Hi, Artagnan. Welcome to the game.

Xatsh has given you some good tips for end-game. But since you're just starting out, I'll try to offer some more tips geared more toward a beginner.

First, race doesn't really matter. It has a small effect on your stats when you start, but you're going to level up incredibly fast, and with the ability to allocate your own stats, your beginning stats won't matter at all. I've seen Lalafell Gladiators, and Galka (err, I mean Reordyn?) mages. Just choose whichever race you think looks the best.

Second, when you're starting out, Glad and Thaum are two totally different classes. Gladiators are the generally the best tanks in the game, so the stat they need most is Vitality. And since they're melee, they tend to depend more on Strength and Dexterity to hit stuff.

On the other hand, Thaums are mages. So the most important stats for a Thaum are going to be Mind, Piety, and Intelligence. (Having said that, even mages want some Vitality. It boosts your hit points, so you can take more hits before dying.)

So there's not a lot of crossover between Thaums and Gladiators, at least at low to mid levels.

My advice would be to try all the classes. Right now, you can level up several classes to level 10 really quickly. I'd try them all out, and see which ones you like.

Just so you know, the cross-class skills that will help Glads are different than the cross-class skills that help Thaums.

For Gladiator, you're probably going to want to level Pugilist to at least level 6 to get Second Wind (which gives you an instant boost to your HP). And you're probably going to want to level Marauder to level 6 to get Blood Bath (on your next hit, you get an HP boost based on the damage you cause).

Beyond those, the class that seems to help Gladiators the most is Marauder, because they have some really good abilities to gather hate from mobs. Leveling Marauder will really help you become a better tank.

All in all, I'd suggest that you just try out all the classes to see which ones you like. Lancers are more damage dealers, and have fewer HP. Archers do a ton of damage, but they're ranged attackers, it's can be expensive to keep buying arrows, and they have fewer HP. Marauders have the most HP in the game, and are the best at attacking multiple mobs at once. And Pugilists can also be effective tanks, but they rely more on evasion. Pugilists basically do two smaller attacks (compared to everyone else's 1 attack), so they gather a ton of TP, which allows them to throw out a bunch of special attacks.

Right now, Thaumaturges are probably the most powerful class in the game. They're geared more towards "dark" magic. They can debuff enemies, have some incredibly strong nuke spells, and their Area of Effect spells shoot out in a really large cone. Conjurers are a somewhat weaker mage class, but have some really effective heal/buff spells, and their AoE spells shoot out in a circle.

So just try everything and see what you enjoy playing most. And have fun!