Fighters and mages have distinct armor and weapons, so anything you find will be appropriate for only one or the other. While characters start with preset values in each attribute, you can raise and lower them by trading points of one for another. These base values do not change during the game and are used initially to generate other attributes like health, mana, and so forth. These go up as the character gains experience and can be modified by magical items, armor and weapons. For each class there are also several skills.
Skills are unique by class like weapons and armor.
There are five skills for each class. Fighters can learn the combat skills of Blade, Axe, Bludgeon, Pike and Shooting while Mages can learn the magical skills of Air, Earth, Fire, Water and Astral. Between quests you can sell loot you may have found, train to increase your skills, and buy things from the shopkeeper. You also can talk to various characters in the Inn as well as hire mercenaries there to help on your next quest. There is a huge variety of different items you can find or purchase.