What classes did you play, which did you like?

[TerraDave]

Running some numbers with 115 replies:

Starting with the nevers (keeping in mind that about 8% didn't bother clicking these):

Never played a Paladin 42.61%
Never played a Barbarian 40.87%
Never played a Monk 40.87%
Never played a Druid 40.00%
Never played a Sorcerer 39.13%
Never played a Bard 37.39%
Never played a Ranger 30.43%
Never played a Wizard 17.39%
Never played a Rogue 15.65%
Never played a Cleric 13.04%
Never played a Fighter 9.57%
Never played any of the above1.74%


So the "4 core" classes are the most popular to play, with a clear break between them and the other classes. Of the "other core" Bard does surprisingly well. But who is least popular: Paladin. Somewhat surprising until you see this...

This is the likes, dislikes, and ratio of one to the other, listed in terms of popularity:

I liked playing a Rogue 70.43%
I did not like playing a Rogue 9.57%
Ratio of like to dislike______ 735.95

I liked playing a Druid 46.09%
I did not like playing a Druid 6.96%
Ratio of like to dislike______ 662.21

I liked playing a Wizard 65.22%
I did not like playing a Wizard 11.30%
Ratio of like to dislike______ 577.17

I liked playing a Cleric 67.83%
I did not like playing a Cleric 13.04%
Ratio of like to dislike______ 520.17

I liked playing a Barbarian 42.61%
I did not like playing a Barbarian 8.70%
Ratio of like to dislike______ 489.77

I liked playing a Fighter 69.57%
I did not like playing a Fighter 15.65%
Ratio of like to dislike______ 444.54

I liked playing a Ranger 47.83%
I did not like playing a Ranger 13.91%
Ratio of like to dislike______ 343.85

I liked playing a Bard 40.87%
I did not like playing a Bard 12.17%
Ratio of like to dislike______ 335.83

I liked playing a Sorcerer 42.61%
I did not like playing a Sorcerer 13.04%
Ratio of like to dislike______ 326.76

I liked playing a Monk 38.26%
I did not like playing a Monk 13.91%
Ratio of like to dislike______ 275.05

I liked playing a Paladin 31.30%
I did not like playing a Paladin18.26%
Ratio of like to dislike______ 171.41

The Rogue is the most popular by this score, with more then 7 to 1 like versus dislikes. Followed by the Druid--the most popular of the least played--and the Wizard. And who is at the bottom, with by far the worst result. Its the Paladin!. Of the "4 core", Fighter is the least popular, followed by Bard, Sorcerer, Monk, and of course the Paladin.

 

[megamania]

Liked Rogue, Fighter, Sorcerer and Ranger.

Wizard was okay

Loved the Cleric

Paladin and bards never interested me so I never even tried them. Monk never made sence to me. "I will use Fists of Furry against this spiny hard shelled monster......" In a monk filled world maybe....but not in fantasy....


Psion was good, Psychic Warrior in 3.0 was fun but not nearly as much in 3.5.

 

[Masquerade]

My favorite class to play is probably the psychic warrior, but, of the 11 from PHB I, I have had the most fun with the bard. There are many that I had to check I had never played, largely because I am most often the DM but also because I enjoy my non-core classes.

Between levels 3-9, all the classes have been more or less balanced IME.

 

[VirgilCaine]

Played a Wizard, a Fighter, a Dragon Shaman, and a Druid. At least, substantially. I created a wizard, a rogue, and a bard character for various campaigns that were reformed or never got off the ground, really.

I like wizards. There's a lot of stuff you could do with magic that I'd like to do...but you can't really because you don't know enough about the enemy stronghold or who or what you are facing.
I don't have a problem with the current system of Vancian magic at all, scrolls are a perfectly good stopgap for running out of spells.
The only thing I would ask is that choosing lower level spells was less of a chore--if I had to change mine for my Druid a lot or do lots of different things (divination, protection, attack, etc.) it would get old to specify every little spell.

I like rogues. Being a sneaky skilly guy is cool. Hopefully in 4e we can get the sneaky stuff out of the way as being assumed and we can choose whether we're the sneaky talky guy, the sneaky flippy-jumpy guy, or the sneaky stabbity guy.
Any inkling from other PCs OOC that I, a devout Pelorite, would steal from someone is not cool at all. More separation from the Thief idea would be good.

Druid...I want more spellcasting or easier shapeshifting. I've played this class a while at a pretty high level.
I don't want to be stuck in animal form the whole day because I can't switch back to person-form for free when a combat is over. On the other hand, if I'm a spellcaster, I want more damage types than just fire for my fire spells in the PHB. Fire is a great damage type most of the time. Until I have to cast spells inside an ancient wrecked giant's ship. Made of wood.More spellcasting would be cool.
More elemental spells and less nature spells would be very cool, IMO.

Or, more nature spells and less elemental spells. Making trees grow out of the ground and attack people with thorny branches would be cool. Or making a blob of brambles run around and grapple people. Or a blob of kudzu choke or bamboo crush people to death. Or making bridges over gaps out of trees, or talking to plants much easier. Or making fields of amnesia fungus. Walking through trees, very cool. Species restrictions on what trees I can use? Not cool.
Just too in between to really be fun for me.

Fighter. TWF, using a Dwarven Urgrosh. A friend who knows about martial arts explained how the Dire Flail could actually be used (like a seven-section staff), and I wanted to do it. But the feat was too much for my Dwarven Fighter, and I wanted to stay a Dwarf for the darkvison and other bonuses.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

You asked "Which did you play, and did you LIKE , because (not inspite) of mechanics" ... too which I can't really answer in the poll options above, altho I have played characters that at least dabbled a level or two in all of the core classes.

My favorite characters have all been multiclass somethings and my enjoyment of the class is often nothing to do with the mechanics.

If you are looking for pure favorites, lets say I was given the requirement to rate desire to play a given mechanical class from the core books my list would look like:

Rogue
Bard
Druid
Cleric
Mage/Sorcerer
Fighter
Monk
Paladin

If the requirement to rate character concept.. the list would probably look more like this:

Thief

{I have been told that every character I play has the same CN tendencies....}

 

[Lord Ipplepop]

Since 1978, I've played just about every base class available. My favorites to play through all of the editions were: Paladin, FIghter, Cleric, Mage (in that order), and I particularly liked the Bard in 3.x

 

[Mad Mac]

I didn't vote, because I didn't think I could answer the questions without being misleading. My favorite class is the monk, for starters, and I think the class needs a complete overhaul.

I've played all the classes at one time or another, at least for a few levels. I'll just give a quick run-down, I suppose...I should note that in general I prefer versatile characters who can mix things up a bit, and not totally reliant on one thing. (Like Melee, Spells, or Skills)

Barbarian I love the Barbarian as a multiclass option. I've built a lot of Half-Orc Barb1/Whatever. As a pure class, it gets a little repetitive, but I do tend to prefer this class to the fighter.

Bard I've tried to like this class really, really hard, and have built a number of different Bards that just ended up being weak and boring.

Cleric Not a personal favorite, and a class I very rarely play, for some reason. It's strange because I like almost every other divine class out there, but the Cleric rarely does it for me for somehow. When I do play a Cleric I usally end up dipping into fighter or Barbarian.

Druid Overpowered, but fun. I like this class a lot better for the Cleric, mostly because the spell list is just way more fun.

Fighter I may have played a straight fighter once. Usually I use this as a multiclassing tool, though...

Monk Love the flavor, the speed and skills, and nifty special abilities. Mechanically though, the class is a mess. Every time I played the Monk I had to become a hardcore powergamer just to end up with a decently effective character.

Paladin Cool concept. Boring class. Really boring class. The extra smites in 3.5 helped a bit, but in general the Paladin is just saddled with too many abilities that are nigh useless. The endless Paladin debates don't help either. The code has got to go.

Ranger I love the Ranger. I love two-weapon fighting and archery, so my rangers are always proffecient in both, even if it is sub-optimal. The Ranger can be improved, but it's definately a favorite.

Rogue Rouges are great. Another class I rarely use without multiclassing, though. I think I'm just now realizing how often I played Half-Orcs in 3rd Edition...there was the Monk, the Barbarian/Druid, Barbarian/Ranger, Barbarian/Rogue...

Sorcerer I prefer Sorcerers to wizards, as I was never a fan of Vancian casting. I don't like playing characters who can't bust skulls once in a while though, so I didn't play much of either of the arcane casters.

Wizard I seem to recall only playing Wizards when I had to, because of favored class restrictions or I needed the intelligence bonus or whatever. If I was rolling up a pure caster, I always went with Sorcerer.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

A few of those I wasn't quite sure how to answer:

Bard. I played a bard cohort/NPC for a while. That worked well. I wouldn't have wanted her as a real character though.

Barbarian, Monk, Ranger, Rogue: I never played any of these single-classed. My Monk/Fighter/Cleric/Paladin/Pious Templar of Arvoreen is a blast to play, but I don't know that she really counts as a monk even if she does grapple bad guys or fight them unarmed from time to time. Likewise, I've got a Val Tensen Bbn 3/Fighter 1/Ranger 2/Psy War 4/Warmind 2 and a Tenha Bbn 2/Fighter 4/Hexblade 2/Occult Slayer 1, but I don't know that either of those count as barbarians. Ditto with the rogue. Rgr 2/Rog 10/Duskblade 1 cohort and several fighter/rogues, but never a single classed rogue. (For that matter, Ftr 1/Wiz 6/Spellsword 1/Eldritch Knight 10 isn't really a wizard either).

 

[TerraDave]

Now with 185 votes, and there have been some changes.

Each time, I will list from most popular to least popular:

Never played a Fighter 10.75%
Never played a Cleric 12.90%
Never played a Wizard 15.59%
Never played a Rogue 16.67%
Never played a Ranger 31.72%
Never played a Sorcerer 36.56%
Never played a Paladin 38.17%
Never played a Bard 38.71%
Never played a Barbarian 40.32%
Never played a Druid 44.09%
Never played a Monk 46.77%

The Paladin players finally showed up and voted, moving them above Bard, Barbarian, Druid and Monk. The "core 4" remain by far the most popular to actually play.

Looking at reactions when played:

I liked playing a Wizard 69.89%
I did not like playing a Wizard 9.14%
Ratio of like to dislike______764.66%

I liked playing a Rogue 69.89%
I did not like playing a Rogue 9.68%
Ratio of like to dislike______722.00%

I liked playing a Cleric 70.43%
I did not like playing a Cleric 11.83%
Ratio of like to dislike______595.35%

I liked playing a Druid 40.32%
I did not like playing a Druid 7.53%
Ratio of like to dislike______535.46%

I liked playing a Fighter 69.35%
I did not like playing a Fighter 14.52%
Ratio of like to dislike______477.62%

I liked playing a Barbarian 42.47%
I did not like playing a Barbarian 9.68%
Ratio of like to dislike______438.74%

I liked playing a Ranger 47.85%
I did not like playing a Ranger 13.44%
Ratio of like to dislike______356.03%

I liked playing a Sorcerer 44.09%
I did not like playing a Sorcerer 12.90%
Ratio of like to dislike______341.78%

I liked playing a Bard 39.25%
I did not like playing a Bard 15.59%
Ratio of like to dislike______251.76%

I liked playing a Paladin 37.63%
I did not like playing a Paladin 16.67%
Ratio of like to dislike______225.73%

I liked playing a Monk 28.49%
I did not like playing a Monk 17.20%
Ratio of like to dislike______165.64%

The Wizard has taken the lead, something like 130 liked, while ~10 disliked. Rogue still popular, Druid remains "most loved of little played", fighter is in the middle of the pack (least loved of most played) and monk has taken its rightfull place at the bottom. But the paladin still does not do well, sitting in second to last place.

 

[TerraDave]

*bumb*

still a lot who haven't voted.