https://www.tribality.com/2019/01/08/brief-description-of-5e-classes-and-subclasses-ideal-to-show-to-your-players/ has an excellent breakdown of the classes and subclasses geared for new players, to give them an idea of their basic concept and a basic description of what they can do. It's great for taking the math & mechanics out of it and just looking at your choices conceptually at first to see what strikes your fancy. Just be aware, it was written before the new book Tasha's Cauldron Of Everything came out, so any subclasses that are new as of that book are not included. Hopefully they will update that page in the future to include those options.
Personally, I've always been fond of the Fighter as a starting class. It's sturdy, so you're less likely to die early on before you've had any fun. There are a variety of combat styles you can go for(sword & shield, dual-weapon, heavy two-handed weapon, archer, etc), and a variety of subclasses that let you build your Fighter a bunch of different ways. Some of the subclasses are pretty straightforward without a lot of moving parts, if you want to keep things simple(like the Champion & the Samurai). Some have more tricks you can play with(like the Battlemaster, and the Rune Knight), and with multiple options in between. And if you want to dip your toe in the spellcasting world, you can try the Eldritch Knight. The class itself doesn't have a lot of story baked in. You aren't a Cleric or Paladin whose power comes from the divine. You aren't a Warlock who's made a bargain with a mysterious entity. But that doesn't mean your character can't be interesting. You've got plenty of room to write your own story.
I’d suggest Fighter, they’re fun, simple, and very hard to kill even if you make some mistakes in battle. If you really want to cast spells, though, Warlock is by far the most forgiving magical class. Still, if something really grabs you, go with that! As long as you’re starting at level one, you should be able to figure out any class.
I recommend barbarians. They're easy, but with a bit more to them than fighters.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
I like the philosophy that you should never ask a kid what they want to be when they grow up. Instead ask them what problem they want to fix in the world and figure out the job they want from there. Because kids don’t know all the jobs available. I doubt you are a child but if you are new to the game think of it this way:
So what problem do you want to fix for your party? What “Role’’ do you want to play. (See what I did there with the Roll pun.... in a dice game?...... *crickets*)
Do you want to be a front line fighter, a fearsome weapons user in the thick of melee fighting your enemies face to face? (Fighter, Paladin, Barbarian, Moon Druid)
Or perhaps the dexterous hit and run combatant darting in and out of combat for maximum damage? (Rogue, Monk, Ranger, Blade Pact Warlock)
Maybe a spellslinger and glass canon altering the very fabric of reality (Wizard, Warlock, Sorcerer) or a support caster and healer that makes the party better at everything (Cleric, Bard, Druid, Divine Soul Sorcerer)
What about a master sniper role, picking targets off one by one with deadly aim and a trusty bow (Rogue, Ranger, Dex Fighter)
You could even forget combat and try to talk your way out of problems as the party face (Warlock, Bard, Paladin, Sorcerer)
Think of what kind of character you want to be. Who do you dream of being because it’s a fantasy game? How do you want to help solve your party’s problems and what problems do you want to fix. It’s easy to pick a class from there.
Check out my Disabled & Dragons Youtube Channel for 5e Monster and Player Tactics. Helping the Disabled Community and Players and DM’s (both new and experienced) get into D&D. Plus there is a talking Dragon named Quill.
If you want easy martial, go Barbarian. People recommend Fighter, but Fighter only stars easy and all the subclasses save Champion add a lot of complexity into it.
If you want easy spellcaster, go Cleric or maybe Druid - there's lots of ways to **** up any other spallcaster with a wrong spell choices before you figure the system and how it works, but Cleric and Druid allow you to pick any spell from their list each day instead of committing to them at level up.
I'm playing with some newer players (although one's been in the campaign for over a year!) right now who are both spellcasters, and it's frustrating that they don't know what their spells and character features do. As the most experienced player at the table, I am asked like twice, every round, what should I do? What should I cast? It's more than a bit frustrating. You wouldn't think it would be too much for people to at least look over their character sheet before a session, but...here we are.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Will you be playing with other beginners if so you do not really want everyone to be champion fighters because they are the simplest sub class.
Even with experienced players pick a character you would enjoy playing and then fit a class within that. You are only able to excel at one or two abilities so make sure you in combat and out of combat skills match. If you want to be the "face" speaking on behalf of the group and persuading or deceiving them to do what you want pick a class that uses charisma in combat (e.g. Warlock, sorcerer or Paladin) if you want to be the sneaky scout build a character that uses Dec and so on.
Fighter and Barbarian are both good for beginners if you want to do a martial class. Rogue is good for beginners if you want to do a sneaky character. Monk is a bit of a combination between the Fighter & Barbarian and the Rogue, but it's a bit more complex for new players to get the hang of the Ki system, so I don't think it's as good of a choice as the other three. Rogue is especially easy for new players because nearly all of its abilities are unlimited use, so you don't have to worry about resource management the way pretty much every other class does.
Cleric and Druid are good for beginners because you can change your spells every long rest, so none of the decisions hurt you too much. Moon Druid is also fairly straight forward for a beginner, it's a very different way to play a martial character, and for some people, the idea of playing a Moon Druid is very appealing. Wisdom casters are probably the easiest for new players to learn.
Sorcerer is more difficult because of the complexity of metamagic and having so few spells known. Warlock has the same issue with very few spells known, and adds the problem of very few spell slots, and the invocations add just as much complexity as metamagic does. Bard is slightly easier, because it does know more spells, but it's still not that great for new players. Also, high charisma characters often get pushed into the role of party face, and that's probably not a role that a new player wants to have. So I wouldn't recommend a charisma caster for a new player.
Wizard knows many more spells than the Charisma casters, it's kind of a hybrid between the Wisdom casters that know all of the spells on their spell list and can change their prepared spells every time they long rest, and the Charisma casters who only know a small portion of their class's spell list and can't change this on a long rest. But being a Wizard can be expensive.
Also the Wizard, just like the Sorcerer, has just a D6 hit die, and that can be a bit hard for a new player. Wizards and all of the charisma casters (except for Hexblades) are unable to use shields, whereas both Clerics and Druids can, and this extra AC from a shield also can make new players feel a bit safer.
Artificer is probably the worst class for a beginner because of how complex it can be with the infusions and the spell casting.
Ranger is the other possibility for the worst class for a beginner because of how underpowered it can feel, especially the Beastmaster. If you want to do an archer, the Fighter and the Rogue are both quite likely better choices than the Ranger. Unfortunately, the Battlemaster Fighter is a better archer than the Arcane Archer Fighter, so don't do Arcane Archer.
Paladin is a decent choice, you have spell slots, but you can do just fine never casting spells and only using your spell slots for smites.
I'm playing with some newer players (although one's been in the campaign for over a year!) right now who are both spellcasters, and it's frustrating that they don't know what their spells and character features do. As the most experienced player at the table, I am asked like twice, every round, what should I do? What should I cast? It's more than a bit frustrating. You wouldn't think it would be too much for people to at least look over their character sheet before a session, but...here we are.
Yep. One of my best and most experienced players never plays casters because he knows he won’t take the time to learn his spell list. Some people should follow his example!
My nickname Glimpse was earned because I tended to play rogues and stealthy characters. Not only in D&D but in other tabletop rpgs as well as videogames and MMOs.
For every person at your table who looks or acts like they should fit one criteria that sums up what they should be in D&D, there's something about playing another type that can sometimes bring out something that no one, not even their selves, expected.
The real answer is which everyone you like the look of and gets your imaging and dreaming about it. Play something you think looks fun and go from there. Ask questions from the other players about your class and do some reading into it so you don't miss any cool features. These forums are great and always happy to answer any questions you have in the class sections.
Fighter is a good entry class, but if you had any past experience with D&D or any other TTRPG, you could easily handle more “complex” classes like Cleric or Rogue.
I wouldn’t recommend start the game with full casters who lots of options like Bards, Sorcerors or Wizards.
If someone really wants to have magic, paladin is a pretty good entry point. You can play a paladin like a fighter and not feel too weak, but you have more complexity there to call on should you want it.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Clerics and other classes have the advantage for beginners that if a spell is not as useful or effective as the play imagined they don't need to wait until they level up to change it out. To play a cleric really well you need to be able to anticipate what encounters you will face that day and what are the best spells for those encounters. Having said that you can play a cleric reasonable well not changing your spells regularly (just getting rtid of ones you don't like, and picking up a spell you know you will want for that day but which are rarely used (e.g. On a rest day you pick up ceremony to make a supply of holy water or pick up raise dead because a player went down and you were not able to get to them in time to revivify). So as a beginner you do not need to worry about what the best spells are for each day.
I would say clerics are probably the easiest spell caster for a novice as daily spell management is something they can miss out on with little effect:
Druids: Need to know the pros and cons of all wild shapes and know when they are best in wild shape or humanoid form
Wizards: In my experiance the wider variety of spells available to wizards been they gain morter by changing spell regularly, they are also fragile so needknow how to avoid getting hit
Sorcerer: Meatmagic complicates spellcasting significantly, they know less spells than other casters which makes it easier to know there spells but also makes it difficult to choose spells as they need ot be more versatile
Warlock: Invocations complicate things a bit roleplaying can be difficult as there is usually a tension between what your patron wants and what the party want
Bard: A lot of the bard spells need a bit of creativity to use effectively
On top of that a charisma caster is often expected to be the face which can be difficult for a new player not used to roleplay.
Just teasing, but how is cleric not a full caster with extra-options on top ? :D
Cleric get his options on a long rest. Most other fullcasters get them at levelup.
Which makes him harder to play as he has more spell options to choose from at each long rest. That being said, not all players review their spell choice at that time, but it's still more complex.
I politely disagree. If you regretted somehow about a particular spell choice, just long rest and change it. The only other option you need to deal is your Channel Divinity. My point is that Clerics are a good “entry class” for people who wants to try full casters.
Bardic Inspiration, Cutting Words, Song of Rest, Spell choices you need to hold until level up; Class features, ritual casting and spellbook management; Metamagic, class features and hard choices for spell. Wildshape, class features, several spells. I wouldn’t recommend any full casters other than Clerics to begin with.
It’s just personal experience. I have two new players in my group, one is running a Bard and he is suffering a little bit to take decisions, his turn usually takes more time because it’s a lot of options to manage. The other one is a plain War Cleric, that offers one or another option, but it’s much more straightforward.
I completely disagree with your arguments for the following reasons:
Most of your arguments only apply after a few levels (wild shape, metamagic, invocations), by that time, a beginning player is no longer a beginning player.
Being a charisma caster does not mean that you have to be the face of the party.
For the first few levels, the cleric is more complicated than other casters because you still need to choose your spells, and you have other powers from level 1, that's all...
Wild shape is level 2 while invocations and metamagic are at level 3. Someone new to the game is still a beginner when they reach level 3 of there first campaign. Level 1 characters of all classes have very few abilities, by design, making it easier for new players. The learning curve up to level 2 and 3 is quite steep in many classes so level a level 1 cleric might be a little more complicated than some other spell casters when they get to level 2 and 3 the cleric only has to pick up a channel divinity and 2nd level spells while other classes might start struggling will their characters that have suddenly got much more complicated.
You can make an argument that at level 1 a cleric is more complicated than other classes but the learning curve for levels 2 and 3 is very gentle where new players of other classes can really struggle. A single new player joining a group of experianced players is also quite likely to find themselves starting at level 3 because the experianced players mind the very early lvels boring and overly simple.
I still hold that having the option of choosing your spells is an advantage to a new player (and in this regard they are no different to wizards and druids) if a new player cleric chooses bane as a spell and after the monsters succeed on their saves quickly realised bless is a better option they can easilty rectify their mistake the next morning. If a sorcerer picks jump and then realises its use is very situational they are limited to only having 1 spell they can use outside those situations until they reach level 2 (I hope they didn't make a mistake with thart one as well)
I know a charisma based caster does not have ot be the face of the party but it can be expected especially if the rest of the group are experianced and look to be mechanically optimal.
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I want to start playing D&D and wonder which class is best for a first-time player?
https://www.tribality.com/2019/01/08/brief-description-of-5e-classes-and-subclasses-ideal-to-show-to-your-players/ has an excellent breakdown of the classes and subclasses geared for new players, to give them an idea of their basic concept and a basic description of what they can do. It's great for taking the math & mechanics out of it and just looking at your choices conceptually at first to see what strikes your fancy. Just be aware, it was written before the new book Tasha's Cauldron Of Everything came out, so any subclasses that are new as of that book are not included. Hopefully they will update that page in the future to include those options.
Personally, I've always been fond of the Fighter as a starting class. It's sturdy, so you're less likely to die early on before you've had any fun. There are a variety of combat styles you can go for(sword & shield, dual-weapon, heavy two-handed weapon, archer, etc), and a variety of subclasses that let you build your Fighter a bunch of different ways. Some of the subclasses are pretty straightforward without a lot of moving parts, if you want to keep things simple(like the Champion & the Samurai). Some have more tricks you can play with(like the Battlemaster, and the Rune Knight), and with multiple options in between. And if you want to dip your toe in the spellcasting world, you can try the Eldritch Knight. The class itself doesn't have a lot of story baked in. You aren't a Cleric or Paladin whose power comes from the divine. You aren't a Warlock who's made a bargain with a mysterious entity. But that doesn't mean your character can't be interesting. You've got plenty of room to write your own story.
Thank you all for help
I’d suggest Fighter, they’re fun, simple, and very hard to kill even if you make some mistakes in battle. If you really want to cast spells, though, Warlock is by far the most forgiving magical class. Still, if something really grabs you, go with that! As long as you’re starting at level one, you should be able to figure out any class.
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
I recommend barbarians. They're easy, but with a bit more to them than fighters.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
I like the philosophy that you should never ask a kid what they want to be when they grow up. Instead ask them what problem they want to fix in the world and figure out the job they want from there. Because kids don’t know all the jobs available. I doubt you are a child but if you are new to the game think of it this way:
So what problem do you want to fix for your party? What “Role’’ do you want to play. (See what I did there with the Roll pun.... in a dice game?...... *crickets*)
Think of what kind of character you want to be. Who do you dream of being because it’s a fantasy game? How do you want to help solve your party’s problems and what problems do you want to fix. It’s easy to pick a class from there.
Check out my Disabled & Dragons Youtube Channel for 5e Monster and Player Tactics. Helping the Disabled Community and Players and DM’s (both new and experienced) get into D&D. Plus there is a talking Dragon named Quill.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPPmyTI0tZ6nM-bzY0IG3ww
If you want easy martial, go Barbarian. People recommend Fighter, but Fighter only stars easy and all the subclasses save Champion add a lot of complexity into it.
If you want easy spellcaster, go Cleric or maybe Druid - there's lots of ways to **** up any other spallcaster with a wrong spell choices before you figure the system and how it works, but Cleric and Druid allow you to pick any spell from their list each day instead of committing to them at level up.
I'm playing with some newer players (although one's been in the campaign for over a year!) right now who are both spellcasters, and it's frustrating that they don't know what their spells and character features do. As the most experienced player at the table, I am asked like twice, every round, what should I do? What should I cast? It's more than a bit frustrating. You wouldn't think it would be too much for people to at least look over their character sheet before a session, but...here we are.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
Will you be playing with other beginners if so you do not really want everyone to be champion fighters because they are the simplest sub class.
Even with experienced players pick a character you would enjoy playing and then fit a class within that. You are only able to excel at one or two abilities so make sure you in combat and out of combat skills match. If you want to be the "face" speaking on behalf of the group and persuading or deceiving them to do what you want pick a class that uses charisma in combat (e.g. Warlock, sorcerer or Paladin) if you want to be the sneaky scout build a character that uses Dec and so on.
Fighter and Barbarian are both good for beginners if you want to do a martial class. Rogue is good for beginners if you want to do a sneaky character. Monk is a bit of a combination between the Fighter & Barbarian and the Rogue, but it's a bit more complex for new players to get the hang of the Ki system, so I don't think it's as good of a choice as the other three. Rogue is especially easy for new players because nearly all of its abilities are unlimited use, so you don't have to worry about resource management the way pretty much every other class does.
Cleric and Druid are good for beginners because you can change your spells every long rest, so none of the decisions hurt you too much. Moon Druid is also fairly straight forward for a beginner, it's a very different way to play a martial character, and for some people, the idea of playing a Moon Druid is very appealing. Wisdom casters are probably the easiest for new players to learn.
Sorcerer is more difficult because of the complexity of metamagic and having so few spells known. Warlock has the same issue with very few spells known, and adds the problem of very few spell slots, and the invocations add just as much complexity as metamagic does. Bard is slightly easier, because it does know more spells, but it's still not that great for new players. Also, high charisma characters often get pushed into the role of party face, and that's probably not a role that a new player wants to have. So I wouldn't recommend a charisma caster for a new player.
Wizard knows many more spells than the Charisma casters, it's kind of a hybrid between the Wisdom casters that know all of the spells on their spell list and can change their prepared spells every time they long rest, and the Charisma casters who only know a small portion of their class's spell list and can't change this on a long rest. But being a Wizard can be expensive.
Also the Wizard, just like the Sorcerer, has just a D6 hit die, and that can be a bit hard for a new player. Wizards and all of the charisma casters (except for Hexblades) are unable to use shields, whereas both Clerics and Druids can, and this extra AC from a shield also can make new players feel a bit safer.
Artificer is probably the worst class for a beginner because of how complex it can be with the infusions and the spell casting.
Ranger is the other possibility for the worst class for a beginner because of how underpowered it can feel, especially the Beastmaster. If you want to do an archer, the Fighter and the Rogue are both quite likely better choices than the Ranger. Unfortunately, the Battlemaster Fighter is a better archer than the Arcane Archer Fighter, so don't do Arcane Archer.
Paladin is a decent choice, you have spell slots, but you can do just fine never casting spells and only using your spell slots for smites.
Yep. One of my best and most experienced players never plays casters because he knows he won’t take the time to learn his spell list. Some people should follow his example!
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
Honestly, there's no right answer.
My nickname Glimpse was earned because I tended to play rogues and stealthy characters. Not only in D&D but in other tabletop rpgs as well as videogames and MMOs.
For every person at your table who looks or acts like they should fit one criteria that sums up what they should be in D&D, there's something about playing another type that can sometimes bring out something that no one, not even their selves, expected.
The real answer is which everyone you like the look of and gets your imaging and dreaming about it. Play something you think looks fun and go from there. Ask questions from the other players about your class and do some reading into it so you don't miss any cool features. These forums are great and always happy to answer any questions you have in the class sections.
Fighter is a good entry class, but if you had any past experience with D&D or any other TTRPG, you could easily handle more “complex” classes like Cleric or Rogue.
I wouldn’t recommend start the game with full casters who lots of options like Bards, Sorcerors or Wizards.
If someone really wants to have magic, paladin is a pretty good entry point. You can play a paladin like a fighter and not feel too weak, but you have more complexity there to call on should you want it.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
Cleric get his options on a long rest. Most other fullcasters get them at levelup.
Clerics and other classes have the advantage for beginners that if a spell is not as useful or effective as the play imagined they don't need to wait until they level up to change it out. To play a cleric really well you need to be able to anticipate what encounters you will face that day and what are the best spells for those encounters. Having said that you can play a cleric reasonable well not changing your spells regularly (just getting rtid of ones you don't like, and picking up a spell you know you will want for that day but which are rarely used (e.g. On a rest day you pick up ceremony to make a supply of holy water or pick up raise dead because a player went down and you were not able to get to them in time to revivify). So as a beginner you do not need to worry about what the best spells are for each day.
I would say clerics are probably the easiest spell caster for a novice as daily spell management is something they can miss out on with little effect:
On top of that a charisma caster is often expected to be the face which can be difficult for a new player not used to roleplay.
I politely disagree. If you regretted somehow about a particular spell choice, just long rest and change it. The only other option you need to deal is your Channel Divinity. My point is that Clerics are a good “entry class” for people who wants to try full casters.
Bardic Inspiration, Cutting Words, Song of Rest, Spell choices you need to hold until level up; Class features, ritual casting and spellbook management; Metamagic, class features and hard choices for spell. Wildshape, class features, several spells. I wouldn’t recommend any full casters other than Clerics to begin with.
It’s just personal experience. I have two new players in my group, one is running a Bard and he is suffering a little bit to take decisions, his turn usually takes more time because it’s a lot of options to manage. The other one is a plain War Cleric, that offers one or another option, but it’s much more straightforward.
Wild shape is level 2 while invocations and metamagic are at level 3. Someone new to the game is still a beginner when they reach level 3 of there first campaign. Level 1 characters of all classes have very few abilities, by design, making it easier for new players. The learning curve up to level 2 and 3 is quite steep in many classes so level a level 1 cleric might be a little more complicated than some other spell casters when they get to level 2 and 3 the cleric only has to pick up a channel divinity and 2nd level spells while other classes might start struggling will their characters that have suddenly got much more complicated.
You can make an argument that at level 1 a cleric is more complicated than other classes but the learning curve for levels 2 and 3 is very gentle where new players of other classes can really struggle. A single new player joining a group of experianced players is also quite likely to find themselves starting at level 3 because the experianced players mind the very early lvels boring and overly simple.
I still hold that having the option of choosing your spells is an advantage to a new player (and in this regard they are no different to wizards and druids) if a new player cleric chooses bane as a spell and after the monsters succeed on their saves quickly realised bless is a better option they can easilty rectify their mistake the next morning. If a sorcerer picks jump and then realises its use is very situational they are limited to only having 1 spell they can use outside those situations until they reach level 2 (I hope they didn't make a mistake with thart one as well)
I know a charisma based caster does not have ot be the face of the party but it can be expected especially if the rest of the group are experianced and look to be mechanically optimal.