As a player, I would encourage you to lean into broken characters rather than trying to "perfect" your PC. At its heart, D&D is a roleplay game and having an imperfect character can give you lots of opportunity to role play that. Think about character depth, background, motivation. For me, that's what makes a PC fun to play. If you really must have something that is all powerful, or impossible to hit, or whatever... think about what drives your character to be that way. Maybe they were bullied. Maybe they were helpless to prevent something at sometime and they won't ever let that happen again. Don't let you PC just be a bunch of stats. Also, the more you get into your PC, the more a good DM can work with you and work that into the storyline. And learn your PC's abilities. Nothing is more frustrating than having players fumble around trying to figure out what they can/could do for 5 minutes every time.
As a DM. Well, there's a lot. My first piece of advice is to keep the game moving. You're not going to get every rule right, but (to me) it's more important to make a ruling and go than pulling out the books and spending five minutes figuring it out. Use common sense and the rules you do know and go from there. Make a note and check it later so you can learn.
I'd start with Lost Mines of Phandelver. It's well written and takes a lot of the work off your shoulders as far as world building etc. It will help both you and your players learn the rules at a reasonable pace.
Collect modular adventures that you can insert into the game at any point. Have a bunch of little encounters you can throw at your players when they decide to do something random. If you have something planned and your players don't do it, just file it away and reuse it somewhere else.
I like to keep a collection of small and large town maps that I can pull out anytime I need one. Nothing too detailed, but if the players stop for the night at a little village, it's handy having something prepped.
I like to keep a list of names on my DM screen. People and businesses so that when they ask the street seller what they're name is, I can just pull it from the list instead of freezing and blurting out "Bob".
"Don't punish a character for a player problem. We're (mostly) all grown-ups, so if there's a problem with a player, just talk to them. Not every table suits every player, and that's ok. Some players want super heavy RP with lots of chatter and NPCs. Others just want to cut stuff in half. Neither is wrong, but if you have both types at your table, they'll need to be flexible enough to accommodate the others' fun. if they can do that, awesome. If they can't, then it's probably not going to work and that's no one's fault, it's just how it is.
HAVE FUN! This is a game and it should be fun for both you and your players. Your fun is just as valid as theirs.
Do not spend a single penny on D&D until you have at least been through one or two campaigns first. D&D and TTRPGs in general are NOT for everyone. For a lot of people, D&D is play pretend at a table, and that is not what most people have in mind when they want to have fun. It makes no sense to spend thirty bucks on the Player's Handbook if you are only going to use it once. My group of friends is kind of nerdy, and if half of them do not even want to try it, and another half that tried it but did not want to continue, you know this is an extremely niche hobby with very limited appeal. If you really want to spend money, spend that thirty bucks on food and drinks instead.
Watch some gameplay of D&D to get an idea what it is like. D&D with High School Students on YouTube is pretty close to what a game in real life looks like. However, keep in mind that is just ONE way of playing. Some campaigns are tournaments with a series of 1v1 or free for all combat, some are more about political intrigue without much combat, some are murder hobo campaigns where the party kills every NPC they see, some are more about comedy and goofiness, etc.
Read some fantasy novels , Play some fantasy based video games, Ask a friend (if you have friends that play already) If you can read their players handbook. Take your time, Don't feel like you have to commit. If you end up liking the game Purchase a Hard copy of the Players handbook (i know digital is all the rage but Books do not run out of power).
Just looking for people to give me tips as a beginner and were it's best to start.
before you spend a single penny, read the New Player's Guide:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/how-to-play-dnd
You can get the Basic Rules for free on this site as well as a small handful of other adventures.
Then followup in the forums for any more specific questions.
Depends if you're a DM or a Player!
As a player, I would encourage you to lean into broken characters rather than trying to "perfect" your PC. At its heart, D&D is a roleplay game and having an imperfect character can give you lots of opportunity to role play that. Think about character depth, background, motivation. For me, that's what makes a PC fun to play. If you really must have something that is all powerful, or impossible to hit, or whatever... think about what drives your character to be that way. Maybe they were bullied. Maybe they were helpless to prevent something at sometime and they won't ever let that happen again. Don't let you PC just be a bunch of stats. Also, the more you get into your PC, the more a good DM can work with you and work that into the storyline. And learn your PC's abilities. Nothing is more frustrating than having players fumble around trying to figure out what they can/could do for 5 minutes every time.
As a DM. Well, there's a lot. My first piece of advice is to keep the game moving. You're not going to get every rule right, but (to me) it's more important to make a ruling and go than pulling out the books and spending five minutes figuring it out. Use common sense and the rules you do know and go from there. Make a note and check it later so you can learn.
I'd start with Lost Mines of Phandelver. It's well written and takes a lot of the work off your shoulders as far as world building etc. It will help both you and your players learn the rules at a reasonable pace.
Collect modular adventures that you can insert into the game at any point. Have a bunch of little encounters you can throw at your players when they decide to do something random. If you have something planned and your players don't do it, just file it away and reuse it somewhere else.
I like to keep a collection of small and large town maps that I can pull out anytime I need one. Nothing too detailed, but if the players stop for the night at a little village, it's handy having something prepped.
I like to keep a list of names on my DM screen. People and businesses so that when they ask the street seller what they're name is, I can just pull it from the list instead of freezing and blurting out "Bob".
"Don't punish a character for a player problem. We're (mostly) all grown-ups, so if there's a problem with a player, just talk to them. Not every table suits every player, and that's ok. Some players want super heavy RP with lots of chatter and NPCs. Others just want to cut stuff in half. Neither is wrong, but if you have both types at your table, they'll need to be flexible enough to accommodate the others' fun. if they can do that, awesome. If they can't, then it's probably not going to work and that's no one's fault, it's just how it is.
HAVE FUN! This is a game and it should be fun for both you and your players. Your fun is just as valid as theirs.
Do not spend a single penny on D&D until you have at least been through one or two campaigns first. D&D and TTRPGs in general are NOT for everyone. For a lot of people, D&D is play pretend at a table, and that is not what most people have in mind when they want to have fun. It makes no sense to spend thirty bucks on the Player's Handbook if you are only going to use it once. My group of friends is kind of nerdy, and if half of them do not even want to try it, and another half that tried it but did not want to continue, you know this is an extremely niche hobby with very limited appeal. If you really want to spend money, spend that thirty bucks on food and drinks instead.
Watch some gameplay of D&D to get an idea what it is like. D&D with High School Students on YouTube is pretty close to what a game in real life looks like. However, keep in mind that is just ONE way of playing. Some campaigns are tournaments with a series of 1v1 or free for all combat, some are more about political intrigue without much combat, some are murder hobo campaigns where the party kills every NPC they see, some are more about comedy and goofiness, etc.
Check Licenses and Resync Entitlements: < https://www.dndbeyond.com/account/licenses >
Running the Game by Matt Colville; Introduction: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YZvLUXcR8 >
D&D with High School Students by Bill Allen; Season 1 Episode 1: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52NJTUDokyk&t >
Watch a few episodes of Critical Role
I really like D&D, especially Ravenloft, Exandria and the Upside Down from Stranger Things. My pronouns are she/they (genderfae).
Read some fantasy novels , Play some fantasy based video games, Ask a friend (if you have friends that play already) If you can read their players handbook. Take your time, Don't feel like you have to commit. If you end up liking the game Purchase a Hard copy of the Players handbook (i know digital is all the rage but Books do not run out of power).
Appreciate all the feed back on my post guys. Thankyou. If I have anymore questions you okay to help in anyway.