As others have mentioned, those Spirit Guardians are phenomenal.
My personal honorable mentions are Silence to mess with enemy spellcasters, Beacon of Hope if you’re in a tough fight and keep losing your front liners, and Spirit Shroud, if you are a melee Cleric
I’d agree to that. I’ve been a pixel user for a few years now, the only reason I chose them over Samsung is that I don’t like Samsung’s software preload.
As a phone repair tech, Samsung phones are some of the easiest to repair. Especially for batteries or (if you can get Samsung OEM parts) screens.
I highly recommend you take a look at installing the new battery yourself if you’re able to be precise with a screwdriver. All it takes is the aforementioned screwdriver, a hair dryer/heat gun, and an old credit card.
The only parts you’ll have to buy are the battery and the water resistant seal for the back glass.
As someone who’s first TTRPG was 4e: people just like to complain. 5e is a perfectly fun game, as is 3rd, 3.5, PF, or PF2e
The real issue I noticed is that people tend to expect D&D to be the "best " system for THEIR game. And D&D (and by extension Pathfinder) have never been the “best” system at anything besides BEING D&D and Pathfinder.
I look at it as the traditional system. D&D has a ton of old, basically unusable rules that simply exist because… We expect them to exist. We remember these rules existing in old editions so they basically HAVE to exist in the new edition. And this expectation has led to a system that is just really good at emulating itself and not much else.
People who expect D&D to be the best for their horror game, or their survival game, or their political game often complain because that’s not what it’s for. People who expect D&D to be the best for their old 1st edition game complain because it’s that’s not what it’s for.
It’s just meant to LOOK like the old edition.
You’ll definitely enjoy playing 5e! A good group of friends and a solid starting adventure will get everyone rolled back into the swing of things quickly.
Hey! It sounds like you’ve prepped a lot with the books and DM screen, which is a good sign!
As a DM, I jumped into running a full year long campaign after just running a couple one shots. It really IS easier than you think!
All you have to do is help your friends interact with the world in the books. That’s your only job.
The only tips I have are these:
Make sure both your players AND yourself are having fun! It can be easy to stress and bend to your players every whim so they have as good a time as possible - don’t do that. Make sure YOU’RE having fun, too! It’ll improve your ability to run the game and everyone will be able to tell.
Don’t worry about the tabletop aspect too much. I ran a game for over a year with nothing but my laptop and a map I drew with my friend that had the names of cities on it. I hid my dice behind my hand because there was no room for a DM screen - it really just comes down to you and your players having fun. The objects aren’t necessary. Don’t worry about not having them.
Have fun! Let us know how it went!