D&D General Best NPC Classes (Dragon Magazine)

[Cadence]

For me it was 3.5 Unearthed Arcana with its inclusion in the SRD and Pathfinder where they became common options.

The older brother of one of my gaming friends had the issue of Dragon or the Best of Dragon with it so I let him play one the few times he was around in the 80s. Otherwise it was a class that was referenced a bunch in Dragon and in discussions but was otherwise sort of mythical for my gaming circles because none of my friends had any solid details on its specifics, just second hand references.

I eventually got the Dragon Archive CD and was able to read about them and the paladin of every alignment articles.

Specialty priests were the most common non-PH class I saw in the 90s.

Googling around I just saw that the Dragon Archive CD existed. How was the scan quality?

 

[Voadam]

Pretty good. It preserves even the original 70s typewriting fairly well and the internal search function works well on article text across all issues which I found super useful when I have no idea what issue had the goblin gods article and such questions come up for me. It allowed me to find things like the original bard class which I much prefer to the 1e PH version.

 

[MGibster]

Is this what it's going to be like in the retirement home? Sitting around with a bunch of old gamers reminiscing about the best Dragon Magazine had to offer back in the day? At my advanced age, I only remember the witch, samurai, and bandit. I think my favorite was the witch. I also remember an article about naming characters called "What do you mean, 'Jack, the Samurai?'"

 

[el-remmen]

Dragon #73 was my first issue (I think - it was definitely among the first 2 or 3 issues I got my hands on) and the Duelist was the first new class I adapted to my game totally re-writing it. I took away his sweet d12 HD though.

EDIT: If I remember correctly I gave them an AC bonus that was highest when fighting against one armed opponent (so it didn't work against monsters with natural attacks) that lessened based on how many opponents they were fighting and a damage bonus that worked similarly.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Is this what it's going to be like in the retirement home? Sitting around with a bunch of old gamers reminiscing about the best Dragon Magazine had to offer back in the day?

We could only be so lucky!

 

[CleverNickName]

Not in Dragon Magazine, but 3rd Edition/3.5E D&D had some real gems.

Commoner
Finally I can roleplay the struggles and harsh realities of serfdom and carrot-farming! What fun!
Seriously: what fun?

Expert
If you wanted to be a rogue but didn't want to be a serial-killing edgelord.

Adept
Diet Mage. The LaCroix of spellcasters. The vegan mage-burger.

Warrior
What could be better than a fighter with no feats?

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Not in Dragon Magazine, but 3rd Edition/3.5E D&D had some real gems.

Commoner
Finally I can roleplay the struggles and harsh realities of serfdom and carrot-farming! What fun!
Seriously: what fun?

Hey ... maybe we just wanted to play a little ahead of our time?

 

[el-remmen]

Warrior
What could be better than a fighter with no feats?

One of my favorite characters I ever played was a Fighter with a level of Warrior because his backstory was he started out as a run-of-the-mill militia man turned caravan guard but made the transition from NPC to PC. The DM offered changing out my first level for a fighter level, but I refused.

 

[Voadam]

I also remember an article about naming characters called "What do you mean, 'Jack, the Samurai?'"

 

[Voadam]

Commoner
Finally I can roleplay the struggles and harsh realities of serfdom and carrot-farming! What fun!
Seriously: what fun?

Plenty of options.

1 Hardcore hard mode D&D.

2 Making a point about 3e wealth by level.

3 "I am just a regular Hobbit caught up in adventures."