Best Character For A New Player?

[blargney the second]

The random cards for the crusader are a bit fiddly, but not that big a deal as far as I'm concerned. The really really complicated part is the delayed damage pool and the constantly changing amount that it affects your attacks and damage.

However, both of those things together make the crusader into an insanely high maintenance class. When I run one as a DM, I just give them DR 1/- and a floating +1/+1 bonus on attacks to keep from pulling my hair out.
-blarg

 

[sukael]

The random cards for the crusader are a bit fiddly, but not that big a deal as far as I'm concerned. The really really complicated part is the delayed damage pool and the constantly changing amount that it affects your attacks and damage.

However, both of those things together make the crusader into an insanely high maintenance class. When I run one as a DM, I just give them DR 1/- and a floating +1/+1 bonus on attacks to keep from pulling my hair out.
-blarg

My personal solution for the attack bonus problem was to precalculate attack lines (in the vein of the new-style stat blocks) with each degree of bonus in a little sidebar.

I can't remember how I handled the delayed damage, though I think it was a little easier because I tend to keep track of total damage taken (incrementing), rather than HPs (decrementing).

 

[Votan]

It seems that the player is leaning towards a Cleric at the moment. I'm not totally thrilled about it but one of my experienced players is going to help him make the character as well as help him out with actions during the game. If he really wants to play a caster I'm not going to stop him. I'd rather him be happy but a little unsure of all his character options than bored with the game because he's stuck with a character he didn't want.

The other good thing is that a Cleric is generally a pretty strong class, which will help if he makes any newbie combat mistakes in his first few sessions.

Olaf the Stout

Cleric is a pretty solid choice unless you have a lot of campaign specific restrictions. There are not a lot of irreversible choices and the power of the character derives from class features. SO the character will not be badly handicapped by suboptimal decisions in feats and attributes.

This seems pretty solid to me.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

First time I ever played, I played a cleric. And look how I turned out!








Err, maybe it's not a good idea to point out how I turned out...

 

[meomwt]

Whilst Cleric is not a bad choice, Favoured Soul might be a bit easier to play.It is basically a spontaneous caster of Divine Magic (as Sorceror is to Wizard), so knowing only a few spells (rather than being over-whelmed by the entire Cleric spell-list) might be a better way of handling things.

There's also no Turning available, which is good as I still can't always work out 3.xE turning mechanics in the same way I could 2E

Favoured Souls get Cleric BAB progression and can wear good armour.

I had a first-time player join my old campaign as an 8th-level Favoured Soul (his character had been built by our regular min-maxing rules-lawyer) and, whilst he needed a few weeks to get the hang of things, he's now running his own choices of character with no problems.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Whilst Cleric is not a bad choice, Favoured Soul might be a bit easier to play.It is basically a spontaneous caster of Divine Magic (as Sorceror is to Wizard), so knowing only a few spells (rather than being over-whelmed by the entire Cleric spell-list) might be a better way of handling things.

There's also no Turning available, which is good as I still can't always work out 3.xE turning mechanics in the same way I could 2E

Favoured Souls get Cleric BAB progression and can wear good armour.

I had a first-time player join my old campaign as an 8th-level Favoured Soul (his character had been built by our regular min-maxing rules-lawyer) and, whilst he needed a few weeks to get the hang of things, he's now running his own choices of character with no problems.

One of the experienced players in the group is helping the player out with character creation as well as during the actual session. With the experienced player's assistance I'm comfortable that he'll be ok, even with a larger list of spells. The experienced player should be able to find out what sort of spells the new guy wants to concentrate on and then pick spells that focus on that.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Grue]

Warlock is about as simple as it gets. They're pretty fun too, which is good.

I'd have to second this (or third or fourth ). I used to intro new players with a vanilla fighter, and while it used to be true in 1e and 2e that they were by far the easiest to run, after using both fighters and warlocks in 3e as 'training wheel' characters I've found it far easier to teach using the warlock as well as keep the newbie interested and engaged in the game.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I follow these rules to help new players out:

1) Try to find something that interests the player within the genre. Every class or option sucks if your player isn't into it.

2) There is no rule 2.

Anything that a player can find overwhelmingly complex can be simplified if you, the DM, are willing to do a little extra legwork and be patient. If you do so, let your player know you're giving them the "Cliff's Notes" version of the PC.

I rarely take someone new to the hobby into an existing campaign cold- I'll run one shots or mini-campaigns. I do this because sometimes it may take a few PCs for the player to get a feel for what they like- running one shots and letting them "trade in" lets them get a feel for the game.

Eventually, the player gets up to speed...or finds a different game or leaves the hobby.

 

[palleomortis]

Not sure if this has been fully suggested yet, but I would say Human fighter for these reasons:

Minimul race abilities to keep track of

Fighters are easy replicas for novel characters

Fighter classes are simple to build

Extra Feats are always fun to play with

Fighters have the skill and HP/AC to be a lil forgiving on new characters stuck in the hack and slash mindset.



That's my opinion, anyways. That, and all the other clases have extras that, while fun if you understand them, can be a little confusing at first.

 

[Nifft]

Not sure if this has been fully suggested yet

There's a quick and easy solution to that, you know: read the thread.

Fighters have the skill

Fighters have skills?!

Cheers, -- N