Best Character For A New Player?

[Olaf the Stout]

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. As such I was thinking of starting him out with a nice simple character, at least until he get the hang of the rules a little more. Once we have been playing for a bit and he knows what he's doing I'll let him change to a different PC if he wants.

What do you think about that? A good idea or too restrictive? And what character class would you give him to begin with. I was thinking something like a Human or Half-Orc Barbarian.

I also plan to team the new guy up with one of my more experienced players and get that him to help the new player out with things, both in making his character and during the game. Any other suggestions for dealing with a player that is new to D&D, but not necessarily roleplaying?

Olaf the Stout

 

[Deekin]

Barbarains or Sorcerers are excellent for new players.

 

[Geron Raveneye]

Does he have any preferences, or ideas what kind of character he'd like to play in a pseudo-medieval fantasy environment? I find it good to build on the existing preferences, and then help the player to get around with his character during the game.

If there are no preferences, I'd go with one of the "default four", as those have the easiest backgrounds, and the easiest abilities to deal with, compared with the other classes...fighter, rouge, wizard (or sorcerer), or cleric. With the figher, you might need to establish what fighting style the player would prefer, and select the best feats for that. With the wizard, select the spells for him at 1st level. Then let him learn the rest during the game.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Human Fighter? Dwarven Rogue?

Dunno. Some people take to spellcasting straight away, so maybe. . . anything.

 

[Nifft]

Barbarians can be terrible -- there's a lot of addition and subtraction when he enters Rage, when he's Fatigued after, when he power attacks, and when he charges. The math is obvious, but the correct use of his abilities is anything but obvious.

Sorcerer or Rogue might be best -- assuming you pick spells and/or skills for him.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I'm not so sure about Sorcerer. Do you really want to give a new player a whole heap of spells to choose from, especially when a lot of the spells work very differently to each other?

The last relatively new player we had in the group played a Sorcerer. It seemed like things always slowed to a crawl when it was his turn, even after he had been playing for a couple of months. He would have to think about what spell he wanted to cast and then couldn't remember if it was a Ranged Attack Roll, Touch Attack, etc., He couldn't remember if the spell gave a save, what type and what DC.

Maybe it was just that player in general not being all that good at picking things up, moreso than the fact that he was unfamilar with a lot fo it. Having said that though there are still a lot of things to remember in combat when you are a caster. That is why I am apprehensive about suggesting a Sorcerer.

Olaf the Stout

 

[blargney the second]

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

 

[CanadienneBacon]

I'm not so sure about Sorcerer. Do you really want to give a new player a whole heap of spells to choose from, especially when a lot of the spells work very differently to each other?

The last relatively new player we had in the group played a Sorcerer. It seemed like things always slowed to a crawl when it was his turn, even after he had been playing for a couple of months. He would have to think about what spell he wanted to cast and then couldn't remember if it was a Ranged Attack Roll, Touch Attack, etc., He couldn't remember if the spell gave a save, what type and what DC.

Maybe it was just that player in general not being all that good at picking things up, moreso than the fact that he was unfamilar with a lot fo it. Having said that though there are still a lot of things to remember in combat when you are a caster. That is why I am apprehensive about suggesting a Sorcerer.

Olaf the Stout

I think, in general, it is a mistake to underestimate new players. Quite frequently, they will surprise you with how well they take to the rules. Most of them have no trouble figuring out spells. That said, it does sound like your first experience with a new player attempting a spellcaster wasn't a prime experience for your group. In most cases for most new players, I feel that if you are willing to be about ten minutes' worth of patient when you sit down to select spells and if the player is willing to expend a little effort jotting down page numbers on which his spells appear, you may find that things go even smoother. Hopefully you know the kind of person your new player is and a little of his personality and how well he learns new things.

That said, many people get excited by rogues. You get to be sneaky, you have a lot of useful skills, and the sneak attack damage is very sexy to quite a few people.

Fighter is about as basic as it gets, but then again some folks will quickly become bored with a vanilla fighter. If you suspect this might be the case with a certain person, you can allow him to select some sort of social rp skill that will allow the fighter to have other opportunities to roll his dice during play.

Then again, even a vanilla fighter can be a wonderful character in the hands of a good roleplayer. In my opinion and in my experience, new player does not equal bad player.

 

[Nifft]

I'm not so sure about Sorcerer. Do you really want to give a new player a whole heap of spells to choose from, especially when a lot of the spells work very differently to each other?

No! You want to give him a Sorcerer, complete, with a good set of spells already picked.

An Archer could be good, too. They have fewer tactical/situational modifiers on their attack rolls.

Maybe it was just that player in general not being all that good at picking things up, moreso than the fact that he was unfamilar with a lot fo it. Having said that though there are still a lot of things to remember in combat when you are a caster. That is why I am apprehensive about suggesting a Sorcerer.

I've seen similar, but with melee dudes. "+1 from Bless, but I think I'm power attacking, and ... uh ... how many attacks do I get? Second one is five less?" ... seriously, if a dude can't pick stuff up, he should play boardgames. There is no good class for him.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I think, in general, it is a mistake to underestimate new players. Quite frequently, they will surprise you with how well they take to the rules. Most of them have no trouble figuring out spells. If you are willing to be about ten minutes' worth of patient when you sit down to select spells and if the player is willing to expend a little effort jotting down page numbers on which his spells appear, you may find that things go even smoother.

That said, many people get excited by rogues. You get to be sneaky, you have a lot of useful skills, and the sneak attack damage is very sexy to quite a few people.

Fighter is about as basic as it gets, but then again some folks will quickly become bored with a vanilla fighter. If you suspect this might be the case with a certain person, you can allow him to select some sort of social rp skill that will allow the fighter to have other opportunities to roll his dice during play.

Then again, even a vanilla fighter can be a wonderful character in the hands of a good roleplayer. In my opinion and in my experience, new player does not equal bad player.

I agree with the statement that new player does not necessarily equal bad player. I think I am a little wary because the last 2 players I have had that were new to D&D (or even just 3.xE) were quite slow to pick up on the rules. That may have been more to do with those particular players than anything else though!

Olaf the Stout