Your Favorite Class Mechanics

[Hanuman]

Name your top 3 all time favorite class mechanics, these can be from Core, Supplement or Homebrew alike.

My top 3 have gotta be:
-Ozodrin's features/augments/primary stomach
-Evolutionist's Mutations
-Wizard or Psion spells/powers.

[LTwerewolf]

Archivist spellbook to learn nearly every spell
Wild shape
Warblade's synergy with int for a not stupid fighter

Honorable mention diamond mind maneuvers

[Twilightwyrm]

Sneak Attack
ToB Maneuvers and Stances
Wild Shape (ironic, considering I've yet to play a character with it)

[Yora]

XPH Psionics!!!

Vestige binding has nice fluff.

[Eldan]

Core wizards and binding. I love both dearly.

[Tokuhara]

1. Summoner's Eidolon - Free Leadership feat for 1 customizable summon.
2. Witch's Hex - Reusable Supernatural Abilities that are reasonably powerful
3. Gunslinger's Deeds - So much flavour and crunch that this is absolutely a blast.
Edit: 4. Bravery - So many good archetypes swap this for better stuff, so yeah.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Believe it or not; The fighter's bonus feats. The build flexibility of a straight fighter 20 is awesome, even if his overall capability isn't.

[Tokuhara]

Believe it or not; The fighter's bonus feats. The build flexibility of a straight fighter 20 is awesome, even if his overall capability isn't.

One of the best characters I ever played was a Human Fighter 20 focused on dual-wielding hand crossbows

[Eldariel]

Psion's augmentable power manifestation. Limitless possibilities.

Warblade's maneuver system is a distant second, followed by Binder's vestiges and Totemist's Soulmelds.

[Raimun]

- Cleric casting. Endless fun, joy and happiness.
- Turn Undead. It's excellent fuel. Some legends tell that it can affect the undead in some way.
- Martial Weapon proficiency. For swords.

[Acanous]

The Imagist's Sanctuary ability, because heck yeah lv 1 panic button for a sorc.
Cleric Domains.
Artificer infusions.

[docnessuno]

ToB Maneuvers and Stances
Pathfinder Eidolons
AD&D Psionics

[eggs]

Psionic Focus (especially with DSP's mantra materials: keep the focus, spend the focus, recharge the focus - there are advantages to all of them)
Random Recharge (Breath Weapons and things like Horizon Walker teleport more than Crusader, but the point is the forcibly altered tactics)
Hellreaver's Holy Fury (Tactical currency used on a round-by-round basis, capped by action limits without interfering with the Hellreaver's basic beatstick jobs)

[Gnome Alone]

Spontaneous domain casting variant clerics Yay, flavorful! Yay, clerics can be sort of different from each other now!
Tome of Battle maneuvers All the lovely expansions to "I hit it with my sword."
Barbarian's illiteracy as a class feature No explanation needed.

[Jeff the Green]

Let's see:

Generic classes. They offer a ton of flexibility to play the character you want without being too powerful. Plus it allows my favorite early entry trick: Walker in the Waste at level 2.
Geomancer. Drift is just awesome
Beguiler. I love fixed-list casters, and the class features are perfect (bonuses to cast enchantments/illusions on flat-footed enemies).

[navar100]

Cleric's spontaneous curing
Maneuvers and Stances
Psionic power point system

[qwertyu63]

Inspiration points
Generic classes
I have no third.

[Sponson]

Rage
Rage
Rage

There are just so many ACF's and variants for rage that you could build anything you want, fitting nearly any RP.

[Dsurion]

Sneak Attack
Invocations
PF Ninja Tricks
PF Gunslinger Deeds
Bardic Music

[navar100]

I will give Honorable Mention to the Incarnum System. I personally find you aren't given enough Essentia, others disagree, but the concept and mechanics are really cool.

[THEChanger]

1. Incarnum: It just works. It's brilliant. It's a very good basis for magic, as several homebrew "caster-y" Incarnum classes have shown. A bit more Essentia would be nice, but it's still very workable.

2. Binding: AAAAAHHHHH! So much flavor! And it also works. Plus I've used the Tenebrous Apostates as major villains in my real-life campaigns, and having the darkness attack my players instead of the other way around was...immensely satisfying.

3. Invocations: Because magic shouldn't run out. It should be something you have, or don't.

[Wise Green Bean]

1. Shocktrooper feat. Sacrifice all notion of personal safety for ridiculous amounts of damage. Never seen anything so beautifully fit the daredevil concept.
2. Factotum's inspiration. Poof! Yeah, I totally know how to pick a lock.
3. Pathfinder sorcerer bloodlines. Get some very cool and much needed diversity in there, I approve.

[Zaq]

Hmmm. In no particular order:

Incarnum. As THEChanger said, I love the way it all fits together. Nothing else (aside from really high-grade Wizard shenanigans, and, sorta-kinda, Master of Masks) lets you change your focus on a round-by-round basis to such a degree. Overall, the whole thing is elegant, even though it gets a bad rap.

Spellthievery. Sacrifice a die of SA, steal cool stuff from foe. Awesome. The primary "steal spell" mechanic is a little clunky when it comes to figuring out just what spells you can steal, but with a little bit of work, it's not that bad. It's a damn shame that the class as a whole doesn't work very well in actual play, in no small part because fighting casters is balls-out hard if you're not a full caster yourself, but the concept is awesome, and I really wish it was more generally applicable. Plus, stealing ongoing spell effects is hilarious when it works, as is Absorb Spell.

Trapmaking, from the Trapsmith (and, to a much lesser extent, the Combat Trapsmith). I love the concept, and the execution on the Trapsmith isn't half bad, especially because it leaves the door open to more creative options while still defining a baseline whitelist. Unfortunately, forced movement in 3.5 is pretty rare, so you have to be pretty darn good to get enemies to fall into your traps if you don't get the chance to set them in advance, but that can be seen as part of the challenge (or, at least, as a forgivable flaw).

Runner-ups include MoE's Alchemist Savant (pretty much all of its tricks are really cool, especially Spellvials, but I don't want to narrow it down enough for this topic), Pounce (it's about as elegant a solution as you can get to solving the "effective melee can't move" problem as you can get without sweeping system-wide changes), Wild Surge (what's this? A power boost that actually comes with a true cost, but not so much of one that it's unusable? Swoon!), Test of Mettle (woooo aggro!), and a DFA's breath weapon/breath effects (since most of them are save-for-half or save-for-reduced-duration, they're great for people who aren't very lucky . . . you're nearly guaranteed to do SOMETHING with your action, and the dice just determine whether it's a little something or a big something, as opposed to something or nothing. That's rare for at-will abilities.), and probably some others. But yeah.

[Narsis]

Binders. Love the fluff and the mechanics are cool.

Incarnum. Never had a chance to play a character with it yet but I absolutely love it.

Spell Thieves. Was actually gonna have just two favs, but Zaq reminded me of these guys. One of the classes I wish had a lot more support.

[ThiagoMartell]

The guy who did ozodrin really should try to get it published.

[gr8artist]

Tough call. My list comes from a mix of PF and 3.5

1. Lay on hands (1/2 your level in D6's to heal yourself as swift action. Heck yeah)
2. Warshaper (3.5 class, everything they could do was awesome. Reach, ignore crits, ability bonuses, you name it.)
3. Purify spell feat (no damage to good creatures, half to neutral... "Oh, you took damage from my fireball? Well that's not my problem, is it?")

Runner Up, Smite evil. In PF, it's got a lot of possible flavor and imagery. I'd like it more if it wasn't OP.

Strangely, I don't like playing healers, despite 3 of my faves coming from obviously cleric/pally roles.
I played a CG pyromancer whose sun deity granted him rainbow fire that reflected his mood. The LG pally loved my white fireballs of "doesn't hurt the paladin", but the LN ninja wasn't so pleased with them. The best part was never having to apologize when someone gets caught in the blast.

[Feralventas]

Truenaming.

ToB stances.

Class-features at-will.

[Mithril Leaf]

1: The Reweave Spirit ability of the Soul Weaver of the Secrets Of Pact Magic book. Basically, it lets you turn a spell into an Su ability following a variety of parameters. At level 10 could for example make a fireball into an at will Su ability, or turn explosive runes into an Su ability usable 5 times per day. Lets you blast well or buff more easily, very cool mechanic.
2: The PP system, it pulls off magic in a very elegant way, less broken than spells most of the time as a bonus.
3: The Dread Necromancer's undead horde powers. It's the only way to really pull off that classic horde of undead feel.

Runners up: The Druid's animal companion, the barbarian's rage, Binding, Incarnum.

[Answerer]

Martial maneuvers and stances -- saving mundane melee, and producing a really fluid and fun system to use.
Crusader recovery -- It's supremely elegant, and works really well. Fits perfectly with the system as a whole: there's never a reason why you have to stop using your maneuvers, but it's not at will, which is perfect.
Incarnum -- It's just a really cool system and I really like how moving Essentia around works.
Augmentating Psionics -- Augmentation is just a wonderful system, and how spellcasting should be.
Binding -- Particularly the way that failing a bind doesn't ruin your day, just makes the roleplaying more interesting.

[Hanuman]

Thanks guys! Keep it coming!

[Deathkeeper]

Pathfinder's Soul Knife's super customizable Blades- Because it REALLY seems to be like you're playing as the Green Lantern.
I'm also a sucker for 2-for-1 characters, so Eidolons and Familiars are good in my book.
Sorcerer Bloodlines, and Cross-Blooded- Very good for giving a character some flavor, and also makes Sorcerers much more customizable

[Eurus]

Pathfinder's Soul Knife's super customizable Blades- Because it REALLY seems to be like you're playing as the Green Lantern.
I'm also a sucker for 2-for-1 characters, so Eidolons and Familiars are good in my book.
Sorcerer Bloodlines, and Cross-Blooded- Very good for giving a character some flavor, and also makes Sorcerers much more customizable

Why am I imagining the Green Lantern making miscellaneous useful objects as long as he attaches "blade" to them? Ladderblades, shieldblades, bladebridges, bladecopters...

[Deathkeeper]

Why am I imagining the Green Lantern making miscellaneous useful objects as long as he attaches "blade" to them? Ladderblades, shieldblades, bladebridges, bladecopters...

I'm pretty sure they already get a Psionic Shield power, but now I really want to play as one and make bladecopters...

[DementedFellow]

I like Truenaming. Yeah it's borked but I hate Vancian casting quite a bit, since it unfairly benefits Wizards over Sorcerers.

[killianh]

Breath weapons, for metabreath and the like
Generic classes for letting you build your own class
ACFs (technically a form of mechanic) for allowing you to shape your classes into something unique

[Hikarizu]

1. Inspiration Points. As someone said, but with a little correction: Poof! Yeah, I totally know how to pick this lock.
2. Psionic Powers. Psion 20 fused with Monk3/Psychic Warrior 17 equals early DBZ fighting style.
3. Artificer's infusions

[mistformsquirrl]

Hrm...

Martial Manuevers - Depending on how I want to play it I can go for over-the-top shounen fighting anime characters, or a more gritty (but still unspeakably awesome) heroic fantasy character, or a samurai or... any number of things. It's also very effective, so I don't feel useless at the higher levels.

Oriental Adventures Samurai, Ancestral Daisho - While I recognize that in-theory anyone can get their weapon enchanted just like they like for a similar amount of gold - the truth is that only works in theory. In practice, it really depends on the campaign and DM, and some refuse to provide opportunities to say.. buy the exact weapon of your dreams even if you have the money.

This class feature pretty much guarantees you have the weapon you want so long as you have the cash and level for it.

I also just find it flavorful for a fantasy samurai to be able to essentially awaken their family's ancient heirloom weapon - and depending on the DM that can lead to some great RP. (It's one of many, many reasons I prefer the OA samurai to the CW samurai.)

Iaijutsu Master, Strike With no Thought - I won't pretend this is a particularly powerful ability, nor is the class it's attached to that potent... but it's one of the more effective abilities in terms of setting up the atmosphere of a samurai campaign; particularly in a low-powered campaign.

[RoyVG]

Martial Maneuvers and Stances is probably my favorite mechanic. Making Melee really fun to play, and increasing the strength of Melee while they are at it, makes it a a solid system.

Next is Incarnum. I've only played an Incarnum class ever, but instantly fell in love with the system. And the Soul Melds, you can't find more customizability with any other class in my opinion. Too bad my good-aligned Incarnate had to play tank all the time... with a d6... and a fairly optimized frenzied berserker in the party... hurting his toe against a rock... I was the only one who stood a change at surviving ONE round against that guy. :smallsigh:

I never really played Psionics, but maybe I'll give it a try someday.

I really liked the Infusions of the Artificer, it gave me a lot of options to do... stuff. needed to buff? Bull's strength on your belt. Needed to blast? Extra charges into my wand of Scorching Ray. The list goes on. I actually made a list of all kinds of weapon and armor enhancements that could be useful. good times.

[Novawurmson]

Class features as feats - Martial Study, Bind Vestige, Shape Soulmeld, Eldritch Heritage, etc. Sometimes, you just want a taste of something in your build.
Psionic Focus - ...especially the way DSP does it, where generally you get small bonuses for maintaining focus and big bonuses for expending focus. Adds a simple, essentially at-will resource pool to any character.

Can't decide on a third :P

[Axier]

Factotum... I mean all of it really. It really fits its name (BTW, its Latin.)

Warshaper's quickchange ability, because not only is it the most commonly skipped capstone, it makes my changling assassin capable of calmly walking down a hall after a kill and be someone completely different in a move action.

Binding. It has so much potential, and is even better if you take the time to think of your own vestiges. It is also really good for low-magic settings, because of all the risk you put into it (potentially being under the influence makes the witch hunters come out of the woodwork.)

Summoner's eidolons are an absolute godsend for the creative mind. You can pretty much do what you want, period.

Shadowcasting. Heavy structure, but very interesting methods.

Shugenja spellcasting, if you have AEG's Rokugan Campagin Setting to have a decent spell list.

I saw a homebrew for Avatar the Last Airbender, that had a really good bending mechanic. Kinda like truenaming, but not borked by rules.

Truenaming, because if you ignore some of the stupidity, it makes a really good system. Needs a bit of fleshing out though. I like the concept alot.

Witches spells and hexes both make them more interesting and less broken wizards. Plus, they can be customized to almost anything trhough hex and spell selection.

Barbarian Ferocity, much more interesting than rage. This is what the gentleman barbarian plays. Ferocious cane sword!

Invocations. I love at-will SLAs, and the flavor of the classes they come from, warlock and DFA are both really filled out classes.

Alchemist discoveries. Adds a lot of versatility to the class. They can functions as pretty much the only caster in a setting and get pretty much all of the casting archetypes covered. Lack of mindrape though.

[Giegue]

Cleric Spellcasting
Wizard Spellcasting
Dread Necromancer's Undead Mastery class feature
Rebuke(NOT turn) Undead
TOB Maneuvers/Stances ect... system
Psionics

[Bloodgruve]

1. Factotum Inspiration system w/Font of Inspiration, Nothing better than more standard actions!
2. Binder, Flavor and function working together.
3. Artificer item creation, So much versatility.

-Honorable Mentions-

4. ToB Maneuvers and Stances, what melee needs to be competitive at later levels.
5. Shapeshift Druid, swift action buff that's more balanced than Wildshape.

Blood~

[Squidfist]

Turn Undead. Or rebuke. Not even because of their direct application, but because of mechanics in CD and CC that allow you to spend uses to do neat things. I always like being able to pop a charge for Divine Vigor, or activate Chaos Devotion a second time in a session.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Psionics: It is simple, elegant, extremely easy to understand and the augmenting feature simply works. I am of the opinion that normal magic should work like this.

Martial Maneuvers: Pretty much the same as psionics, it has some fiddly bits (like IL with multiple initiating classes); but it is pretty awesome regardless of that.

Sneak Attack: Yes it is incredibly easy to negate (concealment, tons of creature immune to it), somewhat difficult to set up if you don't want to flank, and the returns aren't that great; but to me it is simply incredible. I love the idea of it. And the ambush feats really expand upon the core idea.

[SilverSavio]

The top 3 things I can think of right now are from The Brawler (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=204494):
Punch Them in the Face because sometimes you just want to punch things in the face.
Leaping Punch because you can totally get away with shouting "Shoryuken!" with this one.
Knockback Punch and nothing says "Go away!" like 50 points of damage

And when you add them all together just right you can achieve enemy surfing!!!

[Bakkan]

Psionics More tactical flexibility and less strategic flexibility than Vancian casting together with a simple-to-grasp system with extraordinary depth of potential interactions. If I were to rewrite 3.5, all core magic would work under this system.

ToB Maneuvers At-will abilities that inherently disallow spamming, effective mundane status effect delivery, and a blast to play. If I were to rewrite 3.5, all core melee would work this way.

Soulmelds/Essentia/Binds A round-by round flexibility that can put a factotum to shame, doing skills, melee, ranged, healing, or blasting. If I were to rewrite 3.5, Incarnate would be a core class.

[RFLS]

Psionics More tactical flexibility and less strategic flexibility than Vancian casting together with a simple-to-grasp system with extraordinary depth of potential interactions. If I were to rewrite 3.5, all core magic would work under this system.

ToB Maneuvers At-will abilities that inherently disallow spamming, effective mundane status effect delivery, and a blast to play. If I were to rewrite 3.5, all core melee would work this way.

Soulmelds/Essentia/Binds A round-by round flexibility that can put a factotum to shame, doing skills, melee, ranged, healing, or blasting. If I were to rewrite 3.5, Incarnate would be a core class.

Someone should rewrite 3.5 :smalltongue:

[XmonkTad]

1) Skirmish /sneak attack. I would love sudden strike too if it worked.
2) scout's freedom of movement that is (ex). It is beautiful.
3) warlock invocations. Its the best bucket of rocks.