The most teachable class?

[Rad Mage]

So I need some advice. We have a longtime player in our group who has a hard time understanding the rules. She's not a bad player, but she has a slight learning disability and has a hard time managing her characters as well as retaining information about the game. In games past her characters would only use one spell because it was the only spell that she ,as a player, knew how to use.

Like I said, SHE IS NOT A BAD PLAYER, but I am dreading teaching her a new system.

What do you think would be best class for her to learn the 5th ed?

She usually plays druids or rogues. How easy would it be for her to learn these classes?

[Demonic Spoon]

Druids have a ton of options. They all have a wide variety of spells (which are fairly complicated to use effectively I think), and moon druids have a wide variety of wildshape forms as well. I would advise against this.

Rogues have a ton of options in the form of things they can do with the expertise they have in skills. Is it more remembering mechanics that she has trouble with, or does she also have trouble coming up with ad-hoc actions - to put another way, if she played a rogue, would she think to scout ahead and create an ambush, or just follow the party and stab things with sneak attack? If it's just remembering mechanics, then something like an assassin or thief rogue would be great.


In either case, I've heard good things about using spell/ability "cards" that list all the details of each ability. That way, the player in question can just look at the option without having to try to remember what each thing does by looking at the name on the character sheet, or having to dig through the book.

[GWJ_DanyBoy]

Rogue wouldn't be too bad. The main things you need to know are how to get your sneak attack/advantage, that cunning action lets you do some of the normal actions as a bonus action, and how to use skills, which is something any class needs to know.

Druid on the other hand would be very complex. You need to know what creatures you can morph into and when to do it, and they are divine prepared casters, so there's a giant list of spells to manage.

[Rad Mage]

In either case, I've heard good things about using spell/ability "cards" that list all the details of each ability. That way, the player in question can just look at the option without having to try to remember what each thing does by looking at the name on the character sheet, or having to dig through the book.

That's a really good idea. Keeping her options available to her should be really helpful. When she plays a rogue she just follows the party and uses sneak attack. When she's a druid... well, there's a reason "Call Lighting" has become a running gag in our group.

[Rad Mage]

Rogue wouldn't be too bad. The main things you need to know are how to get your sneak attack/advantage, that cunning action lets you do some of the normal actions as a bonus action, and how to use skills, which is something any class needs to know.

Druid on the other hand would be very complex. You need to know what creatures you can morph into and when to do it, and they are divine prepared casters, so there's a giant list of spells to manage.

I was thinking something similar. I'm a little worried about explaining the action economy of this edition to her though. Bonus actions can get pretty weird.

[Totema]

Perhaps the arcane trickster subclass might teach the spellcasting mechanics in a simpler fashion than a full caster? They do have their one spell - mage hand - to fall back on like a multitool.

[Wartex1]

Barbarian is probably the easiest to learn.

[Demonic Spoon]

I was thinking something similar. I'm a little worried about explaining the action economy of this edition to her though. Bonus actions can get pretty weird.

I don't see how. You can one bonus action on your turn if you have a thing to use that bonus action on.


That's a really good idea. Keeping her options available to her should be really helpful. When she plays a rogue she just follows the party and uses sneak attack. When she's a druid... well, there's a reason "Call Lighting" has become a running gag in our group.

Champion fighter is probably the "best" for that, then...but a rogue should also works if she enjoys that. If you could find some way to put more vague options on the cards (e.g. an Expertise:Stealth card, as a constant reminder that she's really, really good at sneaking) then that might help.

With another stealthy character in the group (shadow monk for example), you could potentially wait for him to suggest sneaky stuff, thus letting her get some mileage out of Assassinate if you went that route.

[Chronos]

Simplest would be a champion fighter. You might want to give her a hand with picking her feats/ASIs, but other than that, it's pretty much just choosing what enemy to hit.

A rogue wouldn't be too far behind, though, especially if she's already familiar with rogues from other editions.

[eleazzaar]

My impression is the Champion Archetype Fighter is intended to be the simplest class to play. There's not much to remember there, nor many choices to make.

You could always give it a Rogue or Druid flavor with feats and backgrounds.

Rogue Flavor:

Criminal background and Two-Weapon fighting style



Druid Flavor:

Hermit, or Outlander background and "Magic Initiate" Feat for 2 Druid cantrips, and one 1st level spell per rest.


I don't know if these are too simple, but there's a lot of flexibility in 5e to build different character ideas from different classes, backgrounds and feats.

[Magic Myrmidon]

As usual, the fighter is the easiest class to play in terms of mechanics. Specifically, the champion fighter. It was specifically built to be easy for new players or players who don't want to deal with fiddly rules.

If she doesn't like fighters, well. That's a shame. You can always tell her she can play dex fighters just fine in this edition, then she can do acrobatics and such, while not having to worry about getting sneak attack.

If she's dead set on druid or rogue, I'd advise against arcane trickster, just because spellcasting can often get overwhelming for players who aren't into the rules. Honestly, assassin's probably the easiest roge archetype, since the action economy isn't even a big issue there.

[Ralanr]

Personally I'd avoid classes with spell management. I'd recommend champion fighter, simple to learn, easy to use. She could even take a level in rogue for the expertise and sneak (course background can cover sneak) and level the rest with fighter.

Take all of this with a grain of salt, haven't played champion.

[Rad Mage]

This is really helpful. Champion fighter seems to be the way to go.

[Falcon X]

Sorcerer (Favored Soul) would be a simple one for the Divine-casting minded. Straight burglar rogue would be easy too.

[Fralex]

Most classes are fairly teachable, with the right sort of teaching strategy. If there are a lot of options in a class, you could help her get a general idea of what they're useful for rather than simply explain what they do, or give a rundown of the typical way someone playing her class might work out what they can do. Like, certain questions she'll want to be asking herself often.

For instance, if she's playing a rogue, the biggest thing is remembering to look for enemies that can be sneak attacked. That's something a rogue will want to do every turn. Less vital, but still important for a rogue to remember to think about is how to spend her Cunning Action each turn. Rogues can do a lot of things as bonus actions, but not all of them are essential to remember. I'd say the big two are Dash and Disengage. Being able to Dash as a bonus action essentially doubles her speed for free. Being able to Disengage as a bonus action means she can almost always ignore opportunity attacks as long as she's not Dashing. So you could just give her a little note to check that's something like:

1) Are any friends next to enemies? Am I hidden from any enemies or getting advantage on attacks in some other way? SNEAK ATTACK.
2) Do I need to cover a lot of ground? Am I next to an enemy? I can move twice OR move safely with a bonus action.

The fewer questions a class can be condensed into, the easier to get the hang of it will be.

[eleazzaar]

This is really helpful. Champion fighter seems to be the way to go.

The champion archetype literally doesn't give you any new stuff to do. It just makes you tougher and better at killing things.

[ruy343]

In addition to the ideas posted above, I present the following:

Barbarian: give them a greataxe, a colossal strength score, and clear raging progression (like Path of the Totem Warrior: Bear), and you're good to go.
+ Barbarians can have fun with their rage giving them advantage on strength checks too, so your friend can still be very useful if you provide strength-related challenges along the way.
+ If the player likes the primal feel of a druid, you can get them in the groove with a Totem barbarian easily.
- Barbarians are a melee class, and the player will be the target of a lot of attacks. Taking half damage might feel fun to the player though, so give this class some serious thought.

Fighter: Like barbarian, it's not hard to build this one. Champion archetype is very clear.
+ Fighters get up to four attacks per round, and action surge is a pretty easy (and awesome) mechanic to figure out/use.
- Fighters have a lot of ASIs that could confuse the player if you end up getting feats. Just go for a sub-optimal feat-less build, and the character will have very well rounded ability scores, which will let the player do whatever they feel like doing.

Cleric: A full caster? Whaaat? But what if you had them play a light cleric, and gave them some spells that were pretty easy to use?
+ Burning hand scales with level, so they can just cast that spell all day with whatever spell slots they have. It's one of those spells
+ You also have a character that carries around first aid kits in the form of spells that they don't use. If you negotiate with the player, maybe they'll help share.
+ It's not hard to build a cleric with heavy armor and a mace for most things, and when they want more blasting, the Light cleric delivers simple spells to fit the bill. Just don't bother with them preparing more than cure wounds and Burning hands (and fireball): you don't need anything beyond that.
- Channel Divinity has always been a bit confusing in its wording. You also don't get all of the glorious utility from the character. But you get lots and lots of fire...

Rogue: for all of the reasons listed above. Explaining sneak attacks (and when they can use them) might be a chore, but it's not too bad.

Hope these thoughts help.

[calebrus]

I was thinking something similar. I'm a little worried about explaining the action economy of this edition to her though. Bonus actions can get pretty weird.

Just incorporate action economy into the card system.
Make a 3x5 with every action that she can take (attack, move, disengage, etc) and label them not only with the name, but also with the type of action.
The lay down a sheet of paper in front of her with three squares labeled Move, Action, Bonus.
Play the card on the appropriate space, when all squares are filled and adjudicated, her turn is over.

[XmonkTad]

Thanks to the "Quick Build" sections in the PHB, just about any class can be built for a new player. If you're starting at level 1 and planning on staying at low levels for a while then the only classes I would recommend against would be full casters.
The king of easy to learn/requires almost no memorization or resource management is the Champion Fighter. If that isn't your player's style, then I would consider giving them a paladin. Paladins are a class that starts with very few things to do (a fighting style) but ramps up other mechanics slowly (spells, a heal, auras) so your player has lots of time to learn. Rather than avoid these things, just give them the mechanics slowly.
As the DM, you might just have to hold their hand a bit until they get it, but that task is so much less monumental in 5th.

[Shining Wrath]

If she likes druids and rogues, but wants something different this time, Hunter Ranger might not be too hard to pick up.