GMforPowergamers
Legend
In your opinion, what is the best class per edition and why?
odnd? fighting man
becmi? unknown
1st edition? assassin
2nd edition? Ranger
3rd edition? Druid
4th edition? Warlord
5th edition? Warlock
In your opinion, what is the best class per edition and why?
pre 4e I almost never saw them. I think I can count less then 5 and all were 3.5 none in 2e at allMostly paladins.
So many fun classes just dropped to the way side... and the whole 'Buff an At-Will' system for the Psionic was neat!4th dnd: I loved pretty much all the classes. However, I will stan hard for the Warlord because it was lightning in a bottle and the sheer stubborness of wotc to not use it makes me even more a fan.
But man, Avenger, Artificer, Invoker, Sword Mage, Warden and that's just the greatest hits. I got a soft spot for the Ranger as well (the most robin hood of the rangers). double for the fey warlock.
Gosh I forgot about that book, that was excellent and genuinely did help Thieves.Also Thieves: The complete book of thieves is that rival. I love the wierd and bizarre equipment that they came up with and the kits. However the thief itself doesn't quite work until you got the right gear and skills.
Totally LOVED the Compete Book of Druids and Complete Book of Necromancers. Both offer GREAT lore material for explaining how druids and necromancers work in their society and types.Gosh I forgot about that book, that was excellent and genuinely did help Thieves.
The divergence in quality on "Complete X" class books in 2E was absolutely bananas. Complete Bard was obviously best, and I'm not just saying that because I like Bards, but because it profoundly and permanently changed how Bards were regarded by D&D and even other TTRPGs and I would argue, some CRPGs. Hell, some of the Bard subclasses in 5E only exist because of it (Valour, Lore, Blade at the least).
Then there were ones which were "mostly helpful" like the Fighter, Wizard, and Thief ones. Wizard was another big one - we still use some spells from that - Chromatic Orb and Ice Knife particularly - and it really helped fill out a lot of stuff about Wizards in a very cool way.
Ranger's was not great but not actively destructive.
But Priest's and Paladin's? Goddamn. It was like they were written by people who hated the classes (indeed the Priest one comes close to saying that), and the most of the kits are make Paladins either boring or wildly impractical, and those that change their mechanics take away vastly more than they give. The Paladin one is also particularly bizarre because despite being released in 1994, it's filled with explanations of how Paladins worked in 1E and suggestions that maybe you should use the 1E rules for them, to the point of even including attack progression and stuff from 1E!
BECMI -- ELF
1e -- FIGHTER / MAGIC-USER MC
2e -- BARD
3e -- BARD
4e -- BARD
5e -- BARD
I have a preference.