Viridian Dreams Forum

What classes do you like to play, and why? Do you favor a Paladin over a Barbarian, or a Sorcerer over a Wizard? What style of play you prefer?

Most of the RPG stuff I know about are from the D&D 3.5 set of rules, so if you are talking a bit about something else please describe it.

As for myself, my favorite is the Wizard. The ability to throw my weight around from halfway across the field instead of getting attacked head on makes me feel like a tin god. :D The Wizard can learn more spells, more often than a Sorcerer can, even if the Sorcerer can cast more spells per day.

My least favorite aspect of this is the inability to take a hit, with no armour and only a few more hitpoints than your average egg, I need to avoid any kind of imminant danger.

My role tends to be that of a generalist, mostly crowd control and buffs, although with the occasional fireball thrown in.

I'm rather enamored with the 4th Edition warlock. I think they are the coolest spellcasting class I've ever seen. For example, a wizard can summon high level demons against opponents that he doesn't like. If a warlock doesn't like somebody, they can give their enemy their own personal quick sightseeing tour of the nine hells. Granted that's a level 29-30 ability so you don't see it very often but it's still completely awesome. There are a ton of other nifty things in there for them too. Too many for me to list here actually, but I would definitely recommend checking them out for anyone that wants to see some of stuff in 4E.

In AD&D, I think I had Ranger as my favorite. When we switched over to D&D3.x, I decided that monk looked neat and tried that. ... I never really tried out any other class after that.

Neverwinter Nights? Monk.
Started Final Fantasy XI? Monk.

The unarmed bonuses, wisdom bonus to AC, increased speed, slow fall, the evasion class features, immunity to disease/poison/aging, and spell resistance? Provides a lot of options for dealing with stuff. Might have some trouble dealing with DR depending on level and can't wear armor for that AC bonus.

I tend to lead the way in dungeons due to evasion/improved evasion and high reflex saves, and went for feats that would help keep me alive (many times by making me kill stuff faster, but I tend to think "the best defense is a good offense, but make sure your defense doesn't suck... just in case). I was a much more no-tactics-kill-stuff player back when I played semi-regularly. I'd pick more feats that'd help tactically if I got playing nowadays.

The Soulknife looks interesting, but I never really had a chance to try it out.

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I haven't heard much good stuff about 4E. Too MMO like.

Luck Mage. I forget what book that Prestige Class was in, t'was an older 3.0 one, but damn was it a fun class to roll with. Trusting in luck to keep you safe, messing with the enemies chance of doing anything right, and at the cap you could "Seal the Fate" of one enemy once per day, which was basically a Save or Die that you could use Luck Mage abilities to make almost impossible to resist. The class was re-printed in a 3.5 splat-book as well, but it went from EPIC to FAIL just like that. Dunno why they nerfed it so bad...

As for base class, I'd have to say Wizard, particularly at high/epic levels. Mainly due to the unadulterated fun that is messing with the Gate and Genesis spells. If Genesis sounds unfamiliar it's because it was printed in a Forgotten Realms book. At it's simplest, imagine this combo: Over the course of a few weeks I use Genesis to create a small demi-plane shaped like a cube. I then scout around for an active volcano and then use Gate to fill my demi-plane with lava, followed by setting the plane's temperature to high enough to keep the lava viscous.

A fight starts. I open a Gate under my enemies. Guess where it leads... :D

Also, feel free to substitute "lava" with acid, icy water, various kinds of undead, a huge Gelatinous Cube, etc... Fun times.

I tend to lean towards Rangers most of the time, usually because when I picture a Ranger I picture someone who's pretty anti-social, so it acts as an escape from my job, where I'm in a "customer-service" position for officers, meaning that I have to have a smile on my face and a spring in my step the entire time. (okay, not quite that bad, but some days...) That and the ability to get an animal companion that'll bite someone's face off is fun. Might try a Druid sometime, just to see how it plays.

Yeah, the wizard's fun. I just hit some of the new spells, and they look like a good mix of "fun" and "useful" I'm just waiting for the first time I get to use the Rock to Lava spell. Even though my GM would be more than happy to bring the laws of physics into this. ("Well, let's bring up the matter of convection, shall we?")

As I said before though, the *squishy* part is starting to get annoying. My next character will likely be an Ork barbarian. Then I can have fun going "Waaaaaghhh!!!" :D
Although there is that bard class...

I've always gravitated toward the Rogue class. Skills, tricks, and sneaking really draw me. Of course, with the games I've played so far with Matt and the crew there is no such thing as sneaking...

Aside from that Sorcerer and Cleric have drawn my eye, but I have not yet branched out.

Sneaking around is for losers. Knocking on the front door then punching out the people that open it, now that's the way to go.

Alternately, using a Fireball or other suitably epic spell to blow the door in so the party can walk in over the burning scraps that used to be a thick wooden door.

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I think that if I did a SW game, I'd go with one of the non-force classes like tech specialist or soldier. Because trapping a force user with explosives or the like, or shooting them from 120km away with a Aratech sniper rifle with tri-light scope, is so much easier to kill them than being in their face. Plus, being a Jedi is kinda cliche. Though I'd totally go Jedi Guardian -> Jedi Weapon Master if I were a Jedi. Sure he's not got fantastic use options in many eras, but those that he's in his element in he'd be rocking it.

Probably brushing the dark side too. But hey, when you're awesome, who cares about going (at first, I typed "doing" there, oddly enough) evil?

The character I have created and played that I most enjoyed was probably a stupid but extremely passionate paladin. That guy detected evil on everything, from the road to the drow ruling lich. Plus he fought with a spiked chain. It was all in all quite fun.

Recent events in OotS are making me itch to play a 3.5 wizard. I have never done that before, but I will have to find a group when I get back to America this summer.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I always long to play kinds of characters that just shouldn't work, and hell, might not work at all. Like druid/rogue. Or a Divination specialist wizard.

Well, my favorite class is Evil GM... oh you mean as a PC...

Recently has been spell casting classes, trying to be a Warforged Sorcerer, should be good times.

I also enjoyed one mutant and mastermind game I'm in, based on Nanoha as one of the two skill monkeys, though the character can't make a notice check when certain people in the group are around.

Though my favorite was the paladin who had joined a traveling caravan. Too bad the campaign didn't go very far.

Is it true that DMs are listed as "Usually LE"?

Is it true that DMs are listed as "Usually LE"?

In my group, no, its too chaotic for me to be LE, but they definitely see me as CE. And the one Nanoha RP the dm is definitely Neutral Silly but Awesome. It was very good that I played a male character in that one. Scary Captain.

I once had the pleasure of playing with a DM who I would consider Lawful intolerant. If you missed one gaming session too many without good reason you were liable to die in a horrific fashion. I still shudder at the pysics involved in a gnome accidentally sitting on his short sword and dieing from massive internal bleeding, and that was one of the nicer deaths.

As a player, it really depends. I've enjoyed playing skill-monkeys like rogues and such. I've enjoyed playing the portable artillery on two legs as a mage. I haven't gotten into being a social character as much, but I'm learning.

Now, as a GM...

Ummm... There isn't much I havn't attempting either in D&D or Star Wars. My fav character was a an AD&D mage who was played under the alternative spell points rules, I adored my 3.0 priest of war (sub healing -- it fit in that game, since we tended to make up our own panthyon when that group got together), my 3.5 ranger rocked in a campaign that was modeled after the Roman army... In Star Wars it is a toss up between my Noble politician in the old 6 sider system and the Counciller Jedi in the new D20. I also pulled off a non-human pilot and a male Scoundral with moderate success (though my fiancee says I couldn't quite shed all of the double X chromosome characterists -- especially when I was attempting to hit on the pretty smuggler). Monk, scourcer, and bard have all been classes that I have enjoyed in campaigns that begin when we are at least level 10 (great for short term story arcs) -- I have never started them at level 1. Fighter classes are fun when I don't have much time to make a background story. And any character from the Masquarade systems have always had major physical classes that I can drop blood points on to smash through a fight.

I think it depends on the story, the group, and my own personal feeling the day I make the character.

Hmm, after playing for a bit more, I've moved on from Rangers and am coming to find that I quite enjoy building fighter/mage combinations, aka "gish builds". Being able to cut someone down with a bastard sword and on your next turn blow away the mage that was geting ready to summon an eldritch horror to eat your soul with a hyper-powered fireball is pretty dang gratifying.

After playing 4th edition my favorite class ever is the warlord by a huge margin. I will probably play Warlords (and other Support classes like them) for a looooong time I imagine.

Warlocks. Because conserving spells is for pansies.

(And yes, I mean 3.5 only, not 4.0)

The character I have created and played that I most enjoyed was probably a stupid but extremely passionate paladin. That guy detected evil on everything, from the road to the drow ruling lich. Plus he fought with a spiked chain. It was all in all quite fun.

Recent events in OotS are making me itch to play a 3.5 wizard. I have never done that before, but I will have to find a group when I get back to America this summer.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I always long to play kinds of characters that just shouldn't work, and hell, might not work at all. Like druid/rogue. Or a Divination specialist wizard.

I started playing a divination specialist wizard, and in all honesty it has worked out wonderfully. I gave up necromancy for the record.

Sweet. That sounds like fun.

I'd have to say the only things I haven't played in recent memory are rogue and bard, right now I'm playing a multi-classed Warmage and Focused Specialist Conjurer then went into Ultimate Magus as soon as possible. Almost done with the Ultimate Magus prestige class right now, and the combination has been working out pretty well for me. I had to give up 3 schools instead of 2 for the Focused Specialist variant wizard, but there are certain advantages to it. Namely the much larger number of spells per day when compared to a normal wizard or even a normal specialist, though those extra spells do have to be from your specialist school.

All in all, I think just about anything can be made into a fun character to play - I know I've enjoyed all the sorcerers, clerics and warlocks that I've played in the past. This is the first time I've played an actual wizard and it's been interesting getting a feel for how that works.

I'm about to give Psion another try (as part of a Monk/Psion)... pray for me!

Frenzied Berserker. What on earth is funnier than everyone around you knowing that if they dont find you enemies, mechanically you are FORCED to start smashing everyone around you into their component parts. Also it makes warriors happy because generally you can cast inspire frenzy when the shit hits the fun. Although the two frenzied combatants almost always end up fighting eachother after the boss/swarm goes down... :P

And the obligatory "Must charge nearest visible enemy no matter what" has also led to some hilarious situations, like attempting to leap over pits no sane man would ever attempt to, and failing miserably.

Oh, and it makes wizards/sorcs get calm emotions veeeeeeeeery quickly.

I favor a rouge/sorcerer myself. Its fun casting hold person and then walking up to them and sneak attacking with a spiked chain.