What was the first class you picked?

[Sindal]

Simple question

"Your first character class, and why"
Was it random? Did something jump out at you? Was it a recommendation or partially 'given' to you?

Bonus: Were you happy with the choice after playing it?

(If you like. You can share your first 5e choice, as well as any other editions first class choice. I realise people have veen playing for a while 🤣)

Me:
Ranger
I like archers. Rangers make good archers. I also wanted to not be made of paper.

I picked ranger round about yhr time the revised rules came around. Enjoyed it muchly and still do.

[djreynolds]

I grabbed the champion, because I really liked the 3.5 weapon master. But then I realized critical hits were far and in between.

But then I actually enjoyed the challenge of the champion and realized I kept up in the damage department, and the bonus to dexterity skills was nice. I ended up with a mountain dwarf maul fighter, but I got my dexterity up to 16 later and grabbed archery style. I grabbed a breastplate and became the rogue's muscle when she went out scouting.

We didn't play with feats for the first time, but I really enjoyed the champion, I felt like I could contribute here and there. I could fight in melee and ranged, my stealth was "okay". And I could intimidate and do history stuff

[JakOfAllTirades]

I didn't get to pick my first class. I started playing back when D&D was "roll 3d6 six times, in order" and my highest score was Strength. I rolled a 12. So I chose Fighter by default because my pathetic excuse for a character didn't qualify for anything else. We also had to roll randomly for HP. I rolled a 2. Died in the first room of the dungeon, killed by a giant rat.

"Old School" can KMA.

[ProsecutorGodot]

I went straight to Paladin and my most played character class is still Paladin. I'm a big sucker for the protective self sacrificing archetype.

I've enjoyed all of the character's I've played (except for the Artificer I rolled, he was too binary for my liking) but my Paladin remains as my most favorite.

[Jerrykhor]

Warlock. I have a thing for dark magic, and the Fiend pact had me sold.

I was a little restricted by the lack of spell slots at first, but my DM gave an extra spell slot halfway through the campaign.

[DarkKnightJin]

First character that I actually got to enjoy for more than 1 session is my Dragonborn Death Cleric (Fighter start for armor).
I still very much enjoy playing him, mostly because thanks to some DM questions related to the stuff we've been pursuing, we all got to expand on our backstory, and at least on my case, see thr character grow beyond what I'd originally made it.

[Porcupinata]

My first character was a fighter called Ironwolf.

This was in Holmes Basic back in 1981. I was 11 years old, playing with school friends, and had been advised to play a fighter because I'd not played before and they were the simplest class. As was typical in those days, there was no ongoing campaign or even consistent setting. Each session simply started with us at the entrance to a dungeon and finished when we left the dungeon.

I don't actually remember my first 5e character. It would have been one from one of the one-shot sessions we played when the edition first came out.

My first 5e character that was in a proper campaign (Curse of Strahd) was Stan Tealeaf - a lightfoot halfling devotion paladin. I went for a paladin because none of the group had played one yet and I wanted to see what they were like, but didn't want to go for the cliched "big strong person in heavy armour" so I went for a small dex-based paladin who would wield two weapons (I also figured that dual wielding would give me more chances to hit and to crit for those smites). I figured that since he would be dex based he'd wear leather armour, and the idea of a halfling in leather armour surprising everyone by turning out to be a paladin instead of a rogue amused me, so I gave him the criminal background so he'd be able to pick locks and things to add to the dissonance; and decided that he was a former burglar who had repented/reformed and taken up a paladin's oath. He wore a holy symbol around his neck and behaved according to his oaths, but didn't "advertise" the fact that he was a paladin to those who didn't already know him well (although he wouldn't deny it if someone asked).

He was great fun to play, and was very much the "team mom", organising everyone and looking after everyone (as a halfling, he was also the cook when they party camped). He even ended up keeping a "To Do" list of all the various missions, clues, and plot hooks that the party picked up in Ravenloft; prioritising them based on urgency and perceived difficulty. To my surprise, the rest of the party went with this and we actually investigated things in order from his list and when we'd finished something the rest of the party would all look to Stan to tell them what we should be doing next.

[diplomancer]

First Character I wanted to play was a Bard, but the group was caster-heavy and martial-light, so I went with Paladin, but that game only lasted for a couple of sessions. I just love the Bards in this edition, they look like they are the most fun to play, very powerful, but only if you play them smart

Second character was a Shadow Monk (group already had a Bard), played it until level 5, when the DM moved away. We kept the group and campaign world with a new DM, who allowed us to switch characters. I chose Paladin, and this time we played it up to 20.

Third character was a Tempest Cleric, but only because I knew it was a "test-drive campaign" that would end at the very early levels. Yes, I was a Variant Human with Heavy Armor Master, why do you ask? :p

Now I am finally playing the Bard I always wanted, still beginning the campaign, but having so much fun with it.

[hymer]

My first ever PC was a fighter, and that was before all these fancy warlocks and barbarians. Back in the days when your race oftentimes was your class.:smallbiggrin:

In 5e, my first PC was an assassination rogue. I wanted a druid, but I also knew that it would be a lot more work, and I would want to study druid spells a lot more before playing one.
I was satisfied with my rogue, though in a bigger group I'm sure it would have been hard to get my assassination off as effectively. But I was able to operate on my own, and often I was the one who opened the fights, letting me make the most of it. The DM let me pick off guards quite often, and that became my signature move.

[CTurbo]

I'm pretty sure my very first D&D character was a 1st or 2nd edition Fighter but I don't remember the race.

Never played 3.0 or 3.5

My first 4e character was a Dragonborn Sorcerer with silly high stats. Think my Str and Cha were both like 24. My last 4e character was a TWF Ranger.

The first 5e character I ever made was a TWF Hunter Ranger but I never played with it because it seemed weak on paper. I think the first 5e character I played with was a TWF Champion Fighter with Dual Wielder and two Battleaxes. I used a Goliath Barb around the same time. Don't remember which came first.

[Aergentum]

My first character ever was Kirian the Human Monk in D&D 3.5
I had plenty of fun playing that character and I even wrote his story and background. It wasn't optimized and defenetly a sub optimal char, but I really loved playing it.

In 5e my first char was Eilorn the Elf Bard, that died by Bugbear stomping at level 3. After him went Thoradin "Avalanche" the Dwarf Life Cleric, that suffered a similar fate due to miscalculations...

Now I'm playing in 5e as Kriv the Lizardfolk Shepherds Druid. He's now just a lvl 2, but pretty fun to play.

[Davo]

Summer of 1980, Dwarven Fighter selected by the DM. It was interesting, but as a one-player session, it paled in comparison to playing with multiple people. The character didn't die, but got dropped shortly thereafter - probably for a Ranger or Rogue.

[diplomancer]

If we are not talking just 5e, my first experience was with the D&D Basic Red Box. As the character that is used to teach the game is a Fighter, I guess that's my first character. In that edition, I enjoyed playing with Thief, Dwarf, and Elf. My most lamented character was when we were rolling 3d6 in order (order then being Str, Int, Wis, Dex, Con, Cha), and I started by rolling, in front of several witnesses, 18, 18, 12, 16. Everyone was crying out, saying that this character would be insane as an Elf. Then I rolled a 3. Constitution. I begged the DM (my older brother), to let me switch it with some other attribute, but he was adamant, pointing out I had got very lucky with the other stats (which was perfectly true and fair, but still...) As we were also rolling for hit points, the character started with 1 hp, and died in his first battle. (I know, this character is absolutely improbable, and I guess there was something wrong with those dice. But back then I was 9, and knew nothing about probabilities, so it just seemed like very unlikely)

I played a lot of AD&D 2nd edition, but, oddly enough, have no recollection of any of the characters I played. The only one I remember is one I designed but never got a chance to play, a gnome Cleric/Illusionist, with the Fighting-Monk kit for the Cleric. Basically Yoda. I think I had a soft spot for Elf Fighter/Mage too (or was it Mage/Thief? I can't really remember).

Never played 3rd edition, played one session of 4th edition as a Ranger.

[Lyracian]

Back in 1982 I grabbed the Thief as a pre-generated character for our first adventure.

When we moved to AD&D my main character pick was an Elven Thief/Mage. I also liked Dwarven Clerics

The first 5th Ed character I created was converting Kylassa my 3.5 Elven Thief/Mage into an Arcane Trickster. This is my longest running character as she was created in 2nd Ed AD&D when the campaign started 27 years ago (we only play twice a year).

First 5th Ed Character I played was my Bard (with Cleric dip) - Arden De Vere (http://lyracian.blogspot.com/2019/04/to-d-or-not-to-d.html), Bard of Apollo.

[Bjarkmundur]

My first character was Koriat the elven archer in 4e. That's when I realised I loved reliability and contributing uniquely to my party. Since then I always try to find mechanics that allow rerolling or increased success rate, and try not to fill a role someone else is providing.

My first 5e character was a Valor Bard.... Then I realized it felt neither consistent or uniquely contributing to that particular party. I thought it was a safe bet due to the "bard's can do anything". Well, they CAN do everything, but in a very specific bard kind of way. I've since learn that you should pick your mechanics and your flavour separately. Pick mechanics that work well in combat, and flavour that plays well with the campaign setting. You can see my current character in my signature does just that.

[Darc_Vader]

My first character was a Wood Elf Ranger in a Curse of Strahd game (great starting point, highly recommended) that survived up until the DM moved away and the campaign died when we were level 5. My next character was a Dragonborn Sorcerer in a modified Princes of the Apocalypse game that is still ongoing and currently at level 10.

[Kane0]

A 3.5 warlock ported into a PF game.

Campaign fizzled after a half dozen sessions but later revived that character in a 4e game that transitioned to 5e.

[Raxxius]

I didn't get to pick my first class. I started playing back when D&D was "roll 3d6 six times, in order" and my highest score was Strength. I rolled a 12. So I chose Fighter by default because my pathetic excuse for a character didn't qualify for anything else. We also had to roll randomly for HP. I rolled a 2. Died in the first room of the dungeon, killed by a giant rat.

"Old School" can KMA.

That sounds a lot like my first 2nd ed character on 3d6.

Had a 9 in strength, 13 in con, sub 8 in everything else.

Didn't survive the first fight. Scored a crit though...

[Burley]

My first character was in Dawnforge (a third-party campaign setting for 3.5e) and I was taking over an NPC that was bodyguard to a Yuan-ti PC. It was a Minotaur Barbarian. I played the character for one session and had fun, but the DM asked me to make my own character because I was playing the Minotaur Barbarian too intelligently.

I think the first character that I actually MADE was a Half-Elf Warmage. Warmage got no love in 3.5, but it was the perfect entry point for a new player who wants to be a spell caster.

[ImproperJustice]

First D&D character was a Fighter from back in the old school basic days. Longbow, Sword and Board. Think my highest stat was a 12 in Strength.

In 5e, it was a Sorcerer. I love being a channel for raw energy, and I love playing underdog classes as well.
I remember being impressed how far Magic Users had come being able to have unlimited cantrips, and was overjoyed that I was able to be “magical” the entire game.

[Kurt Kurageous]

AD&D 1980.

Thief. Thought it was easy to steal. I was 12...

It didn't end well.

[nickl_2000]

I can't remember the first class overall, but the first in 5e was a monk.

I've always loved the image of the unarmored monk dashing through a field able to damage those wearing full plate just with punches and kicks

[Man_Over_Game]

Simple question

"Your first character class, and why"
Was it random? Did something jump out at you? Was it a recommendation or partially 'given' to you?

Bonus: Were you happy with the choice after playing it?

(If you like. You can share your first 5e choice, as well as any other editions first class choice. I realise people have veen playing for a while ��)

Me:
Ranger
I like archers. Rangers make good archers. I also wanted to not be made of paper.

I picked ranger round about yhr time the revised rules came around. Enjoyed it muchly and still do.

5e: I played a Bard/Rogue.

I wanted to be a skill monkey that used subtlety and manipulation to get what I needed and avoid combat for the party while making things easier.

Unfortunately, my DM was really bad (didn't understand the rules, let the Eldritch Knight cast two spells from Extra Attack), and our team was a group of murderhobos (literally murdered people after intimidating them into drawing weapons). It was pretty miserable, and I left.

Eventually, I went back to the concept, playing a Hexblade Swashbuckler, and it was my favorite character of all time. A good DM really makes a difference.

First Ever: 4e Healer. Bard, I think? Our Monk got isolated in a room with some bandits and a hostile player (the DM was running it as a single-encounter PVP-turned-friendly scenario), and died despite all of my healing. The Monk blamed me for his death for a long while. He was pretty bitter about it.

[Crucius]

First class was the pre-revised Artificer, because I didn't like fantasy that much, but I wanted to try D&D. It was borderline steampunk in flavor, but that didn't mesh well with the setting obviously. I knew nothing of the game at this point so I usually say my first character is actually:

a barbarian. I liked the d12 die, but it never saw use. So I decided to make the ultimate d12 character. Also I liked Krieg the psycho from borderlands 2, and how modal his 'rage' ability was, so I just had to make a character along the lines of that. Been sold on barbarians ever since.

[birdboye713]

My first class was barbarian because my DM recommended it because it was simple. Ever since then I have played nothing but spellcasters.

[Misterwhisper]

First ever: 3.0 Ranger, it was literally a pick up character for someone who did not show up. I had never played tabletop ever and looked at it for about 5 mins and said, ok and ran with it.

First in 5e: Half Elf Great Old One Pact of the Tome Warlock. Played the character for 2 years, for the most part I hated it because we had someone else in the group who was Warlock2/Sorcerer x and just rubbed it in constantly about how much better he was.

First In Pathfinder: Human Base Monk. Liked it ok, but wanted to change archetypes when the good ones came out.

First In Shadowrun: 3rd edition Phys Adept Troll with an axe and a LOT of grenades.

Mutants and Masterminds: 1st edition A character with Super Strength, Regeneration and high speed teleporting named Fusillade.
During an incident where for a few days where everyone in the world lost their powers, he mugged Superman.

Orpheus: An EXTREMELY suicidal sleeper poltergeist who was just hoping his machines would fail and kill him.

NWOD: A disgraced olympic silver medalist French fencer who roamed the country after he was not allowed to return.

OWOD Vampire: A Nosferatu master of rats that lived in the sewer and had multiple personalities of an innocent child with all of his friends and the savage monster that protected him.

OWOD Werewolf: A Homid Windego Galliard who was searching for revenge on the descendants of the people that killed his wife in a former life.

There have been many others but those are the ones I actually liked.

[Waterdeep Merch]

First in 2e: Human Fighter/Thief. Had to start somewhere, eh?
First in 3.0: Human Paladin.
First in 3.5: Human Paladin
First in Pathfinder: Half-Elf Arcanist
First in 4th: Human Paladin
First in 5th: Lightfoot Halfling Paladin

I'm sensing a trend.

[Karnitis]

So normally I wouldn't count my first since I only got to play one session before it was scrapped...but it was a Cleric! I always preferred a support/utility role and in my video games I played one when possible.

My first actual campaign I felt I should 'branch out' so I went with a Paladin, thinking it was Cleric Lite. I quickly realized it was not what I was expecting at all, but I loved it all the same.

[Brother12]

Vanilla Human Champion Fighter with no recommendation from the DM. I just wanted to play myself as a knight in shining armor. A lot of fun, and looking back my DM kept letting him shine so I didn't feel useless. When he needed a break at about level 5, I became DM as we were all new in that group. I had my character get raging drunk, sled down a hill on his shield and kill a nearby cow at the end. He was sent to an insane asylum. The team broke him out to take him on a road trip to heck that ended up with a marriage between big bad boss and my character (I was still learning how to DM...). Before he said I do, the original DM took out the boss with a sneak attack. Later when the original DM was ready to take over again, my character had been captured by an elder brain so the rest of the group had to break me out. Good times.

[Tharkun]

Wizard, Wizard, Wizard, always picked Wizard first. Even in Red-box, even in 1st Ed. Never did anything but the printed alt-rolling rules since 3d6 in order is way too limiting (didn't like the similar issues in Traveler either).

[TyGuy]

5e
Tiefling Vengeance Paladin
Why: I like hybrids, I don't want to just hit things with a big sword or just cast spells. I also love the anti-hero archetype and it fit that well. I figured out the choice by reading the classes and deciding what I wanted to do. Fighter and paladin have GWF but paladin has the spells and smite so it was the clear choice.

I was super happy with it. It was just a one-shot, but I went on to play an ancients paladin for a campaign. Love the class.

[Waazraath]

Really first: a Cleric, "cause somebody needs to be the healer". Don't know what edition it was, but Clerics were restricted to wielding maces and hammers and forbidden to use anything with an edge.

Fifth: ancients paladin, dex based. Loved the class, versatile in and out of combat.

[Xihirli]

Rogue for a one-shot, ranger for a campaign.

[Sexyshoeless]

First character ever ever was a 2e tiefling fighter mage. The murder hobo-est of campaigns where we became demi gods and had to be put down by the powers that be. Aaaah fond memories...

My first serious character was a barbarian in 3.5. I cannot suppress the optimizer in me and our party needed a non-caster (archer paladin (yes he knew this was suboptimal), druid, wizard, archer rogue, archer ranger). LOVED being able to DGAF run into the fray and smash things.

However, since then (after escaping a forever DM period), I got to play a 5e druid (just wanted that sweet wild shape action) and I'm not sure I can ever go back to a non caster. Just having buttons for every situation is so good!!!!

[KorvinStarmast]

First Ever: Magic User (three little brown books days) 16 intelligence after I traded some points per the rules.

First 5e: Life Cleric named KorvinStarmast. (He's dead)

[JackPhoenix]

Not counting D&D based videogames (Baldur's Gate II was my first when it was released and a friend borrowed me his CDs, IIRC), the fluff description of wizard in 3e just spoke to me. I didn't know anything about mechanics back then, I just like the whole concept. Half-elf, with the same reason: I liked the description and didn't know the mechanics were terrible back then. Needless to say, I was pleased with their 5e form.

[GlenSmash!]

I started with 5e but only the Basic Rules and the starter set were out so I used one of the premade fighters.

Next session I had the PHB and made a Wizard.

Just Kidding! It was a Barbarian of course.

[Hruken]

First ever was in pathfinder: gnomish alchemist. That class was what got me into the game.

First 5e was a dragonborn bard. Was going to be a strength based valor bard. I knew it doesn't usually work, but I wanted the challenge. That campaign lasted one session before the DM dropped out and I took over.

A year or so later I joined a group to play as a variant human arcana cleric, who died.

[Witty Username]

My First character in 5e was a way of four elements monk. It looked fun, and I was trying to make a dragonball(strait dragonball) themed character.
My First character in 3.5 was a kobold wizard/rogue. it was a gestalt game, I liked the idea of playing a monster and the idea of a sneaky kobold wizard was funny.
My First character in paper was a half-ling rogue. (I don't remember much I was pretty young at the time)
My first character in Dungeon Hack was a mage/thief, I think elf. I barely remember anymore. I wanted to loot the treasure and be a mage.

[TheCleverGuy]

Hill Dwarf Fighter. I always start by playing the simple melee character, and the Fighter is that. Dwarf because... I just like dwarfs. I had sort of planned on going Champion, because it's the simplest option, but the time I hit 3rd level, i was ready for a bit more complexity so i chose Battle Master instead.

[Phoenix042]

My first ever D&D character was when I was like, 11 or 12. It was some version of 3e, with some homebrew changes to the rules. The DM banned elves and druids because, in his experience, new young players picked them too often and he was sick of it.

So I played a human cleric of nature and life or some such. It was very long ago. I mostly goofed off.

My first serious character was Varia Riven, a 3.5e fighter with a pretty typical backstory (parents murdered, raised by wise monks, decided to set out and right the injustices of the world, etc), but with an interesting role; I played her like a support fighter.

The system I was playing in was absolutely awful for this, and I was pretty dissatisfied with the character in combat lots of the time. I worked hard on improving her origins as I learned more about storytelling and realized how cliche my backstory was, and have since made her into a much more three dimensional character. She's now been reworked for 5th edition and I'm very, very happy with her features and personality now.

In particular, I love her sword, Dawn's Reckoning, which was crafted by her and gained its magic powers through her acts of valor. It is meant to respond automatically when she uses her fighter features; it doubles her superiority dice when she expends them (so she rolls 2d8 instead of 1d8 for her maneuvers), and when she uses action surge in a particularly dark and deadly fight (DM discretion, but he sort of lets me know if it'll work), the sword lights up in a huge area, burning away darkness and inspiring allies within the light, who deal 1d10 extra radiant damage with their next attack.

The big feature is one use per day, and can only be recharged if the sword is actually struck by the light of dawn, or three days later whichever comes first. So the DM has some control over how often that last one can be used.

In one big fight against a hydra, she was able to use action surge (with the blazing light of dawn shining from her sword), then use commander's strike to give the assassin an additional attack, which crit, so the assassin got to add 2d10 radiant + 4d8 piercing damage all from me, plus sneak attack and her regular dagger damage. She hit for like 70 - 80 damage. And then literally the next turn I did commander's strike on the paladin, who crit and used a 2nd level smite doing another like 70 - 80 damage.

Absolutely love this character and her features.

[Constructman]

Wood Elf Monk

Monk because I was watching Critical Role S2 at the time and thought that Beau was the ****.

Wood Elf because I was trying to minmax and saw that was the cheese combo.

[Thrasher92]

Wizard. In every game I play that has magic, I try to play the class/build that can use the most magic. For both 2nd edition (when I first started) and 5th edition I chose to play a wizard for the first class.

As a kid, when I played DnD for the first time I marveled at the ability to cast magic, although it being 2nd edition it was a little disappointing. But in 3.5 and in 5th being a Wizard rocked! I still look forward to playing them whenever I can.

[Copper_Dragon]

My first character was a fighter. My DM dad made the choice for me because I was pretty young. That was AD&D, right before the release of 2nd edition.

First class I chose myself was wizard. I was an elemental specialist (From Tome of Magic, if I remember correctly).

First class I played in 5e was an arcane trickster rogue.

[mephiztopheleze]

1ed Dwarven fighter wielding a bastard sword as a 2h weapon, riding a war dog.

He died in the second round of the first combat to a bunch of Ghouls.

Rerolled as a halfling thief.

[kenposan]

I started with the Red Box and went fighter because I wanted to bash things in the noble tradition of classic fighter archetypes.

[noob]

monk because "there was already a wizard in the group" but it was 3.5 monk.

[BladedWizard]

Mine, in 3.5e, was an Elf fighter/wizard with the spellsword and Archmage prestige classes. We played a long time and we got to level 27. Eventually I became a chosen of Mystra (using the Mysta's chosen template). Oh man that character was powerful. We realized that after lvl 20 we screw up on the rules a bit but still it was so fun RP wise. Eventually we took hold of a castle that provided direct access to the Underdark and I started my own guild called "BladedWizard" (hence my avatar's name) which consisted of Fighter/Wizard only.

In 5e, my first was a Half-Orc Barbarian/Warlock (fiend) due to RP reason (there was an element about Demon in the quest and DM wanted one of the player to have his story attached to them). Lets just say that using AoA and Rage dmg reduction together was super fun. Plus, our DM allows "Dark One's Blessing" to replenish the temp HP for AoA. I was really hard to kill and did good damage using the GWM feat. I really liked that character.

[Danielqueue1]

Wizard. I was rather young, I don't remember what edition it was, but the DM killed off my character in the first room before I even knew what was going on. I cast magic missile at the darkness (hiding goblins) and every single one in the room attacked the character.

much later in fifth edition. an evocation wizard. that in the first major encounter cast burning hands on 3-4 targets and rolled a 1 on every...single... damage die. (and most of them made their save and took 1 damage.)

I love wizards, but even now I have the absolute worst luck when playing them at low levels.

[Arkhios]

First class ever, or first class in 5th edition?

The first class ever is a bit tricky to answer for certain. I was around 15 at the time, and as I recall, even then I had difficulties to decide on it (it's a curse, I tell ye!)

I think that my first character ever was either a Fighter (see below) or an 8th level Wilder. The edition was 3rd (when I was introduced to it, 3.5 Player's Handbook had just come out).

Although I chose the class and race myself, I had never played a character at 8th level, so my DM at the time built the human wilder for me for a Dark Sun adventure that I had hoped to be a long one but that ended up being two or three sessions only and then utterly forgotten (by the DM)

The first character ever that I made myself, entirely from the ground up, was my Living Greyhawk character, a Pureblooded Suel Fighter, who ended up mixing in Barbarian and Cleric levels. (his Deity was Kord, obviously)

However, I fail to recall which one actually came first.

Going further down the memory lane, I felt compelled to return and reminiscence the idea of "first class in each edition I've played".

I played 3.5 for uncounted years, but when the news came that D&D was about to get a new edition, we (my current DM and a bunch of friends) participated as closely as possible with the 4th edition playtest, and during those playtests, my first character was a Human Wizard, and when 4th edition finally came out, I played an Eladrin Warlord.

For a good while our "home group" played 4th edition (in Eberron almost exclusively!), but after a while we slowly turned our gaze into Pathfinder. I'd already played Pathfinder Society by then, from the beginning of Season 0, but that was 3.5 and it doesn't really count for anything. If I recall, the first Pathfinder Adventure Path we played with our group was Kingmaker, and my "first" pathfinder character was a Cavalier (and the Would-be King). I had of course played Pathfinder Society for a long time before that, but the character in it was just a conversion of my season 0 (3.5) halfling fighter/barbarian and somehow it doesn't feel like an actual first Pathfinder character.

My first 5th edition character was a Wizard, although it was in D&D/Next playtest period. In Next there were no backgrounds (iirc) but he was from a nomadic tribe, which felt refreshingly unorthodox for a wizard. When 5th edition was finally released, my actual first 5th edition character was a Paladin (who, funnily enough, comes from the same nomadic tribe as the wizard did, and is his direct 7th generation male descendant; probably destined for something great!)
Fun fact regarding the Human Wizards from both 4th and 5th edition playtests: they're both based on a same character I wrote about in junior high school, long before I got introduced to D&D.

To recap:


3rd edition
Fighter 2/Barbarian 1/Cleric of Kord 3 or Wilder 8 (not quite sure which was the first)
4th edition
Human Wizard (during playtest), Eladrin Warlord (once released)
Pathfinder and Pathfinder Society
Halfling Barbarian/Fighter (Season 0 PFS), Human Cavalier (Kingmaker AP)
5th edition
Human Wizard (during playtest), Human Paladin (once released)

[Vorok]

Half-orc Valor bard with the Acolyte background (raised in a temple of Mielikki).

I always liked supporting others, I got hooked on dnd from Critical Role, saw that bards were quite good, saw that they had melee-esque option (came up with him before Xanathar's, but Valor looks better than Swords to me still), and I always liked orcs.

Tried him out in most of the Mines of Phandelver adventure, and I had a blast with him.

[Gamer92131]

My first 5th edition character was a warlock. I loved the fluff and the idea of a good at will attack resource.

[2D8HP]

It may have been Fighter #1 - He fought Giant Spiders and Skeletons and...

....that's pretty much all I remember about him, he was one a conga-line of other Fighters (or "Fighting-Men" as the rules then called the class).

I remember where and when though.

In 1978 I picked up the D&D "Basic set", and the following year the guy who later became my best friend (R.I.P.) saw me reading the "blue book", and invited me to play at his house were his older brother was the DM using the '74 original rules plus supplements. So the "gang" was High School classes of '83 (the first DM, and his friends ('83 & '84), his brother, me and a couple others of the class of '86, and my brother (class of 1989), so a six year age difference spread, but with most within three years of each other.
Fortunately my best friend's brother (our first DM) was accepted into U.C Berkeley and stayed in town, so we had eight years of gaming before "real life" broke up "The Fellowship".
IIRC I was the one who introduced most of the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Gamaworld, anf Ringworld stuff, while my best friend introduced most every other RPG (Traveller, Runequest, Paranoia, Champions and MERP/Rolemaster), his older brother of course introduced us to original D&D/Arduin, with minor detours into Villains and Vigilantes, Chivalry & Sorcery, and Stormbringer!, and a major detour into Car Wars. My brother (class of 1989) started us on Empire of the Petal Throne, and Top Secret, which fell on me to GM which I did but using mostly Call of Cthullu rules! I'm not sure who introduced CoC (mysterious that)?
After high school I very briefly played "variant" D&D with "grown-ups", but that ended because of something the DM's girlfriend put on my shoulder that I objected to (and I was attacked by their Ferret!), and then Vampire, Shadowrun, Cyberpunk and now 5e D&D (as well as my buying and reading a mountain of RPG's I've never played).

The first non-D&D character was for Villains & Vigilantes and for the game the PC was supposed to be based on on myself - and other than that I'd rather have been playing D&D I don't remember much of that game.

The next game was Champions (another comic book superheroes RPG) and I made my PC an "Agent of the Shadowed Moon", and his "power" was a ray-gun he carried...

...which another PC grabbed, and that was the end of my character.

After that it was a bunch of Call of Cthullu "Investigators" who could read Latin, Greek or Magyar, and Traveller Scouts with starships.

My most memorable AD&D character was a half-orc Cleric/Fighter who kept his face hidden with a "Great Helm" and I had him try to act as a Paladin and...

...he didn't last long before the other players said "Nope!".

My last AD&D character that I remember something about was from the Barbarian Class in The Dragon magazine and I remember that I wrote down "Chaotic Good" as Alignment in the Character Record Sheet, and that in the Character Illustration I wrote "If you ain't a Barbarian then you ain't [CENSORED]".

My very last PC for decades was a "Solo" for Cyberpunk and that's all I remember about him.

I made some Knights for Pendragon, various GURPS PC's, and I made a dual class Rogue/Wizard and some Rangers for 3e D&D that I never played.

My first PC for 5e D&D that I briefly played (one session) was a half elf Rogue with the Entertainer Background, and then (for a bit longer) a human Urchin background Fighter named "Lander Stormwind", who's the earliest PC I can remember the name of without looking up the sheet.

The PC I best remember was "Ossian" a Folk Hero background Fighter/Rogue who I had curse like "Captain Haddock" from the Tin Tin comics.

[Cygnia]

For 5e? Rogue (Assassin). Figured it was a familiar path since I liked rogues in 3.5. Too bad the GM (despite us ASKING AHEAD OF TIME what sort of tone/style he had in mind and he said anything we made was fine so we designed serious characters) decided to do a nonsensical slapstick fart-joke filled game that left a bad taste in my mouth. :smallfurious:

[Grog Logs]

My first D&D PC was a Wood Elf Ranger using a bow. I liked the idea of attacking multiple times with a bow. It was 4e. *Hides from thrown glass bottles from the audience.* While it was initially exciting, the ability to do high damage from long distance made it too safe and, therefore, boring, IMHO. *Comes out of hiding as the angry mob subsides.*

My first 5e PC was a Halfling Monk. After slapping several enemies in the face, he earned the nickname, "Slappy." He was a lot of fun. Being a Folk Hero from a relatively safe, remote village, he automatically trusted the shortest person in the room (after himself) and assumed that they would likewise relate to him. He was a blast in terms of both mechanics and RP. Sadly, he did not make it past Level 3 before the Campaign ended, so he was always short on ki points and I did not get use any of the super cool monk abilities.

[noob]

My first D&D PC was a Wood Elf Ranger using a bow. I liked the idea of attacking multiple times with a bow. It was 4e. *Hides from thrown glass bottles from the audience.* While it was initially exciting, the ability to do high damage from long distance made it too safe and, therefore, boring, IMHO. *Comes out of hiding as the angry mob subsides.*

My first 5e PC was a Halfling Monk. After slapping several enemies in the face, he earned the nickname, "Slappy." He was a lot of fun. Being a Folk Hero from a relatively safe, remote village, he automatically trusted the shortest person in the room (after himself) and assumed that they would likewise relate to him. He was a blast in terms of both mechanics and RP. Sadly, he did not make it past Level 3 before the Campaign ended, so he was always short on ki points and I did not get use any of the super cool monk abilities.

4e is probably the edition that solved the most balance problems while still allowing people to pick the number on their characters by optimizing more or less and also allowing characters to be different from each other.
Also 4e had quite good tactics and did not have as much problems with characters single-handedly solving all the problems.

[bluepilgrim3]

Elf ranger. We ended up only playing one session, but I managed to fall out of a tree trying to ambush something, and later was turned to ash by a wizard hurling a lightning bolt at me.

[Acoma]

I DM'd first (risky move, I know, but the whole group was new to D&D and I'd had DM experience before with another system), but the first 5e character I ever made was a Tempest Cleric of some thunder god named Flinton Thunderbrand. If I'm honest, I picked cleric because it looked cool and interesting, and I'd recently watched a Thor film (I forget which one).

[RedMage125]

As this is in the 5e subforum, I'll share my first 5e class.

I was really pleased by the way the Bard has come into its own as a class. No longer the "underpowered guy who sings at people while they do the work", but a primary spellcaster who could substitute for Cleric in the "Warrior/Skillmonkey/Healer/Caster" dynamic. I also liked that the Valor Bard was a more competent combatant. So I made a Dragonborn Valor Bard. The concept was that of a Skald-type character, who waded into combat, singing battle hymns while he swung his weapon. My instrument for most casting was a hunting horn which was on a thong around my neck (allowing me to drop it as a free action and not lose it anywhere), but for out of combat music...bagpipes. That's right, 6'7" dragon-man in half plate playing bagpipes.

[MeeposFire]

Hmm my first character was based on the 1e ranger in a game that was unknowingly a combo of 1e, 2e , and OD&D.

My first 3e character was a barbarian.

My first 4e character was a valor bard. He was a blast to play.

My first 5e character was a life cleric.

[Great Dragon]

From "Your first Character" in the Roleplaying forum:

OMG. I'm old!!!
Alllll the way back to 1983!!!
(But, not Ancient = 1975<)

My very fist Character was an AD&D 1e Human 1st level "Magic-user".
No one ever asked his name, and he got tired of being called "Mage" so he exclaimed: "I'm Egam!!"
* What? I was like.....13 *

(I've had to recreate his Real Name too many times, now)

I also turned him into an NPC in my Games to replace that annoying "famous" Faerun Wizard.....

Actually, he's more like Fizbin (but not Divine): very friendly, but absent minded...

I've converted Egam into every Edition, except 4th. (Non Epic 3.x)

In 5e, he'd be like a 75-year-old 20th level Conjuration Wizard.....with a Raven Familiar.
- and a bad habit of pestering Low Level Adventurers, for some reason.


My next Character that I can remember, was an AD&D 2e Half-Elf Fighter/Mage/Thief.
I think I named him "Alvor Darktree" or something like that..... The only Class he didn't max out was Thief!


******
My favorite Shadowrun Character was a Troll Battle Mage: With the spells Improved Invisibility (Force 5) and Improved Stealth (Force 5) and wielding a Combat Axe at Creation; known as (did ya guess?) “Predator”.
Sadly, game died after 3 sessions.


******
Star Wars D20:
“Reka” Human Jedi Guardian.
Game stopped at 10th level.


******
Superhero:
“Illumix”. Altered Human.
Create and Control Light.

Eventually able to use
X-RAY vision.
Create Light in a 50 foot diameter, and control brightness.
Light Beam (damage living targets)
Light Beam (damage objects)
Invisibility
Intangible
Wingless Flight. (20 meters per turn, I think)

Flaw: Must recharge in sunlight for 4 hours a day.
Start: only usable for 8 hours. (Consecutive)
Upgrade: usable for 16 hours. (non Consecutive)
Maximum (never achieved) was 20 Consecutive hours.

Let me see: I get stuck DM-ing most of the time. Actual PCs:
3.0 Sorcerer. (Gnome, IiRC. Just to be different)

3.5 Rogue/Shadowdancer (Halfling)

Skipped 4e completely.

Couldn't afford Pathfinder, or find a group for it.

5e, being a player is rather recent.

Lightfoot Halfling Swashbuckler Rogue 9, now with 3 levels of Celestial Warlock/Blade.

I had considered Hexblade, but decided that Celestial worked better with his "good guy pirate" concept. Plus, a backup healer was kinda needed - especially in ToA.

If he dies, the replacement is an Ancients Paladin.

[HamsterKun]

In my first 5e campaign, I was a Fighter (Champion). Keep it simple and test the waters if this new edition with what I already knew from 3.5e.

[Darth_Versity]

My first character was during 3rd edition. He was a human Paladin and lasted all of two sessions when he took a half dragons Breath to the face. He was replaced by a Tiefling Rogue who survived 3 campaigns.

In 5th I had a Halfling Rogue during the playtest, and eventually had a Changeling Bard when I finally got someone else to run a game with my RL group.

The Bard was an instant favourite of mine when 5e came out. The perfect 5th man of the party who can back everyone else up in their role without feeling like being redundant (rather than a jack of all trades, master of none)

[Drazhar]

Rogue!

Any RPG I play, whether it be tabletop or video games I always start with an Rogue-like character.

My first character was a Rogue Assassin and with a little help from those that were more experienced than I was we built a sneaky damage dealing machine.

End build was 14th level full Rogue with maxed Dex and the Mobile and Alert feats. I basically went first ALWAYS and thanks to having a great and communicative group I was able to initiate most of the encounters (when applicable) thereby allowing my Assassinate feature to be used as often as I could! That damage stacks quick!

I have never played a character since that was able to output that much damage that fast!

[TalksAlone]

It was back in 3e, and I can't remember wich of the three came first exactly. But it was either:
A 400 pound Orc Barbarian who was very concientious of his speech impediment and constantly ate to disguise it (in-game explanation for my love of munching during session);
A half-elf Monk / Druid who fell in love and proposed to someone in every town;
Or a Human Cleric of St. Cuthbert who was an inflexible inquisitor and secretly an alchoholic.

[jaappleton]

The first 5E class I picked?

Cleric. Liked the whole 'spellcasting divine warrior' thing.

The first 5E class that I actually played?

Barbarian. It was literally two hours before game time, I didn't want to feel overwhelmed with spell choices, and wanted to keep my first 5E experience simple... And brutal. :smallcool:

[Lycurgon]

The class of my first ever character was Halfling, back in the Red Box Set when races were classes of their own. I chose it because l liked the look of them and it seemed fun and at that time I didn't associate them with fat hobbits.

The first 5e character was a druid because I have had a lot of fun with them if some previous editions. I ended up feeling like at low levels wildshape, with the ridiculous HP gain, almost felt like cheating.

[suplee215]

Barbarian and my most picked class. I like the simplicity of it and yet there is room for stubtle choices. I went sword and board with a shield for shield mastery to knock down enemies.

[Montesquieu P.]

I walked into the game store in Minneapolis, having "gotten off the boat" a couple days beforehand. (Actually a barge; I worked for 35 days, 1 trip+, as a deckhand up and down the Mississippi.) The co-owner of the store said, "Great! We need a fourth player; sit down." He handed me a character sheet. That's how I found out I was a Cleric.

This was the 3 basic books, pre-Greyhawk. I bought the set, but didn't get to use them until I got to Stanford -- where I ran an ad in the student newspaper's "Once Around The Quad" looking for other players. Our first run was October 4th, 1975. Can't remember what class I picked -- we went through starting characters like water on a sizzling hotplate. (Once it took us 4 parties, just to reach the dungeon -- 5-6 players with 2-3 characters per player.) The first who survived was a fighter who was a barbarian with a small 'b' -- because that class hadn't been "invented" yet.

Later on, went to the First Dundracon. Put in my two cents for the "Perrin Conventions", that later Steve Perrin consulted when he and Greg Stafford were putting together Runequest. Won the Tactical Competition, 3rd Dundracon. We'd developed our own house rules, even discussed publishing our own game (everybody was doing it; the name we'd settled on was 'Minotaur').

Jump ahead just short of four decades, and I re-entered with 5th Edition, 2 other 'Grognards', and 1 newbie.

And the cleric died ingnominiously. Stupid 20' pit-trap and a high dice roll on the damage.

[Arkhios]

I walked into the game store in Minneapolis, having "gotten off the boat" a couple days beforehand. (Actually a barge; I worked for 35 days, 1 trip+, as a deckhand up and down the Mississippi.) The co-owner of the store said, "Great! We need a fourth player; sit down." He handed me a character sheet. That's how I found out I was a Cleric.

This was the 3 basic books, pre-Greyhawk. I bought the set, but didn't get to use them until I got to Stanford -- where I ran an ad in the student newspaper's "Once Around The Quad" looking for other players. Our first run was October 4th, 1975. Can't remember what class I picked -- we went through starting characters like water on a sizzling hotplate. (Once it took us 4 parties, just to reach the dungeon -- 5-6 players with 2-3 characters per player.) The first who survived was a fighter who was a barbarian with a small 'b' -- because that class hadn't been "invented" yet.

Later on, went to the First Dundracon. Put in my two cents for the "Perrin Conventions", that later Steve Perrin consulted when he and Greg Stafford were putting together Runequest. Won the Tactical Competition, 3rd Dundracon. We'd developed our own house rules, even discussed publishing our own game (everybody was doing it; the name we'd settled on was 'Minotaur').

Jump ahead just short of four decades, and I re-entered with 5th Edition, 2 other 'Grognards', and 1 newbie.

And the cleric died ingnominiously. Stupid 20' pit-trap and a high dice roll on the damage.

Well, if it was the very same Cleric character (from basic, in brand new 5th edition colors), they had a presumably good life and forty plus years doesn't do a lot of good on your general health, unfortunately.

:smallbiggrin:

That said, I salute to that bit of history you provided.

[Mikaleus]

Technically my first 5e character was a level 1-2 druid. I was new to the group, and the noob of the table.
I remember casting produce flame and shapeshifting into a wolf.
Had a heap of fun but sadly, the group disbanded.

Got the chance to join another table and the start of a campaign. Had intended to play a Druid but after seeing the party, I couldn’t help but bring a character to help assist with areas I thought needed help. (The party was blade pact warlock who became a Hexblade after xanathars release, wild magic sorcerer, life Cleric).

My character ended up a half elf paladin who took the oath of the ancients before an Archfey. I like druids, but have always found them to be more territorial than adventurous.

The oath of the ancients is amazing.

As old as the elves and the rituals of druids, fighting for light and life against the corruption of darkness. Not only did I get a druid-lite flavour to my character, but it also allowed me to not get caught up with any trappings of nature versus civilisation, try to foster the good in npcs, and bed every pretty face I could, being the amazing knight in armor that I had become.

Oh and the group needed a tank and off healer. There was that too.

Since then I’ve played a couple of oneshots, another Druid level 3, a level 17 Forge Cleric, a bard for a single session, and currently a Wizard for a new campaign.

So far the paladin has been my most favourite character/class I’ve played but I feel the Bard is another contender for just as much fun.

[Ivor_The_Mad]

That's an interesting question because the first time I played D&D it was more just role-playing with premade sample characters in which I was a wizard. But the first character I ever made was a fighter. (not because they are my favorite class mind you but because I had a cool character concept.)

[Nhym]

Druid for me. I've always loved nature and animals so it was kind of an easy pick.

[Zhorn]

I wanted to have my first character be a Tabaxi Sun Soul Monk, but my DM at the time said no :smallfrown:
He wanted to have everyone's character sheets on his dndbeyond account, and so restricted it to only using content he had unlocked on his account.
(it ceased to matter after session zero as all the players we're using pencils and paper and didn't bring laptops to any sessions)

So instead I went basic and picked fighter.
... and then picked variant human to be super basic.
... and then put a 5 from rolled stats into charisma to be intentionally bad at the RP encounters to be basically useless in social settings
... but then went EK and made a detailed backstory interesting enough that the DM abandoned their planned villain, turned my backstory into the main arc of the campaign, and even ran an entire separate campaign for another group of people using the same story again with our party as the NPC's the other group where interacting with... Because committing to being basic is hard :smallcool:

[CaptainMendax]

My first character - who is still going in that campaign - was a dex-based halfling battlemaster fighter in 5e (I got a late start). I had wanted to be a pirate who was really good with swords and didn't know about the swashbuckler rogue. It's worked out well though, I get to stab a lot of things and do cool things like making a giant dragon become scared of me.