What's Your Favourite Class?

[Bartmanhomer]

My favourite class is wizard because it so darn powerful. What's your favourite class? :smile:

[Kelb_Panthera]

Oof. That's just about a question, man.

Gun to my head, I'd have to say either paladin or fighter.

For paladin, I love the flavor of it. The gods-blessed knight errant in shining armor thing has great appeal and the class' mechanics are solid. Gonna go prestige for near certain though. RKV, Fist of Raziel, Greyguard, et al change the flavor and mechanics in entertaining ways while still keeping the core of the class intact. If I'm in the right sort of mood though, the fallen paladin blackguard is entertaining in its own sort of way.

On the other hand, I love the sheer variety of things you can do with a fighter. It's one of the only classes I give any serious consideration to actually single-classing all the way through, though I'll usually still dip here and there for things unless I've decided on a weapon supremacy build.

That said, I -like- most of the warrior classes for one major element or other; the monk's unarmed strike is a unique weapon you can do some crazy stuff with, the soulknife has a certain mystique and leads to soulbow, barbarian's rage can be built on into a thing of near deific strength, etc and so on.

I like casters too but they just don't have the same feel. They're still great but just not as much fun as trying to make something whacky that whacks things.

Skirmishers are tough for me. I can do a passable job with the esoteric ones like incarnate and warlock but a rogue or a scout is a rough ride for me.

[Afghanistan]

Archivist. I like the idea of playing a class with the capability of, at 5th level, being able to rebuild civilization from scratch. The restrictive spell list leaves a lot of room for adventuring.

I could imagine an entire questline for an Archivist being just finding a scroll of Plant Growth to increase food yield to trigger a green revolution.

[Railak]

Cleric, it was the first class I ever played as. The class also does my favorite role as well, better than most other classes, heal tank.

[SangoProduction]

Incanter, from Spheres of Power, use of Spheres of Power and for its versatility, without the overbearing (or barren, in some cases) spell lists of core casters.

[Reathin]

My absolute favorite class would likely be Wizard. Not only does it mechanically provide me with a role (or roles) to which I enjoy playing, the general flavor of it, the "Magic Scientist", synches up so nicely. All the trappings of it, the books, staves, robes and scroll, and the idea of knowledge being power in a particularly direct (and indirect! All those Int points lead to good skill potential) fashion? Yeah, love me some wizards. And there are a ton of interesting prestige classes to help narrow down one's focus without sacrificing casting power.

Outside of Wizards, I'm also fond of Warlocks in certain forms (Eldritch Pacts has a lot of flavor potential and many of the old 3.5 invocations were amazing due to being At Will. And 5th edition gave them a tone of bonus flavor by giving much more consideration to the types of Pacts one can be a part of).

Outside of Casters in general, I'm also very fond of Monks. I know there are many (perfectly legitimate) gripes about their overall power, but "pseudo-mystic power from martial arts" really jives for me in similar fashion to Wizards. Power from understanding, acceptance and awareness. Their ki-abilities help make them feel "more" than purely physical characters (in many games, I have an almost pathological inability to play anything without SOME sort of supernatural or transhuman potential, if it's available. Non-sirens from borderlands, non-mages in Dragon Age, that sort of thing...Every time I try, I get pulled back to the magic).

DnD doesn't really have a natural archetype for it, but the other non-magic fighting type character that I love is the Final Fantasy Dragoon. Hyper jumps and spear attacks are great! Although I DO actually have a prototypical Warblade build that seems to do a decent job of it, even excel thanks to a magic item or two.

[Thurbane]

Beguiler is up there for me. I like the mix of casting and skill-monkeying. I also like not having to track spells know or spells in a book; and the Int-based casting is just icing on the cake.

...now all I need to do is find a DM willing to let me play one. Most of the DMs in my group besides me usually run core-only games. :smalleek:

[Maat Mons]

I'm going to have to give it to Psion. It works the way that I think a caster should work. ... Well sort of like the way a caster should work. ... A lot closer than Vancian casting, anyway.

[pabelfly]

I actually like Truenamer. I like high INT characters, and characters that can be skillmonkeys and the party knowledge bank. Its also a class i can do some serious minmaxing on without worrying about overshadowing the rest of the party while still getting casting abilities for a variety of options in and out of combat.

[Falontani]

That is ridiculously hard.

Death Master, cleric, and Warlock have the same problem of requiring a source for their power, one that can be upset.

Wizard isn't focused enough for me. Sure you can really set a focus, but doing that is knowing you can't meet your full potential with your class.

Sorcerer is too limited to do what I want to.

Artificer is plenty focused, but still has the problem of sky's the limit.

So I guess my top pick. It's gotta be... Dread Necromancer. The only class that can be an effective necromancer without having your power loaned to you or having so much potential as to be limited by choosing to specialize in necromancy.

A class that can minionmance as well the best, while not being restricted to it.

[soullos]

I'm a big fan of gishes so I immediately gravitated to the Duskblade. Psychic Warrior is also a close second being a psionic gish if you will.

Honorable mention: the Binder. Extremely versatile and the roleplaying potential is through the roof. :D

[weckar]

Gotta be the Warlock. At least a couple levels make it into just about every build I do. They always have an answer to a situation (even though it is rarely the ideal answer), without being--in my opinion--as pigeonholed as bards are.

[ZamielVanWeber]

I prefer gishes and theurges, but I prefer to build my own most of the time, so cleric, duskblade, the martial adepts, binder, shadowcaster. Quite a few options for the list goes on. Easier to think of classes I really don't like.

[Kurald Galain]

Magus, in case that wasn't obvious.

[Aniikinis]

This is hard for me, but not terribly so. I love the bard class for what it is, what it does, and it's what I'd aspire to be in a dnd world. It's also what I'm compared to most often by friends, so there's that too. But Warlock and dread necromancer have some amazing ideas behind them and with the right choices or character motives can completely screw things up for enemies (and the party but that doesn't count).

[nedz]

I tend to build concept characters so Class is of a secondary importance. Also I rarely stick to one class in a build. I like skill based characters, but not all games support these well, also, casters.

[Quentinas]

My first character was a duskblade and i very like that class, recently i found that i like the shadowcaster because it is not so powerful to overshadow the other and it is interesting to play as class, other than that is a challenge
I like even the truenamer (but never played one for now) basically for the same motivation because i know if i would play a wizard or a cleric i would put too much cheese and the other would not have fun .

[Komatik]

Druid, Beguiler. As a mechanical thing, add Death Master to the list. Thematic casters are my jam.

[zfs]

Mechanically? Druid. When I'm powerful enough, I can be anyone and anything. I control major weather events that people used to ascribe to the Gods themselves. Think you can hide something from me? My friends are the birds and mice, your warhorses and your hunting dogs. I have ears and eyes everywhere.

Pure Flavor? Binder. I willingly become a vessel to things that should not exist in any way yet somehow do - denizens of a place that is not a place. To me that makes them cooler than other classes that channel outside beings, because vestiges are these impossible liminal things.

[stack]

Well, no limits on choices, so prodigy (spheres of power/might). You can do anything with it.

I may be biased, slightly.:smalltongue:

[Efrate]

Binder in 3.5. Tons of flavor and one of the few classes that you can stay 20 levels in and keep getting rewarded.

For pathfinder, harbinger and vizier. The explicit way the harbinger ignores all immunities so it can do thing that scares undead or burn a red dragon to death with normal fire with no hoops or weird rules or anything. It has everything it needs in it's class with no need for anything outside to be fully functional at all levels of play.

Vizier because it's the closest you can get to be Ang from avatar the last airbender, and it adapts to whatever it needs as needed which is fine. It's also another class you want 20 levels in and it gets rewarded.

I like the design of a 1 to 20 class that does it's job well and keeps rewarding you for staying. Where prc and multiclassing hurt more than help in almost all situations.

[FaerieGodfather]

The very first AD&D character I ever played was an Elven Monk. (Rules? What rules?) He was the first and last single-class character I will ever play in any version of D&D.

Favorite classes are Soulknife, Monk, Bard, Druid, Witch.

[HeraldOfExius]

Probably the Vigilante in Pathfinder. It has plenty of options to tinker with from a mechanical perspective, and it's designed to have a significant RP element as well.

[Mike Miller]

I don't have a favorite class (ever-DM) but I am partial to arcane casters.

[Vaern]

I generally like any charisma based class, usually bards but sometimes sorcerer, as proper application of social skills like diplomacy allows me to completely derail and hijack campaigns.

[Kesnit]

Psion and Swordsage.

I like how you can focus on different things based on the powers / maneuvers you pick. (Psion more than SS, but both have flexibility.)

[Eldonauran]

My favorite class? Hmm...

I have a lot of classes that I really like. Mostly because I like the idea of picking abilities from different areas and making them work for me on a single chassis. To that end, I love the archetypes and variant abilities that Pathfinder 1E allows.

Keeping all that in mind, I choose..... the Skald. Pretty much the most self-sufficient class from start to finish.

[Celestia]

Warlock. All the coolness and charm of a wizard with none of the annoying bookkeeping. Plus, I'm an edgy loser b*tch, so I like the fluff, too.

[Hunter Noventa]

My absolute favorites to play have been Warlock, PF Magus and Spheres of Might Technician.

Warlocks are just plain fun and easy.

The Magus rocks your socks off.

The Technician might be fiddly, but being able to build an airship and attack drones and having a railgun was way too much fun.

I really want to try a lot of the other Sphere classes like Scholar, Blacksmith, Armorist, Hedgewitch...

[Quertus]

Wizard. The idea of the magical scholar, searching through the ruins of past civilizations for scraps of Arcane knowledge, really appeals to me. That, and being able to develop your own custom solutions, and name them after yourself, watch your legacy get passed on? Good times.

However, since this is a 3e thread, and the 3e Wizard really isn't… that… any more, I suppose I'll go with… Illithid Savant. One of my all-time favorite characters was a psychic vampire (in a homebrew system) who could simply grab memories and skills from others. He even gained spell casting at one point! I was functionally playing an Illithid Savant about a decade before they were published. So, when I saw the class, I immediately felt a connection.

[Karl Aegis]

I like the Scout. They lend themselves nicely to a spring attack/ leap attack build. Just gotta dunk on some noobs sometimes.

[GrayDeath]

I`ll answer in 3 parts.

1.: Only 1st party, non modified Classes that I enjoy playing for more than 1 Reason: Warlock/DFA (which is a Dragonlock, so yeah^^).

Why? FLuff, at willness, mix of in World mystic flair and gamewise simple to average effort to use. Streamlined, and almost no potential to be either useless or brokenly pwoerful.


2.: Including 3rd party Classes and/or fixes for obvious Class problems: Paladin (and its Variants): Love the fluff and the base concept, hate how horrible underpowered and/or requiring hoops to jump through to get it do what its supposed to do is. (see my Homebrew variant for how we play paladins).

3.: FLuff only: The Spheres of Power Soul Weaver. Life and Death, Positive and negative Energy, binding Souls yet usually repsectful to them.
WHats not to love?



Addendum: Most played Class however is Sorcerer, closely followed by Warblade Variants.

[MeeposFire]

In most editions of D&D I tend to prefer warrior type classes as they tend to be the most fun for me but in 3e due to its horrible implementation of the full attack action is the exception. It takes a lot of fun out of the game for me for any class that needs the full attack action to work.

Due to that I tend to prefer binders, totemists, and the warlock/DFA since I can make them work well despite this issue. I also tend to favor the warblade and bard (bard is always classic for me and I really know how to make it shine and the warblade is my way to go back to playing a true warrior type when I am stuck using 3e mechanics).

[Venger]

Factotum.

Friendly to new players, versatile, interesting, balanced, t3, poorly written so you can practice parsing D&D rulebook english, and playable as a dip, splash, or straight.

[thompur]

Warlock & Binder. Warlock, because I can be reasonably effective all the time without a lot of planning, and Binder because of the flavor and versatility, as well as being able to change your role as you wish. I played a Binder in a game from 1st to 35th level, and always had fun!

Honorable mention:Warblade.

[Dimers]

In 3.5, swordsage. Pathfinder, the unchained monk. I enjoy special tactics, special movement and non-worldbending mystical powers, but I don't want the complexities that come with most casters and I don't like having to play charismatic. (Why does Charisma have to have all the good synergy, durnit!)

It's not "Eastern martial artist" that I enjoy, though. My 4e favorite is Avenger and 5e is Arcana cleric.

[Psyren]

Overall: Pactmaker - all the rollicking fun of a Binder, but good at every level and backwards compatible.

1st-party PF: Alchemist - one of the most versatile classes I've seen in any d20 game.

1st-party 3.5: toss-up between Beguiler and Totemist.

Core-only (both): Druid

[Luccan]

It's still Shugenja, if I'm being honest. It's around the power level I want, has sorcerer-like casting (I like prepared casting in theory, but in practice it can be a drag sometimes trying to select the right spells), and still qualifies for a variety of interesting PrCs. I also like the elemental theme and how it changes the class into one of four types of caster depending on your choice (though Water is admittedly lacking interesting options). Seems like a class that could be fun to do a "everyone is this class" game, too.

Edit: Oh, and it has some interesting if not especially powerful unique spells, particularly in OA.

[Vizzerdrix]

Generic caster. I get a kick out of doing up theme spell lists and trying to make them work.

[Zombulian]

I go through phases of class obsession, but I think there are a few standout patterns for what types catch my attention.

I started my career mostly with melee brutes. Barbarian and Totemist showed up a lot.

I started to experiment with Gishing because I wanted magical tricks, tried out JPM with Wu Jen. Eventually messed around for a while with Mystic Ranger. Clericzilla was my focus for a while. Also tried out Warlock and DFA. Truenamer was my favorite for a good while because I really liked how wonky it was, and that you could use their abilities all day (to a point).

Last year I fell in love with Psions (I’d already liked Psionics in general but really hadn’t spent much time with the namesake class). But every time I made one I either had it theurge (Cerebremancer, Psychic Theurge, Soul Manifester) or gish (countless options), or use some sort of PP regen trick.

I’ve recently gotten really into Archivists. I love the range they have with their spells, I love that they have actual class features for buffing the party (based on Knowledge Checks!!) and I’ve always liked the magical researcher trope, but just like with Wizard, the limited amount you can do a day (no matter how realistic that concern is) is a big problem for me.

Most recently I’ve been considering Mystic Theurge for Archivist + Wizard (hey if you’re a magical researcher why not do both, yknow?).

After this whole writeup, I guess I still can’t really say I have a favorite class. Or rather, that my favorite class is generally whatever class has gotten my attention at the moment. But I can say that my playing preferences seem clear: I like to have magical tricks for solving situations, but I am also willing to sacrifice outright power to have abilities that I can fall back on without worrying that they’ll run out.

[AntiAuthority]

Fighter for me. Usually the Two-Handed archetype, but reason why is pretty simple. I like the concept of just killing the enemy with your own strength, especially if it's overwhelming physical power.

I also enjoy just having my fighter rush into combat and start killing things, taking more blows than anyone else and keeping the enemy distracted by focusing on my character. "Run away, try to attack my allies or focus on me... You will die."

Then again, I tend to just enjoy characters who use overwhelming power to get things done. No need to remember my list of spells, not having to pray/study every morning, or sneaking around... Just kill everything in the immediate vicinity through my own overwhelming physical power.

[Unavenger]

I actually like Truenamer. I like high INT characters, and characters that can be skillmonkeys and the party knowledge bank. Its also a class i can do some serious minmaxing on without worrying about overshadowing the rest of the party while still getting casting abilities for a variety of options in and out of combat.

Here I was thinking I'd be the first to say it. :smalltongue:

I rarely actually get to play truenamer, as my playgroup has the very unique problem of having two players who both want to be the truenamer and I'm ashamed to say that the other one is better at it than me. I usually actually end up playing something rogue-adjacent or a divine caster of some kind, and enjoying the +numbers to skill checks or neat free metamagic from my friend.

[Jon_Dahl]

Fighter. I'm a very sentimental and somewhat traditional person. If it's up to me, the fighter class can never disappear, and that is why I am vehemently against all classes that can do fighter's job better than fighters. That doesn't include barbarian, though, but barbarian does not overlap that much with fighter.

[Psyren]

I started to experiment with Gishing because I wanted magical tricks, tried out JPM with Wu Jen. Eventually messed around for a while with Mystic Ranger. Clericzilla was my focus for a while. Also tried out Warlock and DFA. Truenamer was my favorite for a good while because I really liked how wonky it was, and that you could use their abilities all day (to a point).

If you liked Truenamer, check out Kyeudo's fix in my sig!


Fighter for me. Usually the Two-Handed archetype, but reason why is pretty simple. I like the concept of just killing the enemy with your own strength, especially if it's overwhelming physical power.

I also enjoy just having my fighter rush into combat and start killing things, taking more blows than anyone else and keeping the enemy distracted by focusing on my character. "Run away, try to attack my allies or focus on me... You will die."

Then again, I tend to just enjoy characters who use overwhelming power to get things done. No need to remember my list of spells, not having to pray/study every morning, or sneaking around... Just kill everything in the immediate vicinity through my own overwhelming physical power.

Wouldn't "overwhelming physical power" be a Barbarian? Fighter is more about training and technique (represented by their bonus feats and WT/AT features) than they are about raw strength.

[Manyasone]

Soulknife/Aegis combo -for that Shardbearer awesomeness
Armiger -because he makes an effective monster hunter
And pretty much all SoP casters
Psychic Warrior also has a special place in my heart
Akashic Mysteries -because Ssalarn is awesome in his remaking of the system

[pabelfly]

Here I was thinking I'd be the first to say it. :smalltongue:

I rarely actually get to play truenamer, as my playgroup has the very unique problem of having two players who both want to be the truenamer and I'm ashamed to say that the other one is better at it than me. I usually actually end up playing something rogue-adjacent or a divine caster of some kind, and enjoying the +numbers to skill checks or neat free metamagic from my friend.

Only build I haven't tried with Truenamer that I want to is a Gish. There's some synergy with Quickened utterances, and you'd be selecting different utterances. I think it would differentiate itself enough from the regular Truenamer that you wouldn't be stepping on the other player's toes doing it.

[LordBlades]

First place would be Druids, followed closely by Gishes.

First of all I like fighting, so most of my characters have the ability to fight, either directly or by proxy (summons, Constructs, Undead minions etc.).

Secondly, I like power and versatility that allows my characters to be great at fighting, but also at least good in many other situations.

[daremetoidareyo]

Rogue. I like mishmashing with fighter to make nerdy swashbucklers

[Unavenger]

Only build I haven't tried with Truenamer that I want to is a Gish. There's some synergy with Quickened utterances, and you'd be selecting different utterances. I think it would differentiate itself enough from the regular Truenamer that you wouldn't be stepping on the other player's toes doing it.

It's sorta neat, but it does end up taking a lot of the same utterances. A buffbot truenamer is probably going to take something like universal aptitude/inertia surge/hidden truth/lesser word of nurturing/temporal twist/seek the sky/greater SotZ/energy negation/vision sharpened/caster lens/spell rebirth/magic contraction/potent word of nurturing/greater energy negation/essence of lifespark/greater seek the sky/sensory focus/mystic rampart/ether reforged/greater knight's puissance, while a gish truenamer will probably take most of the same, but skip inertia surge for knight's puissance, maybe lesser word for archer's eye, and possibly something for temporal spiral, eldritch attraction and preternatural clarity. Your crafted tool and perfected map lists, meanwhile, will probably be nearly identical (fortify armour and keen weapon are both all right enough that you can probably take one of them each, and same with energy vortex and speak rock to mud, but you're both taking analyze item/rebuild item/transmute weapon/metamagic catalyst and fog from the void/master the four winds/conjunctive gate with few-to-no questions asked, and fewer still of those questions are "What type of truenamer are you?").

[AvatarVecna]

Conceptually, monk. When a game makes it viable, playing a monk (or a wannabe monk) is my go-to.

Mechanically, factotum is really fun.

[Particle_Man]

A month ago it would have been warlock or crusader. Lately though I am moving towards a wizard/Druid/mystic theurge/arcane hierophant build. Not sure what that says about me now.

[Zombulian]

A month ago it would have been warlock or crusader. Lately though I am moving towards a wizard/Druid/mystic theurge/arcane hierophant build. Not sure what that says about me now.

Forum discussion has got you interested in a new path for a similar interest :smalltongue:
Warlock and Crusader are classes with “do a few things as many times per day as you want.”
Mystic Theurge is “do even more things, not at will, but way more times per day than a usual caster.”

[Eladrinblade]

Scout, thematically and mechanically. I even made a "scout" class back in the early 00's because rogue, ranger, monk, etc just didn't quite hit that niche I wanted. I called it a "war bandit", but it had pretty much the same stuff except skirmish. Skirmish just fits me so well. I miss two-weapon fighting full-attack sneak attacks though.

Prestige class is Swiftblade, hands down. Before it came out, my "perfect character" was a scout/transmuter; weak combo, but it had everything I wanted in one character that was available at the time. There are several wizard spells that I just love too much to not be at least partly a wizard. Then swiftblade comes out and it's just perfect.

Elf scout/transmuter/swiftblade.

[Hiro Quester]

Favorite character I have played: Gnome Druid (with one level of Monk).
Kung fu Panther, with full casting. Played to Epic levels, and was fun for Roleplaying and power at every level. Tiny gnome with a Napoleon complex, always wants to be as big and tough as he can be.

Favorite character I have never played: Sorcerer/Swiftblade/Unseen Seer.
Lots of offensive and defensive abilities, crushing the action economy (each round when hasted can cast a spell and make a full-round attack), with fun role-playing possibilities. I want to play him as something like a speed-addict, always out for a Haste fix, impatient to get moving, act first think later type. Using Hunter's Eye for massive precision damage, and with lots of buff, utility and BFC spells.

[Allanimal]

For some reason, lately I have been itching to play a Wu Jen. I like the idea of the quirky unique spells on their list, but with much of the goodness of the Wizard. (Even without the list in my sig). Not sure when I’ll get to play one though.

I really enjoyed playing a duskblade, but since most of the members of my group tend towards wanting to play “whack it with something” or “shoot arrows at it” types of characters, I have mostly played caster types.

Currently in campaign where I play a spirit shaman, and it’s quite fun.

Beguiler is always nice, with the spells+stealth combo, but last time I played one, the DM unveiled in the 1st session a “zombie apocalypse” event, which means my spell list became much more ineffective.... that didn’t last long.

I enjoy bards a lot too, but other players hate when I burst out singing in real life. Probably because I’m a horrible singer. But the songs are always thematically relevant.

I’ve kind of stopped trying to play a “face” character, because either I am not doing it right, the DM isn’t or some combination, but diplomacy, enchantments and illusions just never seem to work when I really need them to. At least not as well as: “ok I summon a dire bat” *dire bat appears* *dire bat does dire bat stuff as expected* or “I cast flame strike” *bad guys take damage*

[RatElemental]

Bit of a toss up between Runecaster, Archivist and Dread Necromancer (but that's just because of shenanigans with sneak attacking people with charnal touch as a rogue multiclass)

I really like the flavor of a Wizard/Archivist/Mystic Theurge who studies all the magics.

[Buufreak]

I rather excelled in mathematics and all derivatives there in.

[Psyren]

I rather excelled in mathematics and all derivatives there in.

So Geometer then? :smalltongue:

[Buufreak]

So Geometer then? :smalltongue:

Only if I can apply sacred geometry into it

[Lvl 2 Expert]

I love the idea of the ranger, an outdoorsy badass with mad skills and practical equipment, supremely self sufficient and a mobile asskicker in a fight.

However, the d&d world and the D20/system are maybe not the best place to bring such a character to life. Outdoorsy stuff is all composed of challenges a normal person could face, meaning that dealing with it is trivial for any group and in particular one with casters by the time you're a few levels in. The base stats and how they tie into the ranger's mechanics also limit the concept. Robin Hood may wear green, live in the woods and use a bow as well as a sword, but in 3.5 you'd model him on a rogue, because it makes sense for several reasons among which that the quick witted feel of the character screams "intelligence", not "some wisdom, I guess". And I'm not complaining that the rogue makes for a good Robin Hood here, I'm complaining that the ranger doesn't. And it's not even the fault of the way the ranger was built really, although several reworks have their own good place in the game experience, it's just a hard concept to do right with the design options and limitations in this game.

So that leaves me free to play whatever I want, hooray!

[PhantasyPen]

Duskblade has firmly cemented itself as my favorite class to play, followed by Psychic Warrior. I guess I just love gish builds.

[StevenC21]

None other than the all powerful Wizard!