Obscure Classes (Please add Link)

[OGDojo]

Hey there im looking for Obscure classes that you have never seen anyone play except you.

Im looking for rare gems like "Knight" and "Shadowcaster" And "Archivist" and "Beguiler."
the classes im looking for are in non standard books, or special classes that fill a role differently than ones in the base books.

Please provide the

Name: and Description and book that the class comes from

i have all the books that i know of except the dragon magazines (Cuz i cant find a download for them or a site that has all of them)
so please go as obscure as you can :)

Then we shall all nerd out together

[The Viscount]

If your cutoff is the PHBII classes then there's a fair amount I'd consider more obscure. I'm assuming we're talking about base classes here. Since you mentioned Shadowcaster, I'm assuming you're also familiar with Binder from the same book, my absolute favorite class.

Artificer is in a bit of a nonstandard place in that it's in a campaign setting (Eberron Campaign Setting to be specific), but does see a fair amount of discussion in the board due to its unparalleled crafting ability.
The same book also has the Magewright tucked away in page 256 and isn't much discussed for good reason. It's an NPC class and it's basically arcane adept.

Psychic Rogue (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723b) is one of the rare web-only classes, and it's really quite fun. Trade away 3d6 sneak attack and 2 skill points for psionics, and fairly good psionics at that.

Dragon Compendium is moderately obscure and may have different levels of acceptance at different tables since it's basically just content from dragon magazine issues put together. Most of its classes I tend to summarize as "kind of like another base class, but worse."
-Battle Dancer is basically monk, but Cha focused instead of Wis, with full base attack and pounce (eventually) at the cost of 2 good saves and most other class features. It really loses out because of all the ACFs and PrCs monk has that it doesn't. It might see more discussion if Unarmed Swordsage wasn't already such a popular and effective way of playing monk without playing monk.

-Death Master is mostly wizard with a strong necromancy focus, rebuke undead, and (absolutely bafflingly) average base attack. Kind of like Dread Necromancer, but less restricted. Your biggest weakness are the list with no outside support or natural means of expansion. They do have the earliest access to animate dead in the game as a 2nd, a feature so unique I'm not convinced it's not a mistake.

-Jester is basically Bard but if you majored in comedy instead of music. Again, your list is much smaller than bard's because there's no support, and it's hard to PrC.

-Mountebank is a very odd bird indeed. The closest comparison is rogue, but a weird non-sneak attack, some supernatural abilities, and a strong fiendish connection. Winner of the worst capstone, it makes you an NPC, and then if your party rescues you then you have the half fiend template.

-Savant is like proto-Factotum, instead of being able to have many things temporarily, you have access to fewer things permanently. Worse in most ways than factotum, but it is a machine for qualifying for things.

-Sha'ir is the one class that sees some discussion for good reason. 9th level spells with the ability to pull from arcane and divine, but its power is offset by the complicated and clunky rules for spell retrieval. Used for dual caster shenanigans and not much else.

-Urban Druid is basically Druid with all the Urban ACFs and then a little more. Again, worse because of the restricted spell list and smaller wild shape list, but still casts 9s.

A quick mention of Marshal from Miniatures Handbook. It's a mundane class focused around boosting, which was done sort of better by Dragon Shaman (which I think of as a kind of successor class that still isn't great) and the White Raven school of Maneuvers. Still sees some use in optimization due to its ability to apply Charisma to many things.

Oriental Adventures is another sourcebook with a couple strange classes in it. Wu Jen and Shugenja have of course been updated, but the other two have not.
-Shaman is the Rokugan replacement for Cleric and Druid, and it's kind of like a mixture of them as a result. It's got a few unique spells and some fun domains if you want to do something different, but it wasn't properly updated in the 3.5 update, so needs some DM adjudication.

-Sohei is I suppose Rokugan's replacement for Paladin. I've never seen anyone use or even discuss it, and I can see why. It's not good at really anything. It's only average BA, but it has the casting progression of paladin. It has ki frenzy which is basically Whirling Frenzy ACF for rage, but Lawful. Distressingly you still can't cast in a ki frenzy, which is at odds with your casting.

[Maat Mons]

Why not just go through the complete list (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_alternative_Dungeons_%26_Dragons_classes#3 rd_and_3.5_editions)?

Anyway, I think my favorite obscure class is Mystic (Dragonlance Campaign Setting, p47). It's basically Favored Soul, except you get a domain and your casting is 100% Wisdom-based.

[OGDojo]

If your cutoff is the PHBII classes then there's a fair amount I'd consider more obscure. I'm assuming we're talking about base classes here. Since you mentioned Shadowcaster, I'm assuming you're also familiar with Binder from the same book, my absolute favorite class.

You mentioned Binder? i never played as one and i'm a little curious as to how its played/optimized, i would love for you to post more about that class as I'm sure not a lot of people have played them before.

Also Mystic is a great class! im glad it gets some love, my personal favorite classes are
Archivist: basically a cleric that learns spells like a wizard
Factotum: Jack of all trades, master of none
and Shadowcaster: A support character with tons of buffs and debuffs based on the shadow descriptor (Also gets one of the best teleport spells ever, "Flicker"

[DrMotives]

I actually just ran an NPC jester as a villain of the adventure. She was actually an earth whisper / jester / fiend of corruption, but I felt the pieces fit together nicely. I know an earth whisper isn't a fiend, but the text compares them to fiends, and I think if I converted them to Pathfinder they'd be fiends because elementals are a type of outsider, no? Anyway, fun class for an antagonist.

Anyway, for other obscure classes I've come across, there's a bunch of variants in Dragon outside of the Compendium. Recently, people have mentioned targeteer (a fighter variant for a ranged weapon specialist) a few times here, but there's also the harbinger (Bard variant that swaps all their bard music buffs for debuffs), and extra paladin variants to fill up all 9 alignments. The chaos paladin can turn constructs, which is pretty unique.

[OGDojo]

I actually just ran an NPC jester as a villain of the adventure. She was actually an earth whisper / jester / fiend of corruption, but I felt the pieces fit together nicely. I know an earth whisper isn't a fiend, but the text compares them to fiends, and I think if I converted them to Pathfinder they'd be fiends because elementals are a type of outsider, no? Anyway, fun class for an antagonist.

Anyway, for other obscure classes I've come across, there's a bunch of variants in Dragon outside of the Compendium. Recently, people have mentioned targeteer (a fighter variant for a ranged weapon specialist) a few times here, but there's also the harbinger (Bard variant that swaps all their bard music buffs for debuffs), and extra paladin variants to fill up all 9 alignments. The chaos paladin can turn constructs, which is pretty unique.

woah a paladin that can turn constructs? that is really unique, the dragon magazines are all pretty weird and unique classes, thanks for sharing! i may wanna try the harbinger just to see what i can do with it, i wonder if i can build a controller/debuff tank with it O.O

[Aniikinis]

I really like Lord of Tides from Sandstorm. It's flavorful and adds a bit of mechanics to dowsing which is extremely useful in a desert-centered campaign, though less so if all of the adventures take place in cities, towns, or near rivers/oases.

@OGDojo: You might wanna check out some of the handbooks by playgrounders and on the minmaxforums for help on optimization. But do be warned, knowing the optimal choices without knowing why they're optimal leads to copying not learning.

[DrMotives]

woah a paladin that can turn constructs? that is really unique, the dragon magazines are all pretty weird and unique classes, thanks for sharing! i may wanna try the harbinger just to see what i can do with it, i wonder if i can build a controller/debuff tank with it O.O

Harbinger seems fun, never used it but want to. It's in #337. It's better than the jester for a couple reasons, mainly that instead of being rebuilt and not supported by everything else, this explicitly a variant with only the bardic music effects changed. It's still called bardic music too, so feats & PrCs that add extra effects still work, and all the rules on masterwork & enchanted instruments apply. Things that replace specific bardic music uses, like dragonfire inspiration, don't work because the harbinger has already traded those away for instill fear, encourage failure, dishearten, dirge of binding, & drain prowess.

[OGDojo]

I really like Lord of Tides from Sandstorm. It's flavorful and adds a bit of mechanics to dowsing which is extremely useful in a desert-centered campaign, though less so if all of the adventures take place in cities, towns, or near rivers/oases.

I'm actually DMing a campaign in a world where all SALT WATER has been replaced by sand due to a god artifact that fell to earth. that might be a cool class for someone to pick up and play.


Harbinger seems fun, never used it but want to. It's in #337. It's better than the jester for a couple reasons, mainly that instead of being rebuilt and not supported by everything else, this explicitly a variant with only the bardic music effects changed. It's still called bardic music too, so feats & PrCs that add extra effects still work, and all the rules on masterwork & enchanted instruments apply. Things that replace specific bardic music uses, like dragonfire inspiration, don't work because the harbinger has already traded those away for instill fear, encourage failure, dishearten, dirge of binding, & drain prowess.

Huh now im thinking i wanna play a bard/harbinger gestalt. it would basically be the same class except you can use both sides of the spectrum

[AlexanderRM]

Why not just go through the complete list (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_alternative_Dungeons_%26_Dragons_classes#3 rd_and_3.5_editions)?

Anyway, I think my favorite obscure class is Mystic (Dragonlance Campaign Setting, p47). It's basically Favored Soul, except you get a domain and your casting is 100% Wisdom-based.

Huh- I was slightly embarassed to realize I'd at least heard of literally every single one of those (except Sohei prior to The Viscount's comment just before yours), but then I realized there are only 33 in the core list and 47 including psionic and NPC classes, which is quite a bit fewer than I'd expected. Plus several of them are classes I'd mainly heard about in JaronK's tier system, which I guess is a more complete list of base classes than I'd realized.

Reading forums like these always gives me the impression that there's an enormous sea of content in all the zillions of splatbooks that were printed for 3.5, but I guess the vast majority of them showed great restraint about proliferation of base classes and only went wild with adding a billion new PRCs, feats and sometimes spells.

[OGDojo]

Huh- I was slightly embarassed to realize I'd at least heard of literally every single one of those (except Sohei prior to The Viscount's comment just before yours), but then I realized there are only 33 in the core list and 47 including psionic and NPC classes, which is quite a bit fewer than I'd expected. Plus several of them are classes I'd mainly heard about in JaronK's tier system, which I guess is a more complete list of base classes than I'd realized.

Reading forums like these always gives me the impression that there's an enormous sea of content in all the zillions of splatbooks that were printed for 3.5, but I guess the vast majority of them showed great restraint about proliferation of base classes and only went wild with adding a billion new PRCs, feats and sometimes spells.

well 3.5 IMO is one of the most freeing character building systems ever devised which is why i like it, in the core books there are only, as you said 47ish. however there are tons of prestige classes, everything from Advent Spellcasters to some class that starts with a Z that i dont know of, i am a TikToker
@OGDojo or @ObscureGamingDojo for those who wanna watch

And i am doing a small series called "Underappreciated classes" where i go through classes that i haven't seen represented in my or any other campaign and post a little information about them and encourage people to try them out.

[ZamielVanWeber]

Huh now im thinking i wanna play a bard/harbinger gestalt. it would basically be the same class except you can use both sides of the spectrum

Technically illegal. Harbinger is a variant bard, similar to Pathfinder's archetypes. You would be gestalting bard and bard. Def would be a great time for jester/bard gestalt.

I love Dragon's evangelist. Sponanteous cleric except you add your ever growing list of domains to your spells known. Given how many dang spells you end up knowing the hiccup of spontaneous vs prepared feels less potent at higher levels.

Also let me chime in again for Death Master. You end up with a cleric's chassis, a unique but not terrible spell list, and the undead version of an animal companion. The fact that Death Master 20 has 3 separate and unique immunities to mind affecting amuses me to no end either.

[weckar]

I like the Master from War of the Lance. I think it's the first non-combat class that was done really right, and is very dip friendly.

[Thurbane]

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?454057-List-of-all-Prestige-Classes-from-online-articles


The Guide to free D&D (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=513.0) has most (all?) links to online materials (or at least, the old links before they were archived), including web-article only materials.

Hope that's useful.

If I find myself at a loose end, I'll see if I can dig up active links for the online only PrCs.

[edit]

===================

3.0:

Arcane Duelist (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20030224a)
Arch Psion (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20021122b)
Ballisteer (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20030426b)
Celestial Paragon (epic) (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ei/20030418a)
Cerebral Assassin (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20030207b) (not to be confused with this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyk85mXpbG4)).
Conventioneer (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cc/20010420a) (joke class)
Crystalsinger (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20011123b)
Dark Hunter (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fey/20030315a)
Devotee of Sardior, Defender of Sardior (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20030926a)
Diamond Warrior (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20020927b)
Guardian of the Road (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20030623a)
Kineticist (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20030328b)
Lady/Lord of the Dead (https://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/dx20021031x)
Life Eater (https://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=fr/pg20020911b)
Master Arcane Artisan (Epic) (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ei/20030314a)
Meditant (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20020623b)
Mindknight (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20020819a)
Percipient (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20031024a)
Planar Vanguard (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20031219a)
Psionic Dragon Comrade, Dragon Defender (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040327a)
Ruby Disciple (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20030124c)
Seradessian Covert (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040227a)
Truth Seeker (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20020623c)
Void Incarnate (epic) (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ei/20030418a)
Warlord of Utterdark (epic) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/editpost.php?p=20014038&do=editpost)


===================

3.5:

Avenger (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/prc/20070401a) (possible joke class)
Body Leech (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040925a)
Child of Khyber (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebds/20070416a)
Cold Iron Warrior (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fey/20040507a)
Constructor (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040625b)
Courtier (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fey/20030905a)
Crystal Master (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040625d)
Dwarven Chanter (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/prc/20061128a)
Eye of Xanathar (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/prc/20061107b)
Halfling Whistler (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/prc/20061121a)
Master Harper (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/frx/20030604a)
Psychic Assassin (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723d)
Psychic Theurge (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040925b)
Psychic Weapon Master (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040827d)
Sangehirn (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040625c)
Silverwood Arcanist (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031209a)
Silverwood Outrider (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031202a)
Soul Manifester (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20060217a)
Subverted Psion (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20051125a)
Swiftblade (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/prc/20070327)

[zfs]

Dragonlance also has the Noble, which is a borderline NPC class and is obscure enough that it was left out of the re-tiering project until someone remarked on it being forgotten. Dragonlance supplements also have the even more obscure Mariner.

Kingdoms of Kalamar is in a weird place as far as being "official" - its primary sourcebook has 6 additional classes: Basiran Dancer, Brigand, Gladiator, Infiltrator, Shaman (a different one from the OA Shaman) and Spellsinger.

[Thurbane]

The Shackled City hardcover has the same "official" status as Dragon Compendium, and has two PrCs: High Handcrafter and Pathwarden.

[The Viscount]

You mentioned Binder? i never played as one and i'm a little curious as to how its played/optimized, i would love for you to post more about that class as I'm sure not a lot of people have played them before.

My experience is limited to low level play in a super fun campaign we did in the playground. I started with a level dip in Changeling Rogue because I was already a Changeling, and it's one of the best racial substitution levels in existence, with a singular 10 skill points. The other party members were an evil Incarnate, an unarmed Swordsage, a Factotum, a Warlock, and a Duskblade. As you can see we comfortably fit in Tier 3-4, and could all adventure for long periods, the majority of the party's powers not limited per day and several members not even needing sleep.

As a binder my role wasn't particularly fixed beyond handling social skills with my Charisma focus and level of Changeling Rogue. Otherwise I was able to change day to day based on which Vestige I had. One lesson I learned was to not try to double up on roles the party has covered, because more often than not I wasn't any better and was usually worse at it than they were. Binder has a funny way of splitting a "role" into 2 or 3 different vestiges, and overlaps in features between them are rare. I picked a new vestige every day to explore my options and have fun. My MVP was Focalor for having several different powers (all of which I was able to use) and for having a rare binder power that does good damage without having a 5 round recharge. Given it's ToM it might be bad editing, but I'll take it. I didn't get high enough level to bind Buer, but I know that once I did she'd become one of my vestiges as default. She may not have offensive oomph, but bottomless healing for the entire party is hard to come by, and it especially does wonders at the level she comes online. I'd say Binder's biggest weakness, after the fact that it needs 2 or 3 vestiges to pull of certain roles well (which means waiting until you can bind multiple vestiges) is the fact that lacks a good means of flight. You can get swift flight for 1 round with Geryon, but you have to wait in between and end on solid ground so it's really just jumping hella high. Flight with Marchosias's gaseous form is slow and means losing all your other powers. You'll need to find good flight elsewhere.

I'll preface this by saying that others have done more work to make comprehensive guides, so this is just my pointers on the big things. Because of how much everything can change, I don't think there's much optimizing that binder really needs, since any "bad" choice you make only lasts the day, or less if you take expel vestige. The one feat any binder with any sense takes is Improved Binding to get access to vestiges 2 levels early. Everyone will tell you, and they're absolutely right. It's a big jump in power and means more options. The next feat I can only strongly recommend and not state as law, and that's Ignore Special Requirement. You can probably wait to spend your bonus feat on it. It will save you investing in a few skill points, but the important ability is to bind vestiges who otherwise refuse to work with each other (looking at you Chupoclops) or that have strict enough requirements that you might not be able to bind them otherwise (looking at you Desharis). Just think about when it will come on line to see if it means you can save on investing in the skills that some vestiges require. There is a bit of overlap in the skills that are required if you do end up investing, so plan ahead. I'm of the opinion that Binder 20 is a perfectly good plan. Some people like Knight of the Sacred Seal for if there's 1 vestige you know you're going to bind every day (I personally am not huge on it because I like different vestiges every day). Anima Mage is indeed super strong, but it means theurging.

An aside on Vestiges not found in ToM, because there are a surprising number, and any vestige means a lot to Binder. Warning, I'm very opinionated on these. Some people will likely disagree.
Ashardalon in Dragon Magic doesn't wow me. You can do pretty much everything he does with a combination of pact bonuses and other vestiges. He doesn't offer anything unique, and for an 8 that means he's not enough.

Vanus (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dd/20060407a) is good, though not great, and his granting freedom of movement is a unique ability that makes him worth remembering. He fits in just fine with the rest of the vestiges.

Zceryll (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/frcc/20070718) is the best and most powerful vestige. Having access to her essentially moves Binder from T3 to T2 (the reason being that endless summoning means access to all the SLAs of all the outsiders you can summon, which is a lot) and she's only a 6th. This is going to attract some hate, but I don't like Zceryll. She's more powerful than any of the 8ths, and not picking her is willfully choosing to be weaker. It's been better worded by others, but any option that everybody picks over others is a bad option that indicates imbalance.

The Psionic Vestiges (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070119a): There's three of them. I'm not convinced the author was fully comfortable with writing vestiges.
Arete is pretty weak. You'll have a hard time using him.
The Triad gives proficiency with all simple martial and exotic weapons. They do a few other things nobody cares about, but this will be the reason you bind them, if you ever do
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Abysm is abysmal. All he gives you is low level psionic powers you have to pay for with the pittance of pp he gives you. For reference, a divine mind has more power points at level 12. Earlier, if they have anything higher than a 10 Wis (which they will). These 21 points are somehow supposed to last you all day. It's insulting.

Astaroth and Desharis (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070307a) are two more like Vanus. Both good additions with unique powers, though I admit Astaroth's crafting might need some discussion with your DM.

[Khedrac]

There are the Lightbringer X class variants from Expedition to Castle Ravenloft not mentioned in the Wikipedia "complete list".

[OGDojo]

There are the Lightbringer X class variants from Expedition to Castle Ravenloft not mentioned in the Wikipedia "complete list".

i dont trust the wiki, everyone forgets something, Wizards has an actual complete list of classes from A-Z if i wanted a list, i want YOUR favorite obscure classes

[Maat Mons]

The lightbringer stuff is all alternative class features. None of them are variant classes.

[Bphill561]

Well I guess I have two, one base class and one PrC.

For a base class, I really like the Arcane Disciple cleric variant from Dragon Magzine #311. You get the cleric spell list sans domain access and turn undead in exchange for adding a bard, sorcerer, or wizard spell to your list at every level. The class also gets 4 skills points a level, has a decent skill list (UMD), and bonus feats like a wizard. It feels like an archivist lite variant and could be useful in an campaign where you will get too much push back from the DM on finding rare scrolls (and cannot ancestral relic your way around that).

For a PrC I am again going to Dragon magazine. In Dragon #280 there is a class called the Eldritch Master. It is a spell casting PrC that does not progress spell casting....

You get to add its level to all your arcane spell casting classes for determining level based effects of spells (duration, range, etc.)

It grants a bonus metamagic feat at 3, 6, and 9.

At 3, 6, and 9 it also grants the ability to cast a spell one level higher than you can currently cast in a spell casting class and grants a spell known.

At 4 and 8 it also lets you add another spell casting classes spell list to your current list of spells you can learn.

Also a boat load of bonus spells known from levels 1-5.

A very weird class. My favorite simplified build with it is Bard 4/Cleric 1/ Eldritch Master 5/Sublime Chord 10. Cast Bard, Sorcerer, and cleric spells all from your sublime chord slots. Even stranger you can take extra spell slot for sublime chord to pick up 1-3rd level spells, since you have spells at that level on your spell list and Eldrich master grants extra spells known at those levels. Particularly fun if you can get away with Embrace/shun feat shuffle tricks to trade out all your cleric armor for those spell slots. It is just wrong in gestalt when mixed with Dread necromancer or beguiler (high level ethergaunt ;-) ) depending on how you interrupt spells known on those classes.

Both of these classes really blur the lines on class unique spell lists, although maybe not as straight forward as going the archivist route.

[Thurbane]

One I almost never see mentioned (due to a combination of source, and not being that great): Moon Guardian from the Complete Divine Web Enhancement (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20040522a).

In fact, almost none of the PrCs from that document rate a mention, other than the infamous Dweomerkeeper.