Wife just starting out - need a simple character

[KillingGameshow]

My wife wants to give DDO a go, and she is a D&D noob. So the character creation process was a bit overwhelming, as she has no idea which feats to choose, which stats are meaningful, etc. I also don't want her to get 10 minutes in, and be frustrated with how complex her character is to play. So my question is twofold

1) Are the "defaults" that the character creator picks alright? and
2) Which class is the simplest to play?

[KoboldKiller]

Make a dwarven fighter. Put points into str and con maybe a little into dex for eventual mithral plate. Easy class to play and not hard to figure out. Also go to the fighter forum as there are several builds in there.

[sigtrent]

Dwarven fighters are a great option for a simple character to play.

The default characters are fine for learning the game. If you are really into having the best character possible, they arn't so good but ultimately they should work fine for a new player. Then when you know the game better you can try out ideas you like more.

[Osharan_Tregarth]

My normal build for someone starting out is an evasion paladin. They're very durable(ie spells, traps, etc don't do a whole lot to them), and with the built in immunities they don't need to do as much gear swapping as another class might.

[Forceonature]

Straight up fighter is the easiest to learn on. Make sure STR is at least 16 and CON at least 14, and balance the rest of the stats so she won't have to worry about any shortcommings early on. Pick some basic feats early like Weapon Focus, etc. Sword and board to start out.

[unionyes]

An excellent first character is a Dwarven Fighter. The defaults usually suck, so go with max Constitution (tell her it will make her tougher to kill) and pump up Strength so she can kill stuff quick. Toughness is a great feat for newbies too, since they don't die as often when they make those mistakes that they are just going to regardless. I also like Barbarians for players that are new to DDO but not to other games like it, because they have the same qualities minus the AC, but you can take sprint boost as soon as you get to the Harbour and it gets rid of the whole slowly running to the next quest thing.

Also, I would suggest mailing her some healing potions and letting her flounder around in the Goodblades quests to get her feet under her. If you have two computers and two accounts, roll up a cleric to follow her around and heal her up. From personal experience, I can tell you this will be hugely appreciated.

[KillingGameshow]

We both have computers and play side by side, so I think i'll do what you suggest. My initial approach was to let her pick whatever she wanted, and then pick something to compensate. Unfortunately, she picked a sorcerer, and before i had a chance to make a "tag-along" character, she was already frustrated with how to select spells and feats. She's a WoW/Lotro player, but neither of those have character creation that is anywhere near as involved as good ol' D&D. Thanks for all the help - dwarf fighter it is for her.

[captain1z]

halfling paladin



halflings are cute = girls/women like cute (and the girls dance funny)

paladins have immunities, AC, and can fight = she will be able to do a lot and not worry about a bunch of status ailments

she can help heal if she wants to = also the paladin is a good gate way character. Teaches u the basics of spellcasting, healing and fighting

depending on her playstle she may later wanna branch out and make a cleric, fighter, or caster ...... but the paladin is a good way to try out all those classes on a very basic level.

[Aaden]

I'm going to pipe up and disagree with ppl here and suggest that a fighter is NOT an ideal character to start out with. I say this for a couple reasons. Fighters are not as simple as they first appear and it will lead to issues.

1) Feat selection and stats define the character almost exclusively. So if you're looking for something she doesnt have to think overly much about at creation, this is not an ideal choice.

2) Intimidating and keeping agro is the benefit of having a fighter in aparty. If she is new, this is a difficult skill to learn to use well. It will lead to one of two things as you start progressing past level 3: a) You and her keep getting killed because your squishy compliment char keeps getting agro and dying or b) other fighters in your party do the job differently than she does and steal all the thunder (and kills).

3) Melee involves al ot of running, especially with a squishier partner. She will get frustrated with swinging at kobolds that leap around like ninjas.

4) Most successful low lvl fighters are twinked out. If you're starting something new and are trying to get the best new gaming experience, twinking isnt the way to go, and a fighter thats not twinked out often ends up dwarfed (no pun intended my bearded friends) by other melee chars who join up.

There are probably a few other reasons I could list as to why fighter isnt the best class for her, but I will shelve that for now. Let me instead suggest a btter alternative.

Human or Elven RANGER.

A ranger is a GREAT first character for anyone to play because it allows the new player to feel like they're contributing in a lot of different arenas. The combat is VERY simple if you teach her how to handle the TAB key and toggle the auto attack selectively.

The ranger's skills are diverse and allow her to contribute to 1) spotting traps (even if she cant disable them), 2) find secrets, 3) get the most benefits from the optional DM Voice Listen and Spot check results, 4) scout ahead and feel sneaky

As a ranger she can primarily use her bow to get the hang of the game and kill stuff. It will feel like she's contributing while letting her learn other aspects of the game such as melee combat, trapfinding, and even spell casting once she gets up to lvl 4.

[Naso24]

She wanted to play a sorc, so go with that. My suggestion is you create a secondary character and power favor the character to 400 favor, and create a drow sorceress.

STATS:

STR 10 2pts
DEX 12 2pts
CON 12 6pts
WIS 8 0pts
INT 12 2pts
CHR 20 16pts

or

STR 10 2pts
DEX 14 4pts
CON 16 10pts
WIS 8 0pts
INT 12 2pts
CHR 18 10pts

Skills: UMD and Concentration

My wifes first character was a 28pt halfling wizard build, and she learned to kick butt. I helped her with feat selection and level ups along the way. Be patient and do the research for her. Present her with a few options and describe what each does.

At least you can always pick new feats with dragonshards, you can reset enhancements, and you can change your spells every 3 days. A sorcerer is a good class to learn on.

[Shaphan]

My wife just started playing DDO as well and she chose a ranger as her first character. This is actually her first MMORPG as well so i agree with the above post regarding the ranger class giving her the ability to feel like she is contributing while learning the game. So far, so good as she is now level 5 and has completed some of the early series quests like WW, STK and Tangleroot.

[Oreg]

I also say Lawful Good Fighter. Don't worry about the complexities of high level fighter choices. You will have BAB and that is all that matters at lower levels. She should play this pure fighter up to 400 favor and then decide if she would like to reroll as a drow, splash pally levels or rogue levels etc.

[CSFurious]

a ranger might be one of the hardest characters to build & then play

these rangers discussed in this thread will likely not make it past level 7 by August

anyway, a great first character is a support character like a cleric, bard or paladin

[Riddikulus]

I'll echo the majority above... dwarven fighter is simplest and gives you a lot of feats to play with. Dwarven barb isn't too bad either. Other classes get more complicated.

For caster start with a wizard... much easier to change spells out, later you can try a sorc where your choices are pretty limited.

I don't know about the defaults other than I know the default rogue sucks even more than rogues typically do.

[paintedman]

Wife started with halfing sorc. Pretty simple set up, tab, cast. Also allowed me to take a more close combat class to accomidate her and let her figure things out for herself. Easy on the leveling up, mostly cause there are so few options. As soon as she hit 400 favor jumped up to a drow sorc. Also if she is totally new I would suggest this. Don't shortman quest or do quest that are not your level. If it says level eight, try it at level eight, this is only because nothing turns off a new player than dying and failing, which we tended to do a lot of recently. But that is from my own experience.

gl, and gratz on getting the wife hooked...hehe, now just get her toon leveled up and you can take her loot running!

-paint

[Ree]

Hi guys! I just thought I'd pop in to put in my two cp about starting the game as a girlfriend of a guy who is a PnP vet and had played DDO for a while before I got interested.

If you know the core rules for PnP well, you're gonna be a truly valuable asset. But in being a truly valuable asset you're gonna get sooooooo many questions about EVERYTHING that you just need to have patience. I can't tell you how many times I had to have the armor class equation explained to me before I finally got it. There's some things that PnP vets take for granted when playing DDO because you understand the mechanics and foundational rules, I'm sure you've found out that this is not the case for everyone. Jeez, I didn't understand what that dice thingy was and why it appeared everytime I hit something!

It's good that you guys are sitting side by side, just be sure to stay open to questions. My computer is downstairs, and my boyfriend's one is up stairs, so there was constant yelling going up and down with me asking fundamental questions. This usually ended with one of us giving in and going either up or down stairs to sit and ask or explain the question/answer. Now that I've been playing for more than a year the yelling is about great loot or silly puggers!

My first character that was viable (I started out with a rogue that needed to be deleted by lvl6) was a human paladin. She was a great learning character, as she was a class that people wanted (unlike the issues with ranger and rogue hate), and could easily self heal. So I got familiar with what was expected of a mele class, while learning how to do casting things as well (like how to activate wands and scrolls and switch spells).

Oh, and be prepared with dragon shards, I can't even remember how many times I swapped her feats, mostly because I learned something new, or the game changed, or whatever.

I'd say make sure her character isn't too dependent on you being around either. She'll definitely want to play when you're not there, and will need to feel confident to do so. Along the same line, I'd help her with groups as well. That she's not a newb to MMO's is good; I was, so I had no idea of ettiqutte or gamer speak or anything like that. Build up her confidence so she can group with others and feel good about it. I was always so terrified of messing up or doing something truly noobish that it prevented me from progressing in the game for a long time. I dunno, maybe I'm just too sensitive or something, but my skin has definietly thickened!

Have fun with this! I've always enjoyed questing with couples, and I know my boyfriend and I provide endless entertainment for our friends online when we party together. Oh, and don't be afraid to get her nice gifts in game (not a substitute for RL gifts though, my boyfriend has yet to realize this), it can be incentive to play (I have w/p shortsword from my bf waiting for my rerolled ranger) and can help her feel more viable too.

Just one girl's experience, good luck to you and your wife!

[Tharlak]

I got my wife to start playing about 1 month ago. She did not play DND on PnP, nor did she want to, but seeing me play DDO inticed her. We are able to play next to each other on adjacent PC's so this is a big bonus.

We discussed the different characters she could be and (with my own personal bias) she ended up as a human Paladin. I run a bard as her companiona and we are a great duo. She has been shy about grouping so we are getting her as much player (not character) experience as possible to make her feel comfortable about grouping.

I twinked her with as much magic as I could and it really made a difference in her enjoyment. She just loves her new Acid sword of Righteousness.