Plant pots have a reputation for being the easy part of keeping plants alive, and mostly that's fair, right up until you buy one that traps water around the roots and kills something you'd had for three years. I land on them as genuinely low stakes compared to the plant itself, but the pot decides more than people give it credit for, drainage especially.
Where they go wrong is drainage and weight. A pot with no hole, or a decorative outer pot you're meant to use as a cover and instead plant straight into, will rot roots quietly over weeks, and you won't know until the leaves start dropping for no reason you can see. Heavy stone or concrete pots are wrong for anywhere you might need to move them, a balcony, a rental where you're rearranging every few months, a plant that needs to chase light around a room. If you're not willing to drill a hole yourself, don't buy the pot without one.
On finish, terracotta is the easiest thing to live with because it's forgiving of mistakes, it breathes, and it looks right next to almost anything else you own, old or new. Plain white and warm stoneware glazes are close behind. Where I've regretted it is bright glossy color, a cobalt blue pot I loved in a store and then had to build an entire shelf around because nothing else in the room wanted to sit next to it. Matte and unglazed wins long term.
Sizing is where most people guess wrong, usually too small. A pot should give roots about two inches of space all around what they currently have, not a sudden jump to something twice the size, which holds water the roots can't use fast enough and brings back the rot problem. For a room, think about what the pot leaves space for on a windowsill or floor, a pot that's too wide for a sill will block half the light coming in, and a floor pot that's too narrow for its plant looks like it's about to tip, which, give it time, it will.
They clash most with each other when you mix too many finishes in one grouping, three different glazes and a woven basket all in one corner reads like a clearance shelf. Keep a cluster to one material family and vary the size instead. And skip anything with texture or carving in a spot where a plant's wide leaves are going to hide it entirely, that detail you paid for under the pot you'll never see again.
Check the drainage hole isn't blocked by a root mat before every watering, it's the one habit that saves you from most of this.
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