How does each class play?

[WadeWay33]

I’ve done more DM’ing in D&D than playing by far, so I am actually unsure on how each class plays. I’ve only played a bard and a mystic, and am interested in how the other classes work. If you can be more descriptive then something like “Fighter - Tank” it would be of massive help.

[Evaar]

Wizard you will have a toolbox to look through on each turn to consider what is going to best apply to the situation you're in. The skill comes in filling that box with the right tools each day, and then picking the right one in the moment.

Warlock you will have one or two good tools that you use again and again, and could start to feel pretty monotonous if you don't do anything else. You do have some big gun options, and if you pick those well you'll feel super-powered when you use them.

Artificer I only played for a little bit, and it was an Archivist, but I felt like I had mediocre combat tools and lots of out-of-combat options that made me feel like I was stealing the spotlight. You're a half caster without the martial options of a half caster (this does not apply to all Artificer subclasses though). You contribute a lot, but not in a way that feels especially interactive. It's very powerful to hand a +1 bow to your archer at level 2, but it doesn't feel all that satisfying to watch them use it.

Fighter feels like you're an action hero there to throw yourself into all the things everyone else is too fragile/scared to do. You take the crazy chances. Jump on the dragon's back. Put yourself in the bottleneck between the horde and your friends and hold the line by yourself. Duel Naergoth Bladelord and make him regret trying to sneak up on your party while they're engaged with Severin.

I don't think I have quite enough experience with everything else to comment. I played Rogue and Monk for a little bit and they felt mostly like running around a lot and hoping you roll well and otherwise not having a lot of other ways to contribute.

[Potato_Priest]

Wizard you will have a toolbox to look through on each turn to consider what is going to best apply to the situation you're in. The skill comes in filling that box with the right tools each day, and then picking the right one in the moment.

Warlock you will have one or two good tools that you use again and again, and could start to feel pretty monotonous if you don't do anything else. You do have some big gun options, and if you pick those well you'll feel super-powered when you use them.

Artificer I only played for a little bit, and it was an Archivist, but I felt like I had mediocre combat tools and lots of out-of-combat options that made me feel like I was stealing the spotlight. You're a half caster without the martial options of a half caster (this does not apply to all Artificer subclasses though). You contribute a lot, but not in a way that feels especially interactive. It's very powerful to hand a +1 bow to your archer at level 2, but it doesn't feel all that satisfying to watch them use it.

Fighter feels like you're an action hero there to throw yourself into all the things everyone else is too fragile/scared to do. You take the crazy chances. Jump on the dragon's back. Put yourself in the bottleneck between the horde and your friends and hold the line by yourself. Duel Naergoth Bladelord and make him regret trying to sneak up on your party while they're engaged with Severin.

I don't think I have quite enough experience with everything else to comment. I played Rogue and Monk for a little bit and they felt mostly like running around a lot and hoping you roll well and otherwise not having a lot of other ways to contribute.


I agree with your comments on fighter to an extent, but if you really want to be the action hero, barbarian is a better choice thanks to resistance and advantage on strength checks while raging making crazy stunts much more appealing.

Cleric, hmm. It's tough to describe. It kind of feels like being a very savvy and well prepared veteran soldier. You don't have quite the flashiness of other classes' hijinks, but you consistently perform very well, and have tricks up your sleeve for every encounter imaginable. Most of all, you're an excellent team player.

[OldTrees1]

From my experience:

Barbarian or Fighter:
Hard to kill. Deals lots of damage. Eventually you will have enough damage mitigation for the enemy to have to choose between fighting you OR killing your allies.

Cleric:
Spiritual Weapon, Spirit Guardians, and a cantrip or attack per turn. Your spellcasting is frequently sidelined for after the combat. Although you do get to use non healing spells.

Paladin:
You stand around (Auras) and give good talks (Inspiring Leader & Aid). Your smites deal a lot of damage quickly but the battle was already won if you can keep formation.

Rogue:
You can be relied on to cover whatever skills you choose to be good at.
Oh, and you reliably get sneak attack once per round in combat. But combat is unimportant to you.

[Sindal]

For me:

Playing a ranger has felt like being a strike unit. We're designed to find prey and knock them out as fast as possible. Being a gloomstalker enhances this to covert ops levels. Good for adapting to most situations.

Sorceror is skewed for me since I'm playing a more divine soul support, however. I found it plays impactully as an spell caster would. Blast or disrupt and manage your spells as necessary.

[Chugger]

I recently played up a pure warlock blaster. Found it very limiting. I was powerful - did a lot of damage - had some handy spells, too. But with the 2 spell slot limit, I felt gimped - often useless. I could almost never shield, and when I had to (being hit by something super-hard hitting), there went 50% of my casting ability (I was a hexblade blaster). At least as a hexblade I had good AC. Some people love warlocks, and if fights are short and short rests are common, it's easier to deal with the problems. We had some massive, long fights where really all I could do was EB, EB, EB, EB …. cuz my slots got burned in the first round or two.

[cullynthedwarf]

I agree with Evaar. Wizards and clerics are very much about having a very big tool belt then wondering what tools are on your belt today. Warlock has a very small tool belt he has a hammer and a screwdriver. Both excellent tools and useful in most situations but not all situations and then you just feel bored or worse... Useless. Bards also have a big bag of tools as well but to keep the metaphor going they are all hand tools, not as big or as flashy as their brethren but very useful in the right situation

Rangers are woodland fighters who specialized in big game kills. Thee have some magic but if your looking for the tool box here, keep looking, its not big or useful most of the time so they tend to fall back on apply arrow to monster.

Paladins are like fighters or barbarians but they do it in the name of god/king/country. They have exactly one tool in there belt. Its a jackhammer. Its not always useful but when it comes out stuff dies in a hurry. Barbarians have no magic really but are masters of taking a beating and then getting up and asking for more.

Rogue is about gaining wealth in the most unlikeliest of ways. Not much magic but ey never really need much.

[Biggstick]

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?377491

This will take you to the Class Guides folks have written.

Almost all of the guides for each class include either a brief description or a lengthy one of what the class can do at the beginning of their guide.

[Lord Haart]

Not all clerics are the same. )

Tempest Cleric: you do crowd control with a BANG. If there is a lot of monsters, you can choose between wrecking them and absolutely wrecking them. If there's a single enemy, you roll save-or-suck spells against it which can be boring if they pass all saves, but lets you and the party utterly wreck them on a single fail. You have fun spells applicable to non-combat situations (Command: "Wow, you're tough. Am I supposed to pee myself?"). And you have some of the strongest party-wide and personal buffs, to keep running while you wreck.
You have to burn resources to do stuff, and your day gets bad if enemies focus on you (though you are more durable than a wizard, and you have ways to make them pay first), but boy do you pack both firepower and support.

[Fable Wright]

Druid:

PHENOMINAL COSMIC POWER, through a drinking straw. When you Healing Spirit, you're the best healer in the game... and then just spamming Thorn Whip. When you summon, you're a one man army... that spams Thorn Whip on your turn. When you Spike Growth around low HP mooks, your foes are already dead... as you spam Thorn Whip.

It's very hard to run out of slots, because you have very low nova capacity.

[Willie the Duck]

Hmm. so how things play out (with an emphasis on what might surprise someone)--

As others have said, wizards are still very much a launching platform for their spell loadout. I've known a few players who've tried to make their wizards stand out in other ways -- maybe one who got armor somehow and tries to stab enemies with SCAG-cantrip boosted melee attacks in rounds where other magics spam cantrips, or the knowledge guy who tries to be skill-defined, or a wizard who leans in hard on their specialization, but honestly you will be defined by what spells you know and routinely use.

Sorcerers, similarly, will be defined by their spell-metamagic combos. The guy who uses subtle magic on enchantments and illusions will be the roguish sorcerer. The guy who twins buff spells is the support sorcerer. Etc.

Clerics have a little more individuality related to their domains and what they choose to focus on, but once initiative is rolled they all will usually rely on the same tricks (Spirit Weapons and Guardians). But again, with a bit of nuance. A Tempest or War cleric will spend their action swinging a weapon while SW and SG lays waste (And if they picked up PAM or GWM, might not even use SW) whereas a Light or Knowledge cleric will drop cantrips or quite likely dodge.

Druids and Bards are always going to feel like a perfectly designed tool belt for almost the situation you find yourself in (say you have electricians tools and this situation really calls for linemen's pliers). Both have some amazing spells that... well you're sure you have one prepared (in a slot you are willing to spend), if only the bad guys would line up or the townsfolk caught in the crossfire would move out of the way or you could duck around the corner and cast without anyone seeing you or something like that. And in the meantime you can spam some relatively unimpressive cantrips. There's a reason Valor bard is a reasonable option when all they really get is medium armor and shields and a second attack (and other bards like Lore seem to get all sorts of candy in their archetype features) -- it is because two attacks (likely each 1d8+your moderate Dex and not much more) feels like so much more accomplishment than a 2d4 vicious mockery while waiting between times you can do something amazing.

Fighter feels the most user-defined. Your archetype choice, feat/ASI choice, magic items you get, background, and basic answers to questions like 'what do you do when your party runs into enemies 30-60' away?' and 'what do you do when your party runs into enemies 60-500' away?' each have a strong influence on how your character plays out. A Str-focused, Dex-dumping battlemaster with PAM, GWM, and only a javelin to deal with flying enemies is very different from a Dex-based EK who can fight with bow, rapier, or occasional spell is very different from a frontliner who specializes on keeping the enemies from rushing past them to the squishy PCs. Likewise, if you choose instead to use your ASI/Feat slots on things like Ritual Caster, Healer, Inspiring Leader, and Skilled (relying on your base class abilities to carry the day in combat) you will have another decidedly different character (one that will need more combat support from the rest of the team, but will have greater OOC utility).

Rangers and Rogues feel similar to fighters -- your archetype and feats chosen (and spells for ranger) will have a huge impact on how you play.


I recently played up a pure warlock blaster. Found it very limiting. I was powerful - did a lot of damage - had some handy spells, too. But with the 2 spell slot limit, I felt gimped - often useless. I could almost never shield, and when I had to (being hit by something super-hard hitting), there went 50% of my casting ability (I was a hexblade blaster). At least as a hexblade I had good AC. Some people love warlocks, and if fights are short and short rests are common, it's easier to deal with the problems. We had some massive, long fights where really all I could do was EB, EB, EB, EB …. cuz my slots got burned in the first round or two.

There seems to be a type of person who starts giggling when considering all the ways they can use Warlocks as fixers or infiltrators or something like that, who consider ether a chainlock's familiar or the tomelock's ritual magic repertoire to be the biggest features of the class. They seem to have a LOT of fun with warlocks. Other people play EB (plus knockback and speed reduction, for maximum keepaway) spammers and tend to find that fairly boring, or go full-bore into hexblade bladelock which... well it's certainly not weak, but it kinda feels just like an alternate way of making a magic-themed fighter-type. Most of your invocations are going to go into being a better combatant. Most of your spells are going to be defenses. The mechanics are notably different from something like an Eldritch Knight fighter, but you end up doing much the same things. I'm sure there are middle grounds.

[Lord Haart]

Mystic: you have the most advanced toolbox ever, choke full of next-gen powered tools. Your screwdriver is sonic, your hammer is a jackhammer, your knife is tacticool swiss army knife with a hydrospanner and a tactical flashlight built in. You can has a powerarmor. You can has a plasma rifle. You can has a satellite giving you an auto-map with all enemies marked on it.

And you have to power it all with a single cheap Chinese battery.

You can break all limits and make any other class green with envy — but if you do so, you run dry in three rounds flat. A warlock in your situation would be down to cantrips until the next rest; except warlock has Eldritch Blast and needs only a short rest, while you need a long rest, and your cantrips are all worse than what a cleric gets.

Want to blast better than a wizard? Support like a bard and cleric combined? Outmonk the monk, outfight the fighter, and outsneak the rogue? Sure, take your sweet three rounds of being exactly as OP as people imagine you to be. After that, well, enjoy the weak-ass cantrips and whatever concentration effects you got up. With no way to recover PPs (unless you play Soulknife, i guess; haven't played that subclass).

Want to enjoy your power outside the combat, or enter combat already prepared? Sure, you're the best. You can make the whole party invisible, and turn surprise against you into a surprise round against the attackers, and have a solid buffer of temp HPs, and so much more. But that, too, will take a round's worth of PPs out of your three-rounds-per-day allotment of awesome.

"But wait", you start thinking, "can't I, say, only spend PPs on standart action powers and not on bonus actions, thus prolonging this window to five rounds per day? Can't I use my powers non-augmented, spending less PPs for a lesser effect?" Sure you can. Enjoy rationing your PPs, constantly thinking "What if there's a tough fight next encounter? I need to avoid running dry before that" and consequently contributing less than other party members while still having less juice.

There is a balance point somewhere between going nova and being a miser with your power, but it's a torture to find. Even if you do, however, you still play like a wizard would, if it had even stronger, extra-effects-laden spells, but lost all lower-level slots.


Sure, you also get lots of impressive-looking freebies from your subclass and psionic focus. But, again: these are practically strong options that have to be installed on a weak chassis, and are hard to synergise well. For the simplest example: getting martial weapon proficiency, armor proficiencies, and a constantly renewing buffer of temp. HPs sounds great, but those are locked behind three different subclasses; if you want to tank in melee, you'll be wielding a simple weapon, or sacrifice lots of durability (or multiclass/pick a proper race, but those can hinder you in other ways). To outfight a Fighter in melee, you have to devote your build to it and still use up PPs in the actual fight for damage. Meanwhile, the Fighter gets it all for free, at-will… and his own Great Badass Nova is on a short rest cooldown.

There are some good AND efficient options, but you have to grasp for those. Frozen Sanctuary is great not because it gives you 20 temp. HPs — you are still a squishie — but because it only costs you 3 PPs in the process. For another 3 PPs, you can command a Fighter to make an Attack action in your place, which is by far the best thing you can do for that cost.

But again, if all you do all day is having hit points and making your Fighter attack, why not just play, well, a Fighter?

Well, the fighter doesn't have your awesome peak powers. Wanna raise the dead? You do it, no diamonds required. But once you decide you want that, that's another 5 PPs that you have to forever keep in reserve, just in case someone dies. LOL IMAGINE IF TWO PARTY MEMBERS DIE AND YOU'VE JUST BLASTED OUT ALL YOUR JUICE AND CAN'T RAISE THEM SUCKER

To me, that feeling of "can't afford to do anything cool in this fight, because it's known we'll have three more fights today" and especially "can't activate True Vision in this situation where it would be totally appropriate to check for hidden or illusionary stuff, because it costs 1/6th of the cool things i can do this day, runs for only a minute, and if there's no hidden or illusory stuff here it will be a total waste" felt like a big and very real balancer/power limiter on an otherwise OP class; enough to make me really appreciate all those cool things clerics and wizards can do out of their 1st and 2nd-level slots without wasting anything of value.

[WadeWay33]

Mystic:/snip/.

Yeah, I felt this a lot when I played one.