Gladius Legis
Legend
Anyway, to actually answer the question, best designed are Paladin and Rogue. Worst designed, BY FAR, is the Ranger; in fact, it's the only 5e class I truly disapprove of. Guess that's why it's getting revised.
You would be surprised how few encounters you have in a day, when the paladin is encouraged to go all-out with no limits, and the DM isn't willing to cheat in order to prevent resting. You can only contrive a time limit to get through a gauntlet dungeon so many times before players lose interest in your grind-fest. Nine adventuring days out of ten, the Paladin might as well go all-out, since there's unlikely to be more than two encounters in a single day.Just because the Paladin can burn its spell slots rapidly doesn't mean it should. And 9 times out of 10, you shouldn't. Unless you desperately need to kill the boss and you're sure it's the big bad of the adventure ...
That is completely not my experience, but whatever.You would be surprised how few encounters you have in a day, when the paladin is encouraged to go all-out with no limits, and the DM isn't willing to cheat in order to prevent resting. You can only contrive a time limit to get through a gauntlet dungeon so many times before players lose interest in your grind-fest. Nine adventuring days out of ten, the Paladin might as well go all-out, since there's unlikely to be more than two encounters in a single day.
No, like every single other class with limited resources, it's entirely up to the player to decide whether to be more conservative with their resources or to decide when to burn them. The Paladin is no different. I'm not going to be burning 3 Divine Smites in a battle with a few Orcs. That's ridiculous.Why they'd design one class to burn through its resources over the course of 1-2 fights, while every other class is designed to go all day long, we'll never know.
No, every other class is limited to spending one spell slot per round, due to the injunction against casting a spell with an action and a bonus action in the same round; at most, they might get up to two per round, if a situation presents itself for them to cast a spell as a reaction. Paladins, uniquely, can spend two spell slots along with their attacks and cast a spell as a bonus action or reaction if they feel like it; since their slot usage isn't based around spells that cost an action to cast, they get to bypass the universal slot-expenditure-rate limitation.No, like every single other class with limited resources, it's entirely up to the player to decide whether to be more conservative with their resources or to decide when to burn them. The Paladin is no different. I'm not going to be burning 3 Divine Smites in a battle with a few Orcs. That's ridiculous.
Well, yes, the Paladin is capable of dumping a lot of resources into one big nova. That's one of their intentional design functions. The class is clearly working as intended and designed, whether you like how it works or not. Note how that's different from, say, the Ranger, a class that to this day I STILL couldn't identify a distinguishing function for.No, every other class is limited to spending one spell slot per round, due to the injunction against casting a spell with an action and a bonus action in the same round; at most, they might get up to two per round, if a situation presents itself for them to cast a spell as a reaction. Paladins, uniquely, can spend two spell slots along with their attacks and cast a spell as a bonus action or reaction if they feel like it; since their slot usage isn't based around spells that cost an action to cast, they get to bypass the universal slot-expenditure-rate limitation.
I played the same adventure and had well more than just two combats per day. If your DM is letting you long rest after just two combats every time, your DM probably doesn't know what they're doing. Occam's Razor explanation.In the game I played, which was Princes of the Apocalypse (and therefore somehow legitimized as an intended method of play), the Paladin would frequently use Action Surge to smite four times in a round. (To be fair, the Bard and Cleric would also use Action Surge, and cast two spells in a round; my Rogue was the only character who hadn't multi-classed into Fighter, and it showed.) Those combats rarely lasted long, and it was rare for us to face more than two combats in a day. In the few encounters against non-boss enemies, the Paladin simply wouldn't smite at all, since regular enemies present zero threat in the face of the ludicrously-fast default natural healing rate.
I didn't say it was unintended. I said it was bad. Which it is, empirically, because it is noticeably disruptive when compared to the other classes. It enable the five-minute workday game flaw, in a way which the spellcasting classes were intelligently designed to avoid.Well, yes, the Paladin is capable of dumping a lot of resources into one big nova. That's one of their intentional design functions. The class is clearly working as intended and designed, whether you like how it works or not.
I like the concept but like you said, unless you open up the spell list, the spell restrictions knock it down a grade for me. I think the emphasis on doing damage with evocation spells was too restricting. The first and second level evocation list doesn't seem any better than plain weapon attacks. I'm not going to get excited about finally getting to cast an 8d6 fireball at 13th level, 8 levels after full casters, when I can make three weapon attacks every turn. I'd rather have spells that give me some sort of help in melee like Mirror Image. Also, Arcane Charge, which seems like it should be the signature EK move, shows up very late. I think it should be a 7th level ability once you get access to 2nd level spells. An EK that had a 1/3 progression through Warlock instead of Wizard would be cool! Get a pact weapon. Use War Magic to cast Eldritch Blast and then make a bonus weapon attack. Hex your opponent's strength for disadvantage against your grapple checks. Cloak yourself in darkness. So many possibilities there.What do people think of the Eldritch Knight? I think it is a very interesting design and can serve as a base for lots of interesting characters, especially if you open up the schools allowed.