A simple class for first timer?

[Goken100]

Essential Choices

I'd give the poor girl some choices. What's all this "Fighter Slayer is the simplest, end of story"? What is she doesn't want to play a Fighter Slayer?

One thing I've found as a DM is that just a few choices allow players to feel in control.

The Essential classes are all simpler than standard 4E fare, with the possible exception of the Wizard Mage. The Fighter-Knight and Rogue-Thief are post relatively easy to run, and even the new Cleric build seems a better option than most.

 

[BASHMAN]

Slayer Fighter build would be easiest, followed by a Knight. The Knight build is less simple because she'll need to remember to use powers that trigger in certain situations, which a newbie is likely to forget. Slayer is straight up: I have a sword, and try to kill stuff with it. Dead simple.

 

[fba827]

If your question is simply "what is the easiest" i'll have to also nominate the bow-using ranger.
-good assortment of skills
-very easy powers without complicated "if ...then..."s
-don't have to worry so much about positioning if you didn't want to
-easier to stay out of the way (thus, hit less often, thus not as often invoking the concern that she is somehow playing wrong because her HP keep going away; so a potential psychological benefit).

But in this situation, if it were me, i'd actually make up two concepts (one of which would be the archer ranger, the other might be an essentials fighter) and then, after explaining the basic differences in role etc, ask her which concept she'd rather play,

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Don't worry about the complexity of this class vs that class, because she'll be sitting at a table of experienced players who can help guide her through the rougher portions of running a 4Ed PC.

Before designing any PC, I'd ask her what kind of fantasy characters she likes, then try to find what in the game can model it. Perhaps she likes dashing rogues, swashbuckling warriors most of all, or has an affinity for fey. Maybe Harry Potter is her all-time-favorite fantasy character.

And then you hand her a slayer fighter? Won't go well.

 

[temporalhiccup]

Oops

 

[Quickleaf]

Definitely NOT making a pregen for her. She's thinking about what kind of character she'd like to play, and our DM is letting us play anything. I know she's into Dune, Harry Potter, and True Blood. Her first question was: "Do we have to be humans or can we be creatures like orcs?" I then described our party: a shapechanger, a tree woman, 2 stone giants, a green alien and a blue alien, and me, an elf. Yeah we have a big group (and 3 controllers to boot), so we might split the party. I want her to play one of the easier classes not only for her benefit but for the rest of our sanity. The number of zones, walls, areas of effect, and markers was just nuts! Definitely fewer powers, static benefit feats, and NOT a class with marks, zones, etc. Great advice so far! Keep it coming!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Heh- Warlocks are pretty simple: their powers tend to be point & shoot with few AoE concerns, and with the right combo of Pact and race, you can easily get that "bad boy" vibe going- touching on both HP and TB themes. And the only thing she might have to track is the Curse.

 

[Lord Ernie]

Heh- Warlocks are pretty simple: their powers tend to be point & shoot with few AoE concerns, and with the right combo of Pact and race, you can easily get that "bad boy" vibe going- touching on both HP and TB themes. And the only thing she might have to track is the Curse.

I disagree. For beginning players, Warlocks can be quite fiddly. Action types (standard/move/minor) become very important, what with warlock's curse, moving for shadow walk and prime shot, and then you still have to decide which power to chose - something, in my experience, new players either spend tons of time pondering, or they just use the same at-will all the time, every time.

Hell, what is easy for some and hard for others just depends. What archetype does she want to play? Does she have any experience with other RPG's, or MMO's? Is she more of a tactically-minded thinker, or does she prefer to just roll dice and kick ass?

For melee characters, the essentials martial classes seem to be the simplest choice, with (as mentioned many times) the Slayer fighter on the forefront, since they have no need to switch powers. Thief and Knight are somewhat more complex, but IMO still have a lot less choices to handle then Rogue/Fighter. If she wants to play a warrior or rogueish character, I'd say these are your best options.

An archer character can either be a ranger, or if that's still too fiddly, a slayer fighter in a pinch. Archer ranger is rather easy to play, however, although somewhat boring if she wants to do more than twin-strike ad nauseam.

For a mage character, your best bet is a sorcerer, or perhaps a blaster mage (a Genasi evoker or staff wizard, perhaps?). Help her pick up some simple powers, with an instant effect (no zones, no sustain, etc.), and she should have a lot of fun blasting the opposition.