Shattered Kingdoms

What's the most newbie friendly class?

Some classes like the bard and hellion are incredibly technical and require an expert player to play them decently.

griffon hammer MR barbarian

Sorc

barbs in general

That depends on what kind of newbie we're talking about.

Someone new to MUDs entirely would benefit from a blend of the ability to overcome PVE things that eat up free time and some hand-holding for RP. I'd go with priest for those reasons, including a quick indoctrination into the community through PVP, assisting, or other things.

Someone who knows the D20 SRD, however, would probably be more comfortable playing a sorcerer for the ability to sidestep challenges alone and quickly. And the luxury of being able to ignore bad religious roleplay.

Any melee class is too dependent on equipment to really comfortably approach the game without a good handle on the system and a passing knowledge of where to begin looking for certain items... and even which items to look for. The documentation is worse for melee character features than any other.

I'm of the opinion that hellion and paladin should be added to the "expert" classes along with necromancer. A lot of players roll those as first chars and get their faces completely handed to them because they're technically difficult classes to play effectively.

The most newb friendly classes are barb and sorc. Barb doesn't require top-tier weapons and gear to be effective, really. Sorc can learn the ins and outs of the game with little difficulty. For the ultimate in survivability for newb players, though, sprite shaman is the way to go. You can learn to when and how to GTFO of just about any situation SK can throw at you as a sprite shaman, and that is always the first stage of getting good at this game.

Giants, Heavy armored melee classes.

I agree. These should be advanced classes. They also have stringent RP requirements compared to other classes in addition to being more difficult to play effectively.

In terms of what is the most newbie friendly, if you think about a true newbie who has zero MUD experience who struggles with basic commands and can barely handle newbie school monsters, then it would have to be a melee class. Making it through those amateur levels is 80% of the battle for a true newbie. If he makes it to level 6, he'll probably make it to level 50 eventually on this or some future character. I think we lose most new players right away in the early levels, some of those due to frustration or boredom at trying to level non-melee classes in newbie zones with no help.

If you're talking about which class is most newbie friendly assuming the person makes it past this initial phase, then pretty much anything except the aforementioned hellion and paladin will do. If you are asking what is the best for a newbie to get involved with RP and be a part of the IC community, priest and bard are very newbie friendly. They will get a lot of requests for help and get to interact with people, and no matter how much of a newbie they are they can cast resurrection or sing or use lore as effectively as a veteran in most circumstances. For trying your hand at PvP with your first character, barbarian, warlock, and scout are good. Barbarians for their tactical simplicity of really only needing two commands in most PvP situations, and warlocks and scouts for their extra meat shield capability from elementals and tames, allowing the newbie more time to blunder around and still have a chance to escape.

Griffons are the most newbie-friendly race. Innate self-defense, extra claw attack, toughness, flight, endurance, infravision and extra training sessions are all great for newbies. They can power through newbie schools and low level areas very quickly, giving true newbies a sense of accomplishment right away, regardless of class. Even the most inept of newbies can level up a griffon and figure out how to get it from point A to point B. If you have a friend who is thinking about trying SK, suggest they play a griffon to learn the ropes. It cuts down on the tedium and learning curve tremendously when you don't have to worry about equipment and you are tough and combat-capable right out the gate.

Barbarian.

Epic agreement. The RP on (un)holy knights requires an understanding of a lot of things that are done differently here than other places. No spite intended, just agreement.

Griffon Barbs are the most newbie class/race combo, with Giants just below them (infravision)

I'd definitely go with barbs as the most newb-friendly class. Griffons make the easiest throwaway characters, but I think that human fits the role very nicely as well as long as you remember to carry something glowing. I wouldn't recommend training MR to a newbie though. They'd never be able to detect!