What classes are usually roleplayed BETTER ?

[CanadienneBacon]

I see that Rogue is currently winning the voting contest for best class to roleplay. I find that interesting since I've never seen anyone play a rogue as anything other than a sneak. I personally find them fun characters and useful to a party, but rather one-dimensional. I like clerics for roleplaying...lots of variations, usually dependent upon which diety is worshipped. Clerics can also be interesting when they have a morality or ethics issue to deal with and don't have to necessarily follow the code of conduct that burdens a paladin. Makes for a striated character. Anyone here want to post their take on why rogues are best to roleplay?

 

[The Sigil]

I think bard would be the number one on the list of "classes that essentially FORCE the player to roleplay." While any good roleplayer can roleplay any class, certain classes lend themselves to forcing a player to roleplay... namely, those that can't just start blasting or hacking in combat. When your character is unable to hold his own in combat, he'll do a lot of things to role-play well to AVOID combat entirely.

Then again, maybe I'm just remembering my Rifts Burster who travelled around with a pack of Borgs, Glitter Boys, and Dragons... and I had to be the best role-player in the party because as soon as the poop hit the proverbial fan (and with that group, you guessed it - it hit the fan a lot) I was toast if I was anywhere close to the firefight.

Perhaps ironically, only myself and one other party member managed to survive the entire campaign with our original character.

--The Sigil

 

[hunter1828]

I see that Rogue is currently winning the voting contest for best class to roleplay. I find that interesting since I've never seen anyone play a rogue as anything other than a sneak.

That's too bad. Hopefully some day you will experience a Rogue as something else. In my time as a DM (since the late '70s), I've experienced Thieves/Rogues played as sneaks, bounty hunters, wilderness scouts (the poor man's Ranger, as one player put it), archers (a la Legolas), street thugs, con artists, and swashbucklers. It's really a wonderful class.

hunter1828

 

[Luddite]

IMO....

Fighters and rogues are easy to role-play since they are very diverse and not defined any particular way in the PHB. So as a player, you can freely create any story and be a fighter or Rogue. Classes with alignment requirements seemt to present the most problems. First players and DMs need to agree on what the Alignments mean, and then break though the sterotypes of those clases. Paladins and Monks lead to common sterotypes since you run into the aligment issues.

Some players think that all monks should be poor, and not obtain material goods. So If my monk happens to be someone who likes weath and drink and "rented companionship," I can not be a Monk?

Each class presents different issues for Role-Playing purposes.

-The Luddite

 

[nopantsyet]

I think bard would be the number one on the list of "classes that essentially FORCE the player to roleplay.

snip

--The Sigil

I voted bards, druids and DMs.

Bards, I almost agree with Sigil. I think non-roleplayers simply avoid the bard since it obviously requires creative roleplaying to succeed. Roleplayers are drawn to it because of the opportunities it lends itself to. Now, a bard is certainly not the easiest class to play, but some of the best roleplayed characters I've seen have been bards.

Druids, I find to be a difficult class to enjoy without taking a good roleplaying approach. The mechanics feel disjointed and not wholly useful unless presented with the mindset of a druid. Mind you, I haven't played one myself--this is what I've seen in my games. The players I've seen have had to really put themselves into the role in order to really make it work. It's nice that there are so many ready-to-play fighter archetypes out there, because it means one can "roleplay" the character very easily.

Finally, DMs kick harness cause they have to roleplay everything!

 

[Kemrain]

I, as a self-confessed decent RPer, have come a long way in my games since I was in 7th grade. My whole group has. We kept the same characters for years, and got to see more and more personality develope in them. When we started, we all sucked, but because we had a good GM, we grew and learned. People came and went, but the only time I saw people playing the stereotypes was in that old game. One kid, whom we don't play with now, played a Paladin, every time. He'd attack first, run from combat while the group was stil fighting... He played a priest of war doing that, and the GM took his spells away. He was miffed, and so were we, but we were mad ebcause he still didn't get it.

I went from a Minotaur fighter with no personality, to the devoted defender of the Party mage and leader, who secretly pined after her and wished for nothing more than to mate with her. It never really came up, but it improved my roleplaying to have a reason to follow her every order and whim blindly. That was the character, and we had fun.

(I learned, years later, that the one who played the Mage was thinking the same thing! Who knew!)

The character's class doesn't matter half as much as the effort put into their background and personality. The restrictive classes are good for intermediate players, as it igives you a direction to bring the character, but I prefer the freedom of Fighters and Rogues over the structure of Paladins and Bards. In the beginning, I played Fighters and Rogues because I didn't want to have a class I couldn't keep up with, RP wise. So it's a sliding scale.

Right now I'm playing a Rogue (Fighter Ranger now, but..) who was raised by the temple of the god of justice, who ended up sneaking out at night and leading a double life as a rogue, and who eventually developed multiple personality disorder, so he could have a truthsaying spell on him and honestly say "I didn't do it."

I've found that the longer you play in high Roleplaying environments, the better you will become. We should encourage this in everyone we can, as it's a wonderfully creative outlet. When D&D becomes no different than the computer games, I feel it's lost something beautiful, and I'm glad there are so many avid roleplayers out there.

- Kemrain the Roleplayer