I'm just going to go over the various classes and keepsakes, just to make things easier when starting a new character.

I'm open to changes and additions on this. I obviously know more about some classes and items than others.

Starting Classes:

• Hero
  Level 7 / Vigor 14 / Mind 9 / Endurance 12 / Str 16 / Dex 9 / Int 7 / Faith 8 / Arcane 11
  Starts with a battle axe and a leather shield.
  Seems like your basic strength warrior type. Not something I'm likely to start with, but your mileage may vary.
• Bandit
  Level 5 / Vigor 10 / Mind 11 / Endurance 10 / Str 9 / Dex 13 / Int 9 / Faith 8 / Arcane 14
  Starts with a Great Knife (dagger), Shortbow, Buckler, and some fletched sleep arrows.
  Your basic thiefy type. This can be fun, going around shooting things from a distance and stabbing them in the back. There's a pretty good bleed dagger you can get early on, Reduvia, and a talisman called the "Assassin's Crimson Dagger", which restores hp any time you stab things in the back that might be fun with this type of build.
• Astrologer
  Level 6 / Vigor 9 / Mind 15 / Endurance 9 / Str 8 / Dex 12 / Int 16 / Faith 8 / Arcane 14
  Starts with a magic short sword, Astrologer's Staff, Scripture wooden shield, and the spells Glintstone Pebble and Glintstone Arc.
  This is your basic sorcerer, and if you are planning on being mostly magic is a good starting place. There is a very good staff called the Meteorite Staff that you can get along with a spell called Rock Sling in Calaed early if you are going for this. You'll also want a sorcery teacher, and there's one right after a boss fight in the Waypoint Ruins. It's over to the east, past where those two giants pulling a carriage are, and it's the ruins with all the poison flowers, and the mad pumpkinhead boss behind the fog wall. There are also three scrolls around you can give a teacher to have them teach more spells.
  If you like being more half and half sword and sorcery, like me, you might want to choose the Prisoner instead.
• Warrior
  Level 8 / Vigor 11 / Mind 12 / Endurance 11 / Str 10 / Dex 16 / Int 10 / Faith 8 / Arcane 9
  Starts with two scimitars and a riveted wooden shield.
  This is more of a dual wielding dex start, and you can dual wield weapons. I'd probably be more likely to start with this than the Hero, but I'm not really that into straight melee classes.
• Prisoner
  Level 9 / Vigor 11 / Mind 12 / Endurance 11 / Str 11 / Dex 14 / Int 14 / Faith 6 / Arcane 9
  Starts with a Glintstone Staff, an Estoc, a Rift Shield, and the spell Magic Glintblade, plus a silly iron mask.
  So this is more of a magic/melee build. If you take that mask off, you'll roll better. The things I said about a teacher and getting a better staff in the Astrologer section hold true. When you're heading to Stormveil Castle, if you go past it, you'll get to the Lake-Facing-Cliffs grace, and the Church of Irith is right by there. There's a sorcerer there that asks for 20 runes. Pay that to him, and he'll sell you the Astrologers starting spells, plus a light spell. You probably do want Glintstone Pebble. One of the scrolls is near there, too, and there's a Nomadic merchant not too far from there that sells the Astrologer's Staff (and gear), which is better than the one you start with, if you didn't want to grab the meteorite one. (This is also where you buy a lantern, which everyone should pick up.)
• Confessor
  Level 10 / Vigor 10 / Mind 13 / Endurance 10 / Str 12 / Dex 12 / Int 9 / Faith 14 / Arcane 9
  Starts with a broadsword, a blue crest heater shield, a finger seal, and the incantations Urgent Heal and Assassin's Approach.
  So this is basically a character that does melee and uses incantations along with it for things like healing or stealthing around. The finger seal is just the basic one, which anyone can buy at the hub world. There's a guy in the hub world that sells incantations, too. Flame Sling is a good one to pick up, so you can shoot fireballs, and there's one for curing poison, and a better healing spell, IIRC.
  Incantations have more utility spells whereas sorcery tends more towards flinging magic at things to hurt them. This can be a fun class.
• Wretch
  Level 1 / Vigor 10 / Mind 10 / Endurance 10 / Str 10 / Dex 10 / Int 10 / Faith 10 / Arcane 10
  Starts with a club and some underwear on.
  This is probably the hardest class to start as in the game. It can be fun for a challenge, or because you are basically making a character based on whatever you pick up and figuring out a build. Level 1 means your first couple level ups will cost less than any other character, too.
• Vagabond
  Level 9 / Vigor 15 / Mind 10 / Endurance 11 / Str 14 / Dex 13 / Int 9 / Faith 9 / Arcane 7
  Starts with a longsword, a halberd, and a heater shield.
  Seems like a combo dex/str warrior type with more health than other classes. The halberd can be a fun weapon, or it could in Dark Souls, anyways. Haven't really tried it here.
• Prophet
  Level 7 / Vigor 10 / Mind 14 / Endurance 8 / Str 11 / Dex 10 / Int 7 / Faith 16 / Arcane 10
  Starts with a short spear, a finger seal, a rickety shield, and the Heal and Catch Flame incantations.
  This is more of a pure faith build, though you do have that spear. Catch flame sets things on fire short range, and this is the better health spell, but I'd still probably go grab flame sling asap, and level up vigor.
  I tried out this class, and spears are fun, but it seemed like one where you are probably going to want to run around finding some more offensive spells, or specing into more melee.
• Samurai
  Level 9 / Vigor 12 / Mind 11 / Endurance 13 / Str 12 / Dex 15 / Int 9 / Faith 8 / Arcane 8
  Starts with an uchigatana, longbow, Red Thorn Roundshield, fletched bone arrows, and fletched bone fire arrows.
  This actually kinda feels like it's probably the easiest start of the classes, though I could be wrong. Katanas are fun, and you've got a bow and some arrows to play with, and some better armor (the Land of Reeds set). You actually start with the highest endurance to be able to wear it, too.
  Probably fun, and this or the bandit are going to be the two ones for if you want to make some sort of archer character. Haven't really spent much time as one yet.

Starting Keepsakes:

• Crimson Amber Medallion
  This is a talisman that give you +6% HP when you wear it. It's useful initially, but in the starting map area, if you head south across the bridge until you get to the Weeping Peninsula, the first merchant you run into will sell it to you for 1500 runes, if you want it. You'll also probably swap it for a different one reasonably soon.
• Lands Between Rune
  This is just basically 3000 runes. Useful, but kill a giant three times, and you have the same number of runes.
• Golden Seed
  These are used for upgrading your flask, and an extra flask early is nice. The number of seeds it takes to get more flasks increases, so it'll eventually balance out, though.
• Fanged Imp Ashes
  This gives you an extra summon early, and the imps are fun, but you will be picking up a fair number of summons. You can buy it from a merchant near Raya Lucaria Academy.
• Cracked Pot (x2?)
  These are used as reusable containers for things like fire bombs, so having extra ones is nice. If you pick this, it actually decreases the number of containers you find in a spot beyond the capital, so the number in the game stays the same.
• Stonesword Key (x2)
  These are used for unlocking things sealed away with an imp statue seal. There's actually one that needs 2 keys right in the starting area, so you can unlock an optional dungeon with it right away which has a good talisman and seal in it. It's kinda poisony with big rolling things and a nasty boss, so you're probably going to want to come back later for it. Buying these keys can be a little expensive, though, so it's not a bad pick.
• Bewitching Branch
  A consumable that charms an enemy, apparently. Never used one. It's craftable with the Fevor's Cookbook [3].
• Boiled Prawn
  Consumable that boosts physical damage negation. There's a merchant relatively early that sells these.
• Shabriri's Woe
  It's a talisman that attracts enemies aggression towards you. could be useful if you want them targeting you while your summons kill them, I guess. It can be found in the Frenzied Flame Village.

--Sweetie Belle