First time DMing, need advice.

[Da King]

It has taken several weeks but I have finally managed to get a group together for D&D and our first session will be this weekend. Most of the players in the group know how to play the game, however, I have one person who is completely new to D&D. I'm having trouble teaching them to play the game, and I was wondering if anyone here could help me out. Also, what class would be good for a first time player?

[Lochar]

Realisitically? A sorcerer. Pick their spells for them, write up a brief description on what they do, then sit them down. "You can cast these spells a total of X times." No need for picking which spells to memorize, etc.

Fighter is a decent idea, but the point of "I swing my sword," roll dice, doesn't draw people in very well.

[AKA_Bait]

Yeah, I'd go sorcerer. Rogue is a good choice too if they are a quick study.

[valadil]

Could one of the other players help out the newbie instead of you?

[Da King]

What about Warlock? Are they simple enough for a new player to handle?

[Adumbration]

Also, get him/her read Order of the Stick, Goblins or DM of the Rings. That should get him/her hooked, plus teach some rules.

[Dr Bwaa]

I agree with sorcerer. Grab the Metamagic specialist alternate class feature (PH2 I think) so there's no need to worry about a familiar (not to mention how much better it is anyway), and go.

As a side note, I'm currently DMing a long-running campaign that started off with me, one person who'd played before (twice, in 1ED), and five other PCs with no concept of how to play. We spent a long time getting character sheets together and I gave everyone a very basic overview, and then we just started and questions were answered as they arose. I think in-game teaching is a much more effective way than trying to abstract things to the players without anything actually going on in front of them.

[Da King]

Thanks for all the suggestions. One of the experienced players wants to play a druid, should I try to convince him otherwise or make druids less powerful?

[ChaosDefender24]

I would try to convince the druid dude to power it down a little bit just so that noob doesn't feel overwhelmed and useless compared to the rampaging bear next to him.
I'd do a barbarian myself, my first serious character was a sorcerer and I really had no idea what was going on. The barbarian has an extremely one-dimensional playstyle and rages are a good way to introduce the player to buffs and class abilities. He can also hold his own very well, especially if he does lion totem ACF

[Burley]

If you understand the Warlock, let the newkid play the Warlock. Any player can do it at low levels, as long as the DM knows what's going on. One of my first characters was a sorcerer, and I almost quit playing when I realized that I ran out of spells in a half-dozen rounds. The Warlock has lots of tricks. Just tell your player the options for his invocations. Easily customizable, and never useless.

And, I wouldn't tone down the Druid. Just suggest the alternate class feature in PHBII (I think) which turns his wild shape into shapeshifting. Convince him that it's cool because it's unlimited, and neither of you will have to keep track of how many wild shapes are left. In reality, it's easier for the DM, because he can only turn into a select few animals, instead of the entire Monster Manual. Much more difficult for him to ruin your plans. :P

P.S.-Sorry if I assumed that all your characters are male. I just didn't see any "her"s or "she"s.

[Draz74]

Just suggest the alternate class feature in PHBII (I think) which turns his wild shape into shapeshifting. Convince him that it's cool because it's unlimited, and neither of you will have to keep track of how many wild shapes are left. In reality, it's easier for the DM, because he can only turn into a select few animals, instead of the entire Monster Manual. Much more difficult for him to ruin your plans. :P

Or convince him that it's cool because it's available from Level 1, rather than starting at Level 5. Woo!

[Burley]

Or convince him that it's cool because it's available from Level 1, rather than starting at Level 5. Woo!

Draz74...thank you. I'm pretty sure you're the first person ever to not tell me that my suggestion is wrong in my entire history of the board, which isn't that long of a history, but still...
Thank you...
I shall sing you a song!
:smallsigh: Oh, Draz74. Thank you. And, also, Dog Poo.:smallsigh:

[Da King]

One of my first characters was a sorcerer, and I almost quit playing when I realized that I ran out of spells in a half-dozen rounds.

This is the exact reason I'd like the new player to try a warlock. Eldritch blast is unlimited,and the invocations you can apply to it are fun. Plus the d6 hit-die and being able to wear light armor make them tougher than sorcerers.


And, I wouldn't tone down the Druid. Just suggest the alternate class feature in PHBII (I think) which turns his wild shape into shapeshifting. Convince him that it's cool because it's unlimited, and neither of you will have to keep track of how many wild shapes are left. In reality, it's easier for the DM, because he can only turn into a select few animals, instead of the entire Monster Manual. Much more difficult for him to ruin your plans. :P

Thanks. I own the players handbook 2 and this alternate class feature looks like a great way to keep him from abusing wild shape.


P.S.-Sorry if I assumed that all your characters are male. I just didn't see any "her"s or "she"s.

Actually, the new player is female. I was surprised I actually found a girl interested in D&D.

[Burley]

Female players aren't rare, they're just hard to come by sometimes. But, in my experience, female players are more fun, for the simple fact that they bring a different air to the table. The game suddenly becomes more fun when there are less boob jokes flyin' around. :smalltongue:

[Gaiwecoor]

This is the exact reason I'd like the new player to try a warlock. Eldritch blast is unlimited,and the invocations you can apply to it are fun. Plus the d6 hit-die and being able to wear light armor make them tougher than sorcerers.

Absolutely. There's also another big point, here: spell selection. If a new player tries to play a sorcerer/wizard, picking the known spells or preparing spells can be a big hindrance: which ones does a new player pick? Warlock's great, largely because there's a small selection to choose from to begin with. If she has an idea of what she wants to play, there's probably an invocation that can go along with it.

Alternatively, if she wants to play an arcane caster, suggest the Warmage or Beguiler. Like the warlock, they get a d6 hit die and can wear armor. They also don't suffer from the sorcerer/wizard spell selection wall: they know their entire class spell list as soon as they can cast that level of spell. They also get enough spells per day that she shouldn't have to worry about running out, unless you'll be throwing a huge number of encounters each day.


Actually, the new player is female. I was surprised I actually found a girl interested in D&D.

This almost made me burst into laughter in the middle of class. Of my current group, 3/6 (including DM) are female. It's strange being one of two males in a party of five. They seem to care about things like soap. :smalleek:

[Hal]

I would say either Barbarian or Fighter, and you pick out the feats for the player. One of the most complicated things to learn is the combat system, so it helps if you have an uncomplicated class ("So, I want to hit the guy with my sword, right? Okay, I do that. Roll a d20? Okay.")

Really, if they're having trouble picking up on the game, your first session should be simple. An easy investigation followed by an uncomplicated battle. Maybe they're tracking down an escaped prisoner who fled back to his gang's hideout or something like that. Yeah, your experienced players could be bored if its too easy, but new players can get turned off from the game very easily if they're not eased in. There's a lot of details to keep track of and options to keep in mind, and it's easy to get overwhelmed when you're new.

[LotharBot]

I would say the key is to give your player a character who can do what the player wants to do, in the most mechanically straightforward way possible. Either you or an experienced player should take the time to help with character setup, and make sure to explain the character abilities to the player.

If the character wants to hit things with a sword, either a barbarian or a fighter are simple. If they want to blast things with magic, a sorcerer (possibly with a reserve feat) or a warlock are nice. If they want to be really social, a bard or socially focused rogue are useful.

In your first session, make sure to play to that character's strengths, but include some encounters where other characters will be more effective as well, so they get used to being part of a team. Pick a short investigation followed by a long battle, or a long investigation followed by a short battle, or short investigations mixed with short battles, depending on which area the player expressed the most interest in and how their character is tweaked.

The goal of the first session is to get the player familiar with (1) what their character is capable of, (2) the basic mechanics of the game, and (3) what it's like to role-play in a group.

[Kurald Galain]

It has taken several weeks but I have finally managed to get a group together for D&D and our first session will be this weekend.

This might sound counterintuitive, but for first-time groups and first-time DMs I'd strongly recommend not starting at level one. Make it level three or four instead. The reason I'm saying this is because L1-characters are prone to being one-shotted by lucky mobs, and/or dying by stupid accident especially if they're done by novice players. That's quite the turnoff.


As to "what character is easy" - first, don't give them a lot of rules. Don't say that "your stealth skill is 4 ranks + 2 dex mod + 2 racial mod - 1 armor", just say "to sneak, roll this die and add that number". Second, any class that doesn't have a lot of abilities will work. If you're at a level below spellcasting, rangers and paladins are fine. Fighters are always fine, barbarians too once you explain the concept of rage, and rogues too once you explain the concept of backstab (just say he deals more damage if he teams up with a friend). This assumes you're making the char for him, distributing 32 skill points isn't good for a novice.

And yeah, sorcerer works, but for that concept, warlock is better. Pretty much every other caster absolutely does not work at that level of simplicity.

[Squash Monster]

The suggestion of forcing (er... convincing) the Druid to take the Shapeshift variant is a very good one. It's one of a very small number of balance tweaks I made in my campaign, and it's worked out very well. The other ones, for reference, are that Divine Metamagic doesn't let you cast spells with more metamagic applied to them than you would have been able to cast otherwise (fixes all sorts of cheese), that Planar Shepherd is banned (because it needs to be), and that Artificer is banned (because I can't come up with a good way to balance it).

The other major thing I recommend is that if you have full casters, you encourage players who want to play melee characters to play the classes from Tome of Battle. These help the melee characters feel a lot more useful.

As for your new player, the suggestion depends on what kind of character he wants to play. Here are my suggestions for if you want a character with a good number of options but nothing too complicated:

If he wants to be a heal-and-tank paladin, get him to play Crusader (Tome of Battle) and get the party to help choose maneuvers.

If he wants to be a big combat brute, get him to play Fighter with Shock Trooper (Complete Warrior) and Dungeon Crasher (Dungeonscape).

If he wants to be a dashing swordsman type, get him to play a Bard with Snowflake Wardance (Frostburn).

If he wants to play an archer, gethim to play a Swift Hunter (feat from Complete Scoundrel, class from Complete Adventurer (if memory serves)) with Shot On The Run.

If he wants to play a rogue, let him. Crossbow sniping is pretty good (look through PHII and Complete Warrior), as is dual-wielding (rogues only). Get the Wizard to make judicious use of Grease to keep things flat-footed.

If he wants to play a caster, go for Sorcerer. If he'd prefer a divine caster, go for Favored Soul (Complete Divine, I think).

If he wants to play a gish, get him to play a Swordsage (Tome of Battle). If that's not close enough, try Duskblade (PHII).

[AslanCross]

I think the Warlock is a good idea. Not too many invocations to pick from, and running out of them is never an issue. Eldritch Blast isn't that strong, but it isn't a frustratingly weak attack either.

As for female players, my group is 3/5 female, and I have to admit I'm happy I don't have to deal with lewd jokes all the time. Another group (with some of the same players) is exactly half male and half female. Having to deal with characters named "Holden Magroen" and "Loven Magroen" in a serious adventure sometimes hurts the brain. >_o