Classes you love to see played

[Gildedragon]

Simple enough question: what classes do you love to see in games and why?

For me it's gotta be barbarians.
They, in my experience, tend towards getting strange and wonderfully primal characterization with offbeat undertones. Most notably, a delusional lion-totem-er that believes herself to become a lion when raging. Or magnificent hard to describe minotaur. Or a gentle feral half ogre with a temper.
I'm not too sure why but in most games I've been they tend to be very much roleplayed and satisfying for the player.

What about you?

[meto30]

I love seeing being played, as well as playing myself, evil wizards. The more egomaniacal and/or flamboyant the better. Optimization does not matter, in fact, rather unoptimized wizards are more interesting to watch/play in my opinion. Much more potential for comedy that way.

Other than that, bards. There is this one player in our campaign that loves metal music very much; he asked me if a bard with a guitar-isque instrument playing metal was acceptable, and I said of course yes! I mean, the god of bards, Milil, would be entirely cool with new and rad musical concepts, and Gond the god of inventions would just looooove the invention of the guitar. Would you like a magical item that replicates an amplifier as well? :smallcool: So we have a bard in our party that plays metal whenever he buffs us. The fun part is, no-one else is really interested in metal, and one player decided to characterize that non-interest by having his character dislike metal (or any new music for that matter); the wizard would react violently whenever the bard plays. So the bard (when performing outside of combat) keeps running away from the wizard, never cought thank to his 40' per action movement rate, and when that happens, hilarity ensues in our party. Man that bard was fun to watch. Too bad he was KIA last month.

[Kane0]

I like the darker flavored classes, but not the ones where you are locked in completely. Things like Warlocks, Hexblades and to a lesser extent dread necromancers.

I especially savor the 'This dark power is all I have, the best I can do is use it for the right thing' approach, and characters that resent those that were 'gifted' with power where they were 'cursed' is bonus. Things where the character has to struggle internally and/or externally to use what he has been given in a way he wants to and not how it is used by default.

[Phelix-Mu]

As a DM, I love to see any class where faith in the divine or universal principles is in play. Personally, this has led to some awesome role play with several past players, and can also enrich party dynamic (if not downright complicate it). Druids are probably the least qualifying here, since it's more of a devotion to a concept and allows fairly flexible behavior on both the moral and ethical alignment axes. Paladins...well, frankly none of my players play paladins. Clerics, though, I think, win for sheer variety of ethos and personality, and with their varying churches, clerical status (heretic, initiate, exemplar, saint, etc), and individual approaches to worship...if the player is up for it, this is a gold mine from a role playing perspective.

Not that other classes can't explore these complex issues. Just that with cleric, I know that the player is interested in a character of faith right off the bat.

[ArcturusV]

In particular classes I like to see played? Paladin. Clerics, Fighters. Samurai (OA style). Mostly because I don't see them played too much in games I run, and the few times I do they are kinda played... badly (in my opinion).

[Karoht]

I love seeing Monks played.
They always start out so hopeful.
It's going to be different this time. There's an errata, they took a new feat, they added a thingy, the DM doesn't insta-hate Monks, etc.

And usually by level 10, the exuberance shifts.

I like Monk, I like their mechanics, I like how they play, I like the class in general.
I just dislike watching player after player play one and get completely demoralized, when rather than if they get marginalized by someone else at the table.

[Gavinfoxx]

I just dislike watching player after player play one and get completely demoralized, when rather than if they get marginalized by someone else at the table.

That's why you play one of the many, many, many monk 2.0's that WotC made, rather than play an NPC class, silly!

[Krobar]

I really like bards and sorcerers. We had a bard for a while that used to scare all of his opponents. While the real spellcasters would be fighting, and the swordswingers would be fighting, he'd scare somebody into either Frightened or Panicked condition and then chase him around the battlefield. "Come back here you SOB! Fight me like a man! I see you've heard of me! That explains your fear! Well... running like a girl isn't going to save you!" He'd just go on and on like that. I don't think I ever saw that PC *actually kill* ANYTHING. But he was great as the party face and a lot of fun to have in the game.

[Gildedragon]

I really like bards and sorcerers. We had a bard for a while that used to scare all of his opponents. While the real spellcasters would be fighting, and the swordswingers would be fighting, he'd scare somebody into either Frightened or Panicked condition and then chase him around the battlefield. "Come back here you SOB! Fight me like a man! I see you've heard of me! That explains your fear! Well... running like a girl isn't going to save you!" He'd just go on and on like that. I don't think I ever saw that PC *actually kill* ANYTHING. But he was great as the party face and a lot of fun to have in the game.

Oh gods! Harassment Bard! That's something I have to play next.

[CaladanMoonblad]

Another vote for Paladins... because, when played to the hilt, they are the best Straight Man (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_man_(stock_character)) in the funniest encounters I've been witness to... the depths that they go to in order to satisfy the Law... sigh. *wipes tear*