Upgrade from Diablo II to expansion question

[louriec]

If I upgrade and I have a current Diablo II character, am I going to lose my character when I upgrade to the expansion? Thanks

[Mursilis]

No your character will still be present and you can still play him in Classic. You'll also have the option to upgrade him to an Expansion character. However I recommend against doing that, since that character will be very underpowered for Expansion due to all the changes.

[Burn To Burn]

Do the characters start out with different stats than they do in classic? Is that why you say they're underpowered?

[Mursilis]

There are alot more options in Expansion than in Classic, such as charms, runes ,some of the unique items and all of Act V. A Classic character that has already quested through part of the game will have missed out on such things and therefore be less powerful than it could.

Since Expansion is expecting the character to have quested through in Expansion the farther along you wait to transfer the character over, the harder it will be on that character to compete.