New campaign, no idea what to play.

[Dusk Eclipse]

A friend is starting a campaign next week and I need ideas on character concepts and/or builds. I originally intended to go with a gish character, but my friend told me he wanted to take it slow with the game since it is meant to introduce new players. Problem is that gishes (for the most part) are late bloomers and I don't want to spend months waiting for the character to hit his stride.

The game is set to start at level 1 and we will be playing on a custom setting, but the DM said I could re-fluff setting specific stuff, supposedly the game will go on till level 20, but to be honest I am guessing we will stop at level 10 or so.

I have no real preference over any particular class, though I would like to avoid Warblade since I am playing a low level one in a pbp and I think if I play another they would feel pretty similar.

[SparowCrow]

A friend is starting a campaign next week and I need ideas on character concepts and/or builds. I originally intended to go with a gish character, but my friend told me he wanted to take it slow with the game since it is meant to introduce new players. Problem is that gishes (for the most part) are late bloomers and I don't want to spend months waiting for the character to hit his stride.

The game is set to start at level 1 and we will be playing on a custom setting, but the DM said I could re-fluff setting specific stuff, supposedly the game will go on till level 20, but to be honest I am guessing we will stop at level 10 or so.

I have no real preference over any particular class, though I would like to avoid Warblade since I am playing a low level one in a pbp and I think if I play another they would feel pretty similar.

Duskblade Might work

[Nettlekid]

Do you have a sense of what the campaign will be like? More hack-and-slash, taking missions, diplomacy-based, etc? That can really change an ideal character. Two of my first campaigns were a diplomacy campaign with very little fighting, and a semi-Evil campaign that was a lot of fighting and not all that much plot. I played a Warforged Crusader in the first and a Changeling Factotum in the second, and I wish I could have done it the other way around.

[Gigas Breaker]

Personally I find that with disciplines, maneuver selections, feats, etc. that it is not too difficult to make the initiators different. Why don't you try something weird that you haven't played before like Binder, Totemist, or Dragonfire Adept if you haven't played those before?

[Vaz]

An Ardent can nearly fulfil any role it is asked to fulfil. It's not a Tier 2, but it's a very solid Tier 3, extremely multiclass friendly (goes hand in hand with Practised Manifester, Overchannel and Tome of Battle), and despite the low number of powers known, gets access to every single one if need be.

[Dusk Eclipse]

I'm not really sure how the game is going to be, my friend hasn't told me much.

[Averis Vol]

How about a "bestial pouncer" type build? Something like:

monk (invisible fist, Overwhelming attack style)2/barb (Lion totem & wolf totem) 2/fighter (hit and run variant) 1/Fist of the forest 3/ Swordsage 2/ Telflammar shadowlord 10.

This makes you a sneaky, high AC target that can do a good bit of damage, while giving you some more utility maneuvers, good HP and a little bit of battlefield control via imp trip + some setting sun maneuvers.

[Nettlekid]

If you're used to being offensive, be it through melee or spells, I recommend switching things up with a social character, like the Changeling Factotum I mentioned. The build I used was Changeling Rogue 1/Factotum 5/Marshal 1/Shadowdancer 1/Mindbender 1/Warblade 1/Exemplar 1, and I never planned out the rest of it. Probably some more Factotum, since it's better to sprinkle it through the build in order to make best use of having all skills as class skills. It makes you a super skillmonkey, Changeling Rogue gives you great social options for taking 10 on social skills, and Factotum boosts them as you please. My character has a Ring of Invisibility, Darkstalker, and the Shadowdancer level for Hide in Plain Sight, so he was basically undetectable. Mindbender's telepathy made him excellent for communication, and Mindsight made him a fantastic scout. Marshal is there because I had a halfway decent Cha for skills, so I could boost everyone's Dex skills and Initiative (including my own, my Hide/Move Silently was beastly), and Exemplar only helps that. And that little splash of Warblade to assist my allies with Iron Heart Surge and White Raven Tactics. It was absolutely useless for doing damage, but I was able to get anywhere and talk to anyone.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

If the game has several new players, then I would probably find out what they're planning on playing and try to fill in any gaps in the party. Failing that, a divine caster is always useful to a party and is extremely viable at all levels, and often plays similar to a gish. Most importantly, don't play the same thing (class) that someone else is playing, especially a new player. Here are a few examples that I'd go with:

Druid 20, I'd go (Whisper) Gnome or Strongheart Water Halfling or even Killoren. I'd skip Greenbound Summoning as you don't want to trivialize every encounter. Something like Companion Spellbond, Natural Bond, and Natural Spell should work out just fine. Use Entangle and Enrage Animal in the early levels, and prepare party friendly buffs like Bull's Strength and Mass Snake's Swiftness along with crowd controls later on. If you go Killoren use Aspect of the Ancient and get Magic of the Land at 3rd, probably push Natural Bond to 1st for it even though it won't benefit you until 4th.

Human LN Cleric of Zarus (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20041203a&page=1), Strength and War domains. Plan to go Cleric 6/ Divine Oracle 4/ Contemplative 10, gaining the feat prerequisite for Divine Oracle via a visit to the Frog God's Fane at some point. Go DMM: Persistent but don't get more than one night stick, and prioritize party buffs like Mass Lesser Vigor and Righteous Wrath of the Faithful. At 1st level you'll be able to use heavy armor and a greatsword, so you could probably pass him off as a Fighter for a while.

[Maginomicon]

If it's meant to introduce players who are not you, you may want to play along and go with a Generic Class (convincing your GM to ignore the "only if everyone does it" rule recommendation). With one of those three classes (four, really), it's much easier to never "outshine" any of the newbies and you can focus more on your roleplaying skill and versatility as a player.

[Norin]

Maybe a bard or something similar to focus on making the new people shine and feel better, while handling the face role as the most experienced player?

[Dusk Eclipse]

I'll definitely wait to build the character until the first. ession ao I can see what the other players want; making level 1 characters is easy enough, but I prefer to have a couple of ideas ready to make the character as fast as possible.

Averis Vol: That looka interesting, but it seems to be a late bloomer and I'm pretty sure Overwhelming attack can't be combined with a full attack and thus won't work with Shadow pounce.

Nettlekid: I usually play a combination of skillmonkey and blender type characters.

Biffoniacus_Furiou: Druid and Cleric are excelent options, I will consider them, but I feel DMM persiat might be too much .

Maginomocon: I don't think I could do that, introducing a variant like that so early might not bea good idea as it could confuse new players.

Norin: DFI bard is defonitely a good idea, I'll consider it