What is the Worst Class in D&D?

[cimerians]

ranger, sorcerer, bard

I voted Ranger but I think the Sorcerer and Bard in 3E are pretty worthless also. Hopefully future versions will correct them. (I hope they eliminate the Sorcerer though, the whole concept is pretty lame).

 

[Remathilis]

Analysis As of: 4/15 (11:03 AM, EST)

Well, the Bard and Ranger are neck and neck (what a surprise ) at 61 and 60 votes, respectively. Given all of the multitude of threads about this class, I'm not surprised. Psion is running a distant third, capturing 26 votes.

After the top three (which I had predicted), things get interesting. Druid got 14 votes (though no one specifically mentioned it), followed by sorcerer (12, though more people were vocal about it), Psychic Warrior (11), then monk (at 10.) After that, a handful of votes have tricked in for cleric (6), barbarian (5), paladin (3), fighter (2), and wizards (2). (which I thought was odd, I thought the other melee classes would take heat for being useless or boring. esp vs. archers or spellcasters)

Lastly, our buddy the rogue has avoided any scorn at all. Is rogue the del-facto choice for best designed class? Any rogue nay-sayers out there want to prove us wrong?

Thank you everyone who voted to this point, lets see how much long we can keep this going.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

The rogue? He's fun!

Personally I haven't been too good with rogues. I can flank quite well, of course, but I'm not yet very good with stealth. Somehow, sneaking up on opponents and then running away after I surprise and sneak attack them isn't my style. I tend to ... die when that happens, because a low-level rogue has a low AC and low hit points.

It seems like a high-offense low-defense class, almost the opposite of the monk

On the other hand, it fits the archetype quite well. I don't have to take Pick Pocket if I don't want to (unlike 2e), but I can if I want to. I don't feel like I'm being weighed down with a useless class feature like a certain "R" class I won't name.

PS if I found a class to be grossly overpowered, I might have voted for it as the worst-designed class.

It's too bad we weren't voting on prestige classes.

 

[kenjib]

Lastly, our buddy the rogue has avoided any scorn at all. Is rogue the del-facto choice for best designed class? Any rogue nay-sayers out there want to prove us wrong?

I'm surprised that the fighter has even two votes. I think fighter and rogue are the best classes because they most take advantage of the parts of the d20 system that give you maximum flexibility -- skills and feats. This lets you create a wide array of different character types just with these two classes.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I voted Psychic Warrior, because I find when playing my current Psychic Warrior I have three choices in a fight (outside of a fight he's not much use anyway.)

1) Don't manifest any of my short term buffs, hope I can win on feats and BAB alone.

2) Manifest a couple of short term buffs, but miss half the combat.

3) Manifest all my short term buffs, watch the combat finish without me.

None of which I'm finding much fun.

 

[Shard O'Glase]

I was going to go with psion or the bard in the end I went with fighter.

Fighters are really only balanced in the dungeon. And yes I realize their name is fighter, before anyone chimes in with this comment.

But it comes down to this all they can effectively do is fight. And that would be fine is they absolutley dominated combat, but they don't every other class other than the bard hangs in there and fights close to as well as they do. But the fighter doesn't come even remotely close to hanging in there outside of the fight compared to any class there except maybe the paladin, who I have too little experience with to know much about.

Considering how mcuh worse the fighter is outside of a fight there should be 0 situations where the rogue outdamages the fighter, 0 situations where the amge outperforms the fighter in a fight etc. It doesn't work that way though, in many situaitons thanks to sneak attacks the rogue exceeds the fighter in damage, thanks to save or dies, creative spellcasting, area of effect spells etc the wiz/sor frequently out fight the fighter, the cleric with buffs, can out fight or = the fighter, and still buff the fighter, throw out area of effect spells, save or die spells, or use harm which will be overfixed in 3.5.

Yet outside of a fight unless your climing or riding a horse the rogue, cleric, wiz/sor will spank the fighter making him look like an incompetent boob who not only can't help the party, but often bungles it so bad as too hinder the party, so just sit down shut up and don't even try fighters. Its not a fight so go play the playstation and wait for us to let you know when you can roll some dice.

 

[Shard O'Glase]

I voted Psychic Warrior, because I find when playing my current Psychic Warrior I have three choices in a fight (outside of a fight he's not much use anyway.)

1) Don't manifest any of my short term buffs, hope I can win on feats and BAB alone.

2) Manifest a couple of short term buffs, but miss half the combat.

3) Manifest all my short term buffs, watch the combat finish without me.

None of which I'm finding much fun.

The psychic warrior almost needs persistent power to work, there are some long term buffs that are cool and some nice psychic feats, but yeah unless you build your character like a champ which shouldn't be needed, you fall into the situation you outline above.

 

[green slime]

I voted Barbarian.

Not because they are the weakest class, but because playing a single classed one would be the most boring.

Bards, Rangers, Psions... They all get something more interesting to look forward to, IMHO. Bards can really handle them secondary magical items. And spells are always fun. Rangers can... Track on occasion, and get lots of skill points, as well as spells. And at least Psions get the joy of planning their power acquisition.

But barbarians? How fun is it to just rage all the time... Oh yeah, I get to subtract some damage now and again... For twenty levels? Nope. Not for me. I'd definitely be branching out into Fighter/Ranger/Rogue... That way at least there'd be something more going on...

 

[Lalato]

I can't believe the monk has only received 12 votes... Monks completely suck barnacles at low levels...

--sam

 

[Merlion]

Because the question of the poll is worsed designed not least powerful.