Most Iconic Classic Races for Each Class
 

By iconic I mean the race most people are most likely to think of if you play word association with that class or when they picture that class quickly in their mind.

Enchanter: High Elf

Magician: Gnome

Necromancer: Dark Elf

Wizard: Erudite

Cleric: Dwarf

Druid: Halfling

Shaman: Barbarian

Bard: Half Elf

Monk: Human (also after Iksars, still the iconic monk race)

Ranger: Wood Elf

Rogue: Dwarf

Paladin: Dwarf

Shadow Knight: Troll

Warrior: Ogre

If you disagree you are probably wrong. This also clearly establishes dwarves as the master race.

Enchanter High elf- Cha junkys, and high Int(usually agnostic or tunare (PoG era)

Magician :gnome..come on any other reason not 2 be a gnome for this class.

Necro: DE(erud close 2nd paineel =bae), High int, living underground, city has skulls come on.

Cleric: tough..Id think dwarf. (roll is amazing), but I see more dwarfs then any other. Though Id prefer gnome:)

druid:Halfing hands down, maybe woodelf 2nd

Shaman: Barb 10000%(yes I know its worst midmax troll/orge ftw), my first and main on live.

Bard: half elf clearly

Monk Human, iskars are a thing. But still I remember way more humans then iskar on live.

Ranger: People play this? umm wood elf I guess

Rogue: halfing, dwarf, no barb..noo definitely hafling <3

Paladin: Dwarf..but truly frog of Mithaniel Marr.. (the best)

Shadow Knight: Orge, then DE.. trolls fugly(P.s. Soulfire=SK wp)

Warrior: Dwarf.. roll end of story.

Wizard: I generally picture High elf.. but truly Erudite is master race for Wizzy.

True classicness means a lot of Humans. People would chose Human whenever possible back then, as their first character, simply because they had no idea about the game and they'd pick "a safe choice".


There were a lot of Human wizards or Necros running around... stuff you don't see too much nowadays.

On Green...

Enchanter: Dark Elf

Magician: Dark Elf

Necromancer: Dark Elf

Wizard: Dark Elf

Cleric: Dark Elf

Druid: Dark Elf

Shaman: Dark Elf

Bard: Dark Elf

Monk: Dark Elf

Ranger: Dark Elf

Rogue: Dark Elf

Paladin: Dark Elf

Shadow Knight: Dark Elf

Warrior: Dark Elf

And that's just how it is, guise!

My perfered race choice:

Enchanter: Human

Magician: Human/Guise

Necromancer: Human/Guise

Wizard: Human/Guise

Cleric: Human/Guise

Druid: Human/Guise

Shaman: Troll/Guise

Bard: Human/Guise

Monk: Human/Guise

Ranger: Human/Guise

Rogue: Human/Guise

Paladin: Human/Guise

Shadow Knight: Human/Guise

Warrior: Human/Guise

Castle beat me to the joke! :p

Enchanter: High Elf

Magician: Gnome

Necromancer: Dark Elf

Wizard: Erudite

Cleric: Human

Druid: Wood Elf

Shaman: Barbarian

Bard: Half Elf

Monk: Iksar

Ranger: Wood Elf

Rogue: Halfling

Paladin: Human

Shadow Knight: Troll

Warrior: Ogre

I ended up not picking Dwarf for anything. Paladin has to go to Human, because they are the most vanilla and the archetype is rooted in the real-world crusades. Do you really think of a short, fat, beer drinker when the word Paladin comes to mind? Nah. Humans are the most unspectacular and yet most populated race, the ones who are most in need of turning to a "divine power" in order to find meaning and sense of empowerment. I also picked Human for Cleric, for those similar reasons, and also because when I think of that class I just think "boring".

Back in the day on Live, my first thoughts would have been:

Enchanter: HIE
Magician: DEF... just because I played one on SZ :D
Necromancer: ERU or DEF
Wizard: I don't have a strong association here, DEF, ERU or GNM
Cleric: Again no stand out from classic, DWF or HIE probably
Druid: ELF for sure, HFL very secondary
Shaman: BAR by a long shot... most players felt that "evil" was a serious disadvantage
Bard: HUM
Monk: HUM... nobody had any idea we'd be playing Iksars or that they'd be vastly superior monks, and almost no players were min/maxing then anyways.
Ranger: ELF by a lot, probably HUM second and HEF last
Rogue: BAR and HFL; BAR for the STR and HFL cus Bilbo.
Paladin: DWF, with HUM and HIE not too far off
Shadow Knight: DEF was the classic choice, though people that understood stats and slam would pick TRL/OGR
Warrior: BAR or maybe DWF... people didn't want to be "evil" if they had a choice.

Iksars are eliminated from the list, as nobody knew about them (and what little we knew didn't indicate how OP they were...) and also cus the vast majority of players were very sub-50 when Kunark came out.

Evil toons were extremely undesirable because they were logistically tough. Where will you bank? What vendors will you use? Where will you bind!? I played a lot of classic on Sullon Zek so I probably picture a very above-average number of dark elves, since I was on the evil team.

Virtually nobody min/maxed. Throughout the entire original extent of the p99 eras there was serious debate about what different stats even did for you. Rangers maxing AGI to be better "tanks", INT classes stacking STA for more hp, you name it. The misunderstandings faded over time, but in Kunark era there were still plenty of players that had no idea. I remember giving explanations of what each stat did to sell the jewlery, and having people argue with me, like the guy that wouldn't buy my +INT and +WIS jewelry (and loudly told everyone I was a fraud) because "only base stats from character creation determine mana".

Shaman: barbarian
Everything else: human

...only until you log in as a level one and are completely blind...

Barbarian for rogue but just slightly. Truth is I see tons of rogue races. It's prolly the most diverse race-wise.

Clerics are about even split between high elf and dorfs in my mind. (Though I think you are much better off rolling a an inny human)

DE for wizard. I don't even remember the last time I saw an erud wizard on green but I'm sure I've seen at least half a dozen DE ones since then.

Some of you responding really need to resd the original post: "By iconic I mean the race most people are most likely to think of if you play word association with that class or when they picture that class quickly in their mind."