How to Know What Class To Play for D&D Beginners

As I've recently mentioned, I spend a lot of time GMing for kids. Everyone experiences games differently, but essentially all kids are petrified by the notion of picking a class for their first character. Picking any one of them means missing out on all the others, so it's a big choice. It's also a big choice because, whether a player knows it or not (be they child or adult), the choice of a class can define a lot about the experience of playing--maybe more than everything but the GM's style. And picking a class for beginning adult players can be tricky. All the same consequences still apply, and having fun or not could decide whether they continue playing. So to help make picking a class easier, I've created a guide to choosing the best one for you, stripped of all the technical talk, focusing on what your experience will be like. Read on to learn which class is best for you. [This guide focuses on the 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons, specifically the base 12 classes in the Players Handbook.]

One way to choose is based on difficulty. It's true that some classes are harder to play than others, and there's good sense to playing a character whose challenge level to play matches what you want. A pure spellcaster like the Sorcerer, Warlock, or Wizard takes a more developed understanding of the game to pull off and enjoy than most beginning players are capable of to start. On the other hand, a Fighter can be a much easier introduction to the world of D&D's combat, vital statistics, and game rules without additional systems to learn. In the ratings below, I will rank each class on a scale from 1 to 5 where 1 is easy to pick up for beginners and 5 is a more veteran challenge. 

Another way you might choose is based on what kinds of actions you'd like to be able to take. After all, playing a stealthy rogue and playing a rowdy barbarian are pretty different experiences. To that end, I've provided a short paragraph about the kinds of exciting actions that the class is capable of. These observations will be drawn from a combination of my own experiences playing these classes and my consideration of players playing those classes in games I have DMed. 

You might also be interested in knowing what specifically you'll need to learn in order to be effective with the class. If your character's survival being based on your understanding of how to manipulate rules makes you uncomfortable, there's a whole list of classes (spellcasters in general, clerics in particular, and rogues) that you'll want to avoid since mastering the rules is a core part of these classes. In order to express what types of things you'll need to learn, I'll provide a list of the types of ideas you'll need to learn. 

And finally, you may want to know what role the character will fill in the party. Now, it's worth noting before going any further than any class can have any personality, so if you're worried about roleplaying, make your choice on type of action primarily--class doesn't dictate personality. But if you know you prefer to be a support character or want to be one to serve the character idea, you have options (cleric and bard, most notably). There's a role for everybody, but it's important that you enjoy filling yours. I'll provide a brief analysis of the roles you can easily step into with each class. 

So, based on these four categories of information, I hope to help you find the best class to start with. Let's begin. 

Barbarian 

Difficulty: 1

Actions: Barbarians are best known for their ability to enter Rage, a state in which they are more likely to strike in combat and do more damage, also gaining hit points. Barbarians are a standby for combat-oriented players; this class gets the most health of all classes and can reliably deal among highest damage in melee. Every single special ability granted to barbarians revolves around being more effective in combat, including bonuses to initiative (how quickly your character acts in combat), extra attacks, and resisting damage. 

What to Learn: Tactics. As a barbarian, your greatest strength is combat; you can either be good at it or truly great at it. Without tactics, you'll do well, but with careful attention paid to maximizing your strengths, you'll destroy everything your DM throws at you. This also means getting familiar with the rules that govern your abilities. 

Role: Barbarians are usually tanks--hard to kill and good at killing. It would be possible to develop a barbarian into some other role, but the task would ultimately ignore that this class is meant to be a combat machine and little else. 

Bard

Difficulty: 5

Actions: Bards have a wide variety of abilities. They are capable of magic, have immense bonuses to skills, and are able to help allies succeed. In simple terms, bards are built for support, but are kind of a mixture of all the classes in the game--they're capable of combat, magic, and skills. Bards are not necessarily masters of as many things as they are strong in, so thinking on one's feet is usually another part of what bards need to do, especially since they usually function as the leader of the party. 

What to Learn: Everything. Because bards can do magic, combat, and skills, they need to learn the rules behind each of those skills. But knowledge of rules and mechanics won't be enough--you'll also need to learn to be a good support player and use your spells and class abilities in a way that actually helps your fellow players.  

Role: As with their abilities, bards can be anything. Charismatic and clever bards lead parties and entertain crowds. Tactical bards turns the tides of battles with buffs and healing. Sagely bards become expert spellcasters. You can be anyone as a bard. 

Cleric

Difficulty: 5

Actions: Clerics are the only class in the game given the full suite of healing abilities. Other classes (bards, druids, and paladins) are capable of healing spells, but clerics are specifically made to do so. This means every party could use a cleric, though they're not easy to play. Aside from healing, clerics can also fight undead, cast a huge array of spells, and specialize in an approach to magic that grants special abilities and extra spells (a domain). At the same time, clerics are equipped to be effective in combat. 

What to Learn: Magic rules to start. The cleric's skill as a melee combatant are relatively straightforward (tactics help here), but they're mostly important as a healer and support character, so being very familiar with which spells do what and when is very important. Knowing about the other player characters in your party is also important so you can better support them. 

Role: Clerics are great as a healer and support unit, but since their spell list is pretty broad, they're capable of quite a lot. It's worth noting that a cleric alone can be formidable, but a cleric with someone dangerous is greater than the sum of the parts, so be ready to work as a team. 

Druid

Difficulty: 4

Actions: Druids get several exciting abilities. The most famous is the ability to turn into an animal (Wild Shape), but they can also choose specific "circle" to belong to, meaning a specific region held dear by the druid. These circles are similar to cleric domains, granting special spells and extra abilities. Druids are able to cast magic, and they have fairly diverse spells, making them capable of quite a lot if they're creative about it. 

What to Learn: Mostly magic. Druids are largely defined by their spellcasting abilities--they are not bad at melee fighting, but their strength is in their magic. Once you've learned magic, the only major complication is in the Wild Shape rules--it can be tricky to keep track of which abilities you have in which form during a tense moment. 

Role: Druids are fairly powerful spellcasters whose magic tends to disrupt combat and swing things toward the party. This means that they're direct presences in combat, but standing outside of the fray. Druids are also good guides since they can navigate nature so well. 

Fighter

Difficulty: 1

Actions: Fighters' abilities, like barbarians, are almost entirely focused on combat. With the exception of the Eldritch Knight archetype, the abilities are all focused on making more attacks, doing more damage, and surviving attacks. The Eldritch Knight adds spellcasting to the fighter, but only in the form of protection and damage spells, so the effect is ultimately the same. Notably, the fighter gets to choose a fighting style which grants bonuses based on specific tactics in combat. 

What to Learn: Tactics. Most fighters tend to fight on the front lines, hoping for high rolls against enemies, so knowing how and when to move around the battlefield is a vital way to make the most of your abilities. 

Role: Fighters are invaluable as tanks. Since players tend to make fighters with the intention of focusing on combat, I've never seen a fighter used for some other role. In the hands of a sufficiently-committed roleplayer, I'm sure you could see a fighter party leader, but mostly fighters are fighters. 

Monk 

Difficulty: 2

Actions: Monks are martial arts experts on the surface. 5E has done a pretty satisfying job of coming up with special martial arts combat rules for monks (including different schools of martial arts), and most players who came for ninja-ing around leave happy. Monks also have a variety of very special abilities that help them transcend the laws of reality, which is very fun. But on top of this, monks have a great many special abilities that depend on selection of a monastic tradition, and they range from combat approaches to stealth applications to magic mastery. 

What to Learn: Kind of a lot, surprisingly. You need to learn the base game like anyone else, but the monk rules replace basically all of those rules (but learning them first wouldn't work because there'd be no foundation to start from). I mentioned lots of special abilities--if you don't use those abilities and use them well, you end up being just a watered-down fighter. So get used to the rules and the special monk variants. 

Role: Monks are a strange class in this way. On one hand, monks can be incredibly strong in combat. On the other, they can fill a lot of the same roles that rogues do (stealth expert, specialized attacks). And monks can even be leaders given their wisdom--it just depends on how you play it. 

Paladin

Difficulty: 3

Actions: Paladins are basically a halfway point between clerics and fighters (basically). You get plenty of strength in combat, plus some magic and a dose of healing. Most of the special abilities of paladins revolve around improving their abilities in combat, and the special oaths that paladins take let you decide between justice, nature, and vengeance as inspirations for more abilities. In essence, a paladin is a fighting character with the ability to add some support. 

What to Learn: Like with the cleric, paladins demand that their players learn to operate tactically in combat as well as the basics of spellcasting. Fortunately, the rest of the paladin's abilities function much like the fighter's, so simply focusing on tactics and magic will allow you to do well with a paladin. 

Role: Paladins are interesting in terms of role--they can act as tanks, as minor healers, and as party leaders (especially since their magic is fueled by charisma). It really comes down to what the party needs and how you want to play your paladin. 

Ranger

Difficulty: 3

Actions: Rangers are specialized combat classes as a foundation--they get special fighting styles, combat bonuses like extra attacks, and strength against a chosen type of enemy. At the same time, they get access to a range of spells and extra abilities that grant nature-based boosts and magic. They get the paladin's same abbreviated access to spells (level 5 maximum as opposed to a sorcerer/warlock/wizard's level 9 maximum), most of which are useful in the wilderness or in combat. 

What to Learn: I'll say that like all combat classes, tactics are useful here, and that like all classes with magic, learning the magic rules is useful. I'll add, though, that rangers are perhaps the easiest classes with magic to pick up. The shortened spell list and relatively straightforward spells are less intimidating than other lists, and the combat abilities are comparable to the fighter list. This could be a good first spellcasting class for a beginner. 

Role: Rangers can be a few different things easily: they can be tanks or strikers depending on the build. Some rangers can be stealthy, and others are practically barbarians. A ranger can be almost anyone so long as there's a place to be filled. 

Rogue

Difficulty: 2

Actions: Rogues have probably the most diverse and customizable foundation in the game. They're given formidable combat skills (sneak attack, uncanny dodge), broad subclasses (or "roguish archetypes" such as stealth, combat, and magic), and a load of powerful abilities that apply in many situations (evasion, cunning action). I've seen and played rogues who were assassins, con artists, thieves, and mages. For beginners without a clear sense of what you want your character to be, the rogue can present so many options as to be overwhelming, but the rogue can also be a great way to make an interesting non-combat character who can still hold their own.

What to Learn: Basic tactics will help you figure out how to use sneak attack correctly. Beyond that, you basically just need to keep your many abilities straight. Rogues have lots of abilities that only happen in certain conditions, and remembering all those details is probably the hardest part of playing a rogue. 

Role: Rogues can be, more than any other class, any role at all. A rogue can be an aloof and arrogant tagalong, the charismatic heart of the group, a brilliant expert, or the hilarious goofball--and all at once. The customizability of the class means it's open to your imagination. 

Sorcerer/Warlock/Wizard

Difficulty: 5

Actions: Let's clarify something: I'm placing these three classes together, but they are not identical, and they have different specifics when it comes to abilities. I am placing them together because, from the perspective of a first-time player, they are basically the same enough that we can talk generally about them. Now, these classes are entirely about spellcasting. That means that you have no combat abilities and few skills to back you up--your spells have to speak completely for you. So not only do you need to juggle dozens of spells, but you need to be fluent with using them, or you'll end up without remaining magic and be in trouble. If you're getting started with a magic-centric class, feel free to check out my guide to learning the rules of magic.

What to Learn: The magic rules. This will, in turn, lead you to need to learn most of the rules of the game. Any given spell might reference two or three rules, so knowing the rules and how they fit together really helps with understanding spells. I'd also recommend paying attention in-game to how fights unfold so that you can use that information to your advantage when casting magic. 

Role: Here's where things get especially hard to summarize. Wizards are fueled by their intelligence, so they often work differently in-game than the charisma-driven sorcerers and warlocks. Further, these two latter classes have different sources of magic, further characterizing them: sorcerers are inherently magic from their very blood, while warlocks have made a bargain with an elder god to obtain their powers. You can imagine that details like these might affect your game if story is concerned. In broad generality, though, spellcasters operate as strikers, doing considerable damage and turning the tides of battles. They can also be party leaders, especially the more charismatic of the bunch. 

That's the overview. Hopefully you have an idea of what class you'd like to play. If you have questions or just can't decide, I highly recommend talking it over with your DM. They can help you understand your choices in the context of the campaign you're playing, and they might steer you towards something that serves the game well. What matters most is that you have a sense of what you're getting into--D&D can be a lot, and going on with your best foot forward can help you find your fun. 

That's all for now. Coming soon: religious beliefs by cultural group in my homebrew setting, a dark time-loop adventure in an original system, and profiles on the major cities in my homebrew setting. Until next time, happy gaming!

How to Help Beginners With Magic in D&D

One of the greatest draws of Dungeons & Dragons is the magic system. Players can control great forces of nature and divine energy to harness effects that can change the world around them. But magic is one of the greatest learning challenges in D&D, and beginning players can struggle to figure out how to use their magical characters' abilities. You can help your beginners to master magic with a handful of tips in the guide below, and soon your players will be master mages. 

If you're a beginner, you may also find this guide useful to learning basic game concepts.

The first step in understanding magic is in grasping the concept behind it. The first detail to consider is the source of the magic. In D&D, magic is either arcane or divine; arcane magic uses natural forces to capture the energy required for spells, while divine magic appeals to the player character's god for use of magical energy. All spellcasting classes are divided into either arcane or divine magic. The arcane classes in D&D 5e are Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, and Wizard; the divine classes are Cleric, Druid, Paladin, and Ranger. 

Whether your character casts with arcane or divine magic, they have a distinct statistic that determines how powerful their spells are. This statistic is an ability score, such as Intelligence or Wisdom. The statistic that your class uses should be one of your highest ability scores. Let's touch on which classes use which spellcasting ability. Charisma is the base stat for Bards, Paladins, Sorcerers, and Warlocks. Wisdom is the score that fuels the Cleric's, Druid's, and Ranger's magic. The Wizard uses Intelligence for their magic. 

This ability score translates into what is called the Difficulty Class of your spells, which is how difficult to resist your spell is. Your Spell Save DC, as this statistic is known, is determined by combining your ability modifier (if your Wisdom is 16, your modifier is +3--look next to the larger number for the one with the plus) and your proficiency bonus, which is scaled to your character level, and then added to the number 8. That formula, when written out, looks like this: (8) + (ability modifier) + (proficiency bonus). If your character sheet was not written out by hand, you'll be able to find this number automatically calculated on the sheet with your spells. When you cast a spell on an enemy, they roll to resist, and the number they must beat is your Spell Save DC. 

The other vital number that shows up on this sheet is your Spell Attack Bonus. This is the number that you add to your rolls when you're trying to hit an enemy with a spell. This number is once again your ability modifier added to your proficiency bonus, but this time without the addition of the number 8. That means that your Spell Attack Bonus should usually be your Spell Save DC, minus 8. Look out for phrases like "ranged touch attack" or similar phrases about striking the enemy in your spell description--that means you're looking for your Spell Attack Bonus. 

Let's get into some other terminology used in spell descriptions. (It would be helpful to be looking at your character sheet for this part to follow along.) There's the spell's save--this is usually the Spell Save DC we already talked about, but some spells have their own unique Save DCs and will indicate it this way. Then there is the time it takes to cast a spell. In D&D 5e, you get one standard action, a move action, and a bonus action per turn, and the time it takes to cast the spell is almost always either one round or one action. If it's an action, it takes up your standard action for your turn. If it's a round, it takes up all your actions for the rest of the turn. The range of a spell tells you how far its effect reaches; this may be a distance that it affects or an area that it concentrates on, and the spell will clarify this in the description. The "Components" of a spell are also listed; these describe what it takes to cast the spell. The traditional three options for spellcasting are Verbal, Somatic, and Material. A Verbal component means that your character must speak aloud to cast the spell. A Somatic component indicates that the spell requires physical movement to cast. A Material component signifies that a special item is required to cast the spell. Many DMs don't follow the component rules very closely, so you should ask what will be required of you in this regard; nevertheless, it is good to know what these mysterious letters indicate on your character sheet. The duration of the spell indicates how long the spell lasts. It's worth noting here that a round of combat is six seconds long, so if the duration is given in rounds/units of time, you can use the 1:6 ratio to understand. Finally, a spell lists its page reference (where in the Player's Handbook the spell can be found for more information) and any further notes about the spell. This is a lot of information--look at how long this paragraph ended up being--but almost all of it will be useful at some point. Just don't be overwhelmed and don't be afraid to ask for help when you're unsure of things. 

So now you have the general gist of how magic works. But you almost certainly still have questions. Magic opens many doors to you, and it's difficult to process all the information at once. Let's address some details of the magic casting system to give you a better idea of what's going on. Each spell has a level, and this level describes both how powerful the spell is (the higher level, the more powerful the spell) and when your character gets access to it. This second detail is more complicated than it seems it might be at first glance. First, you have cantrips. These spells are considered level 0. Then, beginning at a set level (1 for the Cleric, Sorcerer, Warlock, and Wizard, and later levels for the Bard, Druid, Ranger, and Paladin), the character gains access to 1st-level spells. The character, on their next level up, gets more spell slots (uses of a spell) in their existing spells. On their following level up, they get access to 2nd-level spells. This means that you only gain new levels of spells every other level up, which means that a 3rd-level Wizard has access to 2nd-level spells, and a 5th-level Wizard can cast 3rd-level spells, and a 7th-level Wizard is able to cast 4th-level spells, and so on. This staggered levelling system can confuse a lot of players; the easy way to think about it is that the level of spell you want is multiplied by 2, and then subtract 1. So a 6th level spell would be accessible to an 11th-level Wizard (6x2=12, 12-1=11). You won't need this information directly in the game very often, but this should help make sense of the strange levelling system. 

Another important idea in spellcasting is Concentration. In earlier editions of D&D, Concentration was a skill that spellcasters used to preserve a spell's effect in the face of great distraction (such as being attacked). In 5e, Concentration is translated into a different expression; instead, it represents the idea that a spell doesn't last a certain length of time automatically; rather, the spellcaster can extend the effect as long as they concentrate on it (though there is usually a limit placed on this as well, as in "Concentration, up to 1 minute," indicating that it lasts between one round and ten rounds, depending on the player's concentration). It's worth noting that you can't cast another spell that requires Concentration while you're already concentrating on another spell, but you can still cast spells which don't require Concentration. 

Magic has a lot of rules, and not all of them are followed directly by every DM. The rules state that some spellcasting classes have to prepare their spells ahead of time, that other spellcasting classes can cast spontaneously but only know a few spells, that components are required for spells, and other considerations. As I've written before, not all details in the game are worth roleplaying, and your DM may be either a rules stickler or a loose cannon or somewhere in between. It's important to talk to them and get a sense of which of these rules you'll need to pay attention to. If you're feeling anxious about jumping in and learning magic, talk with your DM about it. They may be willing to waive certain details like components and spell preparation to make it easier for you to learn. Then again, they may add these details to what you need to monitor, and listen closely if that's the case: don't be discouraged. You'll figure it out in time. Just ask for patience and help, and soon you'll be casting spells with the best of them. 

I've addressed some big picture ideas and the details you need to understand the magic system. It's likely, though, that you still have concerns about learning and want a leg up. Fortunately, I have a few suggestions for that as well. Let's consider some tools that can make things a little easier. 

The Player's Handbook, as a standard physical book, has limitations. It's true that you can find most any information about the game that you need in it, but that doesn't means that finding all that information is easy. The layout of spells in D&D Player's Handbooks for several generations now displays short, detail-less lists of spells according to the spellcaster's class, which means you can view all your spells at once, but without the advantage of the necessary details. The part of the book that actually displays all of the details on spells is done in alphabetical order, not by class, so you would need to do a lot of searching to get that information (unless you can use the reference page listed on your character sheet, and even then, you're flipping through the book). Fortunately, I can recommend two strong alternatives to searching for spells than using the Player's Handbook. 

The first, the cheapest, and the most widely accessible is to use the many internet sites that have hyperlinked versions of the Player's Handbook information. For folks who want a hypertext version of the complete 5e spellbooks, categorizable by level, class, school, and much more, check out these three databases. With a computer or smartphone, you have access to an organized and highly useful list of spells you can cast. The only downside to using these databases is that some out there include homebrew spells from across the internet that are wildly unbalanced or which are removed from the canon of acceptable spellbooks. I recommend that you check with your DM before getting too set on a spell that you find online, as it may not be a balanced part of the game. 

A solution which is more useful and elegant, but yet which can cost a bit of money, is the official D&D spellbook cards. I addressed spellbook cards when I wrote about which gaming accessories to collect, and I still stand by my opinion. These handy little cards are decorated so that all the information I described above about a spell (like duration, range, and components) is clearly listed, along with designs that indicate what level and class a spell is. When you have the deck of spellbook cards that matches your class, you have the ability to easily flip through the deck for just the right spell, and you'll never be without the information you need. I can say that as a GM, I always have my beginners use spellbook cards, and when they are overwhelmed by searching for information on the card, they can simply hand it to me so I can help them find the important information. A well-organized deck of spellbook cards will give even the most lost newbie a chance to become a master spellcaster. 

While we're on the topic of helping beginners, let's have an aside for DMs. Whether you remember it or not, there was a time that you, too, were a beginner at D&D. There was a time that you couldn't make heads or tails or what a saving throw was or which spells do extra damage against undead or what have you. Don't let your players flounder! They want to learn, and if you take a bit of extra time here and there to help them, you'll soon have a player who can navigate magic on their own. 

Another note for DMs: a player doesn't have to struggle with casting spells in order for them to be struggling to learn the system. My mom, who plays in a family campaign that I run, controls Broomhilda the Cleric. In the game, Broomhilda is a menacing force who loves to threaten to light people on fire. But after a couple of sessions, I began to realize that Broomhilda wasn't casting spells at all. For a Cleric to avoid casting magic is like a Rogue avoiding using Sneak Attack; it's one of their main powerful abilities. Not using magic with a spellcasting class is a sign that the player doesn't necessarily get the rules for magic yet. I'm working with my mom to use spellbook cards and teach her about how and when to use spells, but there's a lot for her to learn, and it's a slow process. This is likely what you'll face as a DM--players who don't grasp the rules but still want to play, and who are perhaps nervous to admit that they're still figuring it all out. Be on the lookout for players ignoring their abilities, magical and otherwise, to diagnose struggling players. 

So with all of this in mind, I hope that magic doesn't seem too forbidding now. Once you've learned the rules presented here, you get to start on the fun part: familiarizing yourself with your spells and how they work. A good DM makes spells have different (yet mostly predictable) effects depending the situation, so there's lots of learning left to do, and this time, in a way that should be fun for you. After all, mastering magic is one of the most high-flying and satisfying parts of D&D. So get out there, jump in, and start casting. 

That's all for now. Coming soon: common sayings by D&D race, how to develop a historical event in your setting, and a list of ideas for Big Bad Evil Guys/Gals (BBEGs). Until next time, happy gaming!

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