Best Character For A New Player?

[Holy Bovine]

Warmage or Fighter. Race is really a matter of preference imo. If in doubt just go human.

I really like the simplicity of a Warmage and its set spell list and cool abilities (warmage edge and can wear armour) make it easy to learn. It also allows a new or inexperienced player to really feel like they are contributing as they fell a group of baddies with a fireball as opposed to hacking em down one at a time.

 

[Filcher]

Ask him which Lord of the Rings character is the coolest...

Be sure to give him the option of trading out like-level PCs once he knows the rules.

 

[Engilbrand]

Am I the only one who thinks that a Warmage is a great class for beginners? I've given it to newbies before and they have thrived. Hell, it was the first class I went to when I decided to finally give magic a try. It's pretty easy to play one and is a lot of fun when you're new. It's like an archer, but with flashy stuff.

 

[Jedi_Solo]

In our group's last campaign we had a new player and the PC was a Warlock. The player wanted to cast spells (understandable) and maybe the level of the campaign was a little tto high at the time (I don't remember the level but it was above 3. Level 6 or 7?) but even that was too much. Too many abilities, too many different options. This proved to me that in D&D there is no such thing as "easy magic". Not even the Warlock (at least at the level we were at).

At the time I thought the new PC should be a 'vanilla fighter' with all of the feats being 'under the hood'. Save boosters, Weapon Focus and the like. Even staying way from Power Attack if at all possible. At least for the first few games until the player has a few combats under their belt, they see how Skills and Spells work and understand how the campaign and the group runs. Then, after they get an idea of what is going on, cut them loose to do what they want.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I'm about to start a new campaign with a player that is completely new to D&D. He has roleplayed a bit before (a bit of Shadowrun and Star Wars) so he should be ok from that perspective.

Well, I came to D&D with "only" Shadowrun experience, and the first character I had was a Sorceror. Boy, did I dislike the D&D Vancian spell system then! And what's with these hit points and all?

Obviously, a lot of things changed in the mean while, as D&D 3.x became my favourite game system.

It might be interesting to know what kind of characters he played in the past? If he loved spellcasters in Shadowrun, he will have a hard time to adjust to D&D magic system, but he might still be very keen on trying it out. Warlock sounds like a good suggestion. Very little options, but at least he can cast his spells all the time.
If he was more someone that enjoyed Street Samurais, Fighter, Rogue or Ranger seem the best fit. If playing a Fighter, he will surely miss the lack of Hide/Move SIlently.

I don't know what kind of Starwars games he played. I just note that both games probably support either ranged-weapon using characters (any non-Jedi or Streat Samurai) or specialised characters using melee weapons combined with magic (Ki Adepts/Trolls or Jedi).

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Ranger, take the archery path and give him a two handed weapon, power attack, cleave and a lot of useful skills, Favored Enemry (human). He'll be pretty good at all non-magical activities both in and out of combat and can get a feel for the game.

 

[werk]

Barbarian, even a child can play one.

 

[Xath]

Heh, I'll tell you that the best character for a 1st timer is not a 10th level cleric. In my first D&D game, I joined a mid-level campaign who needed a cleric. The players often remarked that I always had the best spells prepared every day. And I had no idea that the clerics needed to prepare spells ahead of time, and was just picking them out of the PHB as I went along.

I'd definitely go with a straight-up fighter type or a spontaneous spell-caster. I'll echo the chorus of Warmage makes a great newbie class.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Martial Rogue.

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

Keeping things as simple as possible, I'd suggest either a Fighter or a Rogue, with a mild preference for the Fighter. Neither have spells or too many wierd mechanics to deal with, although Warlock and Warmage are both good suggestions if the new guy's more interested in playing a spell-chucker, although at 1st/low-levels casters have the problem of being rather squishy compared to fighter-types.

Or (if you're allowing the book in the first place) you could give him a taste of both with the Warblade out of Bo9S. Of the three martial adepts, it has the least amount of wierd mechanics (no goofy random draw or bizarre mystical powers), and allows one to get a feel for the resource-management mindset required for spellcasters (managing actions instead of spells memorized/remaining). Similar to a Barbarian in that generally their main focus is tohit things as hard as possible and soak up the damage, but no tracking rage modifiers. And they've got a few social skills beyond Intimidate and enough skill points to give them stuff to do outside of combat.