"Favorite D&D classes" Topic

Never went on to 2nd Edition in any degree besides an expeimental party so this may get messy.

What classes were or are you favorite ones to play? And what was it that made you prefer it? Any edition (please include what edition because it does vary a lot for some classes and others changed, IMO, tremendously between editions.)

For me, in order, it was:

#1 – Clerics – Human, although we added Dwarf and Elf as house rules Pretty quickly – (original and 1st edition AD&D.) Healing, fighting, turning undead (a pet paranoia for me both as player and PC,) and spell casting (especially after the Greyhawk supplement. A little bit of everything… Priests took the fun off Clerics for me.

#2 – Fighter (Original and First Edition) – Dwarf and Human – So basic, so simple, so open to role playing, so many weapons to choose from. I usually started with spear (or trident) for reach/underwater fights, Long bow or Crossbow (missile,) Long Sword (2 handed for Dwarf if the GM allowed) or some kind of sword, Mace (works better on some monsters then edged weapons.)

#3 – Fighter/Thief (1st Edition) – Dwarf almost exclusively although the wife had a cool Gnome F/T – basically a "mercenary at heart" Scout (before Scout existed officially IIRC.)

The rest are unrated but in order:

Magic User – Okay, I got one up to Wizard but what a crawl at lower levels! A great MU in a party is so cool but not a class I enjoyed at low level or played really well.

Thief – due to alignment (3 alignments in original D&D meant I was always Neutral in stead of Chaotic since Good was not an option) and I pretty much left this to others as a PC.

Monk – once, I had a PC Monk that my wife's gnome F/I PC had as a "best buddy" but his unrecoverable demise to Yuan-Ti actually upset her and I never repeated the class.

Illussionist – (1st Edition IIRC although I have a character write up for late original D&D that has experience points recorded) – a subtle class that suffered from weak magic at low levels in early editions of D&D.

There were other classes I toyed with once or twice (Paladin for instance) in stand alone games but never felt really attracted to them.

What's your favorite classes?

Gracias,

Glenn

LOL, for some I expect to hear that Recess was your favorite class…

My current favourite edition is 3rd. I enjoy playing ALL the charcters I have created!

I got bored of my Half-Celestial Cleric getting pushed around by higher level Clerics and Paladins. So she quietly became an Inquisitor that now goes around questioning the ethics of Clerics and Paladins that she meets (and finding a few demons sheltering in the guise of clerics as well!)

I also have a HalfOrc Barbarian with an exotic Orc Double Axe. He is a joy to play when one is tired from a hard day at work!

I enjoy playing my evocation specialist wizard (Hidden, Maximised, Empowered Fireballs! yeay!)

If you are talking OD&D, the elf was always cool. I also liked dwarf fighters. Mages were great once they got at least a second level spell. I also enjoyed the occasional cleric and human fighter.

Thieves I would only do as multi-classes with something else, as they were too weak otherwise

Rangers. Especially as they originally showed up in the Strategic review

Well…for D&D my favorites were Rogue and Paladin.

C&C, which I play now, has 13 book classes and I've added 7 home classes. So my fav's are now Rogue, Shaman, and Blade Dancer.

2nd Ed. Magic User/Thief. Or "Rogue Mage" as my character preferred.

Dwarf Fighter, I played him as a drunk who cared nothing about gold just beer.

I also loved a Paladin, who was a snob that did not like getting dirty.

Fun Stuff……………………..Doug

1st Edition characters, in order of appearance:

Elf Magicuser. Loved the arcane power, but this guy was totally Monty Haul. For some reason he could use a sword. Possessed all the iouin stones, a Robe of Scintillating Colors, a Staff of the Magi, a vorpal sword, an Elven cloak, more rings than I can recall, bracers of defense of AC so-low-don't-even-bother-to-swing-at-me-pal, and I don't recall what else. Had the pleasure of vorpalling Asmodeus on the 9th plane of Hell (permanent death). Over the top? Well… maybe a little.

Human Magicuser. Neutral. Played more for character. In some ways not far from Versuvius's character in The Order of the Stick, preceded by many, many years. Only not an elf. And definitely male.

Paladin: I really liked this character. Noble, humble, rather like the literary Parzival before I had ever read the tale. Still among my top characters. I *liked* being Lawful Good, defending the weak, etc. Adventures included the entire Against the Giants campaign, Ravenloft #1, among others.

Fighter: Barbarian in style, but not the barbarian character class. Fun character. Leap into a good fight and come out still swinging. Axe, fur, horned helmet; Hagar as a PC. Great fun.

Half-elf F/M/T: Almost might call this my "virtual Goth period." Dressed in black leather, wielded a bastard-sword with hilt and guard wrapped in black leather and the blade smoked black. Everything on this guy was black, though my reasoning was he liked to pull night jobs and didn't want to be seen. Did some second-story work, then stumbled on a nest of wererats lead by an evil illusionist with a secret lair hidden in the sewers of Greyhawk. Killed them all solo, then moved into their former digs; suh-weet. Still one of my favorite characters. I later used a version of him for the Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Blades computer games.

There were others, but these are the ones that stand out in my memory. As you can see, I tend to like some magical ability, but I also prefer to engage in the fight. Of them all, I took the paladin and the F/MU/T the furthest (at least in a legitimate sense; the level of the first MU doesn't count, as we gave out levels like candy on Halloween). I'd likely bring the paladin, the "goth" or the "barbarian" out today if invited for a game.

Half Elf. The universal response was "what's the other half?"

My favorite class to play was cleric. In my group it was 'least glamorous'. Everyone wanted to be a super strong fighter, powerful wizard, sneaky thief who made off with all the treasure. Until we got in a fight, then it was all "I need some healing." Not playing a good alignment, the cleric could wield some serious power just by withholding healing spells.

My favorite characters to play were a human fighter type mostly modeled after the viking/barbarian theme. Second favorite would have been the hafling thief.

I tend to play either big brutish fighter-types, or fragile magic-users.

One of the fun things about 3e was being able to run a dwarf wizard who had 2 levels of fighter. Taking 2 levels of fighter meant that the wizard spells were always a notch below what a single-classed wizard could do. For that reason, this PC never felt like he overshadowed the melee types. The extra HP and base attack bonus meant that he could hold his own for a little bit if someone got too close. That was one of the few times I was ever really satisfied by 3e's rather poor multi-classing system.

Bard.

A duo – a half-orc Cleric/Assassin, and an Illusionist (sort of like Penn and Teller, if Penn killed people…)

Usually I'm more intrigued by character/race combos and what the player does with them than saying 'I like this class over that class'. However, I'll give a go:

1. In 3.5 I ran a halfling barbarian/fighter that took people by surprise and was a hoot to play.

2. in 3 my buddy ran a dwarf ranger/bard that was also pretty awesome, and a different combo.

3. Two more 3.5 characters I enjoyed playing or seeing played--my friend's human Hexblade and my sorcerer/bard (Half-elf). Just fun characters.

In 3.5 I used to run a half-orc druid. He was definitely not min-maxed but was fun to play. Especially as he ended up being the party's spokesperson more often than not. It was neat haveing a half orc with the second highest charisma in the party (the other was a reclusive sorcerer who refused to delve in mundane matters). Role playing was always a lot of fun with this character.

Thief, Rogue.

I was there for the creation of the Illusionist class. Peter Aronson created them at MITSGS. It was always a pretty cool idea and I think one of the first "official" specialized classes.

Anyone remember "Duh Jock" class? It was introduced as satire in Dragon magazine in the early 80's. Football pads for armor, and wielding a +5 Holy Terror -- a hockey stick that knocks opponents teeth out on natural 20, decreasing charisma by one.

I remember a few others from Dragon. There was the Barbarian, Cavalier, Thief-Acrobat, Sentinel, Samurai, and Huntsman (anti-ranger).

Was struggling on how to answer this one, but Cpt Arexu made me remember all the fun of a Half Orc Cleric Assassin (still have my old gold Multi-Classed / Bard character sheet for that guy).

After that it would be Human MU, then 1/2 Elf Bard.

At least those were my picks in 1981…

I never transitioned to 2nd either. I may have stopped playing it by then, and I pretty much only played Runequest till '94.
While I still ran player characters, I mostly ran Paladins, as it suited my temperament. I don't think I have ever run an evil Character, but I have been Chaotic a few times.

Assassin, various classes often Gnome or Elf, sometimes disguised as fighter. Played second Ed and we seemed to have an endless Assssin-Wars series of sessions in my gaming group. Bit like a nuclear deterrent except no-one was deterred

DnD (White Box): Fighter
AD&D: Ranger
3.5: Ranger (especially the Human with 18 INT)
4e: Too soon to tell. Every class has worthwhile options and the fact that you need to work with other classes make the mix more fun. So far I like my Warlock and Cleric, my 9 yr old's Gnome Ranger lives up to his name, Deathranger. I'm looking forward to running a Warlord soon too.

I find classes one of the biggest weaknesses of D&D- the artificial restrictions that constricted role-play. Try telling Gandalf he couldn't use a sword! Or
"What are you doing?"
"Putting on the spare mail shirt"
"But you're a thief- you can't wear armour"
"Look- it's 10 miles to the next town, and frankly there is more likelyhood of bandits than locks and traps out here"
"But it won't work for you!"
"What do you mean 'won't work'? Are you trying to say metal knows who is wearing it and becomes more brittle when hit by a sword"

And as the 'sneekee' I can attest to the fact that leather can make more noise than mail (all of us NPCs studiously ignoring the squeaking of my mates armour as he crept up to us)

Gnome Giant Killer Prestige Class

Others:
Ranger
Wizard
Necromancer