The Best Classes for New Players in Dungeons & Dragons 5e

before we jump into this week's episode a quick message from our sponsors this week's episode was sponsored by rune Smith and elder man see they have just launched their brand-new Kickstarter which is live now until March 20th 2024 stibbles codex of companions rune Smith is a fellow youtuber and create some amazing content you can check out over on his channel I'm sure that his Kickstarter is going to be a great companion piece to the amazing content he already puts out this new tome for the fifth edition of the world's greatest role-playing game brings over 70 new creatures to the game all of which can be companions for your player characters the book is packed with new feats spells monsters including feats which give almost every class the option to gain a powerful familiar or companion which can aid you in combat exploration and more the team at elder man Z has got some amazing and adorable artwork for some of these creatures including the Banzai nth so check out stibbles codex of companions which is live now on Kickstarter until March 20th 2020 you can follow the links in the description below to get in on the Kickstarter and if you happen to miss out those links we'll also have the latest news and updates for how you can pick up the book after the Kickstarter is all over and now onto this week's episode greetings my name is Monte Martin and I'm Kelley McLaughlin we are the dungeon dudes welcome to our channel where we discuss everything Dungeons and Dragons including advice for players and guides for Dungeon Master's we upload new videos every Thursday so please subscribe to our channel so that you never miss an episode today we're talking about something that's very near and dear to our hearts it's one of our favorite things to do in Dungeons & Dragons fourth edition Bar None and that is introduce a new player to this wonderful game now we've done several videos about introducing new players to the game talking about how to start a session zero or how to get your characters to roleplay but today we're focusing on something a little different Monty and I have on our own terms decided the three best classes to get started with Dungeons & Dragons we didn't necessarily agree on all of them so we have a few different topics that we're gonna debate today each of us ask ourselves a question what would be the top three classes that you would recommend to a brand-new Dungeons & Dragons player for their very first character in their very first campaign Kelly and I thought we were gonna be able to agree on this but we can't so we're gonna each pit pick our top three and see what you think and who you think got it right there's a lot to debate today so let's get rolling when I sat down to look at my top three choices for a brand new player getting into Dungeons & Dragons I started with what I think is the most classic and iconic class in Dungeons & Dragons and that is the fighter now the reason why I went with the fighter is because I think it is the easiest to grasp for a new player most players diving in want to do some sort of damage dealing to monsters they want to be that big bad hero and the fighter is the clear-cut option for that there's a lot of versatility in the fighter class as well do you want to be a heavily armored fighter wielding a two-handed weapon or maybe a lighter armored fighter with a bow or you could be a sword and board style fighter there's a lot of options here and really no matter what type of damage dealing monster you want to be you can jump in and pick that's best for you and you can still dish out a lot of damage also if you're brand new to tabletop games in general there's an option in the fighter for you and that's in the champion subclass which really allows you to just focus on understanding the simple mechanics of running in and attacking your enemies now if you're a little bit more accustomed to tabletop role-playing games and can handle a few more mechanics then you can jump into the battle master option which gives you an array of battle master maneuvers that can really diversify your fighter if you're choosing the fighter but you want that slight bit of magic and you want to try out what spell casting is like in the world of D&D then you could go with the Eldridge Knight either way you're gonna have a lot of fun it's going to be a clear-cut path on what you need to learn and the mechanics you need to understand and you're gonna be able to jump in have a lot of fun slaying monsters and being the big damn hero in your party so Kelly I agree with everything that you said but I think the Barbarian is the better choice for the player that you would recommend the fight or two time and time again I have seen a new player - Dungeons and Dragons completely fall in love with this game with only a few simple words I would like to rage the barbarian is so much more fun for a new player than a fighter is it blows the doors off of it and how entertaining and chaotic it is and for the psychopath or the damage dealer they will love just how much mayhem they can cause as a barbarian it is incredibly rewarding and extremely simple because you get to pick up a bunch of dice you get to roll all your attacks with advantage you get to roll your own initiative checks with advantage you get to be up front you get beat up a barbarian makes terrific mistakes and has a ton of fun doing it and and part of what makes this so magical is that the barbarians role playing is so straightforward and it works for so many different player character races I have had players jump in with half work barbarians with human barbarians with dwarf barbarians with elf barbarians and just loved the archetype around it it is such an iconic one you get to go through all your Conan and red Sonya archetypes and get inspired by that you get to feel like a badass playing a barbarian and that alone for a new player I think is so important although I don't disagree with any of your points I will say that I do find a lot of that still lends itself to the fighter the fighter does have the ability to just run in be so much fun to roleplay to get behind and all of us have cheesy one-liners that we can throw out as the as the Big Damn hero in the battle I will say though that I have also seen some players who are jumping into the barbarian for the first time struggle with their damage output now I know we've talked about how you can actually build a barbarian to output a lot of damage but I don't think it's as easy to build that barbarian without understanding the game as it is to know how to deal damage properly with a fighter I would argue that the cases were we've had a barbarian player unsatisfied were where we were having a barbarian player alongside another marshal player who was very experienced I think either of these classes make a great first choice I'm sticking with Fighter I just think the barbarian blows the doors off of it my second choice is actually the same as Monty's second choice and we did actually agree on this one we were looking at what spell caster might be the easiest option to grasp as a new player and my choice was cleric I agree I think the cleric is a fantastic option for new players and I feel very strongly about this I've seen several Dungeon Master's especially experienced dungeon masters that have experienced players that are introducing a new player to the group feel that new player should never play spell casters in Dungeons and Dragons so you've immediately cut off almost every single class as an option now and almost and in fact many of the archetypes as well there's only a handful of non spell casting classes in D&D not only that but when I first got into Dungeons & Dragons the thing I wanted to do most was throw down spells that is some people's favorite part of Dungeons & Dragons and there are people who swear by only playing spell casters and to tell them that they can't because they're brand new is not a good way to go so I think we both were on consensus that one of the big benefits of recommending a cleric as a spell caster to a new player is that clerics do not choose a list of spells known every day that a cleric prepares their spells they get to choose whatever spells they want to prepare the prepared spell casting mechanic can be a little tricky to explain to a new character and you may want to help players understand what their spells do at first but the good thing about the prepared spell casting mechanic is that it allows players to experiment with different spells and they don't ever feel locked in I've seen Dungeon Master's put a spells known spell caster in front of a new player and make their spell choices for that player and it turns out that the dungeon master picked spells for that player that that player doesn't like and new players need the opportunity to experiment with a wide range of different spells in order to learn how the spell casting system works and in order to see for themselves what strategies and tactics are possible I think what's really important here is that I've actually introduced a lot of players to Dungeons & Dragons who have chosen other spell casters and every single one of them at some point came up to me and said hey I'm really not even using three or four of these spells that I picked I didn't really get how they worked would you be okay if I switch them out me being a very forgiving DM I say yeah because I want them to have fun at the table but with the cleric you don't have to worry about that there's a lot of new players that are afraid to ask that question because new players don't understand quite yet the relationship between a player and a dungeon master that a player can actually ask a dungeon master for favors and to make exceptions to the rules so I've seen players that were like oh I hate my spells and they never talked to me about that problem where and so the cleric they can feel that way and they can solve the problem on their own by changing the spells out that they prepared they can experiment with with those things another major point about the cleric that makes it such a great choice is the versatility in your subclass options a lot of people hear the word cleric and they think oh I'm the party healer but if you look a little bit deeper you don't even have to go that far into looking into the cleric to realize that they don't need to be just a healer there are so many different subclass options and whatever the new player coming to the table feels is their fantasy role-playing concept there's probably a subclass for them oh I want to be a cleric who is in tune with nature well there's a subclass for that oh I want to be Thor bringing lightning down on my enemies well there's a subclass for that there's so many different versatile options for your cleric that all your player needs to do is pitch you an idea on what sort of spell caster they've imagined and you can tell them which subclass is going to be best for them I think this also heightens the role playing element as well for many Dungeon Master's the first thing they start with when they're building a new world is their cosmology and their gods so many Dungeon Master's are really good at talking about what makes all the deities in their settings so unique this gives you an entry point to talk to your player about your world and say who the deities are of your setting and generally because deities involve really big archetypes like Thor the God of Thunder or the god of death or the God of War this gives the player a really easy starting point for how they want to roleplay their character cleric spells in general and divine spell casting in general is very unambiguous the spells are very straightforward and how they work there is a good smorgasbord of control spells role-playing spells damage dealing spells buffing spells and of course healing spells and clerics themselves are quite durable reliable and have lots of different skill options so the player has a lot of ways that they can go if they want to be a more gregarious role player or if they just want to play a team player it seems like it's not common knowledge sometimes that clerics can be some of the best damage-dealing spell casters in the entire game of Dungeons & Dragons clerics have access to such amazing damage-dealing spells like spirit Guardians or spiritual weapons or some of them can even grab fire ball which is one of the best damage-dealing spells in the entire game and they can dish out a lot of mayhem on the table and I just think that they are underrated and people just say oh I don't want to be the holy healer but the holy and the healer can be scratched out you are gonna be a divine spell caster but how holy you want to be and how much of a healer you want to be is up to you as the new player that said at the end of the day a lot of players will still look at the cleric and they will see a holy healer and they're like no I want to play a spell caster this is a game of magic and fantasy and elves and I want to throw fireballs and summon the undead and be a spell caster this is a game about magic I want the magic if the cleric is a turn-off for me the wizard is the best port of call for an arcane spell caster again for many of the same reasons why the cleric is the best spell caster in general I think that the spell book mechanic of the wizard combined with the fact that they can choose and swap out their spells on a day to day basis is a really important reason why the wizard is such an accessible class for new players oftentimes Dungeon Master's justify to themselves that the wizard is somehow more complex then the sorcerer or more complex than the width the warlock or the bard because the wizard has to choose what spells to prepare every day the inverse is actually true the fact that the wizard can change their spells out every day is what makes this so accessible for new players because they don't get locked into the choices that they make when they level up and instead in every game session they can explore new spells and new strategies I think the wizard is utterly iconic of Dungeons and Dragons in general and is a very very simple spell caster to play one of the most fun elements of playing a wizard is that you get a familiar you get an animal companion and so many new players get into the personality of their character by having some sort of companion there's so much role-playing to draw on from wizardly traditions like pop culture things like Harry Potter especially so there's a lot of role-playing inspiration for playing a wizard as well and there's so many spells to choose from that your player will be able to find over the course of playing that wizard the archetype and the play style that works for them yes I would probably put them in front of a simpler wizard subclass like Anna Volker or a transmuter and I just think of how much fun people like you had playing your first wizard which was your first character into fifth edition Dungeons and Dragons and yeah you got there it was a little bit of work to understand how the spell casting system works but that's par for the course with learning a new game that is something that I will say is it being my first player character I did struggle in the first couple months to understand the mechanics of the spell book how many spells I was allowed to have what I knew versus what I could prepare once I got there it was alright but it was a little tough that's why I still think cleric is the easier option I agree I think cleric is a little bit easier than the wizard but I think that if you want to recommend an arcane spell caster because players want to feel the magic of Dungeons and Dragons and nowhere else are you going to feel the magic then with an arcane spell caster but I think that Dungeon Master's make a bit of a mistake in recommending the warlock and the sorcerer to new players because meta magic and eldritch invocations are super complex and subtle and you can mess up your character by not pairing these things really really well you can't mess up a wizard if you pick the wrong spells wouldn't you'd level up because you're always gonna be able to pick more spells or discover a new spell book if the players got a bunch of spells that they don't like you can just throw in a spell book in the next pile of treasure and you can actually as a dungeon master subtly recommend new spells to a wizard player by putting spell books in their treasure you actually have a way to motivate them to be like yeah you can find new spells so they actually get a way to advance their character outside of leveling up and I think that's really exciting and really useful for a new player and you don't get that with the other arcane spell casters I went a little bit of a different way with my third choice all the options that we've talked about so far fit into two of the most iconic categories and that is being the brute frontline fighter or being a spell caster but there's a third archetype that a lot of players really want to dig into when they jump into a fantasy game and that is the stealthy assassin type character and this is why I picked a rogue as my third option there are so many people out there including myself I have played Skyrim probably a hundred times gonna start yes I have several hundred hours logged in the Elder Scrolls games - do you know what happens every time I make a new character in Skyrim I think it's the same thing that happens every time I make a new character in Skyrim we play a stealth Archer yes no matter what I have played a spell caster in Skyrim and by like a level 10 or 11 I'm like oops I'm using a bow and upping my sneak and stealth again well guess I'm just a stealth Archer so that game lends itself really well to that and I carry that over to a lot of other fantasy options I really like the option of the rogue in Dungeons & Dragons like the fighter I find the options for what you're going to do in combat are pretty clear-cut your job as the rogue is to deal as much damage as you can to the primary target on the battlefield you're looking for that opening you're looking for that stealth kill you're looking for that sweet spot to hit and that's a lot of fun for a new player when you land a great sneak attack with a rogue and you take out a big enemy on the battlefield you're gonna fall in love with the rogue not only that but like what I mentioned with the fighter depending on how you want to play D&D there's an archetype for almost any type of robe that you can imagine do you want to dabble in spell-casting well we have the arcane trickster do you want to be that stealthy assassin there's literally the assassin subclass you could be the thief which allows you to be more of that sneaky kind of scoundrel rogue the other major point for me about rogues is when it comes to role-playing there are two sides of this coin and I want to help new players out by saying this a lot of new players fall into the trap of thinking that they are going to be that brooding angry lone wolf rogue who stands apart from the party steals from them and back stabs them if we look to examples from pop culture you can clearly see that there are a lot of different ways that we can go with our rogue I'm thinking characters like Han Solo or Arya Stark or even things like James Bond Jack Sparrow or you could even go the route of Zorro one of the classic rogues from pop culture and a lot of these characters are more than just the brooding scoundrel they work within a team dynamic they're helpful to the other party members but they are still that sneaky stealthy scoundrel sort of character and it's because of this tide of pop culture that I actually think the rogues are really easy to attach yourself to for role playing you can play a rogue in a lot of different ways and you can actually focus more on how you're gonna roleplay them because you know that all you're doing on your turn is looking for that prime sneak attack which gives you still some decent options but you can have a lot of fun playing around with your movement on the battlefield positioning yourself in the right place staying hidden from the enemies landing that sneak attack and then role-playing your scoundrel one-liner that you're gonna throw out and then help your party out with stealing the treasure and running home you know I agree with everything that you said about the rogue I think that they are a fantastic option and they almost made my list as well I think new players struggle with the sneak attack mechanic and if you want a reason why our sneak attack flow chart on the dungeon masters guild has several hundred downloads but that's also why we made it so if you are going to play a rogue we're gonna put the download link in the description below so clearly there's confusion around how the sneak-attack mechanic works I also do feel that the rogue is an invitation for some of the bad role-playing habits to develop and become problems so there are some new players that will gravitate towards the rogue for the wrong reasons and you got to be vigilant about which of the ones that are gonna be new players that are gonna be destructive and steal from other party members and not be a scoundrel but just be a jerk just don't do it yeah just don't do it but don't do it but again new players struggle with this right like new players are still trying to test the waters on what the limits are and it can be really difficult for a new player to face all these sort of restrictions because you don't want to tamp down on someone's creativity you don't want to throw a wet blanket on what excites them about being their character and so that's kind of this delicate balance that you play with the rogue I still think it's way too popular of an archetype to not include it and I think that the Rogue is designed in a way that is simple to grasp if you can get over that hurdle of bad role-playing problems that can be developed at the rogue I think everything else about it speaks to easily playable for a new player I would also say that the rogue can play in all the pillars of the game so a well-built premade rogue can have a good intelligence dexterity and charisma score so they can play in combat they can play in melee or ranged because sneak attack works with dexterity based attacks they can be a scout or an explorer they get to disarm traps which is so much fun and they get to lie cheat and steal and interact with NPCs so I do agree with you on that you kind of get to try everything as a rogue and especially if you want to tack on arcane trickster we want to be very clear in the fact that this list should not dissuade you from choosing the other class options over the years Monty and myself have introduced dozens of brand new players to the worlds of Dungeons and Dragons and at the end of the day the real question is what speaks to them the most some classes that Monty and I might agree are the hardest to get in to have actually been some of the favorite choices for new players and they have had a lot of fun playing them I've introduced new characters through warlocks or Rangers or druids and they've had a blast getting to know those characters and will remember them forever this is really just an idea and a debate on which we think the easiest are but really it's up to the player because every player should play what excites them the most I completely agree I think it helps to be aware of which classes are a little bit more complex and talk to your player as you're recommending a new class of them players that have a lot of experience playing other tabletop games whether or not those are RPGs or board games players that have experience playing a lot of computer role-playing games will probably be able to dive in to some of the more complex classes a lot more than if you're introducing your cousin who has never played a video game before or your new roommate who has no knowledge of anything geeky or nerdy at all but just wants to know what you're doing on Friday nights well these are just our first recommendations no matter what class your new player chooses there is always going to be a great way to spark the passion for this hobby in a new player so this has been a look at our top three choices for introducing new players to Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition if you have any other suggestions you can tell us about them in the comments below and of course if you enjoy our show please consider supporting our work on patreon you can find out how by following the links in the description below don't forget to check out our live play shadows of dragon hime which airs Tuesday nights at 6 p.m. Eastern on Twitch you can find all the previous episodes right up over here and to get your new players started we've got a whole bunch of class guides right up over here please subscribe to our channel so that you never miss an episode thank you so much for watching and we'll see you next time in a dungeon

Channel: Dungeon Dudes

Views: 289,270

Keywords: dungeons, dragons, tabletop, gaming, roleplaying, games, accessories, rules, rule, gameplay, play, game, rpg, d20, player, character, D&D, 5e, DM, PC, tips, advice, guide, guides, review, dice, books, book

Id: c_IR2akSzHI

Length: 25min 24sec (1524 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 19 2020