Rise of the Runelords or Dragon's Demand character choices...

[Gar0351]

Howdy,
I'm split between running Rise of the Runelords or the Dragon's Demand for a group of novice players. Three have not played Pathfinder before and the other has played only a handful of gaming sessions in Mummy's Mask.
I was looking for advise on what would be the best character class options for these two adventures, factoring in the novice players. And to keep it well rounded with four characters.
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

[GoldEdition42]

ROTR. Dive right in.

Wizard, Fighter (or Ranger with smart Favored enemy choices), Cleric, Ninja.

We are about 2/3 of the way through and it is a brutally fun adventure path.

[Gar0351]

Yeah, I was thinking keeping it simple/basic. A sword swinger of some sort, but not a barbarian; a wizard; a cleric; but I wasn't certain about the fourth spot...monk? magus? rogue?

[justaworm]

We are near the end of RotR right now and played Dragon's Demand as an "intermission" between books 4/5 (though with different characters).

For RotR, I don't think you can go wrong with any characters. In general, the core characters are going to be the easiest for new players to pick up. Though, if they are already experienced players in other systems, they likely wouldn't have trouble with any of the others.

I am not sure why you threw magus into the 4th spot while trying to keep it 'simple/basic'. Looking at the Rules forums, there is nothing simple/basic to the magus for new players. :)

Some rogue'ish character would be nice - archaeologist bard, rogue, investigator, etc.

As for the sword swinger, I am playing a Paladin right now, and the ability to stand on the front line, self lay on hands, and full round attack is great for giving the cleric a break.

[Eltacolibre]

for mostly a beginner party, I would go like this for RotR (gets the anniversary edition if you can):

-Paladin (Self-heal, heroic, lot of damage vs evil foes, which is virtually 100% of the AP.)
-Sorcerer (Arcane bloodline), its simple, easy, lot of bonuses.
-Cleric [Evangelist archetype], get bardic performances, plus some healing powers.
-Slayer [make sure to get trapfinding at level 2] full bab rogue basically with the essential tools to kill people.

[Gar0351]

Yeah, I meant to say 'bard', not 'magus'. My mind sometimes...

[Drogos]

I would strongly advise with a group like that to play Dragon's Demand. It's a relatively short module and can provide the new players a solid introduction to the system. I ran two groups: 1) a Slayer, Cleric, Paladin and Barbarian (who dropped before the final dungeon was complete); 2) a Wizard, Barbarian, and Monk (with a trait for Trapfinding). They both pretty much rolled through it. For new players, I'd suggest a Trapper or Urban ranged Ranger, a Paladin/Fighter, a Cleric and a Wizard (played by the more experienced player if at all possible). There are useful rewards for each throughout the module. I really strongly recommend a trap finder/disabler because the middle dungeon basically requires it (and it's useful leading into it).

If everyone had a good time, you have two choices: you can start over with new characters in RotRL or continue playing the same characters in a new game (just be aware of the loot boost that Dragon's Demand gives). I was going to run my groups through Realm of the Fellnight Queen then The Harrowing, with some adjustments to make them both more challenging because of the groups' WBL boosts.

[Gar0351]

[I was going to run my groups through Realm of the Fellnight Queen then The Harrowing, with some adjustments to make them both more challenging because of the groups' WBL boosts.

Awesome advise there. I was thinking of the Fellnight Queen after Dragon's Demand also. Didn't think about the loot boost issue.