Sahleb
2016-02-25, 11:06 AM
Obviously, inspired by JaronK's tier system for d&d 3.5e classes. Mostly posted for my own benefit, so I can look it up and link people I play with to it. Thoughts are welcome, of course.
Anyways, I've grouped them in three tiers. Tier 1's are either supremely good at combat, or merely unusually competent and otherwise versatile and useful in most situations.
Tier 2's all have something they can do in a combat situation, albeit not to the level of a tier 1 class.
Tier 3's either can't contribute to combat, or they happen to be moderately bad at fighting, and on top of that have bad class features.
I've grouped them this way because, in my experience, the number one way for a d20 modern character to lack behind and feel suboptimal is if it's something like a Smart Hero/Shadowjack who has no combat feats. You can get away with being bad at skills - it's usually enough if one person has a particular skill, and it's easy to get access to a complete suite of skills in the party at different levels of competence.
For example, a tier 1 party might be a Smart Hero/Technomage, a Dedicated Hero/Shaman, a Strong/Field Officer(with face skills), and a Fast/Psionic Agent. A comparative tier 3 party might be a Smart/Shadowjack, a Strong/Archaic Weaponsmaster(with face skills), a Dedicated/Investigator, and a Fast/Infiltrator.
There's no notable difference in skill coverage between them, but the first party will kick major ass, and the second one will flounder about and get themselves killed all the time.
Tier 1: These classes have powerful abilities. As combat is a common feature of d20 games, each of these also have some relevant combat abilities, and can either somewhat reliably force massive damage saves, or otherwise bring radically game-changing abilities to the table.
Strong
Battlemind: A +½/level weapon, what’s not to like? Besides, powers are really good, and the class has excellent defense.
Cyberwarrior: Those free cybernetics represent a lot of power. Base attack is also a consideration here.
Field Officer: We’re after the Tactical Expertise/Mastery abilities here. It’s sad that the duration is so short, but you can’t argue with the benefits.
Shadow Slayer: Full BAB, +½/ level melee weapon, Fast Healing ½/level, +½/level DR vs shadow creatures, & Favored Enemy.
Tough
Dreadnought: This is really, really good. Arguably not quite as good as Trasher, but the prerequisite feat is a lot better. Additionally, it is available in non-magic games, which is a plus. Besides, the class features are only marginally worse than the Trasher’s, and in some respects (i.e. the rage variant), better.
Evolutionary: Mutations are pretty good, and I can totally see 16 points of mutations and various benefits being a worthwhile investment of ten levels.
Gangster: Sneak attack does the heavy lifting here. It’s fairly easy to set up flanking, and from that point on, you’re pretty much guaranteed to inflict massive damage with each blow, at least once you’ve got 2 or 3 dice of SA. Besides, 7+int and a good class list makes it a good skill monkey that doesn’t face the usual problems of a research-focused list of class skills that smart-derived classes are usually stuck with.
Trasher: Holy Smokes, is all. This is a good class. The prerequisites are ****ty, but the features more than make up for it. There’s con to defense, d12hd, rage, damage reduction, and a smattering of other minor stuff.
Fast
Psionic Agent: You get fly and dimension door, among other things. You’re pretty much king of magic movement, and there’s some nice buff spells in there too. Metaphysical Weapon comes to mind.
Smart
Mage: This is a good class. Spellcasting is powerful, even the nerfed Spellcasting of d20 modern.
Scientist: Depending on interpretation (whether you lose the ability to build inventions when you build one, and whether they’re based off of Spellcasting or scrolls), the Scientist is either totally bonkers, or merely very, very good.
Techno Mage: The same difference as the mage, really. One notable feature is the ability to use light armor without incurring spell failure. This is nice at low levels, when you can’t keep mage armor running 24/7.
Dedicated
Acolyte: A cleric-expy. Medium BAB & d8 hd makes it a good combatant, and it provides healing, something that is not otherwise readily available in d20 modern.
Shaman: This class is pretty good. Druids have always made excellent buff-machines, and the shaman manages to piggy-back on that legacy to create a powerful and versatile class. Not much to say here.
Tracer: Full base, Target Species, Swift Strike, are the components that get it up here. It is admittedly one of the weaker tier 1’s, but it’s not bad. The most credible example of a sniper class too.
Charismatic
Mystic: The combination of spontaneous divine spells and poor base attack isn’t so hot, but there’s enough there to make it work once you reach the mid levels. I’d peg this as the weakest tier 1.
Sorcerer: The Sorcerer is an odd combination of the d&d sorcerer and dragon disciple class. Fairly weak for a tier 1, but it’s probably the best arcane class for an eldritch-knight like character, if that’s something you’re into.
Telepath: Heck yes. The undisputed master of mind magic, the telepath is a psionic powerhouse. The first 4 or so levels are a bit rough, but at that point everyone is best off relying on guns anyway, and taking personal firearms proficiency shouldn’t mess your progression up much.
Tier 2: Mid-line. Has some combat ability, and is often useful out of combat.
Strong
Helix Warrior: Full Base attack, and a host of interesting, if not always applicable class features.
Martial Artist: It doesn’t quite cut the mustard for a tier 1 class. Still, it’s not far off. It has enough damage to reliably hit massive damage once you get into the upper levels, and it’s easy to get as good or better at shooting as the gunslinger is, albeit your damage will be a little lower due to lack of weapon specialization.
Soldier: My book says tactical aid gives int to hit or defense, which, if it’s true (the SRD contradicts), is almost enough to make it tier 1 in a high point buy game, same as the Field Officer.
Street Warrior: It gets full base attack, but otherwise isn’t very good. The Weapon Specialization is all right. The Improved & Advanced Streetfighting might make you hit the MDT once in a while where you would not ordinarily have done so.
Fast
Gunslinger: Solid, although perhaps not the best possible ranged warrior class available. There are enough skill points there to be useful out of combat, and it advances prowess in ranged combat enough to be worthwhile, if not stellar. The lightning shot feature is the best thing here. With Double Tap, Point Blank Shot, Weapon Specialization and a Desert Eagle, you stand a decent chance at provoking saves vs massive damage with each shot.
Swashbuckler: It has trouble dealing enough damage, but that can perhaps be solved with some finagling. Otherwise a pretty good class, but a plan for solving the damage issue is necessary.
Tough
Bodyguard: A pretty run of the mill warrior class. It’s good, certainly, and effectively has near-full base attack.
Bionic Agent: The extra implant slots here are probably worth at least a 4-level dip. The biggest issue with cybernetics is affording them, however, so that makes the Cyberwarrior a good bit better. No reason not to take both.
Smart
Engineer: This is *a lot* better than the techie. The class features are superior, and it has medium base attack.
Field Scientist: This makes for a good warrior smart hero.
Occultist: This class wishes it was the mage. It’s not actively bad, but it suffers from enough issues that it’s nothing to write home about either.
Spiritualist: A divine version of the Occultist, it does basically the same thing, and shares its rating.
Technosavant: Not quite as good as the engineer, but still better than the techie. Build Prototype especially, is a good class feature. If the campaign heavily features robots as enemies, this class becomes a better choice.
Xenophile: This is actually quite good. Much like the ranger, it suffers from a wide variety of foes, but otherwise it’s quite efficient. The Xenophile is one of the better non-magical skill monkey classes.
Dedicated
Explorer(future): This class has quite good stats, a good bonus feat list, and explorer lore is widely useful. It’s a bit lackluster in combat prowess, although extra step and evasion are useful.
Explorer(Past): A little worse, feature wise, than the future version, but has the chassis to make up for it. Like many other tier 2 classes, it has to rely on firearms to deal damage, but it has optimal fortitude, reflex and class defense progressions, so the potential is certainly there. One of the strongest contenders for the non-smart skill monkey role.
Field Medic: It has resurrection, which is a huge deal. It provides really, really good healing. The low BAB is a bit of a shame, but you can’t have everything. Medical Miracle probably makes this a tier 1 class in a game that doesn’t have magic.
Shadow Hunter: A fairly good investigative class. Play a Hunch and Locate Target are good out of combat powers.
Wildlord: As a 2-level dip for the animal companion, it might well be tier 1. The other features are unusually good, but suffer from the specialist problem.
Charismatic
Ambassador: It has medium base attack, and the class features are more useful than the Personality’s. Lower tier 2. Notably, it’s a better investigator than the Investigator advanced class.
Cyber Raver: A fairly all right combat class. The Rave class feature is good, Know the Chrome, Tinker & Street Hero are flavorful, but not very good.
Glamourist: This is fairly good. The main motivator here is the Audience and Self-Confidence features in concert. A Charismatic hero 3/Glamourist 6 taking Charismatic Plus at third and sixth level can have the Fast-Talk and Leadership trees maxed out, for instance, and affect 10 people at once with Taunt and Dazzle, and inspire 13 people at once with Inspiration or Coordinate.
Mesmerist: This is really low tier 2. Psionics are good enough that it’s here instead of in tier 3, but it’s a close thing.
Negotiator: In my experience, GMs are reluctant to allow you to actually use the Talk Down class feature. However, it’s still a pretty all right class, lower tier 2, probably.
Swindler: This class is good at manipulating dice, and that’s probably a worthwhile thing to be good at in d20 modern. The low defense is a bit of a bother, but it’s definitely playable.
Tier 3: Almost all of these are specialists, useful only in a single, rarely relevant field, although there’re a few classes among them that are merely bad in all respects. If you take one of these, you will feel outclassed nine times out of ten, unless the game is specifically tailored to your character.
Strong
Archaic Weaponsmaster: This class is a piss-poor excuse for a melee warrior class. If it interests you, do yourself a favor and play a Soldier instead, or better yet, a Shadow Slayer.
Fast
Infiltrator: One of the few classes that does not make you significantly better even in your designated area of expertise. Since this area of expertise comes at the expense of your ability to do most anything else, this is a bad deal.
Speed Demon: This class is good at driving things, bad at everything else. That said, it does have medium base attack, so we’re not looking at a total loss here. High tier 3.
Tough
Daredevil: Sadly, the lack of at the very least of medium base attack makes this class a little too hard to make use of; excellent defense, but not enough offense. High tier 3, though.
Road Warrior: Has the same problems as the Speed Demon, but is slightly less good at driving.
Smart
Cybernaut: This guy is a god on the VR-net, and pretty much useless anywhere else. I suppose it might work out in some campaigns, but I suspect he’ll be fairly useless, even in a campaign that features the VR-net from time to time. A three or four level dip might be considered, if the campaign features virtual reality much of the time.
Salvager: The scavenging game is not a game that’s worth being better than your skill points make you, sadly. The extra effort is more or less wasted, when you could’ve been an Engineer or Field Scientist instead.
Shadowjack: Suffers acutely from the specialist issue. Also, it’s not that much better at computer use than a field scientist would be, so I don’t really see the point.
Techie: Your main trick, mastercrafting, is available as a feat. Robots are fairly useless. Engineers Are Better Than You.
Dedicated
Implant Hack: This one is another example of investing too much in a too small field. Besides, they don’t even become good at cybernetic surgery in ways that matter, in the end. Compare a dedicated hero 3/implant hack 10 to a mix-up of smart and dedicated – you’ll see that they’re about equally proficient, except when it comes to the time it takes to use the skills, and I’ve never seen that be a problem in game.
Investigator: This class does not make you notably better at investigation. Medium BAB & class defense makes this a high tier 3, however.
Charismatic
Arcane Arranger: This class is a good enough face that it sits on the very upper border of tier 3. That said, being a face is really the only thing it can do, which makes it hard to defend putting it in tier 2. It has no combat ability at all. It gets hammer space as a class feature at 8th level, which is of course hilarious, and may have colored my view of the class a bit brighter than it deserves, it’s hard for me to tell.
Personality: Bad base attack, bad class defense, mediocre class features. There’s little to come for here – it’s a level dip to boost reputation for the field officer, at best. The compelling performance is too little, too late, and takes an action point to activate anyway.
For sources, I've used Apocalypse, Core, Cyberscape, Future, Past, & Urban Arcana. I'm not aware of any more official d20 modern books with advanced classes in it.
Anyways, I've grouped them in three tiers. Tier 1's are either supremely good at combat, or merely unusually competent and otherwise versatile and useful in most situations.
Tier 2's all have something they can do in a combat situation, albeit not to the level of a tier 1 class.
Tier 3's either can't contribute to combat, or they happen to be moderately bad at fighting, and on top of that have bad class features.
I've grouped them this way because, in my experience, the number one way for a d20 modern character to lack behind and feel suboptimal is if it's something like a Smart Hero/Shadowjack who has no combat feats. You can get away with being bad at skills - it's usually enough if one person has a particular skill, and it's easy to get access to a complete suite of skills in the party at different levels of competence.
For example, a tier 1 party might be a Smart Hero/Technomage, a Dedicated Hero/Shaman, a Strong/Field Officer(with face skills), and a Fast/Psionic Agent. A comparative tier 3 party might be a Smart/Shadowjack, a Strong/Archaic Weaponsmaster(with face skills), a Dedicated/Investigator, and a Fast/Infiltrator.
There's no notable difference in skill coverage between them, but the first party will kick major ass, and the second one will flounder about and get themselves killed all the time.
Tier 1: These classes have powerful abilities. As combat is a common feature of d20 games, each of these also have some relevant combat abilities, and can either somewhat reliably force massive damage saves, or otherwise bring radically game-changing abilities to the table.
Strong
Battlemind: A +½/level weapon, what’s not to like? Besides, powers are really good, and the class has excellent defense.
Cyberwarrior: Those free cybernetics represent a lot of power. Base attack is also a consideration here.
Field Officer: We’re after the Tactical Expertise/Mastery abilities here. It’s sad that the duration is so short, but you can’t argue with the benefits.
Shadow Slayer: Full BAB, +½/ level melee weapon, Fast Healing ½/level, +½/level DR vs shadow creatures, & Favored Enemy.
Tough
Dreadnought: This is really, really good. Arguably not quite as good as Trasher, but the prerequisite feat is a lot better. Additionally, it is available in non-magic games, which is a plus. Besides, the class features are only marginally worse than the Trasher’s, and in some respects (i.e. the rage variant), better.
Evolutionary: Mutations are pretty good, and I can totally see 16 points of mutations and various benefits being a worthwhile investment of ten levels.
Gangster: Sneak attack does the heavy lifting here. It’s fairly easy to set up flanking, and from that point on, you’re pretty much guaranteed to inflict massive damage with each blow, at least once you’ve got 2 or 3 dice of SA. Besides, 7+int and a good class list makes it a good skill monkey that doesn’t face the usual problems of a research-focused list of class skills that smart-derived classes are usually stuck with.
Trasher: Holy Smokes, is all. This is a good class. The prerequisites are ****ty, but the features more than make up for it. There’s con to defense, d12hd, rage, damage reduction, and a smattering of other minor stuff.
Fast
Psionic Agent: You get fly and dimension door, among other things. You’re pretty much king of magic movement, and there’s some nice buff spells in there too. Metaphysical Weapon comes to mind.
Smart
Mage: This is a good class. Spellcasting is powerful, even the nerfed Spellcasting of d20 modern.
Scientist: Depending on interpretation (whether you lose the ability to build inventions when you build one, and whether they’re based off of Spellcasting or scrolls), the Scientist is either totally bonkers, or merely very, very good.
Techno Mage: The same difference as the mage, really. One notable feature is the ability to use light armor without incurring spell failure. This is nice at low levels, when you can’t keep mage armor running 24/7.
Dedicated
Acolyte: A cleric-expy. Medium BAB & d8 hd makes it a good combatant, and it provides healing, something that is not otherwise readily available in d20 modern.
Shaman: This class is pretty good. Druids have always made excellent buff-machines, and the shaman manages to piggy-back on that legacy to create a powerful and versatile class. Not much to say here.
Tracer: Full base, Target Species, Swift Strike, are the components that get it up here. It is admittedly one of the weaker tier 1’s, but it’s not bad. The most credible example of a sniper class too.
Charismatic
Mystic: The combination of spontaneous divine spells and poor base attack isn’t so hot, but there’s enough there to make it work once you reach the mid levels. I’d peg this as the weakest tier 1.
Sorcerer: The Sorcerer is an odd combination of the d&d sorcerer and dragon disciple class. Fairly weak for a tier 1, but it’s probably the best arcane class for an eldritch-knight like character, if that’s something you’re into.
Telepath: Heck yes. The undisputed master of mind magic, the telepath is a psionic powerhouse. The first 4 or so levels are a bit rough, but at that point everyone is best off relying on guns anyway, and taking personal firearms proficiency shouldn’t mess your progression up much.
Tier 2: Mid-line. Has some combat ability, and is often useful out of combat.
Strong
Helix Warrior: Full Base attack, and a host of interesting, if not always applicable class features.
Martial Artist: It doesn’t quite cut the mustard for a tier 1 class. Still, it’s not far off. It has enough damage to reliably hit massive damage once you get into the upper levels, and it’s easy to get as good or better at shooting as the gunslinger is, albeit your damage will be a little lower due to lack of weapon specialization.
Soldier: My book says tactical aid gives int to hit or defense, which, if it’s true (the SRD contradicts), is almost enough to make it tier 1 in a high point buy game, same as the Field Officer.
Street Warrior: It gets full base attack, but otherwise isn’t very good. The Weapon Specialization is all right. The Improved & Advanced Streetfighting might make you hit the MDT once in a while where you would not ordinarily have done so.
Fast
Gunslinger: Solid, although perhaps not the best possible ranged warrior class available. There are enough skill points there to be useful out of combat, and it advances prowess in ranged combat enough to be worthwhile, if not stellar. The lightning shot feature is the best thing here. With Double Tap, Point Blank Shot, Weapon Specialization and a Desert Eagle, you stand a decent chance at provoking saves vs massive damage with each shot.
Swashbuckler: It has trouble dealing enough damage, but that can perhaps be solved with some finagling. Otherwise a pretty good class, but a plan for solving the damage issue is necessary.
Tough
Bodyguard: A pretty run of the mill warrior class. It’s good, certainly, and effectively has near-full base attack.
Bionic Agent: The extra implant slots here are probably worth at least a 4-level dip. The biggest issue with cybernetics is affording them, however, so that makes the Cyberwarrior a good bit better. No reason not to take both.
Smart
Engineer: This is *a lot* better than the techie. The class features are superior, and it has medium base attack.
Field Scientist: This makes for a good warrior smart hero.
Occultist: This class wishes it was the mage. It’s not actively bad, but it suffers from enough issues that it’s nothing to write home about either.
Spiritualist: A divine version of the Occultist, it does basically the same thing, and shares its rating.
Technosavant: Not quite as good as the engineer, but still better than the techie. Build Prototype especially, is a good class feature. If the campaign heavily features robots as enemies, this class becomes a better choice.
Xenophile: This is actually quite good. Much like the ranger, it suffers from a wide variety of foes, but otherwise it’s quite efficient. The Xenophile is one of the better non-magical skill monkey classes.
Dedicated
Explorer(future): This class has quite good stats, a good bonus feat list, and explorer lore is widely useful. It’s a bit lackluster in combat prowess, although extra step and evasion are useful.
Explorer(Past): A little worse, feature wise, than the future version, but has the chassis to make up for it. Like many other tier 2 classes, it has to rely on firearms to deal damage, but it has optimal fortitude, reflex and class defense progressions, so the potential is certainly there. One of the strongest contenders for the non-smart skill monkey role.
Field Medic: It has resurrection, which is a huge deal. It provides really, really good healing. The low BAB is a bit of a shame, but you can’t have everything. Medical Miracle probably makes this a tier 1 class in a game that doesn’t have magic.
Shadow Hunter: A fairly good investigative class. Play a Hunch and Locate Target are good out of combat powers.
Wildlord: As a 2-level dip for the animal companion, it might well be tier 1. The other features are unusually good, but suffer from the specialist problem.
Charismatic
Ambassador: It has medium base attack, and the class features are more useful than the Personality’s. Lower tier 2. Notably, it’s a better investigator than the Investigator advanced class.
Cyber Raver: A fairly all right combat class. The Rave class feature is good, Know the Chrome, Tinker & Street Hero are flavorful, but not very good.
Glamourist: This is fairly good. The main motivator here is the Audience and Self-Confidence features in concert. A Charismatic hero 3/Glamourist 6 taking Charismatic Plus at third and sixth level can have the Fast-Talk and Leadership trees maxed out, for instance, and affect 10 people at once with Taunt and Dazzle, and inspire 13 people at once with Inspiration or Coordinate.
Mesmerist: This is really low tier 2. Psionics are good enough that it’s here instead of in tier 3, but it’s a close thing.
Negotiator: In my experience, GMs are reluctant to allow you to actually use the Talk Down class feature. However, it’s still a pretty all right class, lower tier 2, probably.
Swindler: This class is good at manipulating dice, and that’s probably a worthwhile thing to be good at in d20 modern. The low defense is a bit of a bother, but it’s definitely playable.
Tier 3: Almost all of these are specialists, useful only in a single, rarely relevant field, although there’re a few classes among them that are merely bad in all respects. If you take one of these, you will feel outclassed nine times out of ten, unless the game is specifically tailored to your character.
Strong
Archaic Weaponsmaster: This class is a piss-poor excuse for a melee warrior class. If it interests you, do yourself a favor and play a Soldier instead, or better yet, a Shadow Slayer.
Fast
Infiltrator: One of the few classes that does not make you significantly better even in your designated area of expertise. Since this area of expertise comes at the expense of your ability to do most anything else, this is a bad deal.
Speed Demon: This class is good at driving things, bad at everything else. That said, it does have medium base attack, so we’re not looking at a total loss here. High tier 3.
Tough
Daredevil: Sadly, the lack of at the very least of medium base attack makes this class a little too hard to make use of; excellent defense, but not enough offense. High tier 3, though.
Road Warrior: Has the same problems as the Speed Demon, but is slightly less good at driving.
Smart
Cybernaut: This guy is a god on the VR-net, and pretty much useless anywhere else. I suppose it might work out in some campaigns, but I suspect he’ll be fairly useless, even in a campaign that features the VR-net from time to time. A three or four level dip might be considered, if the campaign features virtual reality much of the time.
Salvager: The scavenging game is not a game that’s worth being better than your skill points make you, sadly. The extra effort is more or less wasted, when you could’ve been an Engineer or Field Scientist instead.
Shadowjack: Suffers acutely from the specialist issue. Also, it’s not that much better at computer use than a field scientist would be, so I don’t really see the point.
Techie: Your main trick, mastercrafting, is available as a feat. Robots are fairly useless. Engineers Are Better Than You.
Dedicated
Implant Hack: This one is another example of investing too much in a too small field. Besides, they don’t even become good at cybernetic surgery in ways that matter, in the end. Compare a dedicated hero 3/implant hack 10 to a mix-up of smart and dedicated – you’ll see that they’re about equally proficient, except when it comes to the time it takes to use the skills, and I’ve never seen that be a problem in game.
Investigator: This class does not make you notably better at investigation. Medium BAB & class defense makes this a high tier 3, however.
Charismatic
Arcane Arranger: This class is a good enough face that it sits on the very upper border of tier 3. That said, being a face is really the only thing it can do, which makes it hard to defend putting it in tier 2. It has no combat ability at all. It gets hammer space as a class feature at 8th level, which is of course hilarious, and may have colored my view of the class a bit brighter than it deserves, it’s hard for me to tell.
Personality: Bad base attack, bad class defense, mediocre class features. There’s little to come for here – it’s a level dip to boost reputation for the field officer, at best. The compelling performance is too little, too late, and takes an action point to activate anyway.
For sources, I've used Apocalypse, Core, Cyberscape, Future, Past, & Urban Arcana. I'm not aware of any more official d20 modern books with advanced classes in it.