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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 3699737" data-attributes="member: 13966">The fourth class is strongest.  Reflex saves and Will saves will come up less often than hit point damage (and some will actually just be made to avoid some hit point damage).  And a save can always fail on a natural 1 (barring unusual supplemental rules material).  The fourth class isn't much better, but it is a little better.The class with higher skill points is probably 2nd best, mildly weaker than the fourth and mildly stronger than the other two.  Its benefits are nearly equal to the fourth class' except that skill points are less valuable for combat purposes, and combat ability is the main balancing factor in D&D.The classes with higher saving throws are pretty much even in ability.  Reflex saves are more likely to keep them alive, but Will saves can also save them from paralysis/domination/death sometimes, and protect them from a lot of other nasty effects, which overall balances out reasonably well.In my own calculations, I figure 1hp/level to be roughly equivalent to 2-1/2 or 3 average feats, or 1 strong feat with high prerequisites (of course, the designers disagree and have Improved Toughness as 1 such feat with no prerequisites.  Which is stupid and poorly thought-out, especially since they didn't feel the need to fix Toughness itself).In my calculations, I consider skill points similarly to hit points in value, just a little bit less valuable; I consider a 1-degree hit die increase to be equivalent to a 2-point-per-level skill point increase (because the average HP from those hit dice will go up by 1, but with a possibility of going up by more like 1-1/2 or 2 points per level), because of the lesser importance of skill points to combat (and if a PC can't survive a tussle, they ain't gonna get the chance to do much else).  So I figure 1sp/level is like 2 feats in usefulness; it's a bit weaker at 1st-level, but catches up after a few levels and then exceeds that, so overall, approximately 2 feats in value.Of course, once again WotC's designers appear to disagree with me on that, but I learned to be highly skeptical of their grasp on balance when 3.5 came out, and nothing from the 3.0 materials contradicted my conclusions about what was probably a reasonable balance in these regards (though a few feats, prcs, and spells here and there were broken, those were broken for different reasons).I generally consider saves on the basis of Iron Will/Lightning Reflexes/Great Fortitude.  So one high save for a class is worth 3 feats more than a weak save (6 feats in total value).  Only worth 1 feat in value at 1st-level, but gradually builds up in value (and with the added benefit of stacking, unlike Iron Will for instance, which makes up for the fact that its total value is only very gradually accumulated).So, by my measures.....  Class 4 has approx. 5-1/2 feats worth of advantage.  Class 3 has approx. 4.  Classes 1 and 2 have approx. 3 feats worth of advantage.  So there's my input.</blockquote>

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