I have been changing to a elite role with my chars almost as soon as I can. around level 8 for most. is this smart? should I wiat till im higher? Also is it just me or does this 1 hp thing piss you off???? I know save level load level load level ....but after 10 or 15 times it sucks. they need to fix that in the patch or something I can except a wizard with 1 or 4 hp but my warrior?

For Warriors and Rogues (non-spell casters) you should change ASAP. For spellcasters, wait until you get all the upper-level spells you want or need, as it becomes very difficult to get them if you change them to a non-supporting role. For example, if you take your Wizard to become a Bard, he can began learning Moon and Fiend magic, but will only learn Sun and Stone magic at 1/2 his skill level in each; meaning he must be level 12 in Sun to learn 6th level magic spells (and can never get to level 7 unless he becomes a Zenmaster which is almost at games' end.) So make sure you get those high-level spells first!

Warlocks, on the other hand, can learn all previously learned books of magic in addition to Moon and Fiend at no skill cost.

-Sazerac

Also: if you've just converted a character's class, you can expect only 1 HP point increase per level and 1 skill increase per level until you get back to the level of your previous class. If you're lucky, you'll get an attribute point increase every so often. When you get to the level of your previous class, sometimes HP will jump up 20-40 points (especially like converting to a Barbarian).

If you're talking about characters who haven't done a role ascension yet, be patient. All the HP is re-rolled from scratch for each level. If the new roll is less than your current HP, you get 1 HP increase. If it's more, you get that amount. (Example: A level 3 Warrior with 28 HP goes to level 4. If his new HP roll is for 25 HP, he gets 1 HP added since 25 is less than 28, his current. If his HP roll is 35, then he gets a 7 HP increase (28 + 7 = 35).)

You can quit and reload to try to get it higher, but this puts you on the high end of the roll and sooner or later it'll catch up to you. Pretty much let the law of averages take care of it. Depending on how you play the game, this isn't really a game in which high HP really matters that much. After a certain point, it's moot.

-Sazerac

I have 1 concern for your tery with the HP per level. thatm eans if i take a barabarian a my last class I'll get tons and tons of hp ...

I assumed the game set a random number for each class at each level like 1-8 per level for warriors 1-4 for mages ...like a traditional AD&D..

is this wrong?

Yes, but the Vitality bonuses only seem to go onto the maximum possible roll and you still get a lot of 1's anyway.

My approach is to start with all wizz (one priest last time), I give you as examples the char progression of 2 chars:

Female Ratling (rogue substitude): Wz4 (to get some spells), Barbarian 10 (lockpicking now), Samurai 11 (filling in sun spells), Paladin 11 (like all the others getting Crusade & Spirit spells), Ranger 12 (Vine spells), Bard 12 (Moon spells & starting Fiend - waited until Trickery became available), Monk 12 (fill in spirit spells), Ninja 12 (fill in Moon spells), Warlock 13 (fill in Stone spells, Assassin [up to lvl 31] learning Fiend spells ....

Male Elf: Wz9 (has top Stone spells - Meteorstorm for Amazoni Traps ....), Monk 9 (starting Spirit), Bard 11 (get Teleport, Portal & Call Home), Paladin 11 (fill Spirit & get Crusade), Ranger 13 (get all top level Vine spells), Samurai 13 (catch up with Sun spells), Ninja 13 (finish Moon spells), Warlock 13 (get top level Fiend spells), Barbarian 33 (can fill in spells up to level 4 here) and finally Zenmaster up to level 13 [no spells left actually]

As you can see, I like to get all spells for all chars - my Female Human priest ended up Valkyrie to get the Stone spells ..... [very late though]

One important note: in each successive role go at least up to previous level to get skill points (does not work at the very end though) & Barbarian either early (then only one hp thereafter for a long, long time) or second last/last role [my Valk ended with 358 & my Zenmaster with 300, all other were in the low 200s].