Classes that you really like in Xanathar's

[Dankus Memakus]

Okay so i have some classes I really like and I was just curious what everyone else had to say
1. Samurai
2. Celestial warlock
3. Zealot barbarian
4. Forge cleric

What all do you guys like? If you have time why do you like them

[Clone]

Currently DMing a Storm Herald Barbarian and playing with a Horizon Walker and Hexblade, they seem like perfectly fine archetypes.
Still early days but I expect the horizon walker to be a menace to get close to with their kiting, and the hexblade is a new player but eager to learn, so will probably become equally scary.

Personally looking forward to playing a Conquest Paladin and Circle of the Shepard Druid, both of those peak my interest quite a lot.

I'm just disappointed the elemental sorcerers didn't make the cut, as I'm playing a Stone Sorcerer at the moment and its a bunch of fun :(

[pdegan2814]

There are quite a lot that I think are really cool additions, but if I had to narrow it down to the few that I most want to try out for myself, they'd be(in order of appearance, not preference):

1. Barbarian Path of the Ancestral Guardian - love the mechanics, love the character potential. Storm Herald looks fun too, but this one is my favorite of the new Primal Paths

2. Cleric Grave Domain - Both domains look fun, but Grave interests me more. Even the early ability to cast Spare The Dying as a bonus and at range is awesome.

3. Druid Circle of Dreams - Love some faerie shenanigans, and the mechanics are all cool. If I wasn't going Moon for the Wild Shape fun, I'd choose this.

4. Fighter Arcane Archer - I love playing archers, and this one looks like a lot of fun

5. Rogue Scout - two extra double-proficiencies, combat mobility, and the ability to give everyone advantage on a target for the first round? Yes please.

6. Warlock Celestial Pact - Yes, the Hexblade looks awesome, and is crazy powerful in combat, but I dig the story behind the Celestial Pact more, and the abilities are cool

[pdegan2814]

I'm just disappointed the elemental sorcerers didn't make the cut, as I'm playing a Stone Sorcerer at the moment and its a bunch of fun :(

I was hoping the Stone Sorcerer would make it in too, I liked the concept. The other two elementals(Phoenix and Sea) were interesting too, would've made a nice set with the Storm Sorcerer.

[Protato]

Hexblade, AKA the optomizer's dream! I liked the UA Shadow Hound, so my Hexblade I'm planning to play took Magic Initiate feat and took Find Familiar. Also, the Ancestral Guardian looks cool because they took the tankiness of the Barbarian and supercharged it with more support options. The Gloomstalker is cool too, one of my players has one. It's odd that they're playing them in a city setting but it fits the flavor and ability of their character as an ambusher.

[DarkKnightJin]

I have a Zealot, a Conquest, and a Devo-Celestial Pally/Warlock planned.

I'd have to check on the Scout, but that could be a perfect fit for the Rengar character idea I have.

[Sigreid]

I'm most fond of the Shepard druid and celestial warlock.

[Dankus Memakus]

I'm glad to see the celestial warlock finally getting some love over the hexblade it warms my heart.

[Throne12]

Horizon walker I so want to one. I want to play a melee Eladrin horizon walker. I like the spell zepha strike then they get misty step, haste, steel wind strike. A cool teleporting s&b character sounds fun.

[mephnick]

If I ever get to make another character I'd like to try an Ancestral Barbarian, a Sword Bard or Horizon Walker.

[Foxhound438]

(title)
it'd be easier to list the ones I don't care for-

1.

end of list

[Sariel Vailo]

1.the bards all of them
2.fighter all of them
3.druid circle of the shepard
4.the barbarians
5.the sorcerers.

These are the ones i want to play in their order.from one to five.
For the celestial sorcerer can you quicken or twin true resurrection

[BladedWizard]

I like a lot of them. My top 5 would be:
- Horizon Walker (I like the flavor and always wanted to play a melee character that teleports a lot)
- Gloom Stalker (Simply because the mechanics are strong and I like the theme)
- Circle of the Shepard (If I'd play a summoner I'd play this over the conjurer anytime)
- Circle of Dreams (Healing on bonus action is great even if it's not a lot)
- Divine Soul (I'm playing one right now and I enjoy having access to cleric spell)

[Dankus Memakus]

(title)
it'd be easier to list the ones I don't care for-

1.

end of list

No kidding

[BladedWizard]

Horizon walker I so want to one. I want to play a melee Eladrin horizon walker. I like the spell zepha strike then they get misty step, haste, steel wind strike. A cool teleporting s&b character sounds fun.

I agree 100%.. That's exactly what I have in mind too except the s&b.

[Jerrykhor]

Divine Soul sorcerer

[Kane0]

Top 5 I want to play:

5. Shepherd Druid
4. Kensei Monk
3. Divine Sorcerer
2. Slayer Ranger
1. Hexblade Warlock

[Potato_Priest]

My top 4:
1. Zealot Barbarian
2. Shadow Sorcerer
3. Conquest Paladin
4. War Wizard

[rooneg]

My favorites are:


Scout Rogue: I always wanted a Ranger without spellcasting, and this is perfect for that.
Cavalier Fighter: This is what the Purple Dragon Knight wanted to be, an actual defender fighter.
Hexblade Warlock: I can finally build a bladelock without feeling like I need to dip into another class first.

[pdegan2814]

(title)
it'd be easier to list the ones I don't care for-

1.

end of list

Kinda, yeah :)
There are a few I'm not excited about, but none of them come across as "bad" to me. I do wish they'd gone with the Raven Queen Warlock over the Hexblade. RQ is more flavorful(I play one right now and I love it), and Hexblade is borderline OP. I had at least one DM who allows UA material ban Hexblades from her game before they were official, wouldn't be surprised if she still disallows them.

[Zene]

1) Cavalier
2) Divine Soul
3) Gloom Stalker (with an EK multiclass)
4) Lore Bard
5) Bladesinger

...yeah that’s right, the new spells and feats make even the old classes exciting to play again : )

[Chugger]

Grave Cleric is _very_ useful in key situations. Upcasting heals on zero'd characters is huge for this class because if the target of a heal is at zero, they get full dice value. A normal cleric's upcast heal is, well, "dicey", if you'll excuse the pun. You can roll several crap dice and feel like you wasted a slot. But if your tank has been dropped to zero and you bring him/her back for 16+wis, 24+wis, 32+wis or w/e you feel is right, the tank comes back very well healed, which can really stabilize a fight-going-bad - and turn it right around.

The other grave feature is the channel - making a target vulnerable to all damage for a round. Combine that with other char's features that, say, grant advantage - and you've got one hurt monster on a plate. It's going to require patience and a lot of timing skill to use this right. Blow it on the wrong monster and - well, you'll be disappointed and have a hard fight, because you messed it up - like if the thing you thought was a boss wasn't a boss. Also if your timing is off because you use it on a round where your allies can't all whack on the target you zap ... so it will take some work to get used to. But it's not like this is the only feature in the game like this. It could be very powerful.

I like Shadow Sorc a lot, though darkness is not always a good thing to cast in a fight - if you're in a tunnel or cramped quarters. At that point lacking the draconic's ac and extra hp / lvl will hurt, when you can't hide in darkness - oh and fighting demons and things that see through magic darkness will not be so fun. But when you got at least some room to move you pop darkness and then go to work.

The Hound of Ill Omen can be summoned at great range for 3 s pts and dropped right where you need it - and if I get this right it's an ability you use as a bonus action - so you don't even need to quicken - on the same turn you summon it (say w/in 5' of two badguys ganging up on one of your friends) it gives them disads on STs - and you use your action to fireball them or hold person them or w/ever. It's very powerful.

I like the tanking approaches to both cav and anc barb.

I like hexblade as a dip and to just play straight.

Am still working out how to use the new feats (race feats). Some seem quite good, like elv ac, though doesn't work for barbs raging! Str/cha problem - as someone helped me with today on another post I made.

Am on the fence on war wizard. For AL it could be good. High initiative is always good. Also am trying to get my head around how useful a Samurai would be and could see it working.

[jaappleton]

Horizon Walker is the best in the book. It is so well designed. Now, for the Revised Ranger to become official... >_>

Beyond that, Celestial.

I like Hexblade as well.

[ImproperJustice]

1. Mastermind Rogue (Yeah, I know it’s a reprint, but C’mon! Now I can play Nate Ford in D&D.
2. Forge Cleric (Everyone says it’s for Dwarves and they are right, but I think some other races could make this interesting as well.)
3. Horizon Walker (has always been kewl).
4. The expanded list of spells for Sorcerers.
5. Both Druid subclasses.

[DarkKnightJin]

Reading through the classes and their features (barring Monk and Redemption Pally, because fork those last guys), I have found that the Scout Rogue would be perfect for my Tabaxi Rogue Ranger idea, inspired by Rengar. Pop in 3 levels of Monster Slayer or Gloomstalker, and it's almost uncanny how well it works. In theory, anyway. Will have to see how something like that will play out at a table.

[Trum4n1208]

My personal favorites are:

1. Hexblade
2. Cavalier
3. College of Swords
4. Kensai
5. Arcane Archer (though I still wish they got more uses of Arcane Shot)

I didn't get to read the book as in-depth as I would have liked, but I liked what I saw. I don't think there's a 'bad' option among them.

[Lombra]

Zealot and War Wizard are the ones that intreast me the most, looking forward to play a scourge aasimar zealot a lot. It's basically a spell-less paladin.

Edit: and glamour bard, the flavour of it is just too cool.

[Skyblaze]

After getting the book last night and reading through it, definitely wanting to play a conquest paladin now. Still debating on what race to play with it though, Half-Orc, Dragonborn...can't decide!

[Gnomes2169]

As a top 5 list, let's see...

1. Kensei, because sword saints are cool.
2. Horizon Walker, because hunting outsiders and LITERALLY TELEPORTING ALL THE TIME FOR FREE is also cool. A short-ranged skirmisher would be interesting to play with this one.
3. Zealot, because what is even this subclass's inability to die ever? Hahahaha!
4. Divine sorcerer, because I don't want to multi-class cleric for 1 level just so I can heal people with what should be my dump stat, dangit!
5. Grave Domain, because death comes for us all... and also I have an entire class based on a similar concept that I homebrewed (the Legionnaire), so this is just a concept I really enjoy.

[Daphne]

1- Cavalier: it's the tank I've ever wanted
2- Grave Domain: I really like the flavor and the features are very good and iconic
3- Path of the Zealot: divine warrior without oaths, can be resurrected with no costs to the caster and deals lots of damage.
4- College of Swords: what I always wanted Valor to be
5- All Ranger conclaves

[Aett_Thorn]

After getting the book last night and reading through it, definitely wanting to play a conquest paladin now. Still debating on what race to play with it though, Half-Orc, Dragonborn...can't decide!

Go Halfling. Because we WILL have second breakfast as the law of the land!

[RickAsWritten]

My Top 5:

1. Horizon Walker-Teleporting, melee awesomeness. Cool enough and strong enough that I will end my embargo on Rangers.
2. Shadow Sorcerer-I'm just here for the shadow hound, and the darkness, and the darkvision, and the not dying, and the shadow teleport...I guess I'm here for all of it.
3. Cavalier-This Tanksgiving I'm tank-ful for the tank-iness of this tank. Also when I play one, I am for sure going to take one level of Light Cleric, just so I can either Sanctuary myself after attacking or use Warding Flare. Damned if you do. Damned if you don't.
4. Zealot-I love the fluff of a religious barbarian, as it reminds me of a lot of cool literary side characters that were cooler than the main character. Also it is has well designed features.
5. Drunken Master-I'm a monk fan, and this is a very monk-y monk.

Honorable Mention: Forge Cleric-I'm currently playing one in Curse of Strahd, and it's been solid if unspectacular.

Bottom 5:

1. Redemption Paladin-Not a pallerdin guy, and this isn't even a good pallerdin by pallerdin standards.
2. Conquest Paladin-If they would have included Treachery, I'd be all over it. A Trickeration Cleric on the Paladin chassis would have been a blast(ignoring the terrible tenets, and actually playing as a team member. Conquest suffers here as well-"I'm the bestest, you must follow me!").
3. Storm Herald-Excellent concept that was nerfed into oblivion.
4. Inquisitive-I don't dig it. Too role-play focused. I'd much rather play a Mastermind than this.
5. Kensei-I don't know. It just feels wonky to me. I may eventually give it a spin, but for now...meh.

Dishonorable Mention: Hexblade-Dat power creep doh. Admittedly, I am definitely going to use this as a dip(can't resist the temptation...fitting actually), but good golly Miss Molly does it make the other Warlock patrons nearly obsolete.

[GlenSmash!]

Since I pretty much only play Ranger's Barbarians, and Fighters:


Zealot
Gloom Stalker
Ancestral Guardian


Were the big stand outs for me. Other Ranger options seemed fine. Wasn't excited by any of the fighter options.

[mer.c]

Cavalier is probably my favorite after my first read-through. I’m not a big fan of mount-themed kits, and I’m also not a big fan of Superiority Dice/Maneuvers. Given I was expecting the Cavalier to be exactly those two things, I’m really happy with how it turned out. The tank elements actually mesh really well with the mounted aspect, in a way that enhances their mounted combat without making them feel too focused on that for when mounted combat isn’t often feasible.

All the Ranger kits seem incredibly fun. Huge flavor points for each. I admit that Horizon Walker doesn’t really fit in my brain-space for Ranger archetypes, but the flavor is cool and the mechanics look sweet.

I don’t expect to roll one, but Zealot Barbarian is amazing flavor- and mechanics-wise. The features are sweet, and I love that the background flavor is so distinct from your average Joe Barbarian while still fitting completely for the Barbarian base features.

There are a few I’m not sold on. Samurai just seem… weird. At first glance, the kit feels like it lacks cohesion and theme. Maybe I need to give it another read. Storm barbs seem cool conceptually but kind of lacklustre in execution. Hexblades seem maybe worryingly powerful, but again I’ll need to give it a closer look. I thought the UA Redemption Paladin was super flavorful and very cool mechanically, and this version seems much more bland.

Honestly, though, the two PCs I’m most hyped for are my fate-themed dice-manipulating Lore Bard who can now dole out Expertise (super thematic and every bit as useful) and my battlefield controller Mountain Druid who can turn into a tree avatar, tell trees and rocks to beat up his enemies, and build the world’s most epic tree fort.

[MxKit]

TOP TEN LIST:


Bard - College of Glamour. Maybe not as good of a caster bard as Lore, but I love the flavor of this subclass so much more. Feytouched bard who was taught by a satyr? I am super into that, and it's still got some very nice Bard College features for a primary spellcasting Bard.
Cleric - Grave Domain. Actually, most of my Top Ten List here is probably due to flavor, and this is no exception. I've been wanting to make a Good- or Neutral-aligned Cleric who worships one of the death gods, or even a Vodou Cleric, for a long time now, and this domain is perfect for it. Being really good at protecting the party is a bonus.
Druid - Circle of Dreams. Have I made it obvious enough that I like Fey-based subclasses yet? Well, I do! I love the way this one blurs the lines between dreams and reality, too; I'd definitely go with the "your mentor has appeared to you only in dreams and you're not sure such a person exists in mortal form" option. It also seems pretty damn useful all around and like a good class for patching up holes in a party while also being able to do its own thing.
Druid - Circle of the Shepherd. That's right! I love both Druids this time around! It's not even so much the flavor of this one I'm here for, it just looks like a super fun summoner, and the spirit totems look similarly fun to use. I could see this as being just as much of a blast as going Moon Druid.
Fighter - Samurai. I definitely see why many people don't like this one, but again this is here for the flavor. I could especially love taking a small dip into Rogue, making a cunning and deceitful sort of Samurai; even just one level gives you Sneak Attack (to make your Fighting Spirit/Tireless Spirit even better), and if you take a second level at some point your Strength Before Death can completely save your life (take the Disengage bonus action, use your movement to get away from enemies, use your actual action to heal yourself!). The whole feel of the class being "tactical fighter who can also impress socially" definitely works for me.
Monk - Way of the Drunken Master. This one is just GREAT. Holy crap. Out of all of these, Drunken Master is possibly my jam, more than any of the others; if not, it certainly ties with Glamour Bard and Grave Cleric. Like, it's a strong class in its own right, but it's just perfect thematically. It also works really well for... reflavoring, I guess you'd call it? If I ever tried to make Hans Humpty from Rokka no Yuusha into a D&D character -- someone whose fighting style was inspired by cats -- I'd probably ask the DM permission to just reflavor this class without changing any of the features at all. Maybe seeing if I could switch out the brewer's supplies proficiency with a weaver's tools one. Basically it's perfect, at least for me.
Monk - Way of the Kensei. Yep, this one made the list! It almost didn't make the list, but I've got to admit: Having one very specific character concept saved it for me. Someday I am going to make a Bugbear Kensei Monk who fights with a whip. It's just gonna happen.
Rogue - Swashbuckler. It feels almost cheap to put this one on here, but I can't help it! It's the only already-been-published subclass that made this list, and it absolutely deserves the slot, IMO. Strong as hell, fun as hell, and the flavor is excellent; it's a perfect combination. Also, if I went more than two levels in Rogue while multiclassing Samurai, I'd have a hard time choosing between this subclass and Assassin. Both are thematically excellent.
Sorcerer - Shadow Magic. THAT HOUND, THOUGH. Seriously, I do like the sort-of-undead-feeling element of this subclass, and the connection to the Shadowfell, but I have to admit that I mostly want to play Shadow Sorcerer for the Hound. It just seems like an overall fun subclass to play, though. Could also easily dip into Lore Bard, Eldritch Knight Fighter, or basically any Warlock (not Celestial so much) and have it add something pretty awesome thematically. Even just going a level or two into Warlock and going far enough into Shadow Sorcerer to get Umbral Form would be great.
Warlock - The Hexblade. Yeah, I have to agree with the people who say that this is an absolute stand-out subclass, and it's getting added to what's already one of my favorite classes in the game! That means I definitely have to try it sometime, and I might not even go Pact of the Blade with it; Pact of the Tome seems like it would work at least equally well. Other Patrons are still my favorites thematically (Great Old One, the Archfey, the Undying, even the Raven Queen), but this one's still amazing.


BOTTOM FIVE:


Barbarian - Path of the Zealot. I'll say it right now, this entire list is just stuff that I don't like because I personally find them boring or "bleh." They're all perfectly good (or even great!) subclasses... for the most part... but they don't do anything for me. For this one, even in a world where gods are real, I'm just not into the Religious Zealotry thing, and one that causes rage and battle is even more "meh" for me. Absolutely brilliant subclass and wonderfully flavorful! But the flavor is just Not For Me.
Bard - College of Whispers. Here's the one that's not a great subclass! Or, okay, it's perfectly fine just like every class and subclass in the game is actually perfectly fine in practice. It seems like it would be a lot of fun in games full of political subterfuge, too, especially with a bunch of characters that are Neutral or Evil on that axis. But basically given how limited a lot of its powers are, and that it really does feel more like an Evil-leaning class and I'm usually not into that, I'm just not into it.
Paladin - Oath of Conquest. See Zealot Barbarian, basically. I'm actually not into Paladins in general for the most part, and making one The Conqueror just makes me less into it. Again, it's one of those things that will probably make a lot of players happy, and rightfully so, but I'll never end up making one of these.
Warlock - The Celestial. Honestly? It's perfectly good! I actually love seeing that it's been getting love in this thread over Hexblade. Unfortunately, for me personally, it's actually tied with the Fiend for being my least favorite Warlock Patron. I still might make one eventually, depending; Fiend feels a little too on-the-nose, but could work very well for a Tiefling who's actually descended from their Patron (or whose Patron is the rival of someone they're descended from...), whereas Celestial could make an interesting Tiefling Patron or could potentially be interesting if you really play up the "touched in not necessarily a good way by the goodness of the place their Patron is from, they're now almost addicted to it" element. Still, the fact that nearly every other Patron is far more interesting to me counts very strongly against it in this list.
Wizard - War Magic. Again, this is mostly on here for flavor reasons. Not even for the same reasons as Zealot Barbarian or Conquest Paladin, either... It's a well-put-together subclass that's powerful enough, mostly decently balanced, and even (I will disagree with some people on this) well done thematically. But if I'm playing a Wizard character, I'm not wanting to play a character that trained specifically for battle and war. Those two character concept circles don't really overlap for me. Making the character a Kobold or Orc or one of the Goblinoids makes it feel potentially more interesting, but even then, I'd probably gravitate towards one of the other Wizard subclasses over this one.

[Ogre Mage]

Divine Soul, Shadow Sorcerer, Gloom Stalker, Scout.

I think these classes are both mechanically effective and flavorful.

The optimizer in me also likes the hexblade. But while highly effective, that one is probably less flavorful than the others.

[Silkensword]

Gloom Stalkers are terrifying and I love it. My current build for one of the campaigns I play in is a Gloomstalker Bugbear who at level three maxes out at over 100 damage on a critical hit.