D&D 4E What are the generally powerful classes in 4e?

[Stalker0]

So, in looking at all the classes in 4e right now, I'm not looking for the most powerful combo or anything like that. What I'm aiming to see are the classes just are the general cream of the crop. The ones you can make a lot of archetypes with that are all useful. The ones with lots of powerful choices.

There are two off hand that come to mind.

Fighter: The 4e standard fighter is probably one of the best "fighters" I have ever seen. Their defender mechanic is great, but they also do solid (near strikerish) damage if you take the powers for it, and they carry a lot of toughness.

You can build sword/board or THW fighters with no problem, and regardless of build you come out with a class that gets the job done.


Wizard: At the beginning of 4e, the wizard was okay. But the errata and splats have made it even better, and imo now overshadows the other core controllers.

Wizards make great controllers, but can also do terrific damage with their daily powers. Further, their at-wills and encounter powers have been getting a steady power bump over time.

they have lots of utilities that give both combat and noncombat benefits, and combined with rituals can still perform some of the legendary feats of old.



So are there any other classes that you feel just have the same well rounded power about them as these classes?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I have had the impression that Melee Clerics are not just excellent Healers (in fact, some of the Cleric melee powers heal better than the Laser Cleric's powers), they can also put out pretty decent damage, though you need to invest a little in weapon training.

 

[Gryph]

Warlord's, particularly in combination with classes with strong basic attacks, seem to be quite powerful. Lot's of weapon attacks vs NADs for strong accuracy without feat investment, very good healing and lots of granted attacks to the heaviest hitters. Really fulfills the role of force multiplier.

 

[Doctor Proctor]

Fighter: The 4e standard fighter is probably one of the best "fighters" I have ever seen. Their defender mechanic is great, but they also do solid (near strikerish) damage if you take the powers for it, and they carry a lot of toughness.

You can build sword/board or THW fighters with no problem, and regardless of build you come out with a class that gets the job done.

First off, just wanted to say that I think you hit the nail on the head when it comes to the Fighter. Out of the core classes (meaning: non-essentials, since they use radically different defender mechanics) I think they're most versatile and effective of the Defenders. The others have advantages though, such as a properly build Paladin being almost as effective as having another Leader around...

Now, as for other classes, there's a few. I'll throw out one fairly obvious one, and then a couple of personal favorites that I've played.

Ranger
The various Ranger builds are all very strong and versatile. The default PHB Ranger can be melee or ranged, and has some very powerful abilities. The Scout, from Essentials, is also really good at dealing ludicrous amounts of damage. No necessarily overpowered out of the box though, since that's basically all it does. Very good if you want something simple to run, but effective.

Ardent
I know some might find this an odd choice, but I think that they're actually a really interesting Leader class. I played an Impetuous Ardent in the Ashes of Athas Living Dark Sun campaign, and had a blast. The Impetuous Ardent's mantle gives a +3 bonus to damage when players provoke OA's, which we used to great effect to generate tactical movement and really push through in Encounters. Normally everyone just kinda stands around hitting something till it's dead, but we would have 2, sometimes 3 guys in a round provoking OA's to get past the front line fighters into the back, and then hitting for big damage numbers. And having played with some of them before, it was definitely the influence of the Ardent abilities that led to this, as they're naturally rather cautious players.

The Ardent also has a lot of healing ability. Energizing Stike can let them grant a surge twice per encounter, or temps on an At-Will basis. Other powers are good at buffing allies or even hindering enemies (stopping an enemy from shifting while next to the damage buffed two-handed Fighter really led to some interesting choices for the DM).

Sorcerer
I know a lot of people on the CharOp boards give them crap because they can't put out the damage numbers of the other Striker classes, but I think that there's a lot of potential here. The AoE blasts really help in an almost controllery way to keep enemies spread out, and if combined with some of the higher damage single target spells, allows the Sorcerer to react to different encounter setups easily. When I was playing one in a Paragon campaign, the DM would usually just roll his eyes and prepare to remove minis off the board if I declared I was going to use an action point (having a Paragon Path that allowed me to crit on a 16 when my AP was used for Blast power helped a lot). They're also surprisingly tough compared to other strikers, at least in the case of my Dragonborn Dragon Soul Sorcerer.

 

[Ferghis]

The ones you can make a lot of archetypes with that are all useful. The ones with lots of powerful choices.

With all that was added recently, the wizard and the fighter are certainly ahead of the rest. An argument could be made for the ranger, but it certainly lags behind those two.

The ranger is almost as flexible as the fighter and the wizard: it has the scout, the hunter, and all the different traditional ranger builds. Wisdom as a secondary even gives it proper skill support.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Fighter: The 4e standard fighter is probably one of the best "fighters" I have ever seen. Their defender mechanic is great, but they also do solid (near strikerish) damage if you take the powers for it, and they carry a lot of toughness.
Wizard: At the beginning of 4e, the wizard was okay. But the errata and splats have made it even better, and imo now overshadows the other core controllers.

It may be no coincidence that these are the most-supported 4e classes. The Fighter has 10 builds (including two sub-classes and two dragon articles as builds), the Wizard, including Mage schools, the Bladesinger, and the two Witch covens, 15. The Fighter has slightly over 400 powers, the Wizard 380 or so (up 130 in Essentials+). If there's even one more Mage school published, the Wizard will probably pass the fighter.

So are there any other classes that you feel just have the same well rounded power about them as these classes?

Almost all the 4e classes are reasonably balanced with eachother. There are only a few that are lacking enough in one or more areas to really fail to make the grade. The Knight/Slayer/Theif/Scout/Vampire are sorely lacking in versatility and choice; the Binder, Hunter, Bladesinger and Seeker fall short in handling the controller role; the Runepriest is simply under-supported.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

So, in looking at all the classes in 4e right now, I'm not looking for the most powerful combo or anything like that. What I'm aiming to see are the classes just are the general cream of the crop. The ones you can make a lot of archetypes with that are all useful. The ones with lots of powerful choices.

Which sources?

Some classes have more sources than others, generally ramping up their power. If you see a power that's clearly overpowered and everyone takes it, is that considered part of the class, or just an error in power design?

 

[Kzach]

Try building a radiant-based invoker and THEN tell me that the wizard outshines every other controller.

 

[Stalker0]

Try building a radiant-based invoker and THEN tell me that the wizard outshines every other controller.

So are you saying you want to add them to the list? Do you the feel the invoker offers the wide range of powerful builds that the others do, or is this a specific optimized combo.

 

[Zaphling]

It may be no coincidence that these are the most-supported 4e classes. The Fighter has 10 builds (including two sub-classes and two dragon articles as builds), the Wizard, including Mage schools, the Bladesinger, and the two Witch covens, 15. The Fighter has slightly over 400 powers, the Wizard 380 or so (up 130 in Essentials+). If there's even one more Mage school published, the Wizard will probably pass the fighter.

10? WOAH! I only counted 8.

1. great weapon
2. guardian
3. brawler
4. tempest
5. battlerager
6. testudo
7. knight
8. slayer