Starting to play D&D, any advice?

[gamer_parent]

I've always wanted to play a Sith character...so, evil druid, or evil monk?

If 3.5E, neither.

Evil druid while can be awesome, is not very sith-like. Monks just suck.

Try a psion or psionic warrior for sith-like properties.

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have you ever seen a high level monk in 3.5? they are 1 man walking armies and ridiculous.

the one recommendation i make for any 3.5 monk is to ditch flurry of blows at level 1 and take decisive strike instead

its a -2 to attack at level 1 but when it hits it does double damage for every hit so later on as you add more attacks you can really mess someone up

yes, I have. Monks at high level are much harder to kill than other classes, but also lack the firepower to really be a real threat when compared to the monsters appropriate for their level.

Monks do have one good use, and that's for level splashing to gain abilities that can supplement OTHER classes. But by itself? really really meh.

Monks have a metric ton of abilities and almost no cohesion of said abilities to get good synergy out of them.

Flurry of blows, by the way, CAN work if you can carry through with it until level 11. (where the -2 penalty disappears) But to fully utilize it you still need some other stuff to supplement it.

Not to say that monks themselves cannot be enjoyable, but that really depends on the GM here. If a GM and the party don't optimize, don't bother with using the monsters in an effective manner, yeah, they can work fine in such a game. In an optimized game though, monks are just not that effective anymore.

Play a Swordsage instead. Gets the same flavor across but done MUCH MUCH better.

 

[Folio]

Got the Red Box myself, my friends want to play it but we don't have the time. It's baffling how a stat works differently from a stat MODIFIER.

I want to work through the rules so I can be an awesome DM. Looking at my Guinea P... er friends while some poor schmuck picks my Witches Gauntlet. > A gauntlet that cannot be removed normally and slowly turns you into a demon! But it does give you absolute control over whatever you touch.

Or my Mindmesh spell. Summoning a powerful Illusion. Missing your Will roll will keep the spell going but you will lose 1 Intelligence stat. > Only the weak of mind will slowly slip into dementia.

I will be fair with my players (seeing a skeleton with the Gauntlet in a pose of self-strangulation is pretty a straightfoward sign.)

 

[zHellas]

Golden Rule: Learn your GM. Pay attention to how the GM runs the show.

Yeah, do this.

Is he a player/team-killer(like one DM I know is)? Or is he the nice guy that lets your team get some good stuff and Crowning Moments of Awesome every once in a while?

 

[The Code]

My suggestions would have to be don't be afraid of the basics, think outside the box, and my personal favorite quote from the Hero Builder's Guidebook: "Getting backstabbed by a halfling is a painful surprise. Getting backstabbed by a half-orc may be the last thing you ever feel."

Sue the Bleached, Half-Orc Rogue. Have a nice day. ;3