D&D General Best Class per edition?

Shades of Eternity · Dec 28, 2022

Inspired by this awesome podcast.

Edition Wars Christmas 2022 Day 1: Favorite Class through the Editions (Edition Wars 086) | The Tome Show

Welcome to the 12 days of Edition Wars, in this year's series we will be taking a deep dive into the things we love about this game and why we love them. On the First Day of edition wars, Brandes and Sam talk about their favorite class in each edition! Questions, Comments, or Suggestions? Email...

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In your opinion, what is the best class per edition and why?

odnd?
becmi?
1st edition?
2nd edition?
3rd edition?
4th edition?
5th edition?

aco175 · Dec 28, 2022

Best and Opinion are always a great show.

I liked playing halflings in 1e but think magic users were the most powerful if you survived long enough.
I liked the swordmage in 4e but think wizards were the most powerful and likely to live longer.
I like rogues in 5e but think wizards are the most powerful and have no problems living long enough to make it.

Shiroiken · Dec 28, 2022

I'm going by memory here:

OD&D - didn't play
BECMI - Elf
- Unless you played to high level, got the benefit of both fighter and wizard
1E - Fighter
- lower end XP chart
- greatest durability outside of barbarian
- easy to achieve ability requirements with no disadvantages
- 2nd highest overall racial level limit
2E - Fighter (same as 1E)
- same as 1E
3E - CoDzilla
- it's a meme for a reason
4E - Striker
- Role mattered more than class
5E - Paladin
- Mobs and ranged are only significant downsides

overgeeked · Dec 28, 2022

B/X. Had race-as-class so definitely the elf as they were a fighter/magic-user.

AD&D. Cleric or druid. You could pick from the whole list every day.

4E. Swordmage. Crazy mobile tank. Force monsters to attack you but run away before they can. Brought kiting to D&D. So much fun.

5E. Twilight cleric or hexblade warlock depending on short rests. Twilight cleric if you get few short rests, hexblade warlock if you get lots of short rests.

jgsugden · Dec 29, 2022

BECMI - Elf was insanely versatile in a
AD&D - Dual Classed Fighter / Magic User was insanely fun as a combination. Pure class - I liked the Magic User earlty in the edition. In the end, making a bard work was somewhat magical. However, barbarian was the beast class.
2E - I had the most fun playing a psionicist. It was convoluted, but once you got used to it, it was fun.
3E - Sorcerer. You had a smaller selection of spells, but enough of them to cast them without fear of running out. And, as you didn't have the 5E limitations on concentration you could walk into battles as an arcane battery.
4E - Invoker. This is a great inroduction into the game that they excluded from 5E - and that has been a mistake. The robed holy person that hails down powerful divine magic with wrath and fury was such a fun thing.
5E - Multiclass options are my preference in 5E as they bring a more rich story than a single class, but if I am going to pick a single class PC and play it for a prolonged period, Sorcerer is my choice. They are versatile, fun and powerful. I am also a huge fan of the ranger as the warrior / scout hybrid.

Vaalingrade · Dec 29, 2022

3e - Rogue
Pathfinder - Rogue
4e - Warlord
5e - Bard or Warlock

Ruin Explorer · Dec 29, 2022

Shades of Eternity said:
In your opinion, what is the best class per edition and why is it Bard?

I helped!!! Helping!!!

No but more seriously, talking mostly about being powerful and impactful:

2E D&D - This is a tricky one and very dependent on what classes are available, and whether we including multiclass combos, and what rules your group followed/didn't follow on MC combos. Also depends on how high level you're going to get.

I think the most outrageous strictly-legal combo I ever saw in D&D was a Speciality Priest of Clangeddin/Fighter, which had a kit which allowed Weapon Specialization. This was upsetting but absolutely legal - SP of Clangeddin, specifically allows both multiclassing to Fighter AND picking a kit so long as it's allowed for F/C combos. The obvious kit allows Weapon Specialization, normally disallowed to MC characters (not that anyone followed that rule).

Generally speaking I'd say Bard because their XP table was ridiculous to the point where they got 5th-level spells sooner than a F/M did (on the same XP), and they were a fantastically multitalented class.

But if you were going to get to high levels, Specialist Wizard was the best - Transmuter particularly was incredible.

Shout out to Psionicists if allowed for doing some wacky but weirdly well-balanced stuff.

Special Worst Class award to 2E Mystic, which had misfortunate of stupidly playing once, which was basically a semi-pacifist hippy who was bad at everything except making low-grade magic candles.

3E - Wizard PrC'd into one of a number of outrageous PrCs that gave you all your normal spell advancement and a bunch of other good stuff too.

CoDZilla also an excellent choice.

4E - Very hard to say because 4E was very well-balanced (sacrifices were made to achieve this of course), but I'd personally say, if we're just talking one class, maybe Battlerage Vigor Fighter? They were absolutely STAGGERINGLY hard to kill. The sheer amount of HP/THP they were coming up with was just mind-boggling, and their damage output was pretty significant. Avenger, Battlemind, Invoker were also all great classes. Vampire was a mediocre class but fascinatingly implemented. Assassin was maybe the worst class because of the terrible "Shroud" system it used.

5E - Solo all-rounder? Probably Fiend Warlock (Pact of the Tome). Hard to put down, high CHA for social situations, and does outrageous damage, even gets to light of a lot of upcast Fireballs, and Tome gives gives ritual casting and a bunch more cantrips, particularly great for a Warlock. In a well-run party? I actually rate that over Hexblade for survivability and damage. It's almost "any Full Caster", but probably Diviner Wizard or something. Twilight Cleric is definitely strong too. Lore Bards are good but probably not as good as those. I could also see Ancients Paladin.