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View Full Version : What Classes Do You Enjoy Playing Most, When Did You Figure It Out, and Why?



Runa
2008-06-01, 11:55 PM
There's nothing that makes D&D more fun than finally realizing exactly what you enjoy actually doing in it (unless you don't get to do it, of course), particularly since, with differences in personalities between people and a million options (I'm talking 3.5 here, since that's what my group plays), it can be hard to figure out right off the bat sometimes.

For me, that realization came in the last week or two, and it surprised me, because supposedly, it's unusual: I like being the buffer and healer! So many people - in my group and elsewhere - seem to hate the idea of being "stuck" as "the party healer". Or at least, that's always the impression I get. But I guess I must be slightly unusual, in that I prefer to simply be able to contribute, to mesh well with the abilities of the rest of the group. I also like to do non-combat stuff every so often, and don't like the hassle of preparing spells. And our groups's a big one, which is usually not lacking in either wizards or fighters.

So I've found that I'm happiest playing a Bard, Paladin or (in the case of Gestalt games) Bardadin.

Why? First: they're variable. Sure, they're not as specialized, but "not specialized" is actually why I like them so much. They both provide a lot of different roleplaying oppurtunities for non-combat, and they also are a bit of a Jack of All Trades, able to function as buffers, secondary healers, and secondary casters - very handy for a large group that tends to get itself into trouble a lot. They can mesh well with large groups, providing a good hit or a tiny little life-saving Heal if needed, particularly Bards, who are practically made for supplementing groups, even of varying alignments.

I like playing Bards and Pallys and Bardadins (but especially Bards), because I like working as part of a team and having a lot of options and basically playing Cha-based stuff, all of which those fall under. I only finally figured every last bit of this out quite recently, though, as I've been playing not very long.

What do YOU have the most fun playing, though? Why do you have so much fun playing it? And, of course - when did you finally realize what it was? Or have you yet to find that "perfect" class for you?

-Runa

Jack Zander
2008-06-02, 12:06 AM
I love playing high AC characters. This is usually a rogue who is melee focued to be a fencer. I have terrible HP but I'm never hit (AC past 40 at level 10) and I can deal massive amounts of sneak attack damage almost every turn, really easy.

I've done it with a monk too before, but I couldn't hurt anything... :smalltongue:

I just like the idea of being that agile and witty fighter who runs off to take on a big baddie one on one while the rest of the team handles the minions. I also like telling everyone else to run when we are outnumbered and outgunned and taking on 20-30 minions (or 2-3 BBEGs) at once and still somehow getting away after making sure the rest of my team is safe.

Alternatively, I enjoy batman wizards. I never kill anything, but I love controlling the battle and manipulating events so that my teamates have a much easier time.

Chronos
2008-06-02, 12:24 AM
Favorite that I've actually played? Rogues and the like. I like being able to pull off nifty tricks, but I also don't like for my tricks to be limited and subject to running out, which rules out the spellcasters. I imagine I'd also like warlocks and binders, for the same reason, but I've never gotten a chance to try either in an actual game.

monty
2008-06-02, 12:54 AM
I recently discovered that I love illusionists. Before that, I mostly liked to play buffbot clerics, oddly enough.

Edea
2008-06-02, 12:57 AM
Wizards. Always have, always will, even in 4E where they don't dominate everything in sight. I just love the idea of being a wizard :|.

Also really liked Artificers (I get the feeling that one might not be coming back anytime soon :smalltongue:).

Temp.
2008-06-02, 01:16 AM
Rogue/Wizards and Bards.

I like being the guy with something useful to do, regardless of the situation. I also like to be the go-to person outside of combat.

I think I built that preference in one of my old groups where I was far-and-away the best optimizer around. I couldn't stand to play characters that didn't let me flaunt my build-fu, but nobody else put any thought into character creation. That meant I was trying to set an optimized alongside a Half-Celestial Rogue with the Persuasive and Negotiator feats (this was the worst, but the most optimized character beside my own was a Scout/Order of the Bow Initiate).
I couldn't build anything that would take the spotlight and I don't enjoy using "God" tactics. So I decided to build the best out-of-combat character possible. This meant Arcane Trickster at the time (it was before Complete Mage or the PHB2 provided love for the character type).

Later, with players who did spend time opimizing, I found I still enjoyed using Unseen Seers, Factotums and Bards. The skillmonkey role also often seemed to be left unfilled in the groups who did optimize heavily (maybe because controller Wizards are powerful and gishes are flashy, while the appeal of skillmonkeys is somewhere less outstandingly obvious?)

ghost_warlock
2008-06-02, 01:25 AM
My first character, ever, was a OD&D thief ('92ish?). I think it forever marked me. I tend to gravitate more towards theme and abilities than specific class.

My two favorite archetypes are the sneaky, stealthy spellcaster (such as illusionists or my own shadowmage) and shapechangers (whether they're druids, transmuters, or egoists). I like playing character classes with presence and an ace or two (or ten) up their sleeve.

I occasionaly play a wanna-be paladin, just for a change of pace, but I avoid the actual paladin class in lieu of a gish of some sort.

Daracaex
2008-06-02, 01:31 AM
I'm kind of strange. I don't really have a preference for a character class-wise or role-wise. I just like having a character who's different from everyone else in the group. I'm the guy who picks up the double-longsword, multi-classes paladin and rogue, or gishes using the monk. Sure, these aren't new ideas, but nobody else in the groups I've played in have used them. I try to aim for never using the same kind of character twice and always to have something unique, even if it's only represented by backstory and a few skill or ability points placed in unorthodox places (like Roy's high intelligence for a fighter).

Chronicled
2008-06-02, 01:48 AM
Skillmonkeys and spontaneous casters. Specifically, the Beguiler and Rogue. Best when combined with Whispergnomes (but then, so is everything) :smalltongue:. I think somewhere along the line, the cheeky comic relief with a big bag of tricks just clicked with me.

Suzuro
2008-06-02, 01:54 AM
Bards and Barbarians. Barbarians especially, I just enjoy being the guy who throws all caution to the wind and charges into combat, and yet being the only one on our team still standing when the battle is over.


-Suzuro

Eldariel
2008-06-02, 02:19 AM
I want blade and magic, or I wanna be really, really good with the blade. Oh, and I like to be a skilled talker, feinter and a good sneak and infiltrator. Luckily there's a wide array of classes in D&D that give me the chance; Swordsages, Factotums, Bards (only sufficiently advanced versions; the core bard is too little of the kickass magic and kickass fighting for my taste), and especially Unseen Seers are really right on the money.

Magic Knight is really the first archetype that really hit gold for me; sword and bolt makes for a nice hoplite approach; "I open the combat by tossing a sonic ray at the opponent, leaving him reeling on the impact and then bring the sword to bear". But yea, I always want to be able to sneak at least to some degree, and to take different identities and to lie my way out of sitiuation. In essence, I sort of like being a 1-man party.

One of the best literacy comparisons is Fitz from The Farseer trilogy. An assassin adept in Magic and very able in arms. Of course, I prefer more manifestable magic than the "skill", but still, a quite close approximation of the character I'd consider ideal. It's great that Factotum is pretty much exactly that right out of the box, and DMM Persist Divine Powered Cloistered Cleric with Trickery-domain works too.

random11
2008-06-02, 02:24 AM
Although usually on other systems and not in D&D, I always enjoyed the fighter types.

Agamid
2008-06-02, 02:56 AM
Rangers and Sorcerers.

The second character i ever made was a ranger and i played him for something like seven years (even now that campaign never wrapped up, was just put on hold for a while because the DM was out of ideas).
I've only played a sorcerer once, and he was pretty annoying to get started, by now i love him.

I've tried most of the other classes before but never gotten into them as much.

DrowVampyre
2008-06-02, 05:20 AM
Warlocks for me, and I realized it the first encounter I had with them. The why is very simple, for me - I get to toss around magic like candy from a hotel lobby. No conserving the spell for the right moment that may never come, no "I better shoot him with my bow (not crossbow - elf power! ^_-) so I don't run out of spells in the next fight," just pure, undiluted magical throwdown. I suspect the Dragonfire Adept would rank right up with Warlock, but I've never gotten to try it.

Uthug
2008-06-02, 05:35 AM
Ever since I started DnD I discovered that I liked playing the meaty guy who is at the front-line of combat dishing out damage. My first ever character was a straight Barbarian wielding a falchion with improved crit. Being able to charge recklessly into combat is what I enjoy the most.

Thus I find it quite sad that the Barbarian is no longer in core for 4e.

Skyserpent
2008-06-02, 05:38 AM
Ever since I started DnD I discovered that I liked playing the meaty guy who is at the front-line of combat dishing out damage. My first ever character was a straight Barbarian wielding a falchion with improved crit. Being able to charge recklessly into combat is what I enjoy the most.

Thus I find it quite sad that the Barbarian is no longer in core for 4e.

Ah! but Core 4e will include them in a later PHB! They made it a point to say that all Players Handbooks and DMGs and MMs are going to be considered "Core" from now on!

Solo
2008-06-02, 05:56 AM
Ever since I started DnD I discovered that I liked playing the meaty guy who is at the front-line of combat dishing out damage. My first ever character was a straight Barbarian wielding a falchion with improved crit. Being able to charge recklessly into combat is what I enjoy the most.

Thus I find it quite sad that the Barbarian is no longer in core for 4e.

Me ANGRY!
*SMASH!*

Tengu
2008-06-02, 05:58 AM
But you can be a barbarian in 4e already! Take any class, just refuse to bathe, fart constantly and don't have any table manners.

serow
2008-06-02, 06:53 AM
I like being the buffer and healerWell, so do I :smallsmile:

bosssmiley
2008-06-02, 07:08 AM
Guess.

< (clue)

When? I dunno, somewhere around the time I grew out of Drizzt clones.
Why? They always get the girl. Even if she's a hobgoblin. :smallcool:

Charity
2008-06-02, 07:22 AM
The thing I like about RPG's is that I never have to be the same thing twice.
Most every other game you play, you play to win, adopting a stratergy which you slowly refine through repeated application.

In RPG's my favorite thing is to mix stuff up, one minute playing to type, the next the opposite and everything anything in between.

I like to have a catalogue of distinct individual personalities with an array of capabilities. If I had to pick a fav it would be a Jack of all trades, turn his hand to anything kind of guy, skillmonkey cross class of some sort.

DigoDragon
2008-06-02, 07:38 AM
When I used to play 2nd edition I loved playing fighters & Clerics. High Constitution & Wisdom scores were my thing, kept me alive through many adventures and I always liked to be the one to both protect the party and beat the enemy to a pulp. :smallbiggrin:

I've only played as a PC once in 3rd edition. I played a cleric for 4 levels and loved the options I had to keep the party alive and hurt the enemy. Hope to play more 3rd edition soon.

Hunter Noventa
2008-06-02, 07:42 AM
I tend to gravitate more towards the skillmonkey and (to borrow a 4e term) striker type classes. Rogues, Scouts, Rangers, Swordsages, Factotums, all number among my favorite classes to play.

Roderick_BR
2008-06-02, 07:48 AM
I guess I'm in for paladins and clerics too. Buffs, healing, high AC, and some fighting ability, and eventually being the meat shield.
And my friends agree that I can pull a good paladin act in my games (even when I'm not playing a paladin :smalltongue: ) so he works better for me.
What can I say? I'm a sucker for the classic "knight in shiny armor" stereotype.

DizzyD
2008-06-02, 08:29 AM
I do best with the tactician. I enjoy flanking and putting myself into positions that grant me advantages. I also don’t mind telling others where to move to get the best advantage. I began enjoying that position by playing a Druid, flanking with my animal companion. I guess I’ve always enjoyed strategy games and studying battles and wars in history was always my favorite subject in school. I'd have to go with buffer as my second choice...

nepphi
2008-06-02, 08:39 AM
Ranger.

The ethos of a guy who can walk all damn day through forest, at a rolling pace that just devours the miles under his feet, then still fight a major battle is just kickass.

That, and animal companions are hella fun.

xPANCAKEx
2008-06-02, 08:46 AM
rogues - i like the skill monkeyness... plus i did have a major addiction to the theif series for a while. The whole sneaking around/assasination/espionage thing is brilliant.

But at the moment im giving it a rest - recently i've been playing a cleric, and i've put in an application for a paladin

I've had my fill of "maximumdeathkillcrushultimateattack" stats with diablo (d1 - dealing over 600 damage a hit. PVP was megalolz.), so i tend to avoid fighters/barbs in pen n paper rpgs

McClintock
2008-06-02, 08:49 AM
I've only been playing him for a few sessions, but I believe my favorite is the Warblade. Front line fighter, but more than just a smack it, kill it, move on. I've set him up at the tactical leader of the party, but they have yet to catch on to this.

I've also enjoyed 1st & 2nd ed rangers. There's something to be said for ridding the world of vile creatures. I think I've played more rangers, from more races than any other class.

nagora
2008-06-02, 08:52 AM
I've always been happiest playing a human fighter, I suppose. That's been my main class of choice since the 70's.

ArtifexFelicis
2008-06-02, 09:02 AM
I enjoyed a Dragon themed Sorceror a lot, that was fun.

Hmmm.

Barbarians are awesome as well. Especially with Enlarge person and a crowd.

I'm a fan of Clerics and Bards, though Ih haven't had a chance to run either yet. Soon though. Soon.

Leon
2008-06-02, 09:19 AM
Druids, Fighter/Cleric's, Rangers or Sorcerers

Party Support is a play style that i like, being able to mix it up in melee, dish it out with from afar with spells or weapons and sometimes heal.

That or Pure Arcane Firepower that comes from a Sorcerer.

Sometimes i like to mix it up with other archtypes or play around with some idea

RagnaroksChosen
2008-06-02, 10:10 AM
hmm got a few favorites.

Dwarven Cleric or dwarven abjurer prolly rank the highest(yes I've used mystic thurge to get both it was tons of fun)

next would prolly be wizard or hexblade/warlock(hexblade if we are high enough level).

valadil
2008-06-02, 10:17 AM
I'm all about arcane casters and smooth talking bard rogues. I really hope I get to play a Beguiler before 3.5 rotates out completely. What I really like in a game is being innovative. Casters do that mechanically. Scoundrels do it with their words. My favorite character ever was a bard who was spying on the party. I got so into character I could doublespeak with the GM in front of the other players and they never caught on. Didn't have to prepare any code words or anything, we were just able to have a side conversation in front of people.

Oddly enough, my first character in any new system is usually some sort of ranger.

quiet1mi
2008-06-02, 04:43 PM
beguilers because their abilities are open ended and are up to interpretation.

Breaw
2008-06-02, 05:01 PM
Gishish (wow that's a fun 'word') characters have always called to me. Physical fighters with a some magical tricks up their sleeves. Recent characters of note have been:

Assassin (Evil characters can mesh with a group, I promise!)

Ranger/Sorc (Truestrike, expeditious retreat anyone?)

Cleric of Kord/Barbarian (Most metelosity any character of mine has ever possessed)

Aquillion
2008-06-02, 05:34 PM
Confession time: I love venetian casting.

I know there are issues with it. I know it consumes the rest of the group's time when I'm deciding what to memorize or cast. I know it can be overpowered. But thinking ahead and trying to predict what I'll need every day is just so much fun. I love having that huge number of options in a situation. I love versatile spells like illusions, polymorph effects, or Stone Shape that me use my creativity. Thinking back, this was part of the reason I got into D&D in the first place, since it let you play that kind of wizard.

Crazy_Uncle_Doug
2008-06-02, 06:04 PM
I love caster class, and yes, I'm an old Vancian Caster fan.

I've played wizards from 1-3.xe. If I get into 4e, I'll probably play some sort of caster as well.

Dacia Brabant
2008-06-02, 07:08 PM
When I started out umpteen years ago, I was all about fighter-mages: if the big sell of the game is swords and sorcery, may as well combine the two together into one character. I'll admit though that much of the appeal was pure powergaming, especially the way the rules worked for multiclassing. And of course it had to be elves or half-elves.

Even after I got over the warrior-wizard archetype I still had to make magic hybris, almost always some sort of arcane/divine caster. The idea of having access to both sides of magic was just too cool to me, and even after Third Edition came along and nerfed that combo (well, up until Mystic Theurge and Arcane Hierophant came along) I still stuck with it. That carried over into other game systems too if possible, although in video game but not PnP RPGs I almost always play rogues, most likely because of game design.

Within the last year or so, however, I've been pretty keen on paladins and I think I can attribute that to two things: my discover of OOTS and subsequently my strong reaction to Miko's characterization (and other peoples' reactions to her), and my reading up on the Red Knight, the Forgotten Realms deity. Miko, and the attitude many in my old gaming group had toward paladins, made me want to play one with high mental acuity and finding a pally-friendly deity who is centered around intellect-based concepts like Planning and Tactics, well that just sealed it.

Oddly enough I also have gotten more and more lawful in my characters' attitudes as I've gotten older, or maybe that's not odd at all.

Benejeseret
2008-06-02, 07:45 PM
I always pictured myself as the paladin or the noble ranger...but once I really started playing I find my favorite rolls turn out to be the rather creepy dark rogues and bards.

My three best characters of late are a Death-Touched Harbinger Bard (great to RP but less than stellar in combat thus far), and my feat variant Rogue/Avenging Executioner. He is so creep-tastic he made a werewolf flee in terror the first round of combat and chased it down the street slashing it to ribbons with his two gnomish quickrazors. Think Sweeny Todd meets Dexter meets Clockwork Orange. Finally there is my cleric(luck)/rogue semi-sleazy Tele-Evangelist con artist going toward Fortunes Friend with tonnes of luck feats. I am waiting to being able to yell in a thick Missouri preacher accent, "And the Lord sa'a'a'ys....Boom! Headshot! (sneak attack)"

Fenrir
2008-06-02, 09:41 PM
I like playing rogues... especially mysterious ones jeje:smallamused:

Arbitrarity
2008-06-02, 09:46 PM
Wizard, often generalist, and as smart as possible. I like the RP of being a crazy bookworm, and I like making elaborate contingency plans and responses. Furthermore, I like the preparation going into such a character, even if it mostly consists of making a few spell lists.

sonofzeal
2008-06-02, 09:53 PM
Tanks. Especially Dwarven Tanks. Especially Dwarven Tanks who disarm Prismatic Wall traps with their face. At lvl 10. And live to tell about it. I like characters who aren't tough as nails - nails are as tough as them.

Cheesing out on offense is fine for "stunt" runs for me, but playing "oh gods why won't he diieeeee" characters has always been my favorite. I also want to spend more time playing expert utility characters; Rogue/Factotum types who rely on my creativity and problemsolving skills to overcome everything.

Innis Cabal
2008-06-02, 09:53 PM
multi-class caster. wizard/sorcerer/ultmate magus, Archane Heriophent, Mystic Theurge, Eldricth Theurge, Noctimancer. You name it. Love it. The versitility, the RP, just adore it.
Learned it when i played a wizard/cleric in 2nd ed, and then the mystic theurge came out in 3.5 and.....the rest of the above, and that tells the story.

Edan
2008-06-02, 10:20 PM
My first character was a Swashbuckler and I loved its style of fighting, but I wanted to be able to cast spells. So I picked up Bard and I found myself using Illusions and Charms more than anything and I loved it. Then I found PH2 and the Beguiler, I was in heaven. Full casting, focus on illusions and sneaky skill monkey, the beguiler was made of win for me.

EvilElitest
2008-06-02, 10:21 PM
paladin's i like the moral code
from
EE

Charity
2008-06-03, 04:43 AM
I think in 4e I might play a...


http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/4650/lazerclericcw0.jpg

riddles
2008-06-03, 06:00 AM
ditto on the dwarf tank. there's something about a dwarf in heavy armour with a huge axe and a shield just throwing his weight around all day long.

i've always had a love of buffing clerics. you make your mates quite good and you make yourself a monster for some beatdown.

having said that, i'm falling in love with buffer bards. optimised inspire courage ftw.