D&D 5E Best Class Plus Race Level 1

[aco175]

I go the conventions and the PCs I see there are more light than in home games. They tend to have the common 1-pony tricks. They do have a fun feel and I tend to remember some of those PCs better. The 1/2ling barbarian named Poppy Kneecrusher who acted a bit like Captain Caveman is one. I guess I would say that if this campaign is planned to be short or may not be much in the long term, then go with something more fun like this. This may be more true with a new DM. You could just play something simple like a champion fighter dwarf for simplicity and aid the DM if needed with small pokes by your PC to keep things moving.

 

[TwoSix]

If you haven't before, go with a VHuman Barbarian and grab GWM or PAM and go crazy. Barbarians are a terror at low levels.

And if you haven't done a low level Moon Druid, you owe it yourself to give it a try. Grab a useful feat like Inspiring Leader (since you can dump points into Cha, why not?) so everyone loves you as you tank the entire encounter.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Goliath fighter or half orc fighter or variant human fighter with heavy armor mastery are my choices for being steadfast. At will damage reduction/an encounter power to escape fatal damage and self healing and very high AC on top seems unbeatable.
Probably goliath and half orc can work with barbarian too, but I prefer the fighter here.

Goliath is fantastic. I just tried the solo adventure from dragon magazine with a level 7 goliath valour bard in heavy armor and managed to beat it just fine.
So if you want something more intersting, combine goliath with a spellcasting class. Cleric would also be fantastic. Being able to reduce damage to 0 is a free success for concentration.