Again, it's very presumptuous to assume everyone is going to play the game the same way you did. What if he plays Bloodlines once and never plays it again? What if he was thinking about playing a Toreador but now he doesn't because you told him it's not newbie friendly?
Apart from controls and technical aspects, there's really only one thing that seriously trips up first-time players, and that's the spiking difficulty of some of the fights at the end of the game.
Take the quiz and don't neglect combat skills. That's all that's needed.
Here's the OP's question:
I am having a hard time figuring out what kind of character is going to be feasible. I'm thinking of making a Tremere that focuses on stealth but has some social skills to fall back on, but I'm not sure how viable that is. Can anyone offer any advice?
Answer: yes, it's viable.
paralipsis: ...that doesn't mean that Sufyan's advice is any less worthwhile in a general sense just because similar advice given to you wasn't suitable in your specific case...
I'm giving you an example of a case where it
wasn't good advice. You're the one presuming to know it's good advice for everyone else, including the OP.