This might sound specific and silly, but I figure you guys would

>>2796939
>One that lets me customise my party classes and abilities a lot and doesn't lose its difficulty.
Romancing SaGa 2/3
Daggerfall
>dungeon crawler that you can just jump in to and it'll try to fuck you up.
Shiren The Wanderer
Castle of the Winds

>>2796939
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup

I hope you have a lot of spare for the next month though

>>2797140
*spare time

no really though this game will ruin your life

Wizardry 6-8. Awesome class and skill system where you can change and optimize a lot. Also pretty difficult.

TemplePlus.

NetHack and DCSS are poor suggestions because they aren't party-based.

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>>2796939
Nethack is great. I suggest you write out the keyboard and extended commands on a piece of paper when you start to play. The biggest hurdle to enjoying the game is just figuring out how to control it. It becomes second nature after a while though.

Just screw around for the first few times you play. You want a game that will mess you up? NetHack is the kind of game that if you kick a wall too many times you'll die, not to mention thousands of other obscure deaths that you will become all too familiar with. After you can start getting 5 or 6 levels in, start taking notes on what you find out about the game; item effects, monsters, dungeon features, equipment, maps, etc. I have a notes file a couple thousand lines long that I refer to all the time when I play. It's the only way I would have ever ascended.

The key to enjoying NetHack to its fullest at first is to not spoil the game. Don't look up anything online about it besides the Guide Book:
http://www.nethack.org/v343/Guidebook.html
Try out everything you can think of. There are in-game hints for the stuff you don't.

As a beginner, play a Dwarven Valkyrie. You start out with a very strong character able to hold lots of stuff, critical when you are just starting out and needing to try new things. Combat is typically simple melee, so you don't need to worry about complicated stuff like spell casting.

Last thing. Have fun hacking. If you die, it's no big deal. Who knows, maybe your badass character's death will help a future ascension along. Anyway, you'll have a better idea of what _not_ to do in the future!

>>2796939
Do you really like reading the fucking manual? Because Realms of Arkania has some of the most thorough customization around, but jumping into it is lethal for your sanity.

For jump-into RPGs, none better than Might & Magic series. One thing to remember about them is that your starting stats barely matter - this will save you about a half hour of your time at the character customization screen.

>>2798542
> I suggest you write out the keyboard and extended commands on a piece of paper when you start to play.
Why? Just press the '?' key.

Gonna bump this guys thread as I've also been on the hunt for the same. Thing is, I've played pretty much everything that allows variety in class building, it'd be too long for me to type out a list of everything but I'm hoping there's an SRPG that's slipped through the cracks or something.

Personally I'd give a +1 for Wizardry 8, you really are continually developing your characters and making decisions on whether to change job, what to enhance, etc. In contrast, games like the PSP Tactics Ogre are great for job variety and class building but the game gets very easy the stronger you get and you barely make any decisions for ability learning since few skills are transferable.

The Langrisser series is another great pickup, it's a SRPG where your units are often changing jobs through a branching tree, building on their stats and units available; that, combined with multiple endings and branching storylines really give you a lot of replay value.

SanctuaryRPG: Black Edition. Really damn well put together with some good customizationand options that reveal itself slowly as you play, feels slightly like a MUD at times.

>>2800301
>SRPG
>customization that doesn't lose difficulty
This is really tricky. An SRPG's difficulty usually stems from not being able to customize and using what you have.

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I suggest "Dungeon Hack" for the DOS and Amiga platforms. First person crawler like "Dungeon Master" (also for the Amiga, DOS, and Atari ST platforms) but it has only one player character and heavy rogue-like difficulty and elements. Fun to Pick up and play. If out want something more traditional, try dungeon master, eye of the beholder, bloodwych, lands of lore, any of the ultima games, (especially ultima underworld) or a new but "retroesque" dungeon crawler called "Barony" which is crafted in the spirit of underworld and has many traditional rogue-like elements.