Favorite Class Fluff

[Anderlith]

What is your favorite class, not based on power level or personal playstyle but based upon the fluff of the class?

Mine's a tie between Artificer & Factotum, Artificer because I like the idea of a adventurer/hero that builds arcane tech to solve his problems. Factotum because the character is like the Librarian who can spout off all this semi-relevant info about a sword technique or some random fact about what they encounter

[Callin]

I like the Archivist Fluff and the Blood of Vol

[Silverbit]

Truenamer. Just the idea of saying your enemy's true name to destroy him/her/it is awesome. Couple that with the badass examples of truespeech in the book, and you have the best flavoured class in the game, IMO.

[dascarletm]

Truenamer. Just the idea of saying your enemy's true name to destroy him/her/it is awesome. Couple that with the badass examples of truespeech in the book, and you have the best flavoured class in the game, IMO.

Seconded. I like the idea of forcing someone off a cliff because you speak in the universes' language and tell reality that he is actually over there.:smallbiggrin:

[Gildedragon]

Third. They manage to have the feel of what the wizard ought to be at its strongest: they tell reality to shut up and do as its told... Which makes their failure all the more noticeable and sad.

[Eldan]

As writtein in the books? Binder.

As inferred from the mechanics? Wizard. Vancian can be so incredibly awesome if some thought is put behind how it works in the world and what it actually means.

[123456789blaaa]

As writtein in the books? Binder.

As inferred from the mechanics? Wizard. Vancian can be so incredibly awesome if some thought is put behind how it works in the world and what it actually means.

Hmmm? Could you elaborate?

[ArcturusV]

Hmm. I like the OA samurai for it myself. Even though it's designed to be fairly generic. The nobility, code, awakening your ancestors to power up your weapons. It's not insanely powerful or anything, but it's interesting to me.

[Eslin]

The mechanics determined the fluff for me in the case of wizards - success as a wizard is supposed to be the result of exhaustive arcane research, careful planning, exploration in search of secrets and sheer intelligence, and the mechanics back that up beautifully.

If I want to graft myself permanent new body parts I can research how to do so and eventually perform them on myself, or if I'm incredibly careful I can summon a sibriex and compel it to give me millions of gold worth of instant grafts - but only after incredible amounts of preparation, since if anything goes wrong I'm dead.

Wizards are amazingly fun - it's unfortunate that their relative power level is so high, because they play exactly as advertised.

[SciChronic]

Fluff-wise my favorite has to be Soulknife, i mean cmon, they make weapons with the power of their mind. too bad they are bin tier

[Eldan]

The mechanics determined the fluff for me in the case of wizards - success as a wizard is supposed to be the result of exhaustive arcane research, careful planning, exploration in search of secrets and sheer intelligence, and the mechanics back that up beautifully.

If I want to graft myself permanent new body parts I can research how to do so and eventually perform them on myself, or if I'm incredibly careful I can summon a sibriex and compel it to give me millions of gold worth of instant grafts - but only after incredible amounts of preparation, since if anything goes wrong I'm dead.

Wizards are amazingly fun - it's unfortunate that their relative power level is so high, because they play exactly as advertised.

More or less that, yes. The mechanics of the wizard do a good job of translating the fluff into mechanics. The wizard is a scholar and a scientist. Their intelligence defines them. So they have mechanics that force them to think ahead, to predict what powers they will need in a given situation. They always need to make a strategical guess and select from among their many resources which ones they will need to solve a given problem. Vancian is a great system, because I think a good magic system is defined by its limits as much as by its possibilities. Only badly written magic allows the wizard to do whatever he wants. Well-written magic, written to make good stories, has limits. Things a wizard can never do, or that have to be done in a costly way.

Of course, they ruined that by making the spells too versatile and powerful. But the actual class mechanics of Vancian magic are amazing. They were a giant eye opener to me when I first came to D&D from other games. So much more interesting than the many other "fatigue" and "spell points" and at-will mechanics out there, where you just cast and cast without much strategical consideration or resource conservation at all.

[Thurbane]

Classes I love for their fluff? Binder, Marshal and Dragon Shaman.

[Jeff the Green]

Though I've never played one, I like Ardent. They pull power from (essentially) Jungian archetypes.

I like Death Delvers (HoH) too, they're people obsessed with the process of death. Alienists are fun if you ignore the fluff and just go by the name (alienist is the old word for psychiatrists). Gray Guard is what paladins should be by default.

[almightycoma]

It's a tie for me between acolyte of the skin and entropomancers.
Acolytes to me reek of badassery.they are like "I'm so awesome and that I'm going to rip off your skin and wear it like a suit."
I also love entropomancers.They pursuet of power lead to the manipulation of a fundamental part of reality. Even more basic than the elements or force in my opinion.

[Barsoom]

Psions. They kill you with their brain.

[Pesimismrocks]

Truenaners & swashbucklers. Great fluff and thy had so much potential:smallfrown:

[Deox]

+1 to Truenamers.

Also, because I'm playing one.

[soveliss24]

There are a lot of classes I play despite their weakness because I love their fluff so darn much. Soulknife, Knight, Arcane Archer... (although Arcane Archer is SO TERRIBAD that I only play it if I can get full casting progression added. I don't love it THAT much). But my favorite? Fighter. I love being the guy who makes his way in a magical, dangerous world by virtue of his grit, skill and trusty weapons.

[dascarletm]

There are a lot of classes I play despite their weakness because I love their fluff so darn much. Soulknife, Knight, Arcane Archer... (although Arcane Archer is SO TERRIBAD that I only play it if I can get full casting progression added. I don't love it THAT much). But my favorite? Fighter. I love being the guy who makes his way in a magical, dangerous world by virtue of his grit, skill and trusty weapons.

Special Abilities? Magic? No, I have none of those things... I'm BATFIGHTER.

[Amphetryon]

For fluff, I like the Ranger and the Binder best, with Dread Necromancer not far behind.

[FatherMalkav]

Archivist & Binder

Archivist - They take a scholarly approach to the subjects of religion and horror. The magic almost seems second nature of the world: if you lived in a realm where the gods were real than the secrets prays and hidden truths in ancient religious texts would obviously contain some practical power or purpose.

Binder - In the Complicated and fleshed out cosmology of the most tabletops worlds the idea of something existing as an undefined nothing 'between' the cracks is very cool. Also, the stories regarding most of the Vestiges are really beautiful from a writing standpoint.

[THEChanger]

For me, it's always been the Incarnum classes. I reach out into the aether, channel the raw source of all souls through my body, shaping unborn potential and ancient wisdom into forms of my own choosing to aid me in combat against my enemies. Defined by their allegiances, whether to the purity of a single moral force, the extremes of mortal nature, or the foundations of the natural world itself...it's a pity the Totemist simply became natural attack central, and the Soulborn was so lacking.

Also giving my support to Binders, for the reasons already stated.

[dupersudi]

I love being a Cleric, never a good cleric but that isn't the point, calling out to a god "yo dude hit this guy with an earthquake or something" or "heal this barbarian o lord, for he is amusing and smashes bad guys most verily" these things amuse me to no end.
I also like the simplicity of a barbarian(at least the way I've made them), run over there and hit the thing annoying you, a two step process that solve SO many problems.

[Urpriest]

I don't actually find Truenamers that cool, mostly because it seems like the base fluff is already part of Vancian casting.

I'll second Ardent though. The central point there, that a Psionic Cleric is basically a Philosopher, is pretty potent.

Marshal seems totally boring, until you notice that they get a free Skill Focus Diplomacy and a bunch of miscellaneous social skills. A class that looks like it has 4e's generic Warlord fluff without 4e's cool Warlord mechanics actually ends up being a much more gritty portrayal of the concept, a military leader who needs to wheel and deal to succeed.

[Tholomyes]

For me, this is not the universal fluff, but an option: A cleric devoted to an idea or philosophy. There's something really cool to have a character so completely devoted to ideology, that they gain divine magic.

[Sith_Happens]

Binders, all the way. Because conjuring unknowable entities from outside reality to grant you miscellaneous powers by piggybacking on your soul? That's metal.

[Fluffy Viking]

Gonna have to go with the Grey Guard and Shadowbane Inquisitor being a close second.

[JoshuaZ]

Binder. The fluff is great. Unlike most arcanes who just have "magic!" and the like. And binder flluff is a natural pile of plothooks. And there's another aspect that's worth mentioning although it strictly speaking isn't part of the fluff- the mechanics fits so well with the fluff and supports it to extent that almost no other class's fluff has mechanical support for.