Best 3rd Party and Homebrew classes

[Kelvor Ravenstar]

With the uncertain future of the DDI tools, I've begun preparing for continuing 4e for my group without them. There are some substitutes for the character builder that I can't discuss here, but they are able to handle custom content much better than the online builder ever could have.

So, I'm looking for homebrew and 3rd party publications of 4e classes that are of similar quality and power level to the WotC published classes. Preferably classes that are complete up to 30th level and a fair choice of powers at most levels. If you have used any custom classes in your 4e games, which ones are the best?

I have the Advanced Player's Guide by Ari Marmell, which provided different takes on the Barbarian, Bard, Druid, Illusionist, and Monk before PHB 2 was released. It was good, but I like the WotC versions of these classes more; and with Essentials, I have more versions of the Barbarian and Druid than I need.

Just recently I picked up Clever Classes: The Jester by Jared Glenn, because I liked the idea of a non-leader sorta-Bard. I'm finding I'm having to rewrite some of it for my own use (I don't know why he chose Wisdom as its Primary ability instead of Charisma), but adding my own errata to classes that have a decent chassis is easier than writing a whole class myself.

 

[Pour]

Dias Ex Machina's 4e material has a few really nice classes for futuristic settings which, I imagine, could be reskinned as unique fantasy class concepts.

 

[the Jester]

There are some substitutes for the character builder that I can't discuss here, but they are able to handle custom content much better than the online builder ever could have.

Why not? If they aren't actually illegal, there's no reason you shouldn't.

ENWorld tries to discourage piracy, not discussion.

 

[Kelvor Ravenstar]

Because I'm not exactly sure about the legality, they are certainly against the original offline Character Builder's terms of service. There is a community of people that have modified the offline builder to accept custom content, but I'm fairly certain I've seen moderators on ENworld ask users not to give links to this project, just like we don't link to piracy sites.