Favorite/Least Favorite Class

[RedGalaxy00]

In one topic or another, someone will mention their favorite, or least favorite class. They won't give much reason, but it'll happen, sooner or later. Things are said, stuff is out, and it can't be taken back. (Well, technically, it can, since there's an edit button for posts, but I think my point was made anyways...)

So, having not seen this topic around before... and I've lurked long enough to know that if this topic existed, I'd have seen it at some point in the last year or so...

I was thinking of just limiting this to Pathfinder, since that's the system I know the best, but then it dawned on me that basically every table-top roleplaying game has a class feature, since it helps determine what a character does... so why not open this up to all versions/forms of D&D.

I guess the point of this topic will be to kind of give a reason as to why you love/hate a particular class, so people know where you're coming from just a bit more, when you disagree, or agree about a particular class feature, or ability... or something like that. (Actually, I just wanna know what people think of different classes, because I think it'll be fun.)

I guess I'll start, since I'm the one that's making this thread.

Favorite Class:
-Pathfinder Paladin/Paladin in General: I've always loved the stalwart hero with the big armor, and big shield, protecting the innocent from the harsh evil that the world wants to throw at them. Plus, for the most part, I feel like this class is so highly under-appreciated, always shoe-horned into being nothing but a goody-two shoes. I saw a motivational poster out there that said "Lawful Good doesn't mean Lawful Nice" and I think that is a perfect way to describe a paladin's personality to people who think of paladin's as nothing more then good guys who are good to be good.

Least Favorite Class:
-Pathfinder Gunslinger: I don't know how I feel about Guns in my games, since I've not used guns in my games, but I do have to admit, the idea of guns in a fantasy game doesn't sit well with me, even if its nothing but a new invention, and only a couple people have one. So, a class that revolves around that seems silly, if not completely stupid to me. I do understand the appeal of guns in a modern game, and I can understand having the rules so that they function, but to me, they just aren't my cup of tea, really.

(Well, I think that was a solid first post for this thread. So, what are your guys/ladies favorite/least favorite classes. Let me know.)

 

[Ahnehnois]

Favorite: Rogue
I like the open-ended nature of the class, the idea that you can do whatever you want if you're smart enough to figure out a way to make it work. I like that it's nonmagical, but not primarily focused on combat. It encourages and rewards tactical thinking.
I've yet to see a published version of the rogue that quite lives up to my idealized notion of it, but on principle, it's always been my favorite of the core classes.

Least Favorite: Paladin
For exactly the opposite reasons. Not open-ended at all, a class with a narrow set of mechanical abilities and code of conduct that basically tells you who you are. Encourages the player to be obstinate and antisocial. And for no good reason is the only martial class that emphasizes charisma or social interaction. Automatic ban for my games.

 

[Tuft]

Favourite:
Love the bard, especially the Pathfinder Bard, and even more the monk-ish bard archetype my DM has written: http://hastur.net/wiki/Mystic_Dancer_(Apath). Pathfinder's archetypes are really a wonderful way of tweaking and adapting classes.

I love to have some magic and a lot if skills, especially with a performance and social focus. The PF bard also has enough combat ability to get a lot of traction out of PF:s combat manouvers, especially when you don't need to feel the pressure to be a top damage dealer, but can go for what is fun --- and it is quite fun to see how much a mess you can make of the enemy lines once you have invested in enough Trip feats...

Pathfinder has a bunch of goodies there, both Versatile Performance, which do help the bard become quite the proverbial skill monkey, as well as keeping up the performance aspect, as well as the combat maneuver system, which keeps the fights from being boring slugfests.

For flavor, I do love the flashy performer/artist bard greatly over the celtic combat skald.

Least Favourite:
Fighter. Hate single-minded dedication to maximized damage. I find it both boring and leading to performance anxiety - something I play escapist fantasy RPGs to get away from. Never liked the Striker and Defender roles in 4E for the same reason, and the 3E and PF fighter are both those rolled into one.

 

[Storminator]

Favorite in any edition is cleric. I love the instant hooks into a setting. Campaigns usually spend an inordinate amount of time detailing their gods and faiths, and I love being able to play off that.

I'm hard pressed to come up with a least favorite. Barbarian? I don't think I've ever played one, but I don't have anything against them. I'm pretty sure there's nothing I wouldn't play.

PS

 

[Li Shenron]

Favourite: Wizard.

Traditionally, it's the most versatile/flexible class for designing an enormous variation of characters.

Cleric would be on par, if it wasn't for the fact that every edition insists in giving them knowledge of their whole spell list, effectively killing diversity.

Least favourite: Factotum.

For me a RPG is first and foremost a game of roles, and a class that lets you cover all roles defies the main point of the game.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

My favored edition is 4e.

My favorite class is warlord. When I ran 4e for real the first time, we had a player who picked a warlord. This person was really experienced with Warhammer 40K board games and it showed. He used tactics amazingly. One of my current games has a lazy warlord too.

It's pretty hard to pick a "favorite class" in 4e, actually, but I find I tend to like the "core four" since they're less flavor-restrictive. I like the PH1 wizard, cleric and warlord, and the Essentials knight, slayer, thief and fire sorcerer.

Late 4e really ran out of creative steam as the splatbook fiasco continued. There's numerous terrible classes, usually ones that can't fulfill their roles (seeker, bladesinger, a few others), or have weird combos like low-Strength assassins running around with greataxes (talking about the avenger here). But IMO the worst was the vampire, because it wasn't just terrible mechanically, the flavor was offensive. A vampire base class. Seriously! It's like watching a beloved TV show definitely jump the shark.

I have experience with 2e, 3e, and Pathfinder too. For 2e and 3e I'll just stick to the core rules.

Special Note: The paladin code of conduct was possibly the worst thing I have seen in core D&D before 4e. But it's kind of lame to keep saying "paladin" as worst.

For 2e my least favorite class was the thief for numerous reasons. Most players took the name too literally and tried to pick pocket everything in sight, landing them in trouble with the law. Often other PCs would get caught up in this too. Their skills were too weak at low level (and unstoppable at high; this was before skill DCs) and in combat they were a joke. Once per encounter unreliable backstab... lame. (Kender thieves were worse. Kender are even worse than paladins in the RP department, and kender thieves, called handlers, don't even have backstab. So you have someone who can get you into trouble but can't fight.)

My favorite was the fighter. Weapon Specialization was actually class-defining back then, and I liked the good saves. (I wasn't a fan of exceptional Strength, or indeed the entire 2e ability score system.)

For 3e my least favorite was the bard. You were basically a rogue crossed with a limited sorcerer, and while you had unique abilities, they just involved handing out small bonuses. You were there to sing a combat song, nothing more. (If 3.0, ranger was the worst. Magic that made no sense, a very heavily-enforced combat style, more hit points than a skirmisher needs, not enough skills...) The monk almost made it due to poor mechanics, but the flavor was half-okay.

I didn't really have a favorite, but I tended to play wizards and non-magical rangers.

For Pathfinder the wizard and cleric became much more enjoyable to play at low-level. I'd say wizard for favorite, because the cleric's spell list is still too broad. I like the spell-like abilities. They scale poorly if at all, but you only need them at low-levels when your spells/day rating really sucks.

My least favored Pathfinder class is the gunslinger. The moment you add guns to a game it suddenly becomes far more realistic as gun fans will not tolerate balanced but unrealistic guns the way they will tolerate balanced but unrealistic bows and swords... real-life guns are not balanced, and unbalanced rules aren't fun. Who wants to play a gunslinger with realistic load times?

Paizo attempted to use long loading times as a balance technique. (You can target touch AC against fairly close by opponents, but it's "balanced" because you can only shoot once per round. You have to pay a lot for a gun, but you only need to pay for it once. Unless you buy a lot and pre-load them, which is what happened in real life. You have to pay a lot for bullets, but after some levels the cost becomes minimal compared to your adventuring income.)

So naturally splatbooks have ways around this: advanced firearms (now your class can go from weak to overpowered because of one weapon; tell me, do fighters become "overpowered" when you add katanas to the game?), double-barreled pistols (reload half as often, see previous example about the katana), alchemical cartridges (reload faster), weapon cords (reload faster yet; those were recently nerfed), all resulting in an optimized gunslinger being far more powerful than any other martial class.

The synthesist is also all kinds of broken, but at least the problems are mainly mechanical. Also the character sheet gets so complex no one can keep it straight.

 

[saskganesh]

OSR.

I like a caster with combat flexibility so Cleric or MU/Thief or MU/Fighter.

Assassin is my least favorite. Clumsy mechanics, evil focus, preferred by peeps who always go PvP, which isn't my thing at all.

 

[Savevsdeath]

My favorite D&D edition is 4e by a landslide.

My favorite class is a deadlock between the 4e Fighter and Avenger. I loved playing the defender role as a fighter - being the warrior so awesome that the enemy didn't dare ignore you, no matter how many fireball-slinging finger wigglers were around, the guy who controls the battlefield, the quarterback, the MVP.

Avengers had a lot of the same appeal - relentless punishers who make you pay for daring to oppose them, and have divine backing to boot.

My least favorite class is the 3/3.5E Fighter. Crappy saves, crappy 'class features', no cool toys to speak of - they're mechanically weak and they fail at fitting the heroic fantasy warrior theme completely at the same time.

 

[KirayaTiDrekan]

I don't have a favorite edition so...

Favorite Class (es): Wizards, in most editions, because I like being able to collect spells. In 4E, the shadow power source assassin because it has really nifty flavor.

Least favorite class: Spellthief in 3.5 was just odd, I could never figure out how it fit into the campaign world.

 

[Zardnaar]

Least favorite class is generally Cleric and Paladin. Favorite class is Druid and Ranger.