Character Class Recommendations

[zephiros]

Hey guys, I'm new here, this is my first post. I've played a bit of D&D and I've been looking into doing a bit of deeper research into the rulebooks. I've played in about 10 or 11 campaigns now across 5 or 6 different DMs, so I haven't been at it too long, but I really enjoy it, and I try to do a lot of RP character-building.

What I'm looking for now is to get a bit more ingrained in the play mechanics. That being said, I'm undertaking a good deal of class research - looking through various rulebooks and such.

I was looking for anyone who felt like it to just let me know their favourite base or prestige classes, anything you want to give me. Let me know the focus of the class (melee, stealth, psionic, arcane, divine, combination, other) which book it can be found in, any particular race that's good to play the class as, in your opinion, and the book in which the class (and race, if included) can be found.

I'm just hoping to find some unique ideas, maybe learn about some more obscure classes, both base and prestige, that have unique and beneficial abilities. Please make them from the v3.5 and v3.0 rulebooks, I think that's a pretty wide scope. Thanks for the suggestions guys, I look forward to hearing about them.

[gallagher]

Hey guys, I'm new here, this is my first post. I've played a bit of D&D and I've been looking into doing a bit of deeper research into the rulebooks. I've played in about 10 or 11 campaigns now across 5 or 6 different DMs, so I haven't been at it too long, but I really enjoy it, and I try to do a lot of RP character-building.

What I'm looking for now is to get a bit more ingrained in the play mechanics. That being said, I'm undertaking a good deal of class research - looking through various rulebooks and such.

I was looking for anyone who felt like it to just let me know their favourite base or prestige classes, anything you want to give me. Let me know the focus of the class (melee, stealth, psionic, arcane, divine, combination, other) which book it can be found in, any particular race that's good to play the class as, in your opinion, and the book in which the class (and race, if included) can be found.

I'm just hoping to find some unique ideas, maybe learn about some more obscure classes, both base and prestige, that have unique and beneficial abilities. Please make them from the v3.5 and v3.0 rulebooks, I think that's a pretty wide scope. Thanks for the suggestions guys, I look forward to hearing about them.

DMM Clerics and Druids offer the most versatility as far as party roles go with the highest power.

other than that, get to know tome of battle, it is the key to being a dominant melee machine. as much as people tote wizards as being the best characters, i just find myself bored being a wizard after a while

[Arillius]

A Pathfinder Book's Smiter Cleric, one that focuses on their physical attack so that they can deal insane amounts of d6's on a melee hit with a greatsword and Channel Smite. last Ic ounted I could hit 7d6+10 at 8t level, and the ability to heal myself with negative energy from one of his domains.

From the same book a Necromancy Death Cleric. It focuses ont he channel negative energy feature for healing and commanding undead. The spontaneous inflict wounds I can use to heal myself because of the death domain. Things like Bloody Skeleton Dire wolves are great to for their relatively low hd, their capabilities as a mount I can heal, their regen of 2, ability to come back after being destroyed, and most of all trip. Barring getting one of those, and army of bloody skeletons is fun to be in the middle of and heal.

[Caphi]

Swordsage. If you aren't in the mood for arcane casting for any reason, but want to have a ton of insane tricks anyway, pick one up; their six disciplines cover shooting fireballs, walking in walls, turning invisible, punching out walls, teleporting, spontaneously learning to scent-track, doing ludicrous acrobatic stunts...

[Zovc]

A few classes I like are the Beguiler, the Factotum, the Psion, and the Swordsage.

The Beguiler is found in the Player's Handbook II (I strongly recommend this book). The class is meant to combine the Rogue with an Illusionist and an Enchanter--it doesn't get sneak attack dice but it does get a sort of sneak attack mechanic for its spells. I feel like this is one of the best designed spellcasters ever printed in 3.5 Dungeons and Dragons. Also note the fun mechanical synergy with prestige classes that improve your spell list--Because the Beguiler knows his entire spell list, he can greatly improve his versatility by adding to his spell list. Any race you can find with an intelligence bonus is a good race for a Beguiler, generally.*

The Factotum comes from Dungeonscape. Much like a bard, he serves as an excellent 'fifth wheel' to the party. Only, where the bard supports people in doing their thing, the Factotum joins them in doing their thing. The Factotum is a fun class on its own and has some silly tricks, but it's especially powerful in gestalt, since it can give itself extra standard actions eventually. Like the Beguiler, any race you can find that boosts your intelligence is a good choice for the Factotum.*

*The two that come to mind off the top of my head are both Elves. One you'll find there (taken from the Monster Manual), the Gray Elf. The other, Fire Elves, come from Unearthed Arcana.

The Psion comes from the Expanded Psionics Handbook. The Psion is a lot like the Wizard of the Psionic world. I recommend you give this class and Psionics in general a chance--make sure you understand them before you hate them (a lot of people who hate the system overlook small things). Again, races that boost intelligence are good for Psions, but the Psionic race Elan certainly deserves some special mention (same book).

Finally, the Swordsage is in the Tome of Battle. The Swordsage is, in many ways, what the monk wanted to be--especially if you use the Unarmed Swordsage variant from the same book! The Swordsage is just a super-cool melee class that doesn't need a full Base Attack Bonus. What's also cool is that almost any race can rock a Swordsage fairly well.

[Kythorian]

sun elves boost int too, but i forget what they are from.

Anyway...my favorite class is the wizard. I love having answers to everything and never having a situation where i just sit back and don't have anything to do. As for prc's, going off of the wizard, i would have to say master specialist(conjuration specialist) when i am playing battlefield control type(from complete mage), war weaver if i am a buffer wizard(Heroes of battle) to apply my buffs to all allies at the same time(though you do loose a caster lvl), and incantatrix(magic of Faerun) for metamagic wizard(gets boring after a while, but quite powerful), or (very occasionally because it gets annoying to keep up with) a malconvoker if i want a summoner(i think complete scoundrel, but am not 100% sure)

For others, DMM cleric(divine metamagic can be found in the complete divine) is fun, as previously pointed out, which is the route i go when i want a melee char(better in melee than any fighter, or even warblade(tome of battle), and all those nice divine spells too)

Archivist(heroes of horror) is a lot of fun too, since they can put all divine spells on their spell list(cleric, druid, paladin, etc...a lot of wizard spells are domain spells for certain clerics, so those too...if your DM is nice, divine bard...if your DM is insane, you can get all wizard spells from southern magician(or something like that) which are cast as divine spells for them). So probably has potentially the most massive spell-list, which is fun, but they depend on the DM allowing you to track down the scrolls of the spells you want to add to your spellbook, which keeps them in check(if the DM knows what they are doing)

[Kythorian]

Oh, and for races, in addition to the int races, whisper gnomes make GREAT wizards. +2 dex/con(great), -2 str/cha(dump stats anyway), small(bonus ac), plus some nice other random bonuses, and no real downside at all. They are in the Races of Stone.

[Optimystik]

It doesn't get much more unique (or fun to RP) than Binder.

You get to play a minigame with the DM every day, and very useful abilities. Plus you don't need to learn a new system.

[zephiros]

Wow, thanks guys, there's some great ideas here. Wasn't exactly expecting the thread to take off so fast.

Yeah, I've played Rogue, Fighter, Wizard, Barbarian, probably a few others before. As far as classes go I haven't really reached much beyond the standard, but as I get more into it it's something I'd definitely like to do.

Just as kind of a funny story to share with everyone, we were playing a b/s campaign one time (ignoring just about all the rules :P) and I convinced the DM to give me a Mindflayer Wizard, with no level adjustment, spells per day, spell failure, nothing. And he knew every spell of a level he could cast.

Also, for the first session, he pretty much let me cast anything except Wish. :P The sad part is, most of the people didn't break their characters that much (even though it was pretty much a "who can break theirs the most" competition) so everyone was a bit surprised when a level one wizard polymorphed a bugbear into a health potion, then proceeded to eat the second bugbear's head. :P

Needless to say, next week, we agreed to some slightly more stringent rules.

I actually have a kind of similar story from another broken campaign that I can share later on, though for the night, I'm off to bed. Thanks for the great ideas everyone, I'll keep a close watch here for new things.

For the people who mentioned Psion (I know there was at least one) good choice, I was actually researching that a bit today, before I came back to check the thread. I'll make sure to look at the other ones soon.

Again, feel free to throw in any relevant Prestige Classes. :P I haven't checked yet but I think all those mentioned were base ones. I do tend to play singleclassed characters, but that could change.

Starting a short campaign tomorrow with a friend based around the Book of Exalted Deeds. He requested me to be the Party Cleric, cleric of Pelor with Sun and Healing domains and taking Radiant Servant of Pelor once my requirements were met. Once I heard that the enemies would be exclusively undead, I readily agreed. :P

Anyways, thanks again everyone, I appreciate the awesome-sounding suggestions.



Edit: I was going to ask about Arillius' suggestion, I haven't before seen or heard of the Pathfinder's Book, and while I only did a quick search on Google I didn't really find anything matching. If anyone could help with that, that'd be great.

And to Optimystik, I've had my eye on Binders for some time. I've actually played a Shadowcaster before for a brief period, and seen a friend play a Truenamer (and witnessed how much that can wreck a DM's plans) so Binder is the only class from the Tome of Magic that I haven't witnessed yet. I must admit the premise is alluring.

[zephiros]

Apologies for the double post, but I'm really anxious to see what other people may recommend (and if they can explain about the Pathfinder's Book?)

Thanks for the help, everyone.

Edit: From Kythorian's post, is there a specific place where Divine Bard can be found?

[Morph Bark]

Plus you don't need to learn a new system.

Well, not a very complicated one anyway.


I like the Factotum, Warblade, Binder, Duskblade, Dragon Shaman and Marshal, personally, though the latter two mainly for use as followers, cohorts or hirelings (Bards as well, get your own personal cheer-leading rock band).

Typically, if it has a good use for Int or Cha, has some nifty abilities and isn't quickly taken out in melee, it's my kinda thing. Incarnum is great too, but it can feel overwhelming at first. Psionics is easy if you're familiar with spellcasting, but it doesn't offer that much new stuff that spellcasters can't get somewhere, somehow.

I want to try the Warlock sometime, too.

[Draz74]

Edit: From Kythorian's post, is there a specific place where Divine Bard can be found?

Behold, Unearthed Arcana answers your summons.

[zephiros]

Thank you Draz, I've been wondering though about the specific benefits of Divine Bard (or a Bard in general) as I can't say the class has ever really appealed to me, it always seemed a bit weak. Maybe someone can show me otherwise.

[Natael]

Some of my favorite character concepts (ones I've used more than once):

Human Walock (complete arcane for Warlock): I just absolutely love this class, touch attacks are easy to hit, I get to take 10 on use magic device, and I get a few fairly spiffy powers I can always use.

(whisper) Gnome Crusader (Tome of Battle for Crusader, Races of Stone for Whisper Gnome, otherwise use normal one):
I tend to go on an AC pimping spree here, get a beefy shield, maneuvers that make my defense better, and titan fighting. Makes me hard to hit, and some of that crusader stuff can compensate for low strength rather well.

Dwarf Sorcerer/Dragonheart Mage (DHM is Races of the Dragon):
Not a mechanically great choice (minus cha from the Dwarf, DHM losing some caster levels), but I love the dragon obsessed flavour and have not found a good substitute dragon themed caster (though I have not looked hard). Tend to go for this one when I have some awesome stat rolls/high point buy, and flaws are allowed.

Mechanically, not always the best choices (and some kind of meh), but a list of things I enjoy playing as a fair bit.

[zephiros]

Hmm, I like the idea of Warlock as well, and the Tome of Battle classes all look fantastic. Any particular reason why you would use a dwarf? It's not a great choice for Sorcerer, does it benefit the DHM somehow?

And still wondering if anyone can tell me about the Pathfinder Book?

Aside from that, I think I've got enough base classes to look at, maybe some Prestige? Same again, divine/arcane/psionic/melee/ranged/stealth/other Whatever prestige classes you like. I know there's been some already but I'd love to see more.

[subject42]

For base classes, I like the ones that have at will or per-encounter abilities. It means you don't need to randomly sleep. Good examples are Binder, Factotum, ToB, Warlock, and Dragon Disciple.

For prestige classes, I like the Deepstone Sentinel (ToB) and the Deepwarden. They're both highly Dwarf-centric, but you can get into them with a liberal application of the Stoneblessed Prestige class from Races of Stone.

[Prodan]

Hmm, I like the idea of Warlock as well, and the Tome of Battle classes all look fantastic. Any particular reason why you would use a dwarf? It's not a great choice for Sorcerer, does it benefit the DHM somehow?

That reminds me, Gold Dwarves.

[sonofzeal]

That reminds me, Gold Dwarves.

Gold Dwarves are cliche, and ever so slightly cheesy. They're also setting-specific.


Desert Dwarves (+2 Con, -2 Dex) are totally good to go though.

[Fouredged Sword]

For a spellcaster that isn't a wizard, take a good look at the dusk blade and the dread necromancer.

The Duskblade is a spellcaster that has no fear of the frount lines, casting spells into his sword to strike. You make a great gish class (caster who melee's)

Dread Necromancer is a great class for all things necromany. You get free negative energy damage at will as a touch attack. Turn yourself into a necropolitin and that is free self healing. You get DR and good undead centric spells.

[zephiros]

Thanks for the new ones guys, lots of great stuff to choose from here.

Again if anyone feels like putting in Prestige Classes that'd be cool. :P I'm not sure how many people actually read all the way down, I might make a different thread later on Prestige, but anyone who wants to suggest more Prestige or Base, they're certainly welcome.

Edit: This may be kind of a weird question, but for those who read Erfworld, I'd like something like Jack (the Foolamancer). I know somebody mentioned Beguiler, does anyone else know of any classes that you could kind of roleplay as "the charismatic weirdo" type of thing, and that uses illusionary magic?

[Drascin]

And to Optimystik, I've had my eye on Binders for some time. I've actually played a Shadowcaster before for a brief period, and seen a friend play a Truenamer (and witnessed how much that can wreck a DM's plans)

...by being so useless he caused his estimations on the party to be wrong, right? I mean, you basically have to break out the cheese just to make a Truenamer able to contribute...

Anyway, add another vote for the Binder. They're pretty fun to play.

[Optimystik]

Gold Dwarves are cliche, and ever so slightly cheesy. They're also setting-specific.

Actually, Gold Dwarves are in the DMG, thus they are core.

But even if you don't want to run them, Dream Dwarves are in Races of Stone and have the same stats.

[zephiros]

...by being so useless he caused his estimations on the party to be wrong, right? I mean, you basically have to break out the cheese just to make a Truenamer able to contribute...

Yeah, as it turned out our DM wasn't running them correctly. Like, very, very, very incorrectly. But it was a jokes campaign so I don't think anyone really minded. After reading up on them, I have to agree they aren't that great.

The way we did it though? Well, it ended up with a natural 20 roll turning the dragon's lungs into daggers. Don't ask where we came up with that. :P

[Greenish]

Thank you Draz, I've been wondering though about the specific benefits of Divine Bard (or a Bard in general) as I can't say the class has ever really appealed to me, it always seemed a bit weak. Maybe someone can show me otherwise.

Bards are actually pretty good. You can have a look at the handbook so you'll be forearmed when Mark Hall descents upon this thread.


One of my favourite PrCs is the Fist of the Forest from Comp. Champion. It has some slightly annoying fluff limitations*, but it turns your barbarian into a decent unarmed and unarmoured combatant in three short levels. Con to AC, 1d10 unarmed strike damage, scent and a bite attack are worth spending three levels in a full BAB, d10 HD, two good saves class.

*Yeah, well, if you voluntarily sleep indoors, buy prepared food etc. act civilized more than three times a month, you fall. Puts a bit of a damper on an urban campaign, which is a shame since the class makes an excellent tavern brawler.

[Morph Bark]

*Yeah, well, if you voluntarily sleep indoors, buy prepared food etc. act civilized more than three times a month, you fall. Puts a bit of a damper on an urban campaign, which is a shame since the class makes an excellent tavern brawler.

Now I wish I had a larger group to play with so we could do an Urban campaign and I could be a Fist of the Forest hobo so I could try my hand at both the great powers of the PrC and the roleplaying challenge.

[Greenish]

Now I wish I had a larger group to play with so we could do an Urban campaign and I could be a Fist of the Forest hobo so I could try my hand at both the great powers of the PrC and the roleplaying challenge.

Hehe, brilliant. The PrC specifies that you can't buy food, but you can get it by begging or stealing.

Disclaimer: The PrC isn't hugely powerful. Unarmed Strikes are expensive to enchant (unless your DM allows the Amulet of Natural Attacks), hard to make from special materials, and can't be two-handed. The cheapest way to improve AC is to wear armour, in which case you don't get Con to AC, and getting armour enhancements is more expensive.

Still, I like it.

[AvatarZero]

I was looking for anyone who felt like it to just let me know their favourite base or prestige classes, anything you want to give me.

I pretty much love any class that lets me use magic stealthily. Being good at more than one thing normally requires a prestige class (unless you're a Cleric or a Druid, and are therefore good at melee and magic), such as the Arcane Trickster or the more powerful Unseen Seer from Complete Mage. Every multiclassed caster should take the Practiced Spellcaster feat from Complete Arcane. There are also the Beguiler from the Player's Handbook 2 and the Spellthief from Complete Adventurer, which are base classes. I've never been interested in the Bard. Something about singing at people.

[balistafreak]

I've never been interested in the Bard. Something about singing at people.

While admittedly singing is "optimal" in that you don't need to dedicate a hand to hold an instrument in, I've heard hilarious stories about bards with two-handed axes.

[Greenish]

While admittedly singing is "optimal" in that you don't need to dedicate a hand to hold an instrument in, I've heard hilarious stories about bards with two-handed axes.

Perform (Percussion Instrument) and fight armoured foes?

[KingoftheTrees]

If you're going to be a Radiant Servant of Pelor, might I suggest the Alternate Class Feature: Spontaneous Domain Casting from the Healing domain (found in the PHB2)? The class feature of the RSoP Empowers, then later Maximizes, and then at 10th level Maximizes AND Empowers spells cast from the Healing domain. If you spontaneously cast from there, you will be a walking healing battery and everyone will want to keep you alive. Then be sure to take the Glory domain and ruin any undead's day. :)