Campaign for brother (3.5 SRD)

[lunar2]

so, i'm going to be running a campaign for my little brother, who's new to 3.5 (he's played a couple of sessions with essentials, but that's it). We've decided he's going to be a grey elf wizard specialized in necromancy (banned evocation, and probably enchantment) with the specialist necromancer ACFs that give him an undead minion and increase the power of his undead creations (losing his familiar and bonus spells in the process). instead of the human warrior skeleton that the acf calls for, i'm starting him off with an orc barbarian skeleton (16 hp, falchion +6 2d4+9, ac 20, fort 0 ref 5 will 2) that was created in a desecrated area. i'll be giving him a minor wondrous item that allows inflict minor wounds at will, to heal his skeleton between fights. other than that, he's on his own. it's a single character campaign, and he's in an area where his use of undead won't cause a problem with the general population.

so, have i made him too powerful, or should i give him some extra help, like being a tiefling instead of an elf (remove the LA, of course)? note that i plan on running him through standard encounters, not ones adjusted for a single character, which is why minionmancy is going to be important for him (our other plan was, of course, druid). also, what point buy do you think i should give him? i'm thinking 32, but 36 may be more appropriate, since he'll need to be quite a bit tougher than a standard character.

[ShadowPsyker]

DO NOT start a player with too high power. They will (Naturally) get used to this, and find future games boring. Humans (us, not just the PC race) learn best from mistakes. I personally always use 32, if that is what you like; use it. If he dies... that's life, or death as it may be. However; IF he dies grant him some dramatic license and let him get in a final shot, a whispered command to his minion or something memorable. After all, all we take with us after these games are our memories.

[lunar2]

well, the plan got scrapped anyway. i got an idea for a setting, and i'm going to run with that. i'll just give him a party of 4 characters, who will all be 28 pb T3/4 characters. i'll still help him build them, but i'll let him design them. that will give him some experience character building, and let him get used to multitasking. i've had to run as many as 10 characters at once as a player before*, and he's as smart as me, so he should be able to handle 4.

*the dm kept introducing new (N)PCs, and would have me run them in combat so he wouldn't have to keep up with them. at one point, we had a juvenile silver dragon, a drow sorc/fighter/rogue (he didn't have a problem with bards, he just didn't think of it at the time), a stone giant fighter, and a kender who was literally a mobile magic mart (put gold in, get potions/scrolls/wands out). oh, and my pet cockatrice, Rooster. this was in addition to the regular characters.

[Unusual Muse]

If he's really new to 3.5, I'd suggest keeping it simple. For someone just learning the ins and outs of the game, playing a caster can get a little overwhelming, especially when you start throwing out ACF this and variant that. Classes with simpler mechanics let new players focus more on learning the game mechanics and rules that are applicable to all classes. If you want to make him powerful, give him an in-depth understanding of the game mechanics. Power-gaming is less about class features and more about understanding actions and action economy, special combat maneuvers like grapple, etc. An experienced player with a simple character can out-power a noob with a "powerful" one.

[lunar2]

well, he's read the rules, and seems to understand the basics as far as i've questioned him. as for starting off simple: i started with a drider cleric. i turned out okay.

[Diarmuid]

I'm going to agree 100% with Muse on this one. If this were his first game ever, I'd say build him a fighter.

As he's had a little exposure...some kind of caster could be fine. But...I'd say something like a Sorc might be a better fit. Limited spells to worry about remembering for mechanics/tactics and not having to worry about preparing the right spells for a given day/encounter.

As Sorcs can be a bit flimsy, a Favored Soul might be a bit of a better fit. Keeps the simplicity of rolling dice to hit stuff and wearing armor there while still having a small pool of spell resources to work with, and all important self healing to boot.

[Unusual Muse]

I'm going to agree 100% with Muse on this one. If this were his first game ever, I'd say build him a fighter.

As he's had a little exposure...some kind of caster could be fine. But...I'd say something like a Sorc might be a better fit. Limited spells to worry about remembering for mechanics/tactics and not having to worry about preparing the right spells for a given day/encounter.

As Sorcs can be a bit flimsy, a Favored Soul might be a bit of a better fit. Keeps the simplicity of rolling dice to hit stuff and wearing armor there while still having a small pool of spell resources to work with, and all important self healing to boot.

Agreed... and since the OP mentioned Druid, I'd point out that Druid would probably be the hardest class for a newbie because it's the most complicated; you'd have to juggle game mechanics/combat, spells, and monsters and their stats... that's a lot to account for.