Pathfinder Options

[Machiavelli]

Hello Folks,

our group just agreed to check for some new Pen and Paper RPG´s to get a little bit holiday from SR - at least from time to time. Now we bought 2 core-books to create characters, but I have never played D&D before and so the entrance to this new system is a bit difficult for me. What I basically don´t get, is what classes are good and which ones are not (also in the long end, not only at the beginning). Which ones are good for beginners, which class can gain most power and what race fits best to which class?

I will give you the thoughts that I had up to now, maybe you can tell me where I am wrong or what I should overthink:

At the moment I think about an elven mage, because

a) I always play elves
b) I always play mages

Unfortunately Pathfinder is not SR and mages cannot heal. To cover all the (for me) common fields of magic, I have to get used to divine and regular magic. First thing that bothered me. Generally I hate limitations and classes, but I want to be an badass caster and the system is at it is, so I dealt with it and thought about multiclassing. IIRC the half-elf gets a second preferred class for free. So I could go mage/druid without additional costs. A mage goes for intelligence and because this is the “class” I will use most, this attribute will be my focus. I will also put some points in dexterity and charisma, so I can dodge and pull out some druid stuff, which should let me survive at least a bit. At first I thought about mage/fighter, but the needed attributes are so different, that I would only get an average char., which isn´t my thing. Also mages doesn´t seem to work well with armor, so I thought this mixture was stupid, even if it is mentioned in the core book. A barbarian on the other hand also cannot wear armor, so shouldn´t be this the better combination? Of course we still have the attribute-problem, but aside from that I assume it right, don´t i?

So this is where I am now. I am sure that you know a lot more on this topic. Please help a powergamer in an unknown system. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)