New Gamer Joining My Group

[RandomNPC]

So i try to be as nice as i can when i've got someone new coming in, but there are a few problems i want some advice on.

1: this group is a average level 11, high power game style hack and slash. this new player is as i've said, new. even a fighter has a large number of feats, but keeping track of bonuses and whatnot from there is a lot easier than keeping a spell sheet, in most cases.

2: I have no ready sugestions for him. the characters all fit into a nice team. there's the big dammage fighter, big dammage archer, batwoman sorc, druidzilla, and the second big damage fighter is being retired with his wife and the player is bringing in an assassin. they have damage, spells, skills, healing, all kinds of silly. I don't know what he's thinking, but as far as i know someone made a breif discription of the game and thats what he knows, he's got the classes and dice thing down.

3:this game's only going to last a little while until we start a new game at 3rd level, but there are going to be enough game sessions to actually do some things and i don't want him just getting used to the characters skills when we go down to the 3rd level game.

so, A minitaur cleric named Boa Vine, who always insists on bovine intervention to solve moral problems, is a bit to much. Any idea sugestions that aren't to much? i need to be some kind of prepared if he doesn't know much more than he already said.

[Inyssius Tor]

Well, barbarians are generally regarded as easy, and bards are said to be useful "fifth-wheels".

[Kultrum]

Ya bards are good for new players too the don't have to keep track of to much stuff and can help everyone in the party a bit.

[Rahdjan]

I reccomend monk. Not much to keep track of. Also the character wont be depended on to fill any particular role and the survivability is a plus. Might work.

[TSGames]

I reccomend monk. Not much to keep track of. Also the character wont be depended on to fill any particular role and the survivability is a plus. Might work.

Actually, in my experience noob monks tend to die quite often. I don't know what it is exactly, but I think that most of the time they are misplayed by the noobie which leads to death.

Fighter is good, but can often be repetitive for a noob. Sorcerer is what I would recommend. Limited spells without too much book keeping; after a while the player will have his five or so primary spells memorized and will start experimenting with the use of some of the other spells at his disposal. Naturally, it will require some help from more experienced player for him to choose spells known, but, with tact, you don't need to decide for him, simply relate the merits of how awesome this and that spell is and he'll probably jump right on them.

[Avenger337]

I would never recommend a new player to play a bard. I did it once, it didn't end well (in terms of learning the game). There's just too much information to keep track of on the bard, and a lot of it is counter-intuitive.

[cykessa]

I returned to gaming about five years ago after an almost 15 year absence. When I expressed interest in joining my friends group they worked it this way. The DM created a straight fighter NPC that was only going to be with the group a short time and he was going to actually have me play. He gave me all of the information (background, character sheet, etc) that I would need and let me take it home so I could study it. This fighter was based on me, so I could simply be myself and not have to worry too much about role playing yet. The DM then figured out a way to introduce said character in one of the next two sessions.

In the meantime, I sat in on these sessions and sat between two experienced players. They allowed me to look on their sheets everytime they had to make a roll and explained how they got the final number (ie ranks, ability modifiers, feats, etc.) This did more than just show me the actually application of the rules, it also made me feel welcomed to the table.

When it was time to introduce the new NPC, which was in the first session. I moved me seat, so I was close to the DM. Since he created the character, he knew what all of her bonuses and whatnot were, so if I forgot something he was there to remind me. After a few sessions, I was ready to roll up my own character from scratch. Which was a good thing, since we just had a TPK.

Maybe you can try something like this, since you are only planning on playing with these characters for a short while.

[PnP Fan]

I like Cykessa's approach. It seems fairly educational. I would also suggest giving a niche that isn't filled at all. Maybe Ranger or Paladin. The Paladin might be difficult to RP, but the abilities are pretty simple to use. The Ranger allows for more freedom of RP, but is mechanically slightly more difficult. Sorcerer or Warlock aren't bad either, as they have a list of very specific things they can do. Personally I think that Sorcerer is probably easier to play than nearly any class, since you have a very specific list of actions to take, and don't really have to worry about the complication of the mellee combat rules too much.

[Lemur]

When dealing with new players, the first thing to do is to find out what the player wants to be able to do. If he's not sure, bring up some basic things which you know the game lets you do without much hassle, such as fighting, magic, stealth, and whatnot. Don't just rattle things off, and try to avoid directy suggesting anything, give him time to consider his possibilities and let him get an idea of what he wants to accomplish in the game.

Then, based on his response, figure out what class is best suited for his goals. It doesn't really matter if the class overlaps with what the group already has. What's important is that the player has something that he wants to play and will have a personal interest in, and will feel like it's effective. If you ask me, it sounds like the group already has some overlap without another player, so who cares about adding more to the pile?

Present the class to the player, and see if it meets his approval. If he definitely doesn't want it, move on to the next best option and see about that. Don't let him play a bard, though, the class is not very well suited to new players, although it may attract some of them at first. The monk has a similar problem, since it has special abilities with fancy names at every level, many of which aren't worth much in the grand scheme of things, but which attract new players with their siren call.

Once you've mutually decided on a class concept, you, another player, or the group as a whole should essentially build the character for him. He should have determined the character concept on his own by this point, but it's up to you to actually make it work mechanically. Choosing feats and spells for him during character creation saves a lot of trouble and confusion later on.

[Matthew]

I think I would vote for Human Fighter as a good introductory Base Class, as well, but given that this is an EL 11 game, it's hard to say. Human Sorcerer might be a better option?

[ravenkith]

Barbarian two handed fighter is the simplest class/feat combination by far.