How do I pick a class for a brand-new player in ten minutes?

Techniclee

Session zero is running long, and someone at the table has never opened the book. You do not owe them a tour of every domain. You owe them three questions, a short map from their answers to a class, and a pregen if the clock wins.

Three questions

Do you want to stand in front, slip past, fix people or mess with the weird?
Are you happier talking, sneaking or hitting?
How much rules text are you willing to hold tonight: a little, some, or bring it on?

Mapping the answers to a class

When the answers are front, hitting and a little text, I lean toward the Guardian or the Warrior. When they are slipping past, sneaking and a little text, I point at the Rogue. When they want to fix people and talk, I lean toward the Bard or the Seraph, depending on the vibe. When they want the weird and say bring it on, the Wizard or the Sorcerer fits, but I steer away from those when the answer to question three was “a little”, because spell-heavy classes put more text in front of a new player.

I do not walk them through every subclass. I read the two subclass descriptions for the class we picked, let them choose the one that sounds like them, and move on.

The pregen escape hatch

If we reach minute eight and it is still wobbling, I hand over a pregen that matches their answer to question one. Published one-shots like Sablewood and The Wish Thief come with pregens for exactly this. They rename it, and we build properly next session. A one-shot table would rather play than wait.

A ten-minute pick from my table

Richard’s first Daggerheart night was a goblin one-shot I ran in my kitchen before our Motherboard campaign. His answers were front, hitting and a little text, so we went straight to the Guardian, and he picked the Stalwart subclass because it is built to take heavy blows and keep going. We narrowed his Experience from “Survivor” to “Held the line at the village gate”. It took nine minutes, and he swung at a goblin in the first scene without a rules panic.

What I would do tonight

Ask the three questions, map the answers once and reach for a pregen if you need one. Do not turn into a class wiki. When you have thirty minutes for a full build, I walked through one in Daggerheart character creation, a full worked example from my table.