighting them ;)

It's ssssuch a pity that there are so few of the demon's dwellings in the game:( they are pretty))))

Well, you should. I fighted against Scoffer Imps once (medusa owned them) and wow, they weren't exactly weak. They throwed fireballs, had high speed (dunno about the other stats) and strike and return ability.

Wow wow wow, so many openions... I vote paladin as best. He is a combo of mage and warrior. He can get more troops than mage and better in magic compared to warrior. In the starting he may be difficult to play with, once you reach a good level, he is unmatched.

You must see the demons and archdemons ( sorry if i've spoilt your curiosity). Archdemons are damn good as the demons (demon is the name of a troop)

Actually Archdemons are great at killing Dragons (u will be facing a lot of them in the game) since they have fire protection (basically 80% reduction from fire dmg) and dragons do fire damge not physical damge.

I was kinda stuck to the Paladin, since I let my daughter choose the char she liked the most. ofcourse that was gonna be the paladin who looks like a real prince.

Like him so far. The best combo of both styles.

Yeah I've totally changed my mind about the Paladin now - he rocks. Best of both worlds toward the end of the game and you can spend Mind runes to double up on Might and Might. Great work, Paladin! :-P