NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 3735898" data-attributes="member: 22424">The complexity in character generation comes from choices. To simplify, you basically need to eliminate choice, which is unfortunately not a desirable thing to do from the point of view of expert players. I don't think there's any real way of resolving this.I do think that providing new players with pregenerated characters, fast-play characters, or the like is helpful to an extent, but only to an extent. Frankly, if I were a new player in a game where everyone else was creating their own character, I would want to do so, too.That said, I think there are a couple of things that could be done without damaging too much:1) Switch the default attribute generation system to 4d6 in order. That right there knocks out lots of choices as sub-optimal.2) Keep the races largely as-is, rather than adding racial advancement options, lots of subraces, templates, or whatever. Also, don't add 'exotic' races such as the Teifling to the mix - people understand what an Elf or a Dwarf is, Teifling not so much.3) Add many more classes, but keep them relatively free of customisation. So, we'll have a Swahbuckler class, an Archer class, a Knight, a Gladiator, and so forth, instead of a Fighter that can be customised to fill any of these roles.4) Switch to the SWSE skill rules. I'm halfway inclined to remove skills entirely, except for Rogues, but I think that would be a bridge too far, even as a thought experiment.5) Cut right back on the feats in the PHB1. Likewise choice of weapons, and especially spells. These can be expanded on in other books, but keeping the 'core' list short helps new players digest the available options. Additionally, each relevant class should have recommended lists of 1st level choices.However, I should note that I would not be in favour of most of these being done with 4e as currently proposed (despite my half-formed longing for a new "Rules Compendium"-esque version of the game). I think #1 might have merit (since House Ruling it is trivial), and I think #4 is a good idea in any case, but #2, #3 and #5 don't appeal to me.</blockquote>

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