Interesting and easy to play builds for new players

[Quoz]

I play at a weekly gaming group with a lot of drop in and drop out players, often people with little to no experience. The GMs don't pull many punches and even for me as an experienced player a bad turn of the dice can lead to character death quickly.

Last week we had 2 new players who had never played before show up. Both asked to play wizards, and I had about 5 minutes while the GM set up to help build characters. One didn't make it, the other barely survived.

To prepare for this I want to make a handful of ready-to-go characters that are easy to play but still have cool style and flourishes to make them stand out. We're at 6th level, use rolled stats, and allow all published sources (not UA)

My first is a bugbear fighter with PAM and Sentinel. Tanky enough to survive most fights and will have something useful to do every round. 15' reach gives some interesting options in the fight and the ability to control a large area of the battlefield.

What are some other good starter builds to get unsuspecting new gamers addicted to our way of life?

[Nhorianscum]

The build I tend to hand extremely new players is just a level 1 Vhuman Barbarian (In LMoP) with Prodigy (Preformance) and a not completely dumped charisma. The pregame discussion is just "Lucha, Lucha, Lucha" and they go full ham. Half the time good ole "Goblino Masko" the suplexer of goblins dies early and the player just rerolls and has fun with it.

The other half of the time Venomfang gets hit with an enlarged flying elbow as the player just screams constantly.

Good times.

My favorite moment is always when the player inevitably flexes all over the forced social/combat redbrand ruckus.

[WeaselGuy]

Kenku Bard. Focus on support spells, stay in the back.

https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Alan-A-Dale?file=Clipdale2.gif

[Contrast]

My first is a bugbear fighter with PAM and Sentinel. Tanky enough to survive most fights and will have something useful to do every round. 15' reach gives some interesting options in the fight and the ability to control a large area of the battlefield.

Not the route I would have gone - too many abilities which they need to know they have and remember to activate (I'd honestly be inclined to avoid feats entirely on pre-gens for new players).


You want simple on off switches (like the barbarians rage) or things like the battlemaster which gives them a short list of specific abilities that they can look at and decide which one to use when their turn comes up (bonus points that BM resources come back on a short rest so they can't mess up too badly by spamming them).

Personally I'd suggest rogue. New players often want to do more things in a turn than they're allowed to and rogue gives them some options for this. There's some mechanical complexity but most people get the intuitive idea of how sneak attack works pretty easily if not the exact mechanics.

Probably the most helpful thing you could do would be to prepare a cheat sheet that goes along with the character that lays out what their options are on their turn.

If someone really wants to play a spellcaster - have a tortle. Their flat AC helps a lot.

[strangebloke]

Its less about what's effective, and more about what's fun.

Basically, don't give them a spellcaster unless its a blaster. Controllers/Buffers/etc. don't feel strong until you've play in a party without a controller/buffer. Give them something with high HP, high AC, and a relatively simplelist of options on their turns.

Here would be my picks for fifth level builds:

Tiefling Fiend Warlock: with Pact of the Chain (Imp) Agonizing Blast, Mask of Many Faces, and Armor of Shadows. 8/14/14/14/8/18
-Its a really memorable, cool build that's also reasonably resilient.
-most everything you do is either 'fireball' or an at-will ability so there's no real resource economy
-has a 'goal' in combat to be the person to last-kill each enemy. This goal is a good one to have in combat anyway, so it rewards players for smart tactics, and also feels cool.

vHuman Samurai Fighter: with sharpshooter and archery style. 10/18/16/8/14/8
-Dead simple to be effective in combat.
-Really fun 'nova' turn with fighting spirit and action surge for 4 attacks with advantage.
-Good choice for people who have a character they want to play (IE, from a story they like) that doesn't have any specific magical abilities.

Half Orc Zealot Barbarian Great Weapon Master
-Look, you know why you want to play this.

[FabulousFizban]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nVReBH3QYD0

[CTurbo]

I'd have a raceless Champion Fighter of every flavor on hand at all times. An Archer, a S&B, a TWF, and of course a GWF. Just let the player choose a race and insert it and adjust stats.

A typical GWM Bear Totem Barbarian on hand as well setup to be a Half-Orc, Goliath, or Mountain Dwarf.
A typical Thief Rogue. Rogues are easy to play, but hard to master.
2 Half-Elf Draconic Sorcerers. One fire themed and one ice themed.
Typical Life Cleric. Probably Hill Dwarf.
and probably a typical Open Hand Monk.

[Dungeon-noob]

At this level, moon Druid isn't a good one, soo lets seee....

Barbarians are always great for starting players, easy to play and roleplay. HULK SMASH!

Hunter Rangers are also fairly simple/martial, and have cool flavor too. You find it, and then you kill it.

A well built Light Cleric or other blaster cleric could also be good. Help them decide on a clear stance rp-wise, and they can have both solid AC and shoot all the things well. Let their inner pyro's/nine-year-olds have some fun.

[Man_Over_Game]

I play at a weekly gaming group with a lot of drop in and drop out players, often people with little to no experience. The GMs don't pull many punches and even for me as an experienced player a bad turn of the dice can lead to character death quickly.

Last week we had 2 new players who had never played before show up. Both asked to play wizards, and I had about 5 minutes while the GM set up to help build characters. One didn't make it, the other barely survived.

To prepare for this I want to make a handful of ready-to-go characters that are easy to play but still have cool style and flourishes to make them stand out. We're at 6th level, use rolled stats, and allow all published sources (not UA)

My first is a bugbear fighter with PAM and Sentinel. Tanky enough to survive most fights and will have something useful to do every round. 15' reach gives some interesting options in the fight and the ability to control a large area of the battlefield.

What are some other good starter builds to get unsuspecting new gamers addicted to our way of life?

Seems very odd to try to find a solution to integrate new players into level 6 right off of the bat.

My recommendation is to start out as simple as possible, and then allow the player to rebuild their character for their first couple level ups.

A few examples:

Dexterity Sharpshooter Samurai.
Strength Champion.
Celestial Warlock.
Light Cleric.
Life Cleric.
Scout Rogue.
Dreams Druid.
Evocation Wizard.
Zealot Barbarian.
Storm Herald Barbarian.

You'll note that, for most of these, it's pretty hard to screw up playing as long as you're mildly aware of your subclass features. If they want to upgrade from Celestial Warlock to Divine Soul Sorcerer, they can do that, but fewer options is generally better for newer players than overwhelming them with too many. The number 1 reason people don't play DnD is because they don't understand it, and scripting a complicated character that people won't understand isn't going to help that.

[patchyman]

Same situation as OP. 6th level one-shot, a couple of new players with no RPG experience. I rolled up an Elven Rogue Scout.

No magic, so limited number of things to concentrate on.

A simple strategy to follow (hide and shoot stuff) so ideal for new players to follow.

Character stays in the back and has powers that aid in avoiding damage, so increased survivability when they inevitably make a mistake.

Proficient and expertise in an enormous amount of skills, so they will always feel useful.

Elven, because everyone loves elves.

[MagneticKitty]

If they want to use magic (seemingly by them picking wizards) I would go with sorcerer (few spells known) or Warlock (mostly cantrips).
Or go with a gish.

Paladin - few slots, high durability

ranger - see above, distance spellcaster flavor from multiple ranged spells
arcane archer - spell flavor in magic shots, low on choices
eldritch knight / arcane trickster (see above)
Battle master archer - pick only battle master effects that apply to bow, flavor as magical arrows. Or flavor as green arrow utility type techy arrows

All these have magic caster light flavor without being too scary.

[Seclora]

My first question when dealing with older new players is "How do you generally play Skyrim/other similar RPGs?", because it usually helps me figure out what they -want- to be doing. Barring that, pick one of the three/four Archetypes(Depending on whether you consider Melee Damage and Ranged Damage separately). Rogue/Warlock for damage, Fighter/Barbarian for tank, Cleric/Bard for Support. Assassin Rogue is fairly easy for anyone used to stealthiness anyways (Thief is better on players who don't really want to fight), Bear Totem Barbarian is so straightforward to play my 6 year old could do it, and Life Cleric is usually simple enough that people can figure it out by the end of their 3rd combat.

Leave Wizard and Druid for people who've had a chance to read the books for a while already, they're kind of a pain. Monk is probably the most complicated mundane class, even if it isn't all that difficult once you get in the swing of things.

[Gydian]

The moderator of my AL league asked this same question to people who are new to D&D; "What character in Lord of the Rings interests you the most?" I think it is a lame question, mostly because I've herd it a hundred times, but it does the trick. As long as they don't say Gandalf then you can build a Rogue, Fighter, Barbarian, Ranger, or maybe Paladin. All of these classes, and Monk, are easy to understand and play with little explanation. Picking a class that does little to no spell casting is easier to learn.

When run a game with new players I always start at level 1. I like to get to level 3 asap but I do that in 3 to 4 seasons. This gives them the time to play a little before picking a subclass and expanding into all the wonderful options from different sub-classes.

[opaopajr]

I'd just go archetypal pre-gens with the Basic D&D 4 races, 4 classes, and 6 backgrounds, a la Lord of the Rings or something.

e.g.
Aragorn - Fighter Human Soldier
Legolas - Fighter Elf Noble
Bilbo - Rogue Halfling Folk Hero
Gandalf - Wizard Human Sage
etc.

Or just one of each Class tied to a Race with unexpected Backgrounds, so new players just start to see how they can push boundaries.

e.g.

Cleric Human Criminal
Fighter Dwarf Sage
Rogue Halfling Acolyte
Wizard Elf Soldier

The larger point is getting to play quickly, to see if it's fun. That's a bit about playing with expectations, using tropes as a shorthand... And also tweaking those expectations' noses a bit (an ever so very little bit) so imagination broadens to the possibilities. :smallcool:

[Specter]

First of all, cut off all full spellcasters. A player that fully understands range, components, casting time, spell slots and concentration of all his spells is not a new player, unless he's a real mathhead.

That leaves us Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Ranger and Rogue. Out of those, I'd cross of Monk because Ki is quite hard to grasp for newbies and there's too much to do with it, especially when subclasses happen.

Out of those classes, a Ranger/Rogue or a pure Paladin provide players with manny things that can be done without being overwhelming. Ranger/Rogue follows a basic pattern (Hunter's Mark + hiding), and a Paladin can go many sessions without casting a single spell.

[strangebloke]

The moderator of my AL league asked this same question to people who are new to D&D; "What character in Lord of the Rings interests you the most?" I think it is a lame question, mostly because I've herd it a hundred times, but it does the trick. As long as they don't say Gandalf then you can build a Rogue, Fighter, Barbarian, Ranger, or maybe Paladin. All of these classes, and Monk, are easy to understand and play with little explanation. Picking a class that does little to no spell casting is easier to learn.

When run a game with new players I always start at level 1. I like to get to level 3 asap but I do that in 3 to 4 seasons. This gives them the time to play a little before picking a subclass and expanding into all the wonderful options from different sub-classes.

Yeah, its a really good guideline.

the only thing I'd say is that Rogues and Monks are actually a little hard to play in that you have to be very mindful about things like OAs and movement in combat. They're easy to build and easy to be effective with, but I've seen a lot of newbie players with monks/rogues getting themselves killed.

Newbies starting at level 1 is great. It really grounds them in each other as a party, and shortcuts the whole ridiculous 14-page backstory prior to joining with the party.

The only thing I'll say is that not all newbies are created equal. Some guys have been on forums like these for months before they ever actually find a table, and they'll research the crap out of whatever they're playing ahead of time. Those players, IMO can basically play whatever they like.

but for the rest, I basically divide it as follows:

If you know what you're doing:

Wizard: "Okay, so first of all, have you read all of the spellcasting rules. Yes, I mean all of them."
Sorcerer: "Its Okay. I read an online guide before this and picked all of the best spells and metamagics."
Bard: "Just so you know, you have almost no ways by default of dealing damage." "I'm fine with that." *hours pass* "Argh! I can't do anything useful!"
Paladin: "So, for my action, I... hold on. Sorry, I just need a minute. Wait. I think I have a spell slot left, but I maybe forgot to mark one off when I smited last round."
Blood Hunter: "So, uh, I'm just... dead? Just like that?"
Cleric: "I cast cure wounds at fifth level!"
(Non-moon)Druid: "That spell is concentration too??"
Beastmaster Ranger: "Snuffles died!?!?!"


A little bit complicated
(non-beastmaster)Ranger: Look, take sharpshooter and fight at range and you won't be weak.
Monk: Tactically difficult, but not challenging from a mechanics perspective. So if someone's played a lot of other tactical games, this one is fine. If they haven't... They'll just die.
Rogue: Similar issues to the monk, and the mechanics of the class encourage dangerous plays like sneaking out ahead of the party.
Warlock: Hard to build, but has a vastly streamlined action economy, and the invocations and Eldritch Blast will keep you irrelevant even if you pick some stupid spells. Also, very strongly thematic.
(moon)Druid: When in doubt, just turn into a bear.


Recommended:
Barbarian: Dead simple. Swing pointy things at enemies until they stop moving.
Fighter: The best option. The abundance of feats mean that the player can push their character in any direction in the long run, as their interests change.

[Samayu]

Rogue: Similar issues to the monk, and the mechanics of the class encourage dangerous plays like sneaking out ahead of the party.

Just make them human so they can't see in the dark. They'll stay in the back.