D&D General The Hall of Suck: Worst Classes in D&D History (Spoiler Alert: Nothing from 5e)

[WayOfTheFourElements]

The assassin just could use any weapon (while the thief was limited to the club, dagger, dart, sling, short sword, broad sword, or long sword), and could use shields, and had a death attack, and could use poison, and had a disguise ability, and kept getting actual hit dice for 15 levels instead of capping out at 10, and still had full backstab, all while still being able to do literally anything else a thief could (if, granted, at roughly -10 percentage points on skill).

Your forgot about learning additional alignment languages. Sigh. Oh, alignment languages. . .

 

[Voadam]

Well, in 1e it was defined that you needed to have at least two 15's for your ability scores or you rerolled. It flat out stated that PC's needed at least 2 scores of 15 to be viable.

I did not remember it telling you to reroll so I looked it up. It does not tell you to reroll, it only tells you your character is likely to be doomed if he does not have good stats.

"Furthermore, it is usually essential to the character’s survival to be exceptional (with a rating of 15 or above) in no fewer than two ability characteristics." 1e PH page 9.

 

[Stalker0]

By comparison, the PF1 Paladin is 2x Paladin level damage on all hits until the enemy is dead.

Small correction. The PF1 Paladin gets 2x level damage on 1 hit against super evil creatures (outsiders, dragons, undead). He gets level damage on all other hits on the creature, plus cha mod to AC and attacks. Playing one right now, it feels so mighty. So yeah in comparison 3.5 paladins are garbage

 

[billd91]

Small correction. The PF1 Paladin gets 2x level damage on 1 hit against super evil creatures (outsiders, dragons, undead). He gets level damage on all other hits on the creature, plus cha mod to AC and attacks. Playing one right now, it feels so mighty. So yeah in comparison 3.5 paladins are garbage

Yeah, it's a noticeable difference. I much prefer the PF1 version because it won't be wasted on a single bad die roll which was probably the most vexing and potentially anticlimactic aspect of the 3e paladin's smite ability (both 3.0 and 3.5). In PF1, it lasts until the smite target is dead or the paladin uses another smite evil instance on a different target.

The 5e smite ability is also much better than the 3e versions because it can be declared after the paladin player knows they've hit - so, again, no chance to waste the power with a poor roll.

 

[Bacon Bits]

Well, in 1e it was defined that you needed to have at least two 15's for your ability scores or you rerolled. It flat out stated that PC's needed at least 2 scores of 15 to be viable.

That's true, but the requirements for Paladin included Int 9, Wis 13, Cha 17, while the Ranger included Int 13 and Wis 14. Neither of these classes actually used these ability scores; you just had to have them as a gatekeeper. Since we actually wanted to play those classes, we just spotted the player the minimums and then had them roll the rest. They still got their two 15+ scores. on the remaining 4 stats. I don't think we spotted Int to Paladins, but I don't remember. It's not like 9 was really much of a limitation. I'm fairly certain that we did the same with the Druid, Monk, Illusionist, and Assassin.

Over the 10-15 years I played AD&D, I only saw one good Paladin rolled legitimately on all 6 stats and it was by me. If we had actually waited to play some of the higher requisite classes until we rolled them, the game wouldn't have been nearly as fun and we wouldn't have experienced remotely as much as we did.

 

[Teemu]

I heartily disagree with naming the 4e vampire and runeclass as some of the worst classes in D&D when there are actual failures like the 3.5 truenamer around, or the 3.5 soulknife, which is incredibly weak compared to other classes in the edition. Runepriest and vampire may not have long lists of feats and powers, but they can still do their job, even if you can’t minmax them out the wazoo like some other classes. Real failures like truenamer have fundamental issues.

I don’t know if the 3.0 ranger is bad, if not just boring. They do get spells, which is always a big benefit, and they can have animal followers.

3.5 has a samurai class that’s quite bad, but I don’t know if you can say it’s one of the worst due to truenamer existing.

 

[RangerWickett]

This is making me want to publish a really naughty word class.

Like, I dunno, Battle Felon. They're really good at carjacking, shooting guns, and sleeping with prostitutes. And bowling. The more damage they deal in combat, the higher their Wanted Level goes, and the higher the Wanted Level, the more enemies get summoned in by Heaven to arrest them. Since these are summoned monsters, defeating them doesn't provide XP.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

This is making me want to publish a really naughty word class.

Like, I dunno, Battle Felon. They're really good at carjacking, shooting guns, and sleeping with prostitutes. And bowling. The more damage they deal in combat, the higher their Wanted Level goes, and the higher the Wanted Level, the more enemies get summoned in by Heaven to arrest them. Since these are summoned monsters, defeating them doesn't provide XP.

I believe this what you're looking for: The 3.5 Gentleman class published by Old Spice.

Old Spice Created a "Gentleman Class" for DUNGEONS & DRAGONS - Nerdist

nerdist.com

 

[see]

Your forgot about learning additional alignment languages. Sigh. Oh, alignment languages. . .

Gated behind a serious Int requirement, so not really a standard assassin feature, despite the presentation in the class write-up.

 

[Imaculata]

Small correction. The PF1 Paladin gets 2x level damage on 1 hit against super evil creatures (outsiders, dragons, undead). He gets level damage on all other hits on the creature, plus cha mod to AC and attacks. Playing one right now, it feels so mighty. So yeah in comparison 3.5 paladins are garbage

But I'm pretty sure all classes are better in PF1. So not exactly a fair comparison. When the 3.5 paladin is compared to other 3.5 classes, its alright. Not top of the line, but certainly not the worst either.