The most boring class you've played

[Invader]

I see a lot of favorite class/build/ability threads but what was least fun class you've ever played and why. Was it just not what you were expecting, turn out to be way underpowered, a misunderstanding of the rules and a hard nosed DM?

For me it was a kobold DFA. I loved the character RP wise and although he was short lived I'm sure I'll remember him but to me DFA was just sooo boring. Every round it was just "ok use my breath weapon again, ok I use my breath weapon again, ok I use my breath weapon again." I'm not saying he wasn't effective, just extremely boring.

[Xervous]

Definitely Persistomancy cleric, there was little thought involved beyond the planning "ok, these are the best spells to persist... Now onto fighting as an uber melee combatant with a basket of blanket utility spells to solve any probable issues that can't be ground into paste"

[Acanous]

Ranger, back in 3.5. You rarely encountered your favored enemy type, your track was useless, weapon styles kinda suck, and basically you're worse at everything than the rest of the party.

[Screech-*Lime*]

I played a Druid in a PF game where the other team members were a Gunslinger and a Monk. I was soloing encounters meant for the entire team and he wasn't even very optimized. There was no challenge in the game and the DM ultimately had to just reboot the campaign because my character was just too strong.

It's easy to have fun with an underpowered character via roleplaying, but an overpowered character saps all the life out of the game because any "you can't kill this via brute force, so you'll have to be crafty" situation into "yes I can kill it with brute force, and I just did."

[Kuulvheysoon]

Human Fighter 6 (core-only).

I power attack for full. And again. And again....

[Hyde]

Thri-Kreen rogue.

It wasn't the character, the thing ended up with a movement speed of like, 90, an absurd jump check... all sorts of neat tricks and gadgets.

The problem was that in a full round of multiweapon fighting, the guy was supposed to get something like twelve sneak attacks in a go.

So we proceeded to fight exclusively undead, constructs, and oozes for the duration of his tenure, with the occasional elemental.

No traps, no locked doors, nothing worth flanking.

Just endlessly spamming 1d6+2 damage/attack.

[Palanan]

I tried running a favored soul/swashbuckler once. That didn't go well.

Part of the problem was a weak build, involving one class that was just-okay and one that was aggressively meh. As if that weren't enough, the character was completely mismatched for the campaign; he was meant to be a smooth-talking court diplomat and he ended up in the Mulhorandi wilderness. It could've been fun, but he wasn't working with the DM's campaign style.

So I swapped him out for straight cleric, in hopes that would improve the situation. Unfortunately not; I quit the campaign a couple of sessions later.

I've always wanted to give that character another try, since I liked his concept, but I don't know if that combo can be rescued.

[Arcanist]

*snip*

Seems like your DM wanted you to play "Helpless" that game. Not necessarily bad DM'ing just bad Player:DM coordination.

OT: TO Wizard 20. Not exactly a fair game when you can nuke the world to bajebus and back and still have enough spell slots to kill the BBEG without much effort.

[andromax]

I think the game itself contributes more to whether the character is boring or not, that being said, I've had loads of fun playing low level fighters (theyre actually one of the best classes till the casters get their 3rd level spells) with great cleave etc. The first druid I built turned out to be a disaster, mostly because he was too low level to function how I intended. I only played him like 3 sessions before I built a cleric and won d&d.

[andromax]

Thri-Kreen rogue.

It wasn't the character, the thing ended up with a movement speed of like, 90, an absurd jump check... all sorts of neat tricks and gadgets.

The problem was that in a full round of multiweapon fighting, the guy was supposed to get something like twelve sneak attacks in a go.

So we proceeded to fight exclusively undead, constructs, and oozes for the duration of his tenure, with the occasional elemental.

No traps, no locked doors, nothing worth flanking.

Just endlessly spamming 1d6+2 damage/attack.

That's why wand chamber + wand of gravestrike (http://dndtools.eu/spells/complete-adventurer--54/grave-strike--373/) is all but a must for those builds.

[Aractos]

--Orc barbarian. The class/race held the promise of great times in itself, and I'd play it again. But the real problem was rp-wise... He was a chaotic evil character, bloodthirsty and fascinated by death. Perfect for playing in a party of inexperienced players that end up looting and killing almost anything they encounter. Which is how playing with inexperienced players often ends up being like...

--But in a twist of fate, the game turned out to be a lighthearted brawl, and a snobbish death cultist who kills at the slightest provocation seemed like a character that would really bog down the optimistic mood of the game. So I didn't play out his personality. Whenever an rp event was going on, I'd just be quiet in my corner. I guess that if I had cleverly rewritten the character's personality I could have played him, but I'll probably play a completely new character when that frp resumes, to fit in better with my party.

[Fyermind]

Most boring for me was playing as a ranger back when 3.5 first came out. The DM suggested it because I wanted two weapon fighting. I really should have been playing a cleric perhaps with a dip in fighter, to fit my character concept. The result was that I didn't have the tools I wanted at my disposal, and had a lot of skills and traits I didn't want/couldn't use. I didn't have the ability to self buff effectively, and my skill points were pretty much useless.

Since then I have dusted off the character concept and done the build right, and it was one of the most fun if poorly optimized character (Cleric 6/ prestige paladin 1 / cleric +)

I think the worst times are generally when the players DM and characters aren't all on the same page about what they want.

[mistformsquirrl]

Scout. I set the entire character up to work off of Spring Attack, so I could be a melee scout... then had my DM throw me into incredibly confined spaces (even for a dungeon) routinely to negate my ability - so I was basically playing a really crappy fighter.

It didn't help that I never did figure out the character's personality, so I couldn't enjoy the roleplaying angle much; and unlike a true Fighter, I didn't even have a plethora of feats to amuse myself with.

I tried retooling her to throw grenade like weapons... only to discover that by and large they're pretty crappy. (I was still fairly new to the game at the time.)

[BowStreetRunner]

VoP Monk

Realizing that once I finished planning my entire 20-level build I pretty much had a clear road-map to how my character would look at every level, it didn't take long before I started having flashes of insight relating to what it might have be like to be Muad'dib after his prescient vision takes hold. I never realized that the pursuit of magic items was so important to the feel of the game.

Edit: I just remembered another game in which I played a CHA-based halfling rogue and there were no social encounters. The entire campaign was basically one combat encounter after another and felt more like a miniatures game than a role-playing game. My character's role in the party ended up being 'comic relief'.

[andromax]

I think the worst times are generally when the players DM and characters aren't all on the same page about what they want.

Yea definitely.. When a DM tends to railroad against the player's wishes, or when a player(s) continually sabotage story/plot hooks it can really detract.

Has only been an issue in a very small amount of campaigns for me, and they never lasted.

One thing I'd like to work on in a campaign I'm in now is to minimize the meta-gaming that goes on. However we have a particularly new player that is playing a Duskblade, and while not a particularly complicated class to play, I find that the rest of the PCs having to meta-game his options for him regularly is a bit distracting. It doesn't overshadow the appreciation I have for a new player that enjoys the game however!

[Slipperychicken]

Warforged Persist Cleric. All the blandness of "I hit it again, power attack for 3" with all the RP-encounter trivializing of being a fullcaster. It didn't help that the game was half-assed by a horrible DM, and consisted mostly of the PCs delivering mail to nobles. No, there weren't any encounters while delivering the mail, just "okay we picked up the package... okay we go back. 'Good evening M'Lady, got your package!'..." It got so bad I would literally would start playing Skyrim in the middle of sessions out of sheer boredom.

[navar100]

Rogue

I cannot do the class justice. I do not have the mindset to make it work, accepting that rogue does not equal thief. I go through the motions, but I don't feel the character.

[Vizzerdrix]

An artificer. I couldn't convince either the DM or the party to let me have a moment to cast infusions, let alone make anything.

[Lateral]

Commoner, and I am being entirely serious here. I accept that the idea of a commoner-only game, where players have to use their wits and ingenuity to survive in a world of horrible monsters and epic heroes, can be a lot of fun when done right. Emphasis, however, goes to that last part- I once played in a campaign where it was very, very much not done right. And it was boring as HELL.

[Zaq]

Both times I've attempted to play a debuffing Hexblade, it just hasn't bloody worked. I tend to be unlucky in general when it comes to d20 rolls (I've kept records of every die I roll for weeks before, and it really is below average to a statistically significant degree, regardless of which dice I use or how I roll them), but the dice just MURDERED me both times. Nobody ever failed their bloody saves against any of my bloody effects. Ever. I also had a hell of a time actually hitting anything, despite having perfectly acceptable to-hit numbers. I maintain that the character concept is solid, but both times I tried (lasting several sessions before giving up each time, I will add), I just couldn't succeed on anything I tried to do.

[Muktidata]

My first character in DnD in 2E when I was in 6th grade. I rolled my stats using their convention and got an 18/80-something in Strength. I wanted to go TWF route, so I did. The entire play group totally screws over melee by making them do a dex check DC 10 or fall down whenever they roll a 1. Every DM does this. So I was level 6 or so with four attacks. I spent most of my games rolling on the floor not laughing my ass off. When we converted to 3.0, it was just as bad. Gotta love DM's that nerf mundane characters.

[AuraTwilight]

Commoner.

It was for a survival horror campaign.

[Psyren]

Ranger, back in 3.5. You rarely encountered your favored enemy type, your track was useless, weapon styles kinda suck, and basically you're worse at everything than the rest of the party.

I think you meant 3.0 - 3.5 Rangers hold their own quite well, especially with splat support.

[Rogue Shadows]

Wizard, actually. I find the bookkeeping and keeping track of spells prepared to be extremely dull.

Sorcerer, on the other hand..."I hate you! Pow, fireball! I hate you! Pow, fireball! Oh-ho, a fire elemental? Think you're so tough? Ha! Lightning bolt, jackass!"

I liked the high Charisma, too. I was a likeable sociopath.

[Yora]

My most boring character was a dwarf fighter. Not because of the fighter class, but because after 6 sessions, I still had only 400 XP. The DM never had us fight anything.

[ArcturusV]

Probably the one I had the least fun with was Cleric in several different groups. This was mostly because the groups got really pissy if the Cleric did anything other than wait for a battle over and Cure ____ Wounds. Maybe do a Turn Undead or a Bless type of effect. Sure I COULD have done something different with it. But eh. I don't generally like getting into little fights around the table about stuff.

So it was several campaigns of "Something fun is happening?! You, sit back and cure us just in case while we have all the fun!" Even applied in Non-Combat scenes where the rogue for example would get his panties in a bunch if I "marginalized" him by casting a Find Traps spell so I could point him towards what he needed to do. Or the party "genius" getting upset if I used spells like Augury to point out that his brilliant plans might lead us to certain doom (As was often the case).

Outside of Party based pressure to be no fun, making a class boring... Hmm... Probably the last time I played an Illusionist. Again it got boring more or less because I could never do anything. DM was very fond of "noping" things and having all enemies disbelieve my illusions, even if they were logically crafted.

[Eldariel]

Any character who just attacks in combat with no other options and has poor out-of-combat options. My first Fighter finally multiclassed Wizard on level 6 to alleviate my unbelievable boredom but I found out it was too late. I had a Dervish who really suffered of the "guess I full attack"-dilemma though at least the tactical movement and Combat Expertise-considerations gave me something to do and they do get some skills.

Nowadays I always ensure I have more to do in combat than just "attack again". If I can't get ToB or Factotums or the like, I play Rogue, Ranger or a full caster/Bard. Ranger and Rogue can alleviate the combat boredom somewhat with skills and limited spell access at least (though I vastly prefer Sublime Way Ranger) and spellcasters obviously never run out of stuff to do; you can do cool stuff even with level 0 spells.

[nedz]

A 3.0 Bard — every combat was the same: Music, Haste, some other buff, some other buff, Music again — though I'm exaggerating slightly because combats rarely lasted that long.

I took leadership — simply to have something else to do — I ended up with a Ranger/OBI archer, I had wanted a melee character :smallsigh: This Archer was the second most boring character I've ever played.

Really though it's down to how un-imaginative the DM is.

[randomhero00]

I actually have a short list that I'll never play again...monk, fighter, healtbot anything, and dragon fire adept.

[ReluctantDragon]

Batman Wizard. Not to spit in the eye of seemingly EVERYONE else in the Playground, but I have had to forcefully pretend to be interested in any combat with a "I'm prepared for anything!" wizard. Combat was boring. To me it is "I power attack for full" just with different words. "Save or suck. Battlefield control spell. Save or suck. Save or d-oh, its dead. Okay." Skill monkeys made most out of combat situations boring, as wizards don't do charisma-based checks and rogues or bards do knowledge checks better, typically. I get why people can enjoy them, but they aren't my pint of stout.

Also, scout(before the scout/ranger builds) became stagnant quickly.

In regards to other comments, I don't understand how anyone can find a cleric boring. They can literally do everything in the game. I love 'em.

As always, of course, it comes down to the person and the game.

[ArcturusV]

Oh, Cleric can be fun when you GET to do something. But if you're stuck with groups who throw a hissy fit if you do anything other than post battle healing? Yeah. Then it gets boring. Or you constantly having to deal with drama with other players.

[Big Fau]

Honestly the worst for me was playing a Fighter. One-trick ponies are dull to all hell and back, but that one was bad.

[Gigas Breaker]

Years ago when i was brand new to tabletop rpgs, in a core 3.5 game, I played a fighter and thzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

[killem2]

Somebody else's because they were absent. :smallwink:

[Eldariel]

Batman Wizard. Not to spit in the eye of seemingly EVERYONE else in the Playground, but I have had to forcefully pretend to be interested in any combat with a "I'm prepared for anything!" wizard. Combat was boring. To me it is "I power attack for full" just with different words. "Save or suck. Battlefield control spell. Save or suck. Save or d-oh, its dead. Okay." Skill monkeys made most out of combat situations boring, as wizards don't do charisma-based checks and rogues or bards do knowledge checks better, typically. I get why people can enjoy them, but they aren't my pint of stout.

Also, scout(before the scout/ranger builds) became stagnant quickly.

In regards to other comments, I don't understand how anyone can find a cleric boring. They can literally do everything in the game. I love 'em.

As always, of course, it comes down to the person and the game.

I'm confused; how does anyone have better Knowledges than a Wizard? I always had the opposite problem; Wizard completely obsoletes Bard in that sense even tho Bard has Bardic Knowledge. Whatever Bard has, Wizard has full ranks in all Knowledges and much higher Int, not to mention superior Divinations.

Hell, they also have summons which can function in the controller shell as extra pieces and then there's Polymorph; they can literally do anything they want. I'm just confused by how Clerics are different from Wizards.

[Norin]

I'm confused; how does anyone have better Knowledges than a Wizard? I always had the opposite problem; Wizard completely obsoletes Bard in that sense even tho Bard has Bardic Knowledge. Whatever Bard has, Wizard has full ranks in all Knowledges and much higher Int, not to mention superior Divinations.

Hell, they also have summons which can function in the controller shell as extra pieces and then there's Polymorph; they can literally do anything they want. I'm just confused by how Clerics are different from Wizards.

Hah, yeah why would anyone play anything else (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=267020), eh? :smallbiggrin:

The biggest question in 3.5, right?

[Eldariel]

Hah, yeah why would anyone play anything else (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=267020), eh? :smallbiggrin:

The biggest question in 3.5, right?

Well, not so much; reasons to play other things are clear enough but the specific complaints given make no sense to me here :smalltongue:

[Menteith]

Uberchargers in general, Fighters in particular. Fights tend toward the binary (are the conditions for Charging met? Then I kill it, else I do nothing of significance), and there isn't a whole lot of stuff they can usually do outside of fighting.

[Systole]

Pathfinder opinions:

The bads

Buffbot bard was boring, and I was not sorry when that character got eaten by a tyrannosaurus.
Halfling rogue was a fun concept, but the class is gimped and it was awful to play.
Dwarf cave druid is just not grabbing me and I think I'm going to retire him. He's the default healer and has many of the same problems as buffbot bard.



For comparisonThe okay

Phanaton fighter and mad bomber alchemist. Although the mad bomber has some crazy fun feats that almost push him into...


The huge amounts of fun

Smelly elf barbarian.
Elf summoner built like a World of Warcraft hunter (high dexterity archer with wolf eidolon)
Human antipaladin for Way of the Wicked

[Con_Brio1993]

Playing any class requiring a nongood alignment in a party with a Lawful Stupid Paladin or Cleric.

[Lisselys]

I second the Wizard option.
It's not that it's not a good class, it really IS, but still I'd like to play differently sometimes, not just by standing back and helping and buffing everyone. I could go blasting, but even then I'd be really just conquering and not risking.
I'd like to change character, but I changed a first one and another one died, so I'm not so confident to ask my DM to do it. Also, we're at a big plot point, so I actually can't for RP reasons.
The real problem is, however, that I can't because if I do the entire party would die, since there's a Fighter and a Paladin and I keep them alive by buffing/Debuffing.


I miss the Scout/Ranger that died T_T

[molten_dragon]

A lockdown fighter. Pretty much ever combat was "I trip the monster, and do some piddly damage" or "I make an attack of opportunity for some piddly damage".

[evisiron]

Warlock.

So many cool little abilities, but too few slots to take 'just for fun' ones.
It felt like it lacked the flexibility of a real caster, but also did pathetic amounts of damage.

[russdm]

Oddly enough, nearly every character i have made has been boring except for one or two. My Kender Warlock and my Drunken master were fun. Whats even more sadder is that both characters were in a different group than the one i currently play one where i find all my characters boring.

For me its the lack of challenge and humor. My current group is not that funny, since most jokes are metagame. Also, if you try to have fun with the character(s), there is a strong chance you may end up getting killed or something. Last saturday, we had 3 party members die, my two and another person's. Making the wrong kind of characters for a campaign leads to boredom. my current group has 3 powergamers and one of those powergamers usually DMs....oh the pain.

[Raven777]

Wizard, actually. I find the bookkeeping and keeping track of spells prepared to be extremely dull.

Sorcerer, on the other hand..."I hate you! Pow, fireball! I hate you! Pow, fireball! Oh-ho, a fire elemental? Think you're so tough? Ha! Lightning bolt, jackass!"

I liked the high Charisma, too. I was a likeable sociopath.

This is the most moving depiction of the quintessential spirit of Sorcery ever put into words.
You should become a poet.

[Jerthanis]

Most boring mechanically was probably a Druid played from level 1 where I chose a Light Riding Horse as a companion. Produce Flame -> Flaming Sword -> Call Lightning. Boring AND ineffective.

Other than that, a Rogue 3 / Wizard 5 I played once was pretty bad, because I focused on Wizard spells to supplement my rogue skills, so like Invisibility, Silence, True Strike, Locate Object, the DM let me take Find Traps... essentially I dropped 5 levels of "Replace Rogue Skills with these" on top of three levels of Rogue. So I could only do one sort of thing, but I had two ways to do it.

[Slipperychicken]

I'm confused; how does anyone have better Knowledges than a Wizard?

Factotums have far more skillpoints (6+Int, and Int SAD depending on your build) and get to add their class level to skill checks 1 per day for every skill. They also get to make those lazy Knowledge ranks work by taking Knowledge Devotion. Not as much spellcasting as a Wizard, but far more fun IMO, as you have a number of different ways to approach each problem, and can remain relevant in just about every situation. Combat, social, skills, spells, the Factotum can do it all.

[GnomeGninjas]

I was a 3.5 core only halfing bard. My only useful function was CLWing the barbarian with my wand.

[TuggyNE]

Factotums have far more skillpoints (6+Int, and Int SAD depending on your build) and get to add their class level to skill checks 1 per day for every skill. They also get to make those lazy Knowledge ranks work by taking Knowledge Devotion. Not as much spellcasting as a Wizard, but far more fun IMO, as you have a number of different ways to approach each problem, and can remain relevant in just about every situation. Combat, social, skills, spells, the Factotum can do it all.

While that's probably true, Factota were not mentioned in context. :smallwink:

[Telltale]

The most boring class you've played

I played a Transmuter in Cauldron-the Shackled City -It is a great class but my group/party just wanted me to buff them and be support. Which was fine but I was bored. It was a great setting. I just wished I had played a Scout or something.

[Jeff the Green]

Well, not strictly a class so much as an unholy gestalt amalgamation of dryad, cleric, barbarian, and (ranged) warblade. Basically your garden-variety archer cleric with maneuvers. Every combat consisted of spamming one or two maneuvers, and almost all of my spells were allocated for long-term buffs.

[Greenish]

I'm going to third DFA. Out of combat, it's not too bad, but in combat, you rarely have anything better to do than breathe. (Mine was a kobold too. Pocket dragons ftw!)


Then again, I had lots of fun with a 1st level warforged totemist, even though it's only combat option was "I attack again".

[Olo Demonsbane]

I get bored horrifically easily with pretty much any class or character (in combat that is) after a few sessions, especially when his/her abilities are usable at will or per encounter. Generally, the only classes I'm happy with for a longer campaign are Archivist or some multiclassed monstrosity.

For comparison, my two current characters at level 6, both of which I'm quite happy with:

A swordsage-ish character optimized for ridiculous in combat versitality. When I learned there were guns in this campaign, I decided that I wanted a character that could do the classic "use an enemy as a shield". A typical round usually involves grappling, blinding, dazing, charging, jumping, and tripping, and her enemies are more likely to hit each other than her.

A psion wizard beguiler (using the kobold loredrake-like ability to add all druid spells to his beguiler list) that can get 5 spells/powers off in one turn, about half of which are during the enemies turn. TO Batman wizard to the extreme.

[Balmas]

AD&D Cleric. I had 21's or above in each and every stat, had the top magical armor and weapons, we were level 20ish, fighting avatars of death. Rather, the rest of the party was. I was the one getting 2 HP per level, very little bonus to attack, and with no real attacks to speak of besides "swing again."

Since I had expected the power level of a 3.5 cleric, I wasn't impressed.

[Gnaeus]

Spirit Shaman. Admittedly, I pretty much only play casters, but this one really underwhelmed me.

I found that the "tier 1" ness of the class was severely overstated, because there were usually only a handful of decent spells I wanted at each level, So I felt like a sorcerer with half the spells known at most levels. The campaign kept taking us to closed planes where either I couldn't summon, or didn't want to summon because the summons would turn on us, so there went another big chunk of my flexibility. The DM was using a houserule where polymorph spells gave fixed bonuses, (similar to the PF rule) which just meant that even with spells like Aspect of the Earth Hunter I wasn't viable in combat. Without summons or the ability to melee I sucked against most enemies with SR, which were many. I spent a lot of time spamming Panacea, which isn't even that great a spell.

[Morph Bark]

Barbarian.

To be fair, this is because I've only played barbarians and bards and this one gish kobold this one time. I had an absolute ball pouncing around.

[limejuicepowder]

Spirit Shaman. Admittedly, I pretty much only play casters, but this one really overwhelmed me.

I found that the "tier 1" ness of the class was severely overstated, because there were usually only a handful of decent spells I wanted at each level, So I felt like a sorcerer with half the spells known at most levels. The campaign kept taking us to closed planes where either I couldn't summon, or didn't want to summon because the summons would turn on us, so there went another big chunk of my flexibility. The DM was using a houserule where polymorph spells gave fixed bonuses, (similar to the PF rule) which just meant that even with spells like Aspect of the Earth Hunter I wasn't viable in combat. Without summons or the ability to melee I sucked against most enemies with SR, which were many. I spent a lot of time spamming Panacea, which isn't even that great a spell.

I think you might mean "underwhelmed."

Also, I would suggest giving spirit shaman another chance. Aside from a little mad-ness, they have the best of both worlds in prep and spontaneous casting, with a good spell list. Their class abilities are admittedly mostly niche, but they can be handy and they are definitely flavorful. I don't know if you got this high, but the 10th (or maybe 11th) level ability is really good. It sounds to me like the DM set you up for boring-ness, since summoning is a big part of the druid's list.

Can you tell that spirit shaman is one of my favs?

[jaynus006]

First game ever I played a rogue. We were all new the DM was new as well. We didnt understand the rules for SA so I hardly ever got one and when I did most were immune to crits. It was a combat heavy game so skills were never used. We had a wizard so I thought UMD was a waste. In the end I was playing a d6 fighter in a game where the DM wanted to throw tons of monsters at us.

[LordBlades]

Dwarf fighter/dwarven defender. I had no skills whatsoever to be useful out of combat and in combat all I could do was occasionally hit with my 1d10+str waraxe.

[WhatBigTeeth]

Skirmishers other than unseen seer.

"I move 10 feet to the right and shoot a bunch of arrows."
"I move 10 feet to the left and shoot a bunch of of arrows"
"I move 10 feet to the right and shoot a bunch of arrows"
"I move 10 feet to the left and shoot a bunch...."

[Gnaeus]

I think you might mean "underwhelmed."

Oops, Fixed.


Also, I would suggest giving spirit shaman another chance. Aside from a little mad-ness, they have the best of both worlds in prep and spontaneous casting, with a good spell list. Their class abilities are admittedly mostly niche, but they can be handy and they are definitely flavorful. I don't know if you got this high, but the 10th (or maybe 11th) level ability is really good. It sounds to me like the DM set you up for boring-ness, since summoning is a big part of the druid's list.


I played him 8-16, but I went into a PRC (an edited Moonspeaker from Eberron) so I didn't get the higher level class features. You may be right, it may just have been the campaign and house rules. But I was really unimpressed by the strength of their list. Too many spells that help druids when shared with an AC or when wildshaped that did 0 for SS. Too many awesome all day buffs that I couldn't take because I couldn't tie up my only spell known of that level with a spell to cast once. I like Druid, and I like Sorcerer, but for me a SS combines the weaknesses of both, not the strengths.

[Anderlith]

Paladin. I've played a lot of different paladins & they've always been lackluster, the only one I've ever thought was actually worth it was the Bretonnian Knight from Warhammer Fantasy

[Norin]

Fighter.

No skills, no spells, no versatility. Eww.

[IdleMuse]

For me, it has to be, weirdly, a Divine Mind, because, get this, it was too overpowered. I was in a party of non-optimisers, psionic setting, and i really can't even remember what there was in the party. I know a Psionic bard joined us late in the campaign (from DS press), and I think there was a vanilla rogue? But I was a fairly heavily optimised intimidate lockdown guy, spamming the psionic fear effect, massive con and Deepwarden dip, some ToB stuff via the feats, fearsome armour and all. Every encounter was just, intimidate them all to catatonia, wait for the rest of the party to mop up.

[2samspan]

Why all the hate on DFAs? They can do more than just use breath weapons. They have incantations, natural armor, etc.

[Flickerdart]

Ardent. I was a blaster build specced for endurance - Energy Current allowed me to get away with very few powers manifested per encounter. However, the DM only gave us single encounters per day, against monsters with utterly jacked up saves, SR, and energy resistances, to the point that the only way to do anything at all was to hit them with swords.

[SimonMoon6]

Once I tried an unusual multi-class: rogue/cleric. The build was focused around using magic devices (UMD from the rogue part, the Magic domain on the cleric half). So, it turns out that this is a game where we're going to be way below normal WBL. Magic items are incredibly rare.

Okay, well, I can at least still use sneak attack. So we fight nothing but undead who can't be sneak attacked.

And then I took some weird prestige class that had some synergy with both my rogue and cleric sides and would give potentially useful SLAs which would be the only thing that could make this otherwise unsynergistic multiclass worthwhile... but the SLAs were (according to the prestige class) chosen by the DM... who chose the weakest possible option.

If I had any ability to contribute anything to the party... the DM made sure it didn't work.

So I scrapped the character and made a cleric archer.

[Tetsubo 57]

Thri-Kreen rogue.

It wasn't the character, the thing ended up with a movement speed of like, 90, an absurd jump check... all sorts of neat tricks and gadgets.

The problem was that in a full round of multiweapon fighting, the guy was supposed to get something like twelve sneak attacks in a go.

So we proceeded to fight exclusively undead, constructs, and oozes for the duration of his tenure, with the occasional elemental.

No traps, no locked doors, nothing worth flanking.

Just endlessly spamming 1d6+2 damage/attack.

You had a bad GM. Every character should get moments in the spotlight. Ignoring a characters entire skill set seems to be pure bad GMing.

[TuggyNE]

You had a bad GM. Every character should get moments in the spotlight. Ignoring a characters entire skill set seems to be pure bad GMing.

Worse, it's bad DMing that's often defended and even recommended (if only as a solution to problems that are seen as even worse, such as wizards pwning everything or chargers doing the same).

[Rubik]

I was a 3.5 core only halfing bard. My only useful function was CLWing the barbarian with my wand.Euphemism much? :smallamused:


I get bored horrifically easily with pretty much any class or character (in combat that is) after a few sessions, especially when his/her abilities are usable at will or per encounter. Generally, the only classes I'm happy with for a longer campaign are Archivist or some multiclassed monstrosity.If you enjoy thinking outside the box, try a shaper psion/3.5 constructor with Linked Power to use Psionic Minor Creation tactically. (I suggest either warforged or changeling -- both have interesting and useful features.) Oh, and take Psicrystal Affinity. Sure, you have a rather small toolbox of abilities, but each ability has a huge breadth of function. If you like being creative, that won't get boring any time soon. I've played one in several, several campaigns, and I'm always finding new ways to address various situations. You're already familiar with psion, so it's not a terrible sacrifice, right?

[Lonely Tylenol]

Gunslinger. Definitely Gunslinger.

I jumped into an existing Pathfinder campaign with a Ratfolk Pistolero Gunslinger as they were beginning... But I missed the first two sessions, so when I jumped in, I was a 1st-level character, with 1st-level WBL, in a group of 3rd-level characters jumping up to 4th level. I eventually caught up to 4th level (and quit just after achieving 5th-level experience), but the class is a mess of features based around a subsystem that just doesn't work without a lot of feats and magic item support to make it palatable. For the first few levels, I didn't have Rapid Reload, because ??? (I took Two-Weapon Fighting as my first feat, because my concept was a duel-wielding, hard-dealing big-shot pistolero who legitimately believes he is the handsome, dashing hero of the story... Even though he is really just an ugly, mildly delusional walking rat with guns), but the fact that I was well behind in wealth and only ever found medium-sized guns (those befitting of a human) made my first few levels, against encounters appropriate a fourth-level party, a matter of "I shoot my beaten-up old pistol for 1d6... Oh, I miss? Outside of 10 feet? OK, then, I guess I'll reload next turn..."

Even when I did have Rapid Reload, the system was still ill-fitted toward handling a dual-wielding pistolero, so it sort of fell completely flat, and there wasn't anything I could do about it. I quit at fifth level (the level he got Deadly Aim, another d6 of damage from his Pistolero grit thing, and some other cool stuff) because the game happened early in the morning the day after my own game, which ended late the night before, with both games being almost an hour's drive out from my place, and I, no way to stay in town for the night before (I carpool with people in that night game). The character concept was fun (basically, a mildly hideous rat who believes he's Balthier or Han Solo), but the execution itself was boring as sin in the low levels--which was all of the levels I played it at.

[Greenish]

Why all the hate on DFAs? They can do more than just use breath weapons. They have incantations, natural armor, etc.Perhaps a better title for this thread would be "The most boring character you've played". I don't hate DFA (and I doubt the others do, either), but that was legitimately the most boring character in a fight I have tried. Granted, the fact that my invocations were all 24-hours buffs probably didn't help.

[Invader]

Why all the hate on DFAs? They can do more than just use breath weapons. They have incantations, natural armor, etc.

You only get a handful of invocations and half the good ones are all day buffs and I fail to see how natural armor makes a class less boring :smallamused:

[Invader]

Perhaps a better title for this thread would be "The most boring character you've played". I don't hate DFA (and I doubt the others do, either), but that was legitimately the most boring character in a fight I have tried. Granted, the fact that my invocations were all 24-hours buffs probably didn't help.

No it's def class, like I said I loved the character it was the class mechanics I found so boring.

[willpell]

I tried running a favored soul/swashbuckler once. That didn't go well.

I've always wanted to give that character another try, since I liked his concept, but I don't know if that combo can be rescued.

I'd be willing to at least look at your character to see if I could find a place for him in my Whiteleaf campaign. It's not forgotten realms, but it does tend to be a bit more "civilized" than your default campaign world, so it's possible it could work. Are you familiar with the Greyhawk deities? My game mostly uses this pantheon, although I've introduced a few homebrews.

[Drakevarg]

I've never really been wholly unsatisfied with the character I played. I usually go for Fighter or Barbarian, and they've never really let me down. My most recent characters were a Paladin and a Ranger/Fighter, both of which I wound up leaving for reasons mostly unrelated to the build.

The Paladin I wound up quitting because I didn't have enough time to spend attending the three or four campaigns I was in at the time, and I finally found an excuse to quit when a horde scarab ate all my money and I got myself killed when I wandered off to solo chimeras. That's troll DM + ragequit, doesn't really count.

The other character I left for the same reason, - I didn't have enough time to play - but this time I was simply bored of the character. I had designed him to essentially be Rinzler, and while I still like the build, the campaign I was in was a quasi-modern setting using 3.5 rules with a DM obsessed with aviation who frequently forgot his setting had magic in it. So I spent the vast majority of the game zipping around in my crudely houseruled lightjet, making people slam into my lightwall and letting d20Modern's collision rules do all the damage ever.

On the rare occasions I actually did get to fight on foot, my primary schtick (throwing annulats all over the room) did piss for damage, leaving me in the awkward position of being overpowered half the time and useless the other half. Eventually the DM agreed to write me out of the campaign so I could become co-DM, but the campaign ended shortly thereafter.

So my conclusion to that long, rambling anecdote is that so far Ranger has been the most boring class I can recall playing, probably because I had designed the character for a 20 level progression and hadn't given much thought to how he would perform at level 4 and more thought towards how to give him 10 attacks with 40 targets per round by level 20.

[ArcturusV]

That's usually the problem I run into with players when I DM. They come to me saying "I'm not having fun with/I'm bored with my character". And it usually involves that they chose the class for some cool trick, ability, or concept that they wouldn't be able to pull of until level 12-15.

... and we're level 2-3 at the time.

Too much focus on the end game, and not enough focus on NOW. Plus issues where someone wants to build an ultra optimized character concept to find out it doesn't work until it hits a certain threshold.

Of course one I'm getting bored with lately is my Vasharan Ninja. Not because Ninja is horribly weak. Though I do wish I had something to do with my ki during level 1 instead of just the +2 to Will Saves for not spending it. A lot of the weakness like Sudden Strike being worse than Sneak Attack doesn't bother me, just reminds me of how Backstab damage used to work and having to work to earn it.

But it mostly is coming from DM screw, where typically regardless of roll, skills, or plan nothing quite works. Usually in cheap ways that I get "noped" on after I explain how my character is going to get out of a situation. To summarize it, one of the screw jobs was actually involving retroactively declaring that people don't eat soup with spoons... because I was going to try and break off the spoon's handle and use it as an improvised lock pick to escape from some leg shackles I was locked in at the time.

[willpell]

people don't eat soup with spoons.

That is epically, hilariously awful DMing right there. He could have just made the spoons plastic or balsa wood or something so they wouldn't make effective lockpicks.

[Flickerdart]

That is epically, hilariously awful DMing right there. He could have just made the spoons plastic or balsa wood or something so they wouldn't make effective lockpicks.
Plastics don't exist without petroleum, and balsa wood would make a hideously awful spoon.

[Slipperychicken]

That is epically, hilariously awful DMing right there. He could have just made the spoons plastic or balsa wood or something so they wouldn't make effective lockpicks.

Plastics only came about after Oil became the foundation of the modern global economy, powering basically every transport device out there, helping catapult us into the Information Age, and generally being an excellent material. The widespread use of plastics implies a lot of technological advancements which many games don't see (oil-engines, machine-guns, telegraphs, etc).


And improvising Thieves Tools already has a -2 penalty, because you're using items unsuitable for lockpicking. I've seen this kind of DM before, who seem to treat any sort of innovative thought as a fire in their game, which must be extinguished with a vigorous barrage of "No". They're awful, and generally to be avoided.

[Krazzman]

The time I tried to get Psionics introduced into our little group...

It started with rolled stats as usual, I got lucky, 18 in his main stat. Went for the Mind Blast, Skate and Animate Object powers as I was thinking basic Damage Dealing, cool movement and a slight better power than just blasting. Being an Elan and so on I was most of the time a **** that didn't needed to eat/drink.

Story begins with us three characters (Dwarf Warrior? [ranger or melee, unsure], halfling rogue [seemed to use UMD], and me) being chased off-cliff from a boar. Loosing quite a bit of our resources (bolts etc.) and then waking up on a shore, heading directly into the desert and being resqued by avariel (those winged elves). They had a problem in a mine and we investigated it, killed kobolds/goblinstuff thingies left an right and came to the endchamber where a mad avariel tried to kill another one and slowly turn the others into mindless slaves. Well he packs out an area stun to which I am immune and I use my animate object power to disarm him (but no he is "Just that skilled" and grabs his weapon midswing), but to no avail he was "uberpowererd" and well even got to cancel my chars powers.

After we resolved that problem we came into a human town and... I tried to get someone to basically get a carpenter to listen to me to build me a snowboard so I could use my skate-power better in the desert... but no, again no one even basically understood stuff. Tried to get my PsiCrystal to scout a bit and... was thrown out of a tavern for it...

In summary I felt like a weak-ass wizard that had basically no impact. But after this thing a few in the group were like "Psionics are Overpowererd ehrmegerd!". Although the other players in that "one-shot" were basically ok with the psions powerwise.

[MukkTB]

Hmm. Low level wizard is probably my least favorite experience. Squishy, not able to contribute much without burning resources. Not sitting on abrupt jaunt or other things that would have made it decent.

The kicker was that I didn't have a good role set up for him to play. It just became a mess.

[Slipperychicken]

Hmm. Low level wizard is probably my least favorite experience. Squishy, not able to contribute much without burning resources. Not sitting on abrupt jaunt or other things that would have made it decent.

The kicker was that I didn't have a good role set up for him to play. It just became a mess.

Step 1. Prepare Grease/Sleep/Silent Image/Ghost Sounds/Daze.

Step 2. ???

Step 3. PROFIT!


Yeah, low-level Wizards are really amateur crossbowmen with magic AoE sedatives, which screws up a lot of people justly expecting to kill everything with fire. But one can still be effective with savvy play, even if you only get to be a Wizard 1-3 encounters per day.

[MukkTB]

I don't doubt that a wizard could be good at level 1. I'm saying that the one time I was playing a lvl 1 wizard constitutes my least favorite role-playing experience.

[willpell]

Plastics don't exist without petroleum, and balsa wood would make a hideously awful spoon.

Eh, so maybe there's a Summon Plastics spell that conjures matter from an Elemental Plane of Plastics or something, who cares.

[Garwain]

We have a recurring joke in our group where the bard (before quick draw) had the following options: I start singing. Or I pull my crossbow and load it. Or no, I pull my crossbow and move to the left. All in all, it takes 2 turns to get an attack going which is frustrating.

Meanwhile my cleric with DMM Quicken, moves, uses a free domain power, swift quickened spell and then a melee swing. Hilarious.

[ArcturusV]

Yeah, at level 1 Scribe Scroll is your friend. Usually go with a sling for cheaper range than a Crossbow. Use the money I save to scribe scrolls from my starting allotment if allowed. If not to buy materials so I can do it ASAP.

And yeah, the Spoon thing was epically bad DMing. Similar stuff kept coming up. And without fail whenever my character doesn't go along perfectly with what the Plot of the Day is written by the DM, I end up getting swarmed and KOed or No Chance to React Suckerpunch KOed, and thrown into a prison situation where I'm forced to do whatever some NPC says to get back on plot and out of jail. If I try to find some way out of anything it just retroactively is noped. Makes me actually wish I was playing a Cleric or a Wizard instead so I could just use Magic and tell him, "Uh, no. You can't just Nope that. It's magic. It does what it says." and see him really twist in the wind to try and give me the screw again.

[SimonMoon6]

I don't doubt that a wizard could be good at level 1. I'm saying that the one time I was playing a lvl 1 wizard constitutes my least favorite role-playing experience.

Interesting. For me, I'd say *every* character at level one is pretty boring. Wizards can't use much in the way of magic. Fighters aren't good enough to dominate the hordes of 1 HD monsters because they *are* 1 HD monsters. Rogues aren't good enough at their skills to actually succeed (but they're just good enough to be asked to try). And so forth.

Plus, you don't get the thrill of taking on cool monsters like dragons. Instead, you're wandering through sewers taking on ordinary rats. Or maybe you can fight a kobold. Or, if the DM's particularly mean, you might fight an orc. Just one, though, 'cause more than one might cause a TPK. (Ok, slight exaggeration, but not much.)

For me, it's not much fun until around level 7-9.

[ArcturusV]

Which is why I tend to avoid that myself. Don't like the usual slog against Rats, bugs, spiders, etc, that a first level adventure usually is. So I tend to run first level adventures where say, your enemies are first level NPCs instead. Easier to feel a bit more "heroic" and such fighting against a local den of low level thieves who just robbed a valuable caravan than it is to go into the sewers and kill a few rats.

[Amphetryon]

Spirit Shaman. Admittedly, I pretty much only play casters, but this one really underwhelmed me.

I found that the "tier 1" ness of the class was severely overstated, because there were usually only a handful of decent spells I wanted at each level, So I felt like a sorcerer with half the spells known at most levels. The campaign kept taking us to closed planes where either I couldn't summon, or didn't want to summon because the summons would turn on us, so there went another big chunk of my flexibility. The DM was using a houserule where polymorph spells gave fixed bonuses, (similar to the PF rule) which just meant that even with spells like Aspect of the Earth Hunter I wasn't viable in combat. Without summons or the ability to melee I sucked against most enemies with SR, which were many. I spent a lot of time spamming Panacea, which isn't even that great a spell.
FWIW, I agree with you; I get that Spirit Shaman is a flavorful, fairly powerful Class (Tier 2, I think), but I always felt like mine was a Druid that had been gimped.

[Karoht]

Any character where I am limited to two things or less. I'll explain.

-[PF]Healing Oracle-Heals, Battlefield Control, Buffs/Immunity. Had options to do more but this is what I stuck with.
-[PF]Swiss Army Sorcerer with Paragon Surge-Name a Divine Spell or a Sorc/Wizard Spell, I can cast it right now, or one Quickened Paragon Surge later. I can blast, summon, buff, battlefield control, manipulate, etc. Intellect based due to an archetype, so lots of skills. Fun because I could do anything, overwhelming because I could do pretty much everything.
-[PF]Ninja. Sneak Attack and Poisons on arrows, Poisons on bombs, Bewildering Koan for a sort of stun, Intimidate for some demoralization. I'm damage, I'm stat damage, I'm battlefield control, I'm lockdown, I'm debuff. In addition to being sneaky sneak and occasionally The Face.
The above examples were fun because I had more than two things I could do. I usually had 3-5 major options. Less than three? SNOOOOOORE!!!

Characters I did not enjoy because they only had 2 options
-[PF]Core Druid. Hit things or cast. My animal companion became useless in a hurry (my choice, a poor one I admit). Casting options became very limited due to a focus on high spell resistances and high saves, along with high resistances and frequent immunities to Lightning, Cold, Acid, and Fire. Eventually I ignored hitting things altogether as well, and only really had one choice with my spells, namely battlefield control, which wasn't always an option.
Probably campaign specifics and some poor optimization on my part, but there it was.

[Bonzai]

Dwarven Soulborn. It was my first game with a new play group, and they were in the middle of City of the Spider Queen. Magic of the Incarnum was new at the time, and was anxious to try it out. I rolled poorly on the stats, but managed something work able. I focused the build on charging and smiting and to be a tank/ AC monkey. Oh... And there were no Prc's allowed. You had to pick a base class and stick with it for 20 levels (DM was tired of over powered cherry picked builds). I was ok with that though, since I wanted to test the class.

The party consists of a fighter, psion, and bard. So I join in, and am completely sub par to the party. Main reason was that the party had made a concerted effort to kit out the fighter and had donated a generous amount of wealth to do so. The second problem was that ALL terrain was labeled as difficult, which completely shut down half my build. Mean while, the fighter already had a flying carpet to counter this. So for quite some time, my Dwarf would struggle to catch up with the party, and maybe managing to get a swing in before the party had killed everything.

Eventually I remedied this with a riding lizard, and was able to keep up pace wise, but the fighter with maxed out gear still out performed me. Still, I started to catch up little by little. However what was more frustrating, was that I had no means of swapping out melds during the day. We encounter a situation where a certain meld would be perfect for the job, but I couldn't use it unless I forced the party to wait a day. So I pretty much had to stick with the same general use melds every day and ignore what little variety and flexability that the class did posses. It got old fairly quick.