Which Class or classes do you feel are unbalanced-too powerful?

[Merlion]

I am curious to see which classes people feel are a bit stronger than they should be.
Of course it can be pretty subjective and campaign dependent, but looking mostly at the mechanics themselves, in the assumed baseline of the game.
Also, measuring classes against their general group (for those that have just one). Obviously spellcasters can do a lot of things that martial types cant.
Note also that I am thinking in terms of the class as a whole. Wizards for instance have some 8th and 9th level spells that are probably over the top, but thats not enough to unbalance the class...just the spells.


My vote is for the Cleric. Full spellcasting with 9 levels of spells, lots of slots, and automatic access to the whole list and a number of toe-stepping spells, full armor prof, medium BAB, d8 hit die, and the two most important saves in the game as good catagories along with the games best defensive spells.

Also the Druid may be a little much for some of the same reasons, although their spell list is more limited and they dont have the armor prof or fighter-upstaging spells. Still as a full caster they dont really need a d8 or good Fort saves

 

[Merlion]

Hmmm...people are actually voting for the Monk as overpowered? That seems odd..

 

[Merlion]

Also a small note: I would apreciate if people would, if they have time, post at least briefly to state their vote and why they made it. I'm getting a few that surprise me a bit and I'd like to know more

 

[Drowbane]

I clicked "none". However it is more my view that a handful of the classes are fine, the rest are kinda weak.

The ones I think are weak are listed on your other thread....

 

[melkorspawn]

I'd rather face a level 12 anything than a level 10 cleric. Clerics are scary.

 

[irdeggman]

I voted none.

Reason being even though mechanically a cleric is a tad (and only a tad) more powerful it is still (as a whole) the class people take as a last resort. Even though the spontaneous casting helped to make them less of a pure "band aid" than before and the bard picked up some curing spells in his spell list - the class is still seen (by and large) as the designated healer.

Most people I've played with only take cleric as a part of multiclassing - which even further reduces their benefits, IMO.

 

[Nonlethal Force]

I voted for none as well.

All the classes have their highpoints and low points. But honestly, just as a good DM should be able to design a situation that helps one character shine over the rest ... a good DM should be able to design a situation that frustrates one character over the other.

With as playtested as these books (especially Core Rules) are by this point ... I don't think any of the classes are over the top - or else that's the class every DM would whine about and everyone would play. The fact that I don't believe there is such a class (I.E. there are gripes about them all and people have a broad range of favorites) demonstrates to me that they are pretty balanced.

Honestly, I think DMs need to take it upon themselves to be more creative instead of whining about the power of some classes. That sounds really harsh, I know. But I think it is true. When I DM I hold myself accountable to designing situations where different characters shine and where different characters get frustrated.

 

[CGoat]

When was the last time you had a group of people all want to be clerics? What? Never? thats strange because they are so much more powerfull than all the other classes... come on if I hear more people complaining about how uber clerics are.. I'm... going... to.. uumm forget it. I'm in a really sour mood today this is the second post that I've gone off on something. Its a good thing that my sunday night group is playing an evil game ... its pretty fun. A good change from being the good guys all the time. We are all moderatly evil...cept the cleric who's already killed off two other PC's... Oh.... damn now I have to worry about being killed by the cleric... cause... he's Uber and I could never do anything to hurt.... oh wait what am I thinking my guy is second level... and has 37 hitpoints. Which means first thing I did was make an alliance with the cleric cause I want my best friend to be able to heal all my damage. As long as I'm still usefull for him I'm all set. Life is looking good.

 

[the Jester]

Clerics are a bit deliberately overpowered.

 

[dcollins]

When was the last time you had a group of people all want to be clerics?

When was the last time you had a group of people all want to be the same anything?

In my experience, in the modern RPG home-play era, players almost always want to stand out and be different and individual, even if it costs them to do so. Even if you could prove that one class was twice as powerful as all others, I expect half of any group would refuse to play it because it was too boring. (In fact, I've tried to get a party of all dwarven clerics going, and encountered overwhelming resistance to the idea.)