What class can you not bring yourself to play?

[DaveStebbins]

Add me in with the other bard-haters. I have never liked the bard in any version of D&D.

I am lucky in that my favorite classes to play are mages and clerices and pretty much everyone else in my two groups prefers to play rogues and fighters, so I always get to be a spellcaster. The only problem, of course, is that I ALWAYS get to be the spellcaster. I have enjoyed playing paladins, rogues, monks, druids and fighters, but I rarely get the chance any more. Oh well, at least both groups have enough DMs that I get to play a PC a fair amount of the time.

-Dave

 

[Jdvn1]

Barbarians. I just can't wrap my head around a character concept that is supposed to be stupid.

 

[Crothian]

Barbarians. I just can't wrap my head around a character concept that is supposed to be stupid.

Barbarians are not stupid, just uneducated.

 

[derelictjay]

The one class I'll never stoop to play a cleric, I hate them, despise them, actually discourage players from playing them in the campaigns I DM (don't outlaw them though). I'll play a monk (my next least favorite) before, and if the party needs healing I'll play a bard, druid or paladin. Of course anytime we start a new campaign where I'm a player (a very rare occurrence) I usually get asked if I'm gonna play a bard again (there's definitely no bard hate here).

 

[RandomPrecision]

Ech. I've always despised the bard. I've so completed left them out of any possible characters, as has everyone else I know who plays D&D, in every edition. This thread more or less reminded me that they still exist. Instead of having a class that's bad at everything, I take levels in the things I want to excel at.

 

[VirgilCaine]

Most of them, from what I remember. For example:
Detect snares and pits, endure elements (mostly useful for crossing a desert or a frozen wasteland, unless the dungeon is particularly warm or cold), goodberry (unless you can find berries in a dungeon), tree shape (it'd look odd to see a tree standing in the middle of a hall), call lightning, plant growth, liveoak, and plenty of others, including loads of spells that target animals (which are usually found in the wild).

Endure elements DOES work against spell damage, you know.

But, on the other hand, druids have plenty of nifty combat spells--shillelagh, heat/chill metal, produce flame, flaming sphere, quench, flame blade, summon spells, summon swarm, contagion, poison, spike growth, snare, fire trap, rusting grasp, sleet storm, spike stones...?

They've got a combat spell of some kind each level, anti-poison and cure wounds spells, reincarnate... They've got lots of plant and animal focused spells, but they also have lots of combat and utility spells. If you never encounter animals, you'll never need Animal Trance or Hold Animal, sure. But I think the rest of their selection is more than adequate.

 

[The Shaman]

Monk.

No interest in running a martial artist.

 

[Dyne]

Endure elements DOES work against spell damage, you know.

But, on the other hand, druids have plenty of nifty combat spells--shillelagh, heat/chill metal, produce flame, flaming sphere, quench, flame blade, summon spells, summon swarm, contagion, poison, spike growth, snare, fire trap, rusting grasp, sleet storm, spike stones...?

They've got a combat spell of some kind each level, anti-poison and cure wounds spells, reincarnate... They've got lots of plant and animal focused spells, but they also have lots of combat and utility spells. If you never encounter animals, you'll never need Animal Trance or Hold Animal, sure. But I think the rest of their selection is more than adequate.

I've never heard of Endure Elements doing anything against damage. You might be thinking of Resist Energy and Protection from Energy. Endure Elements, however, just makes you resistant to hot or cold temperatures, it does nothing against elemental damage.

Sure, druids have a lot of useful spells that still work away from the wild. But a lot of their skills and abilities (not just spells) work best (if not only) in a natural environment. That's the way the class is designed, and I have no problem with that (I actually like druids). But when they are in a natural environment, druids kick butt.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

I've never heard of Endure Elements doing anything against damage.

It used to in 3.0

 

[VirgilCaine]

I've never heard of Endure Elements doing anything against damage. You might be thinking of Resist Energy and Protection from Energy. Endure Elements, however, just makes you resistant to hot or cold temperatures, it does nothing against elemental damage.

A creature protected by endure elements suffers no harm from being in a hot or cold environment. It can exist comfortably in conditions between –50 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit without having to make Fortitude saves). The creature’s equipment is likewise protected.
Endure elements doesn’t provide any protection from fire or cold damage, nor does it protect against other environmental hazards such as smoke, lack of air, and so forth.

This abjuration grants a creature limited protection to damage from whichever one of five energy types the character selects: acid, cold, fire, electricity, or sonic. Each round, the spell absorbs the first 5 points of damage the creature would otherwise take from the specified energy type, regardless of whether the source of damage is natural or magical. The spell protects the recipient’s equipment as well.
Endure elements absorbs only damage. The character could still suffer unfortunate side effects.
Note: Endure elements overlaps (and does not stack with) resist elements and protection from elements. If a character is warded by protection from elements and one or both of the other spells, the protection spell absorbs damage until it is exhausted. If a character is warded by resist elements and endure elements at the same time, the resist spell absorbs damage but the endure spell does not.

Yet another 3.5 nerf.

Anyway.