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

[Runa]

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]

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...

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]

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]

I recently discovered that I love illusionists. Before that, I mostly liked to play buffbot clerics, oddly enough.

[Edea]

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 ).

[Temp.]

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]

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]

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]

Skillmonkeys and spontaneous casters. Specifically, the Beguiler and Rogue. Best when combined with Whispergnomes (but then, so is everything) . I think somewhere along the line, the cheeky comic relief with a big bag of tricks just clicked with me.

[Suzuro]

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]

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]

Although usually on other systems and not in D&D, I always enjoyed the fighter types.

[Agamid]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

I like being the buffer and healer

Well, so do I

[bosssmiley]

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.

[Charity]

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]

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.

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]

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]

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 ) so he works better for me.
What can I say? I'm a sucker for the classic "knight in shiny armor" stereotype.

[DizzyD]

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]

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]

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]

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]

I've always been happiest playing a human fighter, I suppose. That's been my main class of choice since the 70's.

[ArtifexFelicis]

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.