Youll probably want stainless steel or enamled cast iron for anything with fond.
Anytime you are cooking something acidic, tomatoes, vinegar, wine. I try not to deglaze meat brownings into sauce in cast iron.
A stainless steel dutch oven is a great universal pan as well. For a "first pan" I'd probably suggest tri ply stainless over cast iron. The main thing I like about cast iron more is the pan temperature not dropping when I put something on it, so its great for reverse searing baked steaks inside the house. Most other things I find functionally equivalent in stainless and cast iron, including browning meat before I cube it or break it apart. (brown cuts of meat and ground meat whole!)