Background and race combinations for beginners

Class/race choices

It is assumed that you have read the actual generic Walkthrough before reading a guide as well as Early Game Character Building, Mid Game Character Building, and Late Game Character Building

Crawl allows you to play using widely different play styles, depending on your character and god choice. The wide variety of choices offered might intimidate or even overwhelm new players. These are the easiest combos for beginners.

• Kobold Berserker of Trog (strategy guide): Kobolds can eat food chunks at any time, which allows them to avoid being hungry when needing to berserk. Their small size gives them a high EV which makes them resilient in combat. Finding a venom brand will be very useful in the early game.
• Minotaur Fighter of Okawaru: A strong, straightforward class that can get through a 3 rune ascension with nothing but its core skill set of wearing lots of armor and hitting things really hard. Not quite as killy as berserkers but much more survivable thanks to its massive AC and equipment bonuses.
• Hill Orc Priest of Beogh (strategy guide): Hill Orcs have all the aptitudes to be excellent fighters along with the saprovore trait to ease their hunger clocks. In addition Beogh is an invaluable god who makes the early game extremely easy by supporting common Orcish gear and converting orcs that you encounter.
• Deep Dwarf Necromancer of Makhleb (strategy guide): Pain is a strong starting spell, and Vampiric Draining combined with Makhleb's powers allows Deep Dwarfs to heal their wounds. Dispel Undead is useful against powerful ghosts, and Makhleb's summoning abilities can take down tough enemies.
• High Elf Wizard of Vehumet: Magic Dart is a great starting spell, and Mephitic Cloud makes the early and mid-game a lot easier. Once Vehumet starts gifting books, you should be able to take out almost anything. Human Wizards are a comparable choice, with slightly less MP and a lower aptitude for air magic and general spellcasting but much faster leveling overall and a better choice for the Summonings/Necromancy mid/late-game strategy outlined in the Deep Elf Air Elementalist/Summoner/Necromancer guide.
• Spriggan Enchanter of Nemelex (strategy guide): Spriggans are a great stealth class for new players since their high speed lets them flee when stealth fails. Ensorcelled Hibernation makes stabbing things really easy. Nemelex's decks of summoning take care of all situations that can't be solved with stealthy stabbing.

God choices

See Choosing a god for more details.