Tabletop Discussions - What too Pick as Your First Character?

This is a question that is going to vary based on system, and I may discuss others at another time, but for now I'll stick with these two systems, as they are fairly well known and something people are likely to play (I am mostly speaking on 3.5 D&D, as I'm not as familiar with 4, and not at all a fan of 5th)

A thing I actually really hate is people suggesting for first-time players to play as a fighter. I get the concept, it's very easy to learn and your role in combat is simple, hit things in the face. The problem is, especially with D&D, you become severely limited because of that. Almost no skills, all your stats are physically based to keep your character useful, and that leaves any kind of heavy armor character especially worthless because of Skill Check Penalties. And if you are building a fighter that's useful, you end up with a very limited roll in combat because of feat selection. You end up with a character that can do very little, and this just plain sucks if you are trying to get into the game. The extra feats, expanded fighter abilities, and more options, in general, make Pathfinder a lot better for the fighter, but it doesn't escape entirely.

A common thread I do agree with is generally it's not a good idea to play as a full caster, especially not a prepared caster like the Wizard. While you end up with an incredible amount of variety, it's really hard for a new player to create a character like that without having an understanding of what the options available to you are, and what you can actually do with them. It's an overload of information for someone new to RPGs, and some bad choices will leave them unable to contribute in a meaningful way. Again something mitigated a bit with Pathfinder with additional abilities added on due to School or bloodline choice, but again it's not going to remove this issue entirely.

Another thing I would strongly suggest against is a Paladin. The Paladins Code of content is very restrictive, and can seriously mess with a new character who is trying to get a feel for the system, especially if they start realizing a lot of things they want to try they cannot do without losing their powers. Even when compared to other classes with an alignment they are harsher due to having a specific code they must follow.

With those out of the way, what exactly are you looking for in the first choice of class? Well, you want someone who has a good amount of abilities to play around without so they aren't shoehorned into a smaller role in the party, someone that isn't going to be too restrictive on what the player can do, and someone who isn't loaded down with a massive spell list.

If we are sticking to things available in the core for both systems, there are three great choices. The first being a Ranger. Their key role is the same as the fighter, but with a bit of additional utility as they get access to an animal companion and spells. These are a few levels off, and only work as a very small boon, but it's something that expands your options. More so they have a solid set of out of battle skills. You basically get the simplicity of playing as a fighter with the benefit of additional in battle and out of battle utility. This is probably the best choice to go with if they are interested in playing a physical combat type.

Another good option is the Rogue. It's true that later in the game depending on what kind of campaign you are running, Sneak attack can become risky as many enemies are immune to it and Rogues can be a little squishy. Still, there out of combat utility is fantastic, and so long as you have a fighter type and casters who are willing to back up and support the rogue, they can be a huge boon to combat due to flanking bonuses and sneak attack. A rogue ends up with enough skills that most situations that come up they will have something to do, even if they didn't pick the most optimal of skill load outs.

Perhaps a bit of an unconventional choice, but I think a Bard is another great choice for anyone interesting in playing around with Magic. The Bards Spell list is a lot more limited for starters, but especially in Pathfinder, you have a lot of different options that are great to have on hand. The Bard is great at supporting any character through their spells, their bardic performance is easy to understand and is always useful to support characters, plus in the hands of a new player they are excellent at a variety of skills (In the hands of an expert they are potentially better skill wise then a Rogue in Pathfinder).

For reasons similar to the Bard, if you go outside of Core there exists the Alchemist in Pathfinder, this was the character my sister played her first game. It was immediately fun for her to get into as she could play around as this little mad scientist. We were playing Rise of the Runelords, one of the earlier Pathfinder Adventure Paths, trying to get information out of this guy. I had an idea to get the horrifying water from the fish tank to get him to talk, and my sister suddenly got the idea to use her alchemy to make this water even worse to drink. It didn't work, but it was a fun experiment all the same.

Aside from that, it's a lot like the bard in that there are a lot of options at your disposal, but rather than just support all the alchemist's spells are self-targeting, and mix that with bombs and it's a lot of easy to understand options to join the fray of combat.

While this guide is specifically directed towards Pathfinder, and a bit of DnD 3.5, it's a good guideline for any gaming systems that is class-based. The key is to weed out classes that are really restrictive in terms of gameplay or roleplaying as well as classes that can overwhelm you with options or are really easy to screw up and make terrible.