Beginner suggestions

Blade4693 said:

1. Should I be using 1 character, or a 2 or 3 character team? I want to put in the time and really learn the game, but I don't want to get overwhelmed and using a 3 character team seems like it could be a lot for somebody who has never payed a game like this.

When I first started off I ended up rolling with one character.
I only rolled with one character for a little bit until I got basic combos down.

The first roadblock you want to get through is confirming into your basic bread and butter combo, even if it's short / sucks.
If you can do that then you can probably move on to playing a duo when ever you are ready.

The faster you play duo the more you learn about all the assist / team mechanics which are pretty in depth.

Blade4693 said:

2. Recommended characters for new players? There are certain characters who I would like to use just based on their designs, and a few I really don't want to use too. So I was hoping maybe you guys/girls could give me some advice on who to use out of a few characters.

Fukua is a good beginner character, because she's really easy with simple commands and good neutral control.

Ms.Fortune teaches you a lot about how to play.
She's one of the two characters with Airdashes and Double Jumps.
She has a proper reversal, good mix up, air and ground supers, good normals.. etc.

Learning to use IAD's effectively at first may seem daunting but if you ever want to play a different airdash character in the future or a double jump character, Fortune helps train for that because she's good at everything.

Cerebella is also simple or as complicated as you'd like her to be, and she'll teach you how to make good offensive and defensive reads with her giant toolkit.

Starting with a solo can be a good set of training wheels to begin with, you can always work your way up to a team later if you want, or some characters can be perfectly viable to just stick with solo. Or you could jump right into teams if you feel like it, I started with a duo when I first picked up the game because I felt like I already had a good enough grasp of genre fundamentals and wanted to start learning the Marvel stuff that was new to me right away. Your choice. Maybe don't start all the way with trio though, that might be a little too much.

Filia is pretty simple and may look a little familiar since she's based on Ryu, but do note that despite appearances she doesn't actually play like Ryu at all. She's heavily focused on airdash shenanigans, which may take some getting used to if that's new to you, but she's probably the best character to learn that part with.
Bella is fairly straightforward and has a very flexible toolkit that puts everything you can ask for all in one character. She's especially good if you want to start solo since she already has everything she needs even without assists.
Since you said you don't like charge characters, Parasoul is probably not for you.
Fortune can be really really complicated with her headless stuff, but it's possible to just ignore that and play head-on only, at least at a beginner level. Like Filia, she likes to airdash a lot.
Valentine can be pretty simple as long as you can get used to her movement options and speed to play air footsies and runaway. Do note though that she really needs assists to function, and can crack under pressure easily since she lacks reverals. Solo is not an option.
Eliza is easier than she looks, really all you need to know about Sekhmet is to just keep an eye on your meter.
Painwheel is arguably the most complicated character in the game, and unlike Fortune she doesn't have the option to just ignore the complicated parts. If you don't want complicated you don't want Painwheel.
Robo, see Val, plus she has the headdrone stuff to learn.
Fukua is arguably the easiest character in the game for beginners to pick up, hit buttons and good things happen.

Fukua and Cerebella.
Valentine is a little harder.