What was your favorite class?

[raichen817]

Hi guys,

One of my friends is new to D&D and trying to pick a class. I just figured someone here could toss out some ideas for some fun classes they played (PHBI & PHBII primarily as our DM is limiting us, but open to other classes if he overlooks them) and how they played them (feats, fighting style, etc.)

Cheers!

[erok0809]

I'm always a fan of druids. Really hard to mess it up for new people. Just take natural spell as a feat at 6th level, that's all you really need.

[stanprollyright]

I like skillmonkeys, and the skill system is one of the easiest parts of the game to grasp. Skilled characters have lots of utility outside of combat, which is really useful to new players who might be inclined to think of tabletop RPGs like a combat board game or video game. My favorite classes are Bard and Factotum, but neither is particularly noob-friendly. I personally dislike Rogues, but they are the quintessential skillmonkey, they're pretty simple to build and play, and they have the capacity to do a lot of burst damage (which is always fun for new players). TWF dagger throwers can be pretty sweet. An archer Ranger might be good too - they have almost as many skills and can hold their own in a fight better than a Rogue; taking archery feats and switching between a composite longbow and a greatsword is usually a good bet, plus you get to be Aragorn. One of my early characters I remember fondly was a Duskblade - combining sword and sorcery is just SO D&D. It was far from optimal, but my build was Rogue 1/Duskblade X with TWF. The Rogue level was purely for skills. I had a quarterstaff at the start, but eventually went sword and board with Shield Bash. Druids are insanely powerful with minimal effort and nearly impossible to mess up, but they combine the complexity of a full caster with the bookkeeping nightmare of wildshape and the added hassle of keeping track of a whole separate character. Make sure your friend is up to it before suggesting a Druid. Barbarians are simple and fun - grab Power Attack and go. Follow up with Cleave, Improved Trip (from Wolf Totem), and Knockdown and feel like a one-man-army. Wizards, Clerics, Bards, and Paladins should generally be avoided by noobs. If you're planning to help your friend with spell selection, a Sorcerer can be really fun and easier than a prepared caster, but I'd still recommend staying away from full casters in general. A lot of new-ish players like Monks for the flavor and the effectiveness of flurry of blows at low levels, but they totally suck and there's nothing you can do about it. Fighter is the easiest class to master but they can get boring really quickly. I'd only recommend a Fighter for a "learn the rules" one-off.

I know I didn't really narrow it down much, but hopefully my explanations of WHY will be useful and informative.

[martixy]

I like skillmonkeys...factotum...

Dang, missed the train on that one.

Well, in this case - let me take Psion - so many shenanigans!

[LentilNinja]

Warlock. Mainly the first couple of levels before I dual-progress it with other classes :P Its a lot of fun to be a Cleric swinging an Eldritch Glaive about, or being a Sorcerer and doing Spellblast shenanigans.

[Bobbybobby99]

I've always been a fan of Spontaneous Cloistered Clerics, myself. They're skill monkeys, with a simple casting dynamic (in contrast to regular clerics), and they have an increased importance placed on domains (which I find very fluff appropriate).

[Curmudgeon]

I personally dislike Rogues, but they are the quintessential skillmonkey, they're pretty simple to build and play ...

The bolded part is entirely wrong. Rogues may be the single most complex class to build and play effectively. I usually require a couple dozen sources for a Rogue character. WotC did a poor job of creating the Rogue, but provided solutions to most of the problems; it's just that these solutions are scattered across many supplements.

That complexity is why the Rogue is my favorite class.

[nedz]

I like variety - since I mainly DM I have this covered.

In terms of playing: well I like illusionists and skill monkeys which has pointed me at Beguiler.

I also have a fondness for Ranger type characters - though you can do a lot better, buildwise, than to use that class.

I quite like unusual cleric type characters. These are often the strongest in terms of role-play.

I also like multi-threat characters because they have more options.

[Nosta]

I have to say Duskblade has some really cool fluff
but I also think crusader is a really nice class

[WeaselGuy]

I personally like mounted combat characters. One of my all time favorite characters was a Kobold Ranger/Wild Plains Outrider, who charged into combat riding a Dire Weasel (go figure). Mounted combat isn't really the easiest things for new players though, which leads me to my 2nd favorite character, a blaster warlock. He wasn't even the most optimized character, but it's really easy (and kinda fun) to just point your finger at something 200 ft away and Eldritch Blast it for multiple d6's of damage. I took a couple levels of fighter and used the bonus feats for basic archery feats, and then took item crafting feats, since I hadn't found these forums at the time and had almost zero clue how to optimize. Hell, I'm pretty sure I was a Half-Elf. I do remember maxing out UMD, Spellcraft, and a few Knowledges (probably Religion and Arcana).

The best part about a Blaster-Lock? You don't give jack-crap about your ability scores. Sure, Charisma is nice if you want high spell DC's, but not necessary. Dexterity helps for making ranged touch attacks, but seriously, there aren't that many typical opponents with touch ACs higher than 12ish. Constitution is always nice for more HP, but if I'm using Fell Flight and Eldritch Spear to tag you from 150 ft up in the air, there's not much I have to worry about getting hit from. Wisdom is a total dump stat, unless you really want to optimize sniping, in which case your Spot skill will come in handy, but again, hardly necessary. Intelligence gives you more skill points, but you're not a skill-monkey. And like most casters, you laugh at a Strength score. So long as you can carry your Heward's Handy Haversack, you're good.

[LoyalPaladin]

Paladin is clearly my favorite class, but Ranger is a close second!

I have to say Duskblade has some really cool fluff

Duskblade definitely is a neat class, as it gets a little of everything.

[ExLibrisMortis]

I like erudites, particularly fluff-wise. You can learn and use every spell and power, without any of the hand-waving bat-feces nonsense.

[CyanEyed]

Aegis or Warder or both. I like being on the front line, but also having neat toys, basically.

[Âmesang]

I like to keep things "simple" and tend to stick with Dungeons & Dragons 3.5/SRD core, at least for base classes. My favorite has always been sorcerer due in large part to the flavor, the idea of a caster not just knowing how to cast spells, but having this magical ability as a natural part of their very being — as if wizards know magic, but sorcerers are magic (especially if buying cross-class ranks in Use Magic Device and taking the Eschew Materials feat). Having no need for a spellbook or to prepare spells in advance always seemed more "powerful" in my mind, but of course the lack of bonus feats, skills, and the limited spell selection means there's also enough to keep myself personally challenged.

Speaking of simple, I've always enjoyed barbarians for straight-forward damage dealing and damage resistance with just enough skills and abilities to do slightly more things than just hit stuff. I like paladins for the beacon of hope they can represent (and one can become; possibly my inner Ultima fan sneaking out), rogues for being the sneaky scoundrel type, and monks because, like paladins, they symbolize physical and mental self improvement (and because I'm a big fan of 70's/80's martial arts movies/animés like The Street Fighter, Fist of the North Star, and Dragon Ball).

[Quertus]

I like characters I build; I find new players I pay with like it best when they explain an idea, and I / the party tells them how to accomplish that in system. You want to play an archer who specializes in stealth? A kung-fu fighter who screams "haduken" and throws fireballs? A shapechanging spy? Ok, let's see what we can come up with.

My personal favorite 3.x character was a cleric. Why? Well, lots of reasons.

Undead. I love the undead, and clerics are great at creating and controlling the undead.

Durability. The character actually survived long enough to build up a history, and fun stories.

Utility. I asked the party what they needed out of a cleric, and the character (usually) exceeded their expectations.

Versatility. When the party needed something, like a skill monkey, or AoE damage, I could step up if necessary. "there's a spell for that." (But finite spells meant I couldn't do everything, keeping the build from stepping on other people's toes, even if someone less considerate were playing it.)

Humor. Nothing says terror like riding a Dragon... Until it falls out of the sky when it breathes on you, because zombie dragons only get partial actions.

Complexity. The character made some of the rules - especially the item creation rules - cry.

Simplicity. If I was having a bad day, the character could be dead simple to play, without losing much.

Backstory. The character had a rich backstory, and was secretly connected to a previous character of mine.

RP. The character had its own distinctive personality, world view, goals, etc, that was fun for me to roleplay.

Evil. 3.x evil presented a new challenge: how to play someone who delights in the suffering of others, but play it in a party-friendly way. Enter the party heal-bot, who heals the party in the slowest way possible: vigor, with spell points. And who uses spells to temporarily bring back dead party members, to watch them choose to suffer even after death.

Meme. The character was distinctive and enjoyable. I ran several variants on one-shots, and gave them version numbers. I was told that the DM even started creating NPC varients of the character.

So, that tells some of the things I like - many of which, in this example, were facilitated by running a cleric. What a given player will enjoy will depend, in part, on their personality and expectations. And cleric can probably facilitate most of them ;)

[Barstro]

One of my friends is new to D&D and trying to pick a class.

I'd say that your reason for the question makes the answers you receive meaningless. This is a site where most of the readers and posters have been playing for a long time and have relatively great understanding of the game and the mechanics. Their favorites might be poor choices for a new player. I think you'd be better served by asking your friend what he wants his character to be able to do and then working around that.

To answer your question; I like versatile characters who assist the party as a whole (bard, cleric, wizard). However, the game has advanced so much since I started playing that I doubt I can play any of them to full potential.

If I were starting out as a new player, I'd probably want something with enough hit points that I wouldn't die from any of the simple mistakes I was bound to make and would certainly not want to be the party's face.

[MisterKaws]

I'd say that your reason for the question makes the answers you receive meaningless. This is a site where most of the readers and posters have been playing for a long time and have relatively great understanding of the game and the mechanics. Their favorites might be poor choices for a new player. I think you'd be better served by asking your friend what he wants his character to be able to do and then working around that.

To answer your question; I like versatile characters who assist the party as a whole (bard, cleric, wizard). However, the game has advanced so much since I started playing that I doubt I can play any of them to full potential.

If I were starting out as a new player, I'd probably want something with enough hit points that I wouldn't die from any of the simple mistakes I was bound to make and would certainly not want to be the party's face.

Molgrelfolk dragonborn incarnate for 600 hp?

[Mjr Lee Fat]

clericclericclericclericclericclericclericclericcl ericclericclericclericclericclericclericclericcler ic

But really though, I love clerics. My longest tenured character was a cleric/runecaster. I've probably made 10 different ones based off of different abilities. They have access to so many different spells, and they're honestly pretty difficult to mess up for new people (note: "messing up" doesn't mean the same as "not optimizing"). They have a variety of spells, decent combat abilities, and good saves. The only real drawback is their skills, which are not good, but could easily be covered by another member of the part.

[Telonius]

My very first character was a Sorcerer. Fun, charismatic, pretty easy to play (once you made the initial spell selection), rarely ran out of magic missiles or fireballs. I took Improved Familiar for a Pseudodragon as soon as I could, because Pseudodragons are awesome. It wouldn't win any optimization contests, but it was fun and simple.

[MisterKaws]

Oh, remembered a nice one: Aeshkrau Illumian Battle Stalwart Sorcerer, A.K.A: FIST MAGE.

[Aegis013]

The favorite character that I played was a Whisper Gnome Wizard/Shadowcraft Mage, but that is likely because that character lasted the longest and that group actually felt like it was making an impact on the setting. Managed 7 levels (from 3 to 10) over about 12 sessions, though we weren't able to see the completion of the story because the DM gave up mid-way. Every other D&D game I've played in except one has failed to get past session 3, because the DM gave up right after starting. Online games I've played in have all failed to make it a single level up (since PbP games aren't really measured in sessions), and also all failed to complete a single story arc. Though to its credit, one did manage to complete two minor side quests to get tiny amounts of progress toward the main plot, which is quite an achievement from my experience, though my character managed to be impressively ineffective every time there were any stakes despite being decently optimized.

As a DM, my games always reach some kind of completion, be it triumph, TPK, or non-death failure, so I have trouble understanding not finishing what you started, but oh well.

My favorite class changes based on my mood when it comes to theorycrafting. Usually, unusual tricks or weird interactions are the things that are most attractive to me, since the chance I'll actually get to play the character I design is negligible. Some that I often look longingly towards are Incarnate, Binder, and Paladin/Crusader.

[Warlocknthewind]

Well... Warlock.

What would you do with infinite resources? Shatter at will, to start. Animate Dead can provide allies of enemies without Material Components (aside from dead thing) for a limited time. Snag some nifty Corpse Crafting feats, if it suits you.

1: Mortal-Bane, Empowered, E. Chained Blast, killing Mooks.
2: Animate Mook nearest other Mooks.
3: Mooks mash Zombmook into paste.
4: Zombmook Explodes, killing other Mooks.
*5: I wish I could Fell Animate The Dead Walk. It's the Rinse and Repeat that more Animate Dead should be.

They are NOT a spell caster, or arcane specialist hardly. I'd place them in the same category as a rogue, or scout, but not quite a skill-monkey. Its ALL your invocation choice, its even more meaningful than a sorcerer's spell choice. Spider Climb + Darkness(w/meld into shadow) and you'r. e more ninja than a ninja will EVER be

[Tvtyrant]

Beguiler, dread necromancer, warmage and druid. The first three are versatile but relatively simple, Druid is like playing a whole party.

[mostholycerebus]

By far, the reach Warder. I took Silver Crane as well. This was the first non-spellcaster I've ever played that always had something to appreciably contribute. Plenty of social skills, lots of combat options for different situations, could nova on a BBEG or take on hordes. With good maneuver selection, he was also great with ranged weapons or mounted. True tanking is super fun in d20, and completely new to me even though I've been playing since 2e came out. Just a nonstop blast to play.

[Willie the Duck]

One of my friends is new to D&D and trying to pick a class. I just figured someone here could toss out some ideas for some fun classes they played (PHBI & PHBII primarily as our DM is limiting us, but open to other classes if he overlooks them) and how they played them (feats, fighting style, etc.)

Is this person new to the ideas within D&D as well, or is he familiar with the tropes of clerics as religious folk in a polytheistic land, and casting "white" magic, wizards casting fireballs and
summoning undead, and thieves skulking down corridors and shivving people (bad guys, hopefully) in the kidneys when they aren't looking?

The one thing I'd warn about 3.5 is that the simplest ideas conceptually (big knightly fighter with weapon and armor, armor less martial artist laying down the crouching tiger, etc.) are not the easiest to play (and certainly not the easiest to make survivable).

[Alea]

Crusader is by-far my favorite class for new players. It gets maneuvers, which are easy to pick (just take whatever sounds cool; it will be!) and that reduces the need to optimize feats (you can take a cool-sounding-but-weak feat and it’ll be OK), and then during combat you always have something to do, but without analysis paralysis because you’ll only have a few maneuvers granted at a time, making round-by-round decision making easy.

Plus the class is strong, durable, and effective, so he won’t have to be too careful and he’ll be awesome without having to try too hard.

[TerrickTerran]

I like monks despite all their flaws, but for most games I like Psions and Artificers.

[Crake]

I'm personally a big fan of the unarmed swordsage. Even without armor proficiency, you can grab leather armor, then masterwork studded leather, then a mithril chain shirt and be completely fine for AC, and all the maneuvers to choose from, and fun things you can do, from going invisible, to teleporting around, to shooting fire from your fists, to throwing big hulking men on their asses, it's just really fun and can be so easily built in different ways just by choosing different maneuvers.