Why is your favorite class your favorite class?

[alaalba_123]

No, seriously, why? I'm curious.

My favorite class is the Artificer. I love this class, because I love cool magic items, and that's entirely what the class is about. It also really suits my playstyle, because of a severe tendency to overthink everything, I get that out of my system by messing with the cool mechanical stuff and researching various items/dreaming up my own custom items in my free time. It also lets me fill any roll in a given party because you can optimize and build the class six ways to Sunday. I do have my own preferred style, of course.

I guess that would be another question. How do you play your favorite class? What is your go to build?

Personally, I like the Buffificer/Hordificer, I make cool magic items for the party, give them out, get to watch other people have fun using something I brought into the game. Other than that, I use my Homunculi in combat, using up the bulk of my infusions on them, while I generally try to stay out of the front line and do battlefield control from the sidelines. I use the Improved Homunculus feat, generally just go straight Artificer 20, and look for any race with a good Int bonus that fits the campaign.

If an Artificer isn't allowed, I play a Druid, or in lower power campaigns a Bard.

So, how about you?

[bekeleven]

Favorite classes:

Factotum. Does everything at once with specializations limited only by your imagination and system mastery.
Wild shape ranger. Does everything at once with specializations limited only by your imagination and system mastery.

Favorite prestige classes:

Chameleon. Factotum, but more so.
Master of Many Forms. Wild Shape Ranger, but more so.


Full casters? Eh, no challenge.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Fighter for me. Maybe paladin with the right DM. Playing the underdog in a world of mages and demons and dragons is entertaining.

[Flickerdart]

I love the Divine Crusader. It's just a perfect way of injecting casting into a melee progression, and manages to make fast-progression casting balanced. Then you can make an entire minigame out of grabbing more spells for its list. Whee!

[Jormengand]

Truenamer, because everyone likes to make jokes about how bad it is. And then you use an utterance that deals more damage than they have hit points. Also, the element of surprise aside, you can do all the things. Wanna fight in melee? You can do that. Wanna fight at range? You can do that. Wanna murder people with spells? Wanna know everything about everything? You can do that. Want a small army of angels? Well, okay, wait until you're level 20. Want to out-monk the monk? There's a prestige class for that (plus a feat in the ToB which makes you generally able to monk things). You have a lot of the same kind of options as a full caster without constantly overshadowing everyone. It's a fun little class.

[Curmudgeon]

Rogue, because I love options. And because I just ported the Alternative Class Features thread from Wizards' community board, I can show you some of those many options:

Antiquarian (CC, p 51): Lose trapfinding. Gain wisdom bonus on appraise checks with divine items. Can attempt to identify divine items, as per the spell.

Breathstealer (DrM, p 11): Pick as one of your special abilities. Use sneak attack to prevent a dragon from using its breath weapon.

Changeling Rogue (RE, p 121): Add one knowledge skill to class list, 10 skills per level
1st level: Social Intuition (grants bonuses to a number of social skill checks), lose trapfinding
3rd level: Minor Lore (+1 to knowledge checks, +1 every 3 levels), lose trap sense
8th level: Mutable Anatomy (50% chance to negate extra damage from a critical or sneak attack), lose uncanny dodge

Death's Ruin (CC, p 51): Lose trapsense. Can use sneak-attack on undead, at one half normal.

Disruptive Attack (PHB 2, p 57): Don't gain uncanny dodge. Whenever you attack a flanked or flat-footed target, you can sacrifice your sneak attack to give them a -5 to AC.

Drow Rogue (DU, p 58): Gain poison use, lose trapfinding.

Feign Death (EoE, p 21): lose evasion, gain ability to appear dead

Friend's Evasion (CC, p 51): Lose improved evasion as a special ability option. Every ally adjacent to you gains evasion.

Frostfell Terrain Mastery (FB, p 45): +2 initiative and +10 land speed in cold terrain, gained as special ability.

Golden Hands of Vergadain Substitution Levels (CV (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060327a), web): must be a dwarf; add Survival to class skills
2nd level: lose +1 to Reflex save from your level, get FE bonuses vs a certain organization.
3rd level: gain Track, lose trap sense. Gain bonuses to tracking in place of trap sense
6th level: lose the BAB bonus from the level, gain Urban Tracking

Goliath Rogue Substitution Levels (RS, p 152): d8 hitdice, add survival to class skills
2nd level: Mettle of Mountains (+4 bonus to For, Mettle), no evasion
3rd level: Wild Sense (bonus to knowledge: nature checks), lose trap sense
8th level: Fortification (25% chance to prevent crits and such), lose uncanny dodge

Halfling Rogue Substitution Levels (RW, p 160)
1st level: Ranged Sneak Attack
3rd level: Thief's Luck (can reroll reflex saves), lose trapsense
10th level: Sniping Mastery (can take ranged attacks while hiding), lose special ability

Holy Stalker (CC, p 51): Lose crippling strike as a special ability option. Add two points of damage per normal sneak attack dice when sneak attacking undead.

Kobold Rogue (RDr, p 109): d4 hitdice, add knowledge: dungeoneering to class list
1st level: Rapid Retreat (+5' while withdrawing), Shrewd Trapfinding (+2 bonus to find/disable traps),
3rd level: Improved Trap Sense (bonus to saves vs. traps), Shrewd Trapfinding
8th level: Evasive Skitter (can move out of area of effects), Shrewd Trapfinding

Lightbringer Penetrating Strike (ECR, p 208): When flanking a creature normally immune to sneak attack damage you still deal half your sneak attack dice in damage. Does not effect creatures immune to flanking, and can only be used against flanked creatures.

Martial Rogue (UA, p 58): Lose sneak attack and gain bonus feats as a fighter.

Mimic (EoE, p 21): lose trapfinding, gain disguise self

Penetrating Strike (DS, p 13): Lose trap sense. Whenever you sneak attack something normally immune to sneak attack damage, do half your normal dice of sneak attack damage.

Planar Rogue (PlH, p 34): gain knowledge: the planes as a class skill
6th level: Breach Sense (detect activation of portals and spells that cross planes)
10th level: Slip the Bonds (turn ethereal once per day), replaces normal special ability
16th level: Blink once per day, replaces normal special ability

Quick Fingers (DS, p 13): Lose one level of trap sense to reduce the time needed to disarm traps.

Rilkan Rogue Substitution Levels (MoI, p 47): add speak languages to class skills
1st level: Improved Flanking (+4 bonus while flanking), lose one die of sneak attack
3rd level: Bardic Knowledge, Bonus feat, lose trap sense
10th level: Fortunate Reflexes (reroll reflex saves), replaces normal special ability

Spell Reflection (CM, p 35): Lose evasion, gain the ability to reflect spells targeted at you that miss.

Spell Sense (CM, p 35): Lose trapsense. Gain AC bonus vs spells.

Wilderness Rogue (UA, p 56): Modified skill list. Add camouflage, woodland stride, and hide in plain site to the list of abilities rogues can pick.

Uncanny Bravery (DrM, p 14): Gain immunity to draconic presence and resistance to fear instead of uncanny dodge.

[Flickerdart]

Rogue, because I love options. And because I just ported the Alternative Class Features thread from Wizards' community board, I can show you some of those many options:

Antiquarian (CC, p 51): Lose trapfinding. Gain wisdom bonus on appraise checks with divine items. Can attempt to identify divine items, as per the spell.

Breathstealer (DrM, p 11): Pick as one of your special abilities. Use sneak attack to prevent a dragon from using its breath weapon.

Changeling Rogue (RE, p 121): Add one knowledge skill to class list, 10 skills per level
1st level: Social Intuition (grants bonuses to a number of social skill checks), lose trapfinding
3rd level: Minor Lore (+1 to knowledge checks, +1 every 3 levels), lose trap sense
8th level: Mutable Anatomy (50% chance to negate extra damage from a critical or sneak attack), lose uncanny dodge

Death's Ruin (CC, p 51): Lose trapsense. Can use sneak-attack on undead, at one half normal.

Disruptive Attack (PHB 2, p 57): Don't gain uncanny dodge. Whenever you attack a flanked or flat-footed target, you can sacrifice your sneak attack to give them a -5 to AC.

Drow Rogue (DU, p 58): Gain poison use, lose trapfinding.

Feign Death (EoE, p 21): lose evasion, gain ability to appear dead

Friend's Evasion (CC, p 51): Lose improved evasion as a special ability option. Every ally adjacent to you gains evasion.

Frostfell Terrain Mastery (FB, p 45): +2 initiative and +10 land speed in cold terrain, gained as special ability.

Golden Hands of Vergadain Substitution Levels (CV (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060327a), web): must be a dwarf; add Survival to class skills
2nd level: lose +1 to Reflex save from your level, get FE bonuses vs a certain organization.
3rd level: gain Track, lose trap sense. Gain bonuses to tracking in place of trap sense
6th level: lose the BAB bonus from the level, gain Urban Tracking

Goliath Rogue Substitution Levels (RS, p 152): d8 hitdice, add survival to class skills
2nd level: Mettle of Mountains (+4 bonus to For, Mettle), no evasion
3rd level: Wild Sense (bonus to knowledge: nature checks), lose trap sense
8th level: Fortification (25% chance to prevent crits and such), lose uncanny dodge

Halfling Rogue Substitution Levels (RW, p 160)
1st level: Ranged Sneak Attack
3rd level: Thief's Luck (can reroll reflex saves), lose trapsense
10th level: Sniping Mastery (can take ranged attacks while hiding), lose special ability

Holy Stalker (CC, p 51): Lose crippling strike as a special ability option. Add two points of damage per normal sneak attack dice when sneak attacking undead.

Kobold Rogue (RDr, p 109): d4 hitdice, add knowledge: dungeoneering to class list
1st level: Rapid Retreat (+5' while withdrawing), Shrewd Trapfinding (+2 bonus to find/disable traps),
3rd level: Improved Trap Sense (bonus to saves vs. traps), Shrewd Trapfinding
8th level: Evasive Skitter (can move out of area of effects), Shrewd Trapfinding

Lightbringer Penetrating Strike (ECR, p 208): When flanking a creature normally immune to sneak attack damage you still deal half your sneak attack dice in damage. Does not effect creatures immune to flanking, and can only be used against flanked creatures.

Martial Rogue (UA, p 58): Lose sneak attack and gain bonus feats as a fighter.

Mimic (EoE, p 21): lose trapfinding, gain disguise self

Penetrating Strike (DS, p 13): Lose trap sense. Whenever you sneak attack something normally immune to sneak attack damage, do half your normal dice of sneak attack damage.

Planar Rogue (PlH, p 34): gain knowledge: the planes as a class skill
6th level: Breach Sense (detect activation of portals and spells that cross planes)
10th level: Slip the Bonds (turn ethereal once per day), replaces normal special ability
16th level: Blink once per day, replaces normal special ability

Quick Fingers (DS, p 13): Lose one level of trap sense to reduce the time needed to disarm traps.

Rilkan Rogue Substitution Levels (MoI, p 47): add speak languages to class skills
1st level: Improved Flanking (+4 bonus while flanking), lose one die of sneak attack
3rd level: Bardic Knowledge, Bonus feat, lose trap sense
10th level: Fortunate Reflexes (reroll reflex saves), replaces normal special ability

Spell Reflection (CM, p 35): Lose evasion, gain the ability to reflect spells targeted at you that miss.

Spell Sense (CM, p 35): Lose trapsense. Gain AC bonus vs spells.

Wilderness Rogue (UA, p 56): Modified skill list. Add camouflage, woodland stride, and hide in plain site to the list of abilities rogues can pick.

Uncanny Bravery (DrM, p 14): Gain immunity to draconic presence and resistance to fear instead of uncanny dodge.
I get the (perhaps incorrect) impression that rangers and barbarians, among other classes, might have more ACFs.

[Jeff the Green]

Beguiler. It's one of the few classes I'll actually take 1-20, because it's viable the whole way (if cramped by trueseeing and mind blank at higher levels) and gets more from staying in than almost any PrC. It's in the sweet spot of rarely trivializing an encounter (the ones it does are usually social), but also rarely having nothing to do. Even at high levels, it can bring minions, UMD, and some nifty all-purpose spells to bear.

Play-style for beguiler isn't terribly varied. You have options, but they're the same options for every Beguiler. Hang back, try to be hiddenish, and debuff , mislead, or control your enemies.

When I play other classes, I tend toward that style too. My Wizard at the moment has that and utility almost exclusively, the Haematurge I'm submitting to a PbP focuses on that, and even when I DM a lot of bosses use that strategy.

[ZamielVanWeber]

Monsters and monster classes. I love getting in and hitting things and monsters tend to be decent at that and I love the crazy fluff that they have go along with them.

[DMVerdandi]

Erudite (Dragon mag./spell to power ACF)

Not for silly TO shenanigans. Simply because I like the aesthetic and how the powers work. It's got great ACF's. and Unique powers per day really just gives me the flexibility I crave.
With the erudite you can "play as an erudite", or you can just play as a less rigid caster/technician of sorts.

It also more easily expresses spellcasting/psionics than many of the other classes do.
If I want to play an elf, or more precisely an ELF, I can do that with the erudite. Simply gather powers and spells that are iconic to elves, (physical and mental buffs, sensory buffs, skill buffs, maybe some elemental spells, transmutation and stealth/illusion spells), and learn them.
Now, it's not like a sorcerer where they just "sprout up", You can go learn and educate yourself in their use, but they don't mysteriously pop out of your head after you cast them. you learned it. It's yours.

If I wanted to play a DWARF, get things that make me more hardy, more resistant to spells, some earth based magic, some things to make me hit harder, and a bunch of wards and rune spells.



If I want to play an assassin, or a bard, or a telepath, or a summoner, or whatever, I just grab the spells/powers, and go.
It's not about buying EVERY power/spell, It's about buying the ones you need to execute a theme properly, and being able to use it whenever you need it.

[Curmudgeon]

I get the (perhaps incorrect) impression that rangers and barbarians, among other classes, might have more ACFs.
As I stated in my post, those are some of the many options for Rogues. Lots of class skills, lots of skill points, and choices of Special Abilities add quite a lot more.

[Sredni Vashtar]

Paladins. Mostly because of the code. I just like the challenge of walking the straight and narrow.

[Amphetryon]

Dread Necromancer: It's a good debuffing Gish
Warlock: It can be a good debuffing Gish
Psychic Warrior: It can be a good debuffing Gish
Hexblade (Mearls Fix): It's a good debuffing Gish in a lower powered campaign
Wilder: It can be a good debuffing Gish

There may be a pattern.

[Strigon]

Wizard.
Nothing to do with the power level; I just like having to work on a budget, and the Wizard's spellcasting does it for me.

[AvatarVecna]

Monks. I fell in love with them when I first played 3.5 (around the upper elementary school years), and it's always been my first love: looking back, I can see the flaws, but it was such a fun game, I never doubted my Monk for a second. Now I now better, but nostalgia let's dream of a world where Wizards are weak and Monks are Goku.

[erok0809]

My two favorites are sorcerer and psion, specifically kineticist. I like spontaneous casters, and I enjoy blasting with a bit of buffing and debuffing as my main strategies, and sorcerers and psions just do that pretty well. I have a lot of fun with +numbers things, and occasionally debuffing is nice.

[Jay R]

Fighter, Wizard, Thief.

They are iconic. and I'm one of the old D&D players from the seventies who values the game because I can play Lancelot, Merlin, or the Grey Mouser.

[Silva Stormrage]

Dread Necromancers, they are a caster that doesn't completely overshadow mundanes, can be built low op or high up decently and can get a lot of minions. The at will healing and decent spell list (Ignoring the obvious typos >.>) plus ACTUAL class features also helps. :smallbiggrin:

[Aetis]

Duskblade.

It is a simple and elegant class that mixes sword and magic.

[PaucaTerrorem]

Cleric. I just love the whole 'bringing down the wrath of my lord' concept. The holy warrior just speaks to me. With the right party composition and build there is nothing that can stop the cleric.

[werjakcleric]

Cleric.

First, because it was my first class.

Second, I love being able to bring allies back from the brink of death, summon outsiders (especially that one time when my DM let my cleric of Io summon celestial template dragons. The entire party was using dragons as mounts by mid level. I also had nearly 1.5 million gold by the end, but almost no magic items, because a Codzilla is overpowered enough with just a couple Wisdom boosts and misc items, plus I was saving it all to either a)build the most awesome cathedral ever or b) use as a hoard once I ascended to dragonhood, which I did post-campaign, as I got a wish from one of Bahumat's golden canaries after it called me cute...man, that sounds ridiculous now, but we were fighting liches at level 3, so I guess it evens out), buff them all to hell and back, then sit back and nuke with the wizard.

I also like making jokes about an atheist cleric.

[Bryconium]

Wizard, and Psion/Erudite both for the options and the fluff.
For wizard fluff, I have this weird idea that wizards are the underdogs of the dnd world. Weird I know, but i always see wizards as people who can compete with angels, demons, dragons, people who can rip someone in two and people who have magic flowing in their blood using only their intelligence.

[Svata]

PsyRogue. Why? Because its an arcane trickster that's actually decent.

[TheifofZ]

Dread Necromancer: The fluff is so full of flavor, and then you get into the class abilities and spell list, and it's perfect for debuffing your enemies into oblivion while you cover them with so many shambling corpses they can't see the sun.
And that playstyle appeals to me.

Also Fighter. Because I really do like being able to turn off my brain and run around playing golf with the vital organs of my enemies.

[Vaz]

Ardent is one of my favourite base classes. I quite like Clerics, but just the classes friendliness with regards to builds (being able to pick up a 4th level power with 3 levels and a feat is pretty awesome for many builds, even if it is just once a day).

The fact it can pick up any power via the Substitute Powers ACF, and as any divine spell can be arcane via wyrm wizard, and any arcane can be power via Spell to Power Erudite, you can cherry pick to your hearts content. Its 10th level ability for a Dominant primary mantle to not expend focus whem charged and giving 2 free augment points means that not only can you be a pretty powerful psionic blaster, but you are able to regenerate PP in some downtime with bestow power.

It also makes half manifesting classes more feasible.

Rumours state that it was intended to be just like the other classes, but I love the mechanic. It is essentially the Psionic Sorcerer.

Shadowcraft Mage; I love the idea of creating shadow things (it makes more sense than summoning) and that you can actually make them more powerful than the actual spell it is replicating against the nonbelievers. I am currently making a build around that idea to make a gish, with shadow evocation spells rather than slinging balls of shadowy fire.

Totemist; if the Druid is 'be a monster', this is make your own monster. I just wish that there was more support for incarnum in general. I have recently fpund out that there are some 'incarnum' classes in pathfinder. Might try and backport them to 3.5.

Wu Jen; perhaps my favourite caster class. Body Outside Body is perhaps my favourite spell in the game, and building a gish around it is fantastic imho. It also has Spirit Binding, which is Planar Binding on Steroids. If ruled to work with the Malconvoker and Infernal Bargainer feats, you can pick up any sub 28HD creature a level earlier than any other greater planar binder can pick up an 18HD crrature. The problem is that it needs to be of a particular kind of creature, of the oddly elusive spirit subtype, but that includes Incorporeal Undead; the Silverwraith Template makes the least changes to that. Running around with a pair of Incorporeal Ancient Dragons is a lot of fun at level 15.

[Melcar]

My favorite class is wizard. I think that the unlimited options are very cool. There is something very mysterious about wizards. They come in all shapes and sizes, and no two are alike. There is the Gandalf/Elminster types and there are the witch types as well the the in between. I also like the fact that magic was and still for wizards are treated as an academic study, which requires long hours of study to perfect.

I have to say though, that the arcane spellcaster class is my favorite in almost all fantasy games not just D&D.

[AnonymousPepper]

Definitely artificer, because there is literally nothing that they cannot do, or at least do something to get the same results from a different source but better. Nothing. A properly-kitted out artificer is a god on levels even a wizard can't dream of, and arguably even a Hathran Archivist cannot beat it. In the realm of PO, anyway. All bets are off for everyone up to and including commoners in TO because TO is "that shadowy place" so we must never go there.

[Nifft]

Binder.

The power isn't high, but the flexibility and flavor are great.

If it's available, Anima Mage, with a focus on Planar Binding. That gets the flexibility, flavor, and power to a very nice level.

[LoyalPaladin]

Paladin. Surprise surprise. I enjoy playing a class that requires you to actually play your character, not just a lump of stats. Because if you play a lump of stats, you're going to fall.

I also really just enjoy the LG archetype. Probably why I like both Captain America and Superman...

[Telonius]

My favorite goes back and forth between Rogue, Bard, Warlock, and Beguiler. I love playing sneaky, charismatic con-men. Those classes give a lot of support to that style of play.

[Mehangel]

Soulknife (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/soulknife) (specifically the one published by Dreamscarred Press for Pathfinder)
- Why? because the soulknife can be built to cover almost any martial concept with the inclusions of archetypes and bladeskills, while never breaking the game due to being Tier 3-4. Because of this I can focus more on enjoying the game as opposed to worrying about whether my character is too weak or strong.

However, if we are limited to only D&D 3.5; I will probably have to go with a combination of Warlord, Swashbuckler, and Factotum (I multiclass and/or gestalt) because I like the synergy. If we are limited to a single class however, I would choose the Spirit Shaman, while not as powerful in any way to the Druid, I like its flavor and have always enjoyed playing it while utilizing Reserve Feats, it isn't optimized at all, but I find it enjoyable.

[Andreaz]

Gishes are pure love, especially if they're of simple use. The important part is kicking ass in varied ways and being sort of pigeons on a chess board.

So the Psychic Warrior and the Warder give me that. Their variants are just as nice.

I'd include the Vizier, but its particular flavor of flexibility lacks the melee potency I enjoy
so much, so it gets relegated to a gestalt favorite.

For prestige classes, the Animus Master gets it. It's "you are a gish: the prestige class", with the ultimate action economy you could want of a gish without going into shenanigans like linked power and schism.

[The Viscount]

My favorite is Binder, for a number of reasons. First I love the background and research they did into Ars Goetica. Second I love that it's got a good decisive flavor that actually pairs well with features, and that I like. It's also a reference of sorts to the moral panic against the "dark magic" during the 80s.

I also love playing binder because I constantly agonize over decisions. Binder presents a very small number of choices, and none of them are permanent, which makes a pleasant experience for me.

[warmachine]

Cleric. Full caster with wide range of tactical spells and class features. Channel Energy, Remove Paralysis, Silence, Dispel Magic, Align Weapon, Death Ward, Flame Strike, Divine Power etc. Tools to keep the team fighting, blunt the enemy's most devastating attacks, break the enemy defences, artillery strike, or bolster the front-line yourself as needed.

And a wide range of utility spells. Speak with Dead, Water Breathing, Divination, Comprehend Languages, Make Whole etc. You even get all the spells allowed for your level, so chances are that you've got the solution tomorrow morning.

Let the mortals have their victories and their stolen gems, Cleric is the real reason the battles are won and the campaign succeeds.

[Seharvepernfan]

Scout.

Tough and manly, but not ultra macho. Fleet, agile, acrobatic, athletic, stealthy, perceptive, woodcrafty, cunning. A skilled survivor (their bonus feat list includes the feats I like best, thematically), clad in light armor, using light bows/blades/axes. Is expected to wear camouflage (or at least green/brown). A loner, but who is often needed by others as a guide. Scout and skirmish are among my favorite words (too bad we can't squeeze "sniper" in here), and the skirmish combat style is my favorite, thematically, as well. Gets evasion, uncanny dodge, freedom of movement, blindsense/sight, and initiative bonuses. Seems a perfect fit to my favorite race (elves). Fits my favorite song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNgYa39BQIw).

Personally, I like to blend it with transmutation/illusion/abjuration arcane magic and the swiftblade class, but the exact blend is hard to choose.