Hibernate version: 3.0b4

I would like to map an inheritance hierarchy which is very wide but not
very deep, in such a way that would not require me to create a mapping for each of the derived classes, as they vary only in
behaviour, but get Hiberanate to instantiate the appropriate type based on
class/type information that is stored in the database as a column.

Is it possible to do? My current thinking is that I would have to have a
proxy of sorts which itself is mapped to the database, persisting the
appropriate proxied type in the database and upon loading, would
instantiate the actual type... Is there an easier way?

Sorry to bump, but surely someone has an answer to the question
somewhere within the Hibernate community?

You'd need a custom EntityPersister implemnetation to acheive this.