What is your Favorite?

[Barely Legend]

Hey All! In a fit of boredom I have been browsing thru some old dnd/Pathfinder books (and some old Dungeon and Dragon issues)and such that I have archived, seeing what might light the spark of inspiration in me and it got me thinking about a couple of things; 1 as a DM, and as a player, you will enjoy certain monsters, races, spells and mechanics for completely different reasons depending on what role you are in. Alot of this usually has to do with the cheese you can get away with from either side of the table, BUT! There may perhaps be another reason, one that is way less based on math and more on exploring the possibilities, or perhaps just a strange gravitation towards that particular beastie that you cannot put your finger on.
For example, I like Hags for some reason, I really enjoy the concept of some sort of insideous, inhuman, species of insideous monsters that look "mostly" like creepy old women with sharp fangs and claws. There is alot of varying lore surrounding them, ranging from somewhat interesting to pretty shallow. One source says that some types of Hags just appear and are never human to begin with, while another source theorizes that any woman approaching middle age runs the chance of just *pop* turning into a hag (this is my favorite lore, concerning hags. The possibilities!). I just find the witchy old wemon fun and inspiring and when Pathfinder introduced changelings, the witch class, ect. I was just tickeled and had some real fun mixing up some witches!

So, I was curious, what are some of your favorite monsters, races, or spells, that are just fun for you as either a player or a DM, not because of mechanics, but lore or interpretation?

[flappeercraft]

Monks are taht for me, I love the fluff but they are just sooo bad on 3.5 without optimizing a lot and even then someone who optimizes half as hard has a better character for combat.

[Falontani]

Necromancers.... Necromancy... with a hand in Conjuration.....

/sigh I'm a terrible person aren't I?

[Darrin]

Mimics. It started as a joke, a tongue-in-cheek reference to a KODT strip (Lair of the Gazebo, of course), but turned into a recurring NPC named "Davenport". It got to be so common that whenever I plopped down a map of a room with any kind of furniture, the PCs would just assume Davenport was somewhere in the room and would pitch in to help out if things started to get ugly.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Necromancers.... Necromancy... with a hand in Conjuration.....

/sigh I'm a terrible person aren't I?

Nah. A fascination with the forbidden is really common.

For reasons that elude me, I'm fascinated by animism so all the stuff related to spirits and the celestial bureaucracy from OA tickles my noggin.

In a somewhat related vein, the mechanics and fluff for incarnum really get my noodle ticking too.

Probably why I'm currently playing a shaman/ incarnate/ sapphire hierarch. :smalltongue:

[Barely Legend]

Necromancers.... Necromancy... with a hand in Conjuration.....

/sigh I'm a terrible person aren't I?

No I am right there with you! If it's necromancy or demonic that is the only spell casting worth doing. It's another reason why I love Cheliax in Pathfinder, (kingdom enforced religion is basically a Satanist Catholic proxy).

[Barely Legend]

Necromancers.... Necromancy... with a hand in Conjuration.....

/sigh I'm a terrible person aren't I?


Mimics. It started as a joke, a tongue-in-cheek reference to a KODT strip (Lair of the Gazebo, of course), but turned into a recurring NPC named "Davenport". It got to be so common that whenever I plopped down a map of a room with any kind of furniture, the PCs would just assume Davenport was somewhere in the room and would pitch in to help out if things started to get ugly.

LOL awesome.

[Barely Legend]

Nah. A fascination with the forbidden is really common.

For reasons that elude me, I'm fascinated by animism so all the stuff related to spirits and the celestial bureaucracy from OA tickles my noggin.

In a somewhat related vein, the mechanics and fluff for incarnum really get my noodle ticking too.

Probably why I'm currently playing a shaman/ incarnate/ sapphire hierarch. :smalltongue:

Oh ya soulmelds are pretty cool, it's been awhile since I looked at incarnum. So do you name all your spirits or summons? I like too do that, like every celestiel eagle I summon is actually a specific eagle spirit I'm invoking. It's fun to give it a little flaver of personality too. An early summon nature's Ally huge spider, became rather infamous in a group I was in for just wanting to be friends:
NITHARN THE MANY EYES OF SHADOW (whilst trying to aid a group of soldiers in holding a fort gate closed)
"PLEASE DO NOT FLEE FRIEND-HUMANS! I THE MIGHTY EYES OF SHADOW HAVE COME TO SAVE YOU!"
Soldiers see a giant spider behind them unexpectedly and so run away from the gate screaming, thus letting enemies in.
NITHRAN THE MANY EYES OF SHADOW "WHERE ARE YOU GOING FRIEND-HUMANS?!"
good times...

[Kelb_Panthera]

Oh ya soulmelds are pretty cool, it's been awhile since I looked at incarnum. So do you name all your spirits or summons? I like too do that, like every celestiel eagle I summon is actually a specific eagle spirit I'm invoking. It's fun to give it a little flaver of personality too. An early summon nature's Ally huge spider, became rather infamous in a group I was in for just wanting to be friends:
NITHARN THE MANY EYES OF SHADOW (whilst trying to aid a group of soldiers in holding a fort gate closed)
"PLEASE DO NOT FLEE FRIEND-HUMANS! I THE MIGHTY EYES OF SHADOW HAVE COME TO SAVE YOU!"
Soldiers see a giant spider behind them unexpectedly and so run away from the gate screaming, thus letting enemies in.
NITHRAN THE MANY EYES OF SHADOW "WHERE ARE YOU GOING FRIEND-HUMANS?!"
good times...

Nah. I don't keep speak with animals prepared so I couldn't chat with 'em anyway. Two more levels and I get lesser spirit ally. Bet I'll remember their names. :smallwink:

I do sometimes wonder if I'd have been better off with totemist but I'd be having a heck of a time with essentia limits without the expanded capacity feature from incarnate.

[Barely Legend]

My favorite class fluff wise in Pathfinder is the witch, Mechanics wise however it is the WEAKEST class unfortunately.

[skunk3]

As far as base classes in 3.5 go my favorite is the Warlock because:

A) you can have pretty crappy stats and still be helpful in a party

B) there's so many ways to play them with the various invocations and feats available... you can be a sniper at extreme range, clawlock in the front, a scout, a party face, an archer who does eldritch blast damage on top of his bow + arrow damage, battlefield controller, debuffer, mind freak... whatever you want to do, really.

C) they can craft basically anything

D) little micromanagement involved as your SLA's are all infinite use

E) the flavor of warlocks is just plain interesting

F) Weapons are rarely important for Warlocks, so you save a lot of money than can be spent on other stuff, including crafting your own items

G) UMD is a class skill, and you can even take 10 on UMD checks even when threatened


As far as casters go, I like stuff away from the typical blastery crap, and away from the mega optimized specialists. I think that shadow magic is very interesting and want to play some sort of a shadow caster one of these days.

As far as creatures go, I like dragons. I used to have the dragonomicon (I think that was the book?) that had gem dragons in it. IIRC the amethyst dragon was my favorite.

As far as races go, I am all about Whisper Gnomes and Svirfneblin.

[GrayDeath]

My favorite class fluff wise in Pathfinder is the witch, Mechanics wise however it is the WEAKEST class unfortunately.

Ehm... its a sligtly worse Wizard. How is that THE WEAKEST Class in PF?


Fo me its probably one of the following three:

Warlock
Truenamer
Incarnate

[Quertus]

Favorite for fluff? Dinosaurs. Because, supposedly extinct, they make a resurgence in our post-apocalyptic D&D future, with absolutely no explanation, as though none is needed for such a fantastic return.

Favorite as a PC? Undead minions. Zombie Dragons that fall out of the sky whenever they breath, or, before those were published, Dragon Skeletons with tarps spread out over their wing bones by mad Necromancers attempting to take to the sky in style. Plus all the idiotic armies of uncontrolled fodder following their last order oh so hilariously inconveniently. Great fun whether they're my minions, or someone else's.

Favorite as a GM? Things borrowed from other sources. Whether Legos are artifact-level caltrops, or the building blocks of Conundrum Creatures; whether Transformers are giant robots golems or Warforged Druids; whether R2-D2 is an animated trash can, or a whistling gnomish Artificer; whenever giant chocolate bunnies attack, that's where you'll find my imagination most engaged.

Actual best? Anything Everything 2e.


EDIT: especially the 2e and earlier Wizard - the sage searching through the ruins of lost civilizations for scraps of arcane knowledge.

[Barely Legend]

As far as base classes in 3.5 go my favorite is the Warlock because:

A) you can have pretty crappy stats and still be helpful in a party

B) there's so many ways to play them with the various invocations and feats available... you can be a sniper at extreme range, clawlock in the front, a scout, a party face, an archer who does eldritch blast damage on top of his bow + arrow damage, battlefield controller, debuffer, mind freak... whatever you want to do, really.

C) they can craft basically anything

D) little micromanagement involved as your SLA's are all infinite use

E) the flavor of warlocks is just plain interesting

F) Weapons are rarely important for Warlocks, so you save a lot of money than can be spent on other stuff, including crafting your own items

G) UMD is a class skill, and you can even take 10 on UMD checks even when threatened


As far as casters go, I like stuff away from the typical blastery crap, and away from the mega optimized specialists. I think that shadow magic is very interesting and want to play some sort of a shadow caster one of these days.

As far as creatures go, I like dragons. I used to have the dragonomicon (I think that was the book?) that had gem dragons in it. IIRC the amethyst dragon was my favorite.

As far as races go, I am all about Whisper Gnomes and Svirfneblin.

Shadow magic is fun and pretty badass! I remember that somehow thru a series of race, feats and classes in 3.5 there was away to cast it at %120 real, wich in concept as well as practice is pretty freaking hilarious.

Dragons are fun too! I always liked Tiamets lore and my fav dragon was the Chaos dragon from dragonomicon, i think.

I thought the gem dragons were psionic? Amethyst was telekenises right?

You know it has been so long since i looked at warlock, i didnt realize that they were that versital!

[Barely Legend]

Favorite for fluff? Dinosaurs. Because, supposedly extinct, they make a resurgence in our post-apocalyptic D&D future, with absolutely no explanation, as though none is needed for such a fantastic return.

Favorite as a PC? Undead minions. Zombie Dragons that fall out of the sky whenever they breath, or, before those were published, Dragon Skeletons with tarps spread out over their wing bones by mad Necromancers attempting to take to the sky in style. Plus all the idiotic armies of uncontrolled fodder following their last order oh so hilariously inconveniently. Great fun whether they're my minions, or someone else's.

Favorite as a GM? Things borrowed from other sources. Whether Legos are artifact-level caltrops, or the building blocks of Conundrum Creatures; whether Transformers are giant robots golems or Warforged Druids; whether R2-D2 is an animated trash can, or a whistling gnomish Artificer; whenever giant chocolate bunnies attack, that's where you'll find my imagination most engaged.

Actual best? Anything Everything 2e.


EDIT: especially the 2e and earlier Wizard - the sage searching through the ruins of lost civilizations for scraps of arcane knowledge.

DINOSAURS VERY YES! Also UNDEAD DINOSAURS! I like your thinking.

LEGO CALTROPS!? Thats Bovd worthy. 😥

[Barely Legend]

Ehm... its a sligtly worse Wizard. How is that THE WEAKEST Class in PF?


Fo me its probably one of the following three:

Warlock
Truenamer
Incarnate

My viewpoint is from the mechanics perspective only, RP wise it is the most fun for me.

1. Yes, weaker then wizard with only like 3 maybe 4 archtypes that bring it up to equal or at the very least, as survivable in combat as wizard. A wizard does not lose all thier spellcasting ability if thier familiar is slain (or awakened).(admittedly though i do enjoy this piece of fluff mechanic, with the exception of some party member shennanegins i have expieranced.)

2. Just taking a sec and playing a base witch without archtypes, your range of effective hexes (outside of mostly rp fluff) in combat is extremely limited.

3. For some reason witches just seem to snap in two when punched in tbe face, and they do die faster then wizard.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Shadow magic is fun and pretty badass! I remember that somehow thru a series of race, feats and classes in 3.5 there was away to cast it at %120 real, wich in concept as well as practice is pretty freaking hilarious.

Could be wrong, pretty sure he was talking about Tome of Magic's shadowcaster. It's pretty different.


Dragons are fun too! I always liked Tiamets lore and my fav dragon was the Chaos dragon from dragonomicon, i think.

There's some fun stuff in the Draconomicon. The gems weren't amongst them though. They're in monster manual 2.


I thought the gem dragons were psionic? Amethyst was telekenises right?

They are. Definitely better when paired with the expanded psionics handbook.


You know it has been so long since i looked at warlock, i didnt realize that they were that versital!

The warlock class has a fair array of abilities available to it. No individual warlock does though; a dozen over 20 levels. It's a fun class if you like to keep things castery but much simpler than with other casters.

[GrayDeath]

My viewpoint is from the mechanics perspective only, RP wise it is the most fun for me.


Again, slightly worse than the potentially most powerful class is the same as the weakest for you?

Does not compute....



1. Yes, weaker then wizard with only like 3 maybe 4 archtypes that bring it up to equal or at the very least, as survivable in combat as wizard. A wizard does not lose all thier spellcasting ability if thier familiar is slain (or awakened).(admittedly though i do enjoy this piece of fluff mechanic, with the exception of some party member shennanegins i have expieranced.)


True, a Witch whose familiar is slain is pretty useless.
As useless as a Wizard whose spellbook gets destroyed, indeed.
One could almost think they both are prepared arcane Casters, hm? ^^




2. Just taking a sec and playing a base witch without archtypes, your range of effective hexes (outside of mostly rp fluff) in combat is extremely limited.


You mean your range of additional magic, that noone else gets, is limited? Shocking! :smalltongue:



3. For some reason witches just seem to snap in two when punched in tbe face, and they do die faster then wizard.

Personal experience. They have the same HP and access to most if not all of the same defensive magic.


To sum it up: Your definition needs a little work if you see the Witch as weak in any sense of the word but a direct comparison to the King of T1 (even in pathfinder). There are dozens of weaker classes in PF without actually looking for them hard..


Back to the actual topic: I remembered another thing. Warforged.
Love the fluff, like almost all the mechanics, and some class Combinations are hilarious yet still fluffy. ;)

[SirNibbles]

Monks are taht for me, I love the fluff but they are just sooo bad on 3.5 without optimizing a lot and even then someone who optimizes half as hard has a better character for combat.

I love and hate monks so much that I almost always end up playing a monk.

If I play a Sorcerer, it's a Monk Sorcerer.
If I play a Scout, it's a Monk Scout.

[Barely Legend]

I love and hate monks so much that I almost always end up playing a monk.

If I play a Sorcerer, it's a Monk Sorcerer.
If I play a Scout, it's a Monk Scout.

Lol now I'm imagining a monk/sorc who uses his punches as "touch attacks"!
MONK: "Flurry of SLEEP!"

[Barely Legend]

Again, slightly worse than the potentially most powerful class is the same as the weakest for you?

Does not compute....



True, a Witch whose familiar is slain is pretty useless.
As useless as a Wizard whose spellbook gets destroyed, indeed.
One could almost think they both are prepared arcane Casters, hm? ^^

Toche' however, I have never met a DM who actively tries to destroy a spell book in nearly every combat or a player who actively tries to destroy a spell book because they don't like how it "looks".


You mean your range of additional magic, that noone else gets, is limited? Shocking! :smalltongue:

Personal experience. They have the same HP and access to most if not all of the same defensive magic.


To sum it up: Your definition needs a little work if you see the Witch as weak in any sense of the word but a direct comparison to the King of T1 (even in pathfinder). There are dozens of weaker classes in PF without actually looking for them hard..

Name one then, I am geniuenly curious (I am! this comment is not meant to be combative)
Look, I love witch's, I really do. It has just been my expierance, mostly as a player not as a DM, that they seem to be softer, or fall behind the rest of the party unless you build them in a few very specific ways. I am more a rper at heart then a power gamer and I would just like to be able to keep some form of pace with the rest of the party even if I am building around a theme. I do admit that my opinion may be colored a bit by my expierance with the early witch (before it was really expanded upon) and the twinky party I was with at the time.

Back to the actual topic: I remembered another thing. Warforged.
Love the fluff, like almost all the mechanics, and some class Combinations are hilarious yet still fluffy. ;)

Oh yes I always enjoyed the warforged as well. Though I have seen people do some pretty strange templating on them as well... It can get wierd real fast. 😂

[Rynjin]

As a a player, Monk is my favorite concept. Not class, but I like any class that can do the whole kung fu schtick and do it well, be it anything from Warpriest to Mystic.

As a GM, I have a bit of a fascination with Inevitables, though rarely use them. My most commonly used monsters tend to be some variant of undead because there's just an undead for every purpose. Revenants are really cool.

Favorite spells: anything that gives me new senses or forms. Stuff like Countless Eyes, Bloodhound, and Monstrous Physique.

For races, I really like Skinwalkers and Half-Orcs.

[Thurbane]

In no particular order:

Spell: Great Thunderclap (SC)
Race: Dwarf
Monster: Equiceph (MH)
Class: Binder (ToM)
Magic Item: Rod of Lordly Might

[Vrakk]

I've always loved Orcs as monsters. Poor guys have hardly any hit points and it's possible to kills hordes of them easily. But let one crit on you and even at 4th level they can drop you. The looks around the table when the DM rolls a 20 with and orc - they go instantly from wow this is easy to Oh Crap.

[Barely Legend]

As a a player, Monk is my favorite concept. Not class, but I like any class that can do the whole kung fu schtick and do it well, be it anything from Warpriest to Mystic.

As a GM, I have a bit of a fascination with Inevitables, though rarely use them. My most commonly used monsters tend to be some variant of undead because there's just an undead for every purpose. Revenants are really cool.

Favorite spells: anything that gives me new senses or forms. Stuff like Countless Eyes, Bloodhound, and Monstrous Physique.

For races, I really like Skinwalkers and Half-Orcs.

oooh like skinwalkers as well.
The inevitable are kinda neat, I always liked the centaur one? Don't remember what it was called, or that much of thier schtick.

[Barely Legend]

In no particular order:

Spell: Great Thunderclap (SC)
Race: Dwarf
Monster: Equiceph (MH)
Class: Binder (ToM)
Magic Item: Rod of Lordly Might

Ok so today I learned what an equiceph is! How cool!

[Kelb_Panthera]

Lol now I'm imagining a monk/sorc who uses his punches as "touch attacks"!
MONK: "Flurry of SLEEP!"

That's actually perfectly legal. You can always replace a touch attack with an unarmed strike if you're willing to take the higher chance of missing.

Enlightened Fist does it better if you wanna go that way though.

[Barely Legend]

That's actually perfectly legal. You can always replace a touch attack with an unarmed strike if you're willing to take the higher chance of missing.

Enlightened Fist does it better if you wanna go that way though.

Wow that never came up in any of my games, I had no idea! This changes everything!😈

[GrayDeath]

Name one of them...

I`ll do better:

Core Classes

Barbarian
Bard
Fighter
Monk
Paladin
Ranger
Rogue
Sorcerer

Advanced:

Alchemist
Cavalier
Inquisitor
Oracle

Hybrids:

Bloodrager
BrawlerHunter
Investigator
Shaman
Skald
Slayer
Swashbuckler
Warpriest


And these are only the most easily found official classes from paizo themselves. I left out borderline cases or classes that are around the same power level.
But you should see why I tend to look at you askance when you say the Witch is WEAK. ^^

Now sying that they do worse in your specific groups is totally legit, Clerics tend to do worse in my groups (as the one player most likely to pay one .... plays them rather weird^^).

[Sto]

This took some thinking.

I love the Binder. The concept behind them, where you share your soul with these beings that are beyond death for a plethora of reasons.

When it comes to monsters my favorites are Kobolds and Goblins. I love canon fodder. I like that they will always be good starting enemies, but when put into player's hands can be some of the most dangerous beings in existence.