Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
What class looked bad "on paper" but you found suprisingly good in play?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Stalker0" data-source="post: 8100173" data-attributes="member: 5889"><p>While theory is good, there is always that time where the rubber hits the road, and sometimes the theory holds up, and sometimes your pleasantly surprised that it exceeded your expectations.</p><p></p><p>What class did you look at in the book and go "eh....it doesn't look that great". But when you actually saw it in game, it was very good?</p><p></p><p></p><p>For my group, it was the barbarian. On paper it looked "ok", a decent fighter type with good tanking and decent damage, but nothing really special. My players who are often spellcaster heavy kind of scoffed at the "simple class".</p><p></p><p>But having seen barbarians in play all the way up to 20th level... they are AWESOME!</p><p></p><p>1) They DO NOT DIE. It was clear that on paper they were a "tank", but there tankiness is just incredible in play. The resistance to weapons can double their hp in certain fights, and its very noticeable against creatures with good to hit rolls. High AC is nice but its swingy, sometimes it does well, and sometimes you become a pancake. But no matter what, the barbarian keeps on swinging. And at higher levels this becomes even more noticeable.</p><p></p><p>I've seen players that were normally conservative in combat just go to town with a barbarian, running forward and diving into danger. Just last session one of my players who was 400 ft away from the action decided that this would not do, and so rode a ballista bolt into battle!</p><p></p><p>2) Great Damage. At first you look at the rage bonus and go "that's it?", and you think that barbs don't do a lot of damage. However, the real trick is reckless attack. With advantage on basically all attack rolls, you are hitting more often AND getting more crits. Its very noticeable when you see it used frequently.</p><p></p><p>3) The power of athletics. This is where the freedom of 5e combat can hold hidden power within a class. The barbarian is almost always going to have a 20 strength and advantage on strength checks....aka a very good athletics check. And once you get that check to a certain level, it opens up a lot of options. I've had barbs grapple and throw people off of cliffs, grab magic items from casters and smash them in front of their faces, rip down key support pillars to have terrain smash down on foes, etc. When you have a godly athletics and your opponent does not, a creative player can really get in their face and abuse it.</p><p></p><p>4) Immunity to Charm is great. Ok, not a barbarian core power, but my group still remembers the time the Barbarian got "charmed" by a dragon, made his bluff to make the dragon think it was charmed, which let him get right up to the dragon and just beat the crap out of it. Immunities are always useful in the hands of a good DM and creative player, and considering that immunity to charm removes one of the barbs greatest weaknesses (the risk the barb is turned against the party), it went from a "that's nice" ability, to a "omg this is a amazing" one.</p><p></p><p></p><p>So what classes surprised you when you saw them in play?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Stalker0, post: 8100173, member: 5889"] While theory is good, there is always that time where the rubber hits the road, and sometimes the theory holds up, and sometimes your pleasantly surprised that it exceeded your expectations. What class did you look at in the book and go "eh....it doesn't look that great". But when you actually saw it in game, it was very good? For my group, it was the barbarian. On paper it looked "ok", a decent fighter type with good tanking and decent damage, but nothing really special. My players who are often spellcaster heavy kind of scoffed at the "simple class". But having seen barbarians in play all the way up to 20th level... they are AWESOME! 1) They DO NOT DIE. It was clear that on paper they were a "tank", but there tankiness is just incredible in play. The resistance to weapons can double their hp in certain fights, and its very noticeable against creatures with good to hit rolls. High AC is nice but its swingy, sometimes it does well, and sometimes you become a pancake. But no matter what, the barbarian keeps on swinging. And at higher levels this becomes even more noticeable. I've seen players that were normally conservative in combat just go to town with a barbarian, running forward and diving into danger. Just last session one of my players who was 400 ft away from the action decided that this would not do, and so rode a ballista bolt into battle! 2) Great Damage. At first you look at the rage bonus and go "that's it?", and you think that barbs don't do a lot of damage. However, the real trick is reckless attack. With advantage on basically all attack rolls, you are hitting more often AND getting more crits. Its very noticeable when you see it used frequently. 3) The power of athletics. This is where the freedom of 5e combat can hold hidden power within a class. The barbarian is almost always going to have a 20 strength and advantage on strength checks....aka a very good athletics check. And once you get that check to a certain level, it opens up a lot of options. I've had barbs grapple and throw people off of cliffs, grab magic items from casters and smash them in front of their faces, rip down key support pillars to have terrain smash down on foes, etc. When you have a godly athletics and your opponent does not, a creative player can really get in their face and abuse it. 4) Immunity to Charm is great. Ok, not a barbarian core power, but my group still remembers the time the Barbarian got "charmed" by a dragon, made his bluff to make the dragon think it was charmed, which let him get right up to the dragon and just beat the crap out of it. Immunities are always useful in the hands of a good DM and creative player, and considering that immunity to charm removes one of the barbs greatest weaknesses (the risk the barb is turned against the party), it went from a "that's nice" ability, to a "omg this is a amazing" one. So what classes surprised you when you saw them in play? [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
What class looked bad "on paper" but you found suprisingly good in play?
Top