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me and my friend are just getting started playing dungons and dragons and we have a few preliminary questions before we start.

How many people should we have approximately?

Do we really need an experienced DM or can we do it with the Dungeon master guide, Player Guide, and Monster Manual?

my friend insistes on being a drow is that a standard playable race also he wants to be a dragonfire adept can you start out as that class (he knows this stuff from neverwinter nights)

How many people should we have approximately?

Four not including a DM. A standard stereotypical party of characters consists of the Healer, The Wizard, the Fighter, and the Rogue.

Do we really need an experienced DM or can we do it with the Dungeon master guide, Player Guide, and Monster Manual?

I'd highly recommend it. Granted, the books themselves aren't too terribly complex, but without someone there to guide you through it while running the game, it's near impossible to learn anything right off the bat. It's definitely no board game where the rules consist of a two page pamphlet.

my friend insistes on being a drow is that a standard playable race also he wants to be a dragonfire adept can you start out as that class (he knows this stuff from neverwinter nights)

Drow are standard races, they can be found in the monster manual, and below the standard stats is a section called "Creating a drow character" with there starting statistics. Dragonfire adept isn't part of NWN or any normal DND rules, it's in the book Dragon Magic. It is a core class, but I'd recommend that you stick to one of the eleven original core classes before moving onto advanced stuff.

If he's just wanting a bit of dragon abilities, recommend sorcerer to him, that way he can take the prestige class Dragon Disciple.

thanks for the info just a couple more questions what are the other playable races also is Soulknife decent starting class

Soulknife is alright, though a bit underpowered and restrictive just in my opinion.

Other playable races can be found in the beginning of the players handbook. It's all there in the books.

I'd recommend against playing as a Drow your first time, because it adds the matter of more powerful & less powerful races and ECL (Effective Character Level) to the mix, which is one of the most difficult subjects to correctly balance, I think. Drow get much better stats & abilities than standard races, so they gain less XP or at least level slower. It's quite hard for the DM to keep track of this all, especially for a starting DM.
As for the soulknife, it's rather a sub-par class. One quick way to fix it, more or less, is giving it full Base Attack Bonus, like a Fighter.
System Reference Document v3.5
Check this out. Very handy.

GawainBS wrote:I'd recommend against playing as a Drow your first time, because it adds the matter of more powerful & less powerful races and ECL (Effective Character Level) to the mix, which is one of the most difficult subjects to correctly balance, I think. Drow get much better stats & abilities than standard races, so they gain less XP or at least level slower. It's quite hard for the DM to keep track of this all, especially for a starting DM.
As for the soulknife, it's rather a sub-par class. One quick way to fix it, more or less, is giving it full Base Attack Bonus, like a Fighter.
System Reference Document v3.5
Check this out. Very handy.

Depends on if they have an experienced DM or not. Experienced, it should be too much a problem, but I definitely agree that if someone is also a beginner DM and a beginner player, to just disallow anything that has a level adjustment higher than 0.

Also, that website is really disorganized. Not at all really easy to use, just in my opinion at least. So, if you don't like the website mentioned above-

The Hypertext d20 SRD (v3.5 d20 System Reference Document) :: d20srd.org

It might also help to get hold of one of those 1st level starting adventures. IIRC, there's one the in the D&D starting package, and there's also one in the Eberron Campaign Setting. There are bound to be tons more, especially in Dungeon Magazine and probably as well on Wizards of the Coast . These give first-time DM's a good idea what's expected of them.

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