Favorite 3pp class you've played or thrown against players?

[Cheapy]

I have the opportunity to play almost any class I'd like, and I'd like for it to be a 3pp class. The issue at this point is which class.

I'd love to hear what people have played in the past and what the character was like (how'd they fight, etc). Did you enjoy it? Why or why not?

[Tempestorm]

I am currently playing a Jotun Paragon from the book "In the Company of Giants" by Rite Publishing. Enjoying the heck out of him and I've only played him in one session thus far. lol

I am not really using the fluff background as presented in the book. I am playing his as an Ulfen, that is he believes himself to be Ulfen, and treating the character as something of a melee sorcerer. That is to say that his family has the blood of giants in his ancestry similarly to how a sorcerer may have the blood of dragons or fey, etc.

[Matthew Winn]

I end up GM'ing all the time, so as a *player* I'm still trying out the official base classes. But the 3pp class on my list that I've been most impressed with is hands down the DP revision of the soulknife. It was the most awesome concept in 3.5 but woefully unfun to play. I have a player running a half-giant soulknife now and having the time of her life thanks to blade skills.

[Cheapy]

I suppose I should open it up to classes you've thrown against players too :)

[Jeremy Smith]

Matthew Winn wrote:

I end up GM'ing all the time, so as a *player* I'm still trying out the official base classes. But the 3pp class on my list that I've been most impressed with is hands down the DP revision of the soulknife. It was the most awesome concept in 3.5 but woefully unfun to play. I have a player running a half-giant soulknife now and having the time of her life thanks to blade skills.

Awesome to hear! :)

Cheapy - unfortunately, all of my characters have either been core classes (druid twice, cleric once, ranger once) or psionic classes (psion lots, psychic warrior a couple times, vitalist once, and tactician once). And given my ties to Dreamscarred and the psionic classes, I think my view would be pretty biased. :)

I'm trying to think of the classes the other members of my group have played and they tend to be Paizo classes...

[Caedwyr]

SGG's War Master is one of my favourites. It's a strong martial character with plenty to do outside of combat, and works extremely well as a leader type character. I really like the Contacts and Agents features, which allow the War Master to have a network of contacts and agents wherever they go. They play somewhat similar to a martial bard with fewer skills and more staying power/chance of hitting things. It fills a nice niche that has sadly been largely unfilled for a number of editions now.

[Stark Enterprises VP]

I've really enjoyed Tripod Machine's Scholar, Scout, and Gladiator classes.

[Orthos]

I've DMed for a Shadow Assassin, a Time Thief, a Dragonrider, and an Artificer, and had fun with all of them. Players seemed to enjoy them too.

[ShadowcatX]

I'm currently playing a vitalist in a pbp game, I've got a taskshaper in another pbp game starting today. Both classes are great mechanically and both characters are a load of fun. I'm currently DMing for a vitalist, and that is going well both for me and for the person playing the vitalist.

Just a note for the vitalist, don't be fooled by their power list, they are not just healers. IMO a vitalist blaster is one of the best blasters in the game. By level 13 they can blast, heal, and debuff all with with a single power.

As to the taskshaper, well he can do pretty much anything. Especially with 3pp available. (Grabbing other class abilities from extended sources? Sure!)

[Cheapy]

Which power is that?

[Odin's Left Eye]

Not too long ago, I had the PCs face up against a Juju Zombie Knight/Gladiator (from a Fistful of Denarii) in full-plate backed by a Juju Zombie Armiger (from Super Genius Games). The Armiger used a reach weapon so that he could fight adjacent to the Knight/Gladiator while staying out of the reach of the PCs. Thanks to the Armiger, I think I managed to get that Knight/Gladiator up to an AC 30. And thanks to Resplendent Power and the hilarious amount of feats a Gladiator gets over the course of his first few levels, the Knight/Gladiator was a melee behemoth. Given the PCs were only fourth level at the time, it gave them quite the challenge.
Mind you, the fight would have been over a lot sooner if the Alchemist remembered that he did, in fact, possess touch-attack bombs.

[Endzeitgeist]

@Odin's left eye: I'd love to see the builds for the two if you have the time! Sounds like the level of sadism/tactical challenge I seek to endorse in my game. :)

[Shizzle69]

Cheapy, I'm going to throw another vote in for the vitalist. Specifically the new Life Leech vitalist. I'm sure Jeremy would appreciate more feedback on it. It gives you something productive to do while not healing or buffing like a pro through the collective. I suggest taking expanded Knowledge at least once too. Also I'm pretty sure the power he's referring to is Empathic Transfer, Hostile with the 6 point augment for burst mode. Deal like 50-70 damage in 20ft burst and then distribute the 50-70 over the collective.

[Cheapy]

I've already mostly decided on a class, but I am still interested in seeing what others think.

[Realmwalker]

SGG Adept/Clever/Eldritch/Mighty Godlings, Time Thief/Warden
Rite Publishing Luckbringer
Paizo Fans United Wolfshifter.

[Spes Magna Mark]

I'm making extensive use of Dreamscarred Press's psionics classes for NPCs in my current campaign.

[Kolokotroni]

I really like the Super Genius games shadow assassin. I have used it as an npc a couple times against my party and it is a great shift from the expected 'sneaky' types

[ShadowcatX]

Cheapy wrote:

Which power is that?

Any attack power really. Soul thief, at either 11 or 13, can gain hp for their collective equal to 1/2 damage dealt and there's a feat that allows you to add a debuff to cold damage. Its 2 feats for a single trick, but it is a very, very good trick.

And its not like soul thieves are weak until that point either. I just really love that class.

[Realmwalker]

What I like about my Helpful Halfling Luckbringer has been the only rolls he has had to make so far are saving throws.

[Odin's Left Eye]

@Endzeitgeist - Enjoy, and try to ignore any egregious mistakes I made.

On reflection, I had actually later given the Grave Knight a customized +1 shield, so his total AC should actually have been 31.
The fight took place in close quarters, with the party pretty much all clustered by the doorway, which prevented them from immediately mobbing the pair. With the Grave Knight up in their faces, they forgot about the Grave Guardian. With his high AC, the Grave Knight was virtually un-hittable. The Inquisitor actually managed to buff himself enough to actually pose some semblance of a threat to the Grave Knight, but that DR 5/magic and slashing was a pain. Ultimately, the battle was won when, the Fighter and Inquisitor both nearly dead, the Alchemist remembered that he had ACID bombs in addition to his fire ones. They fell quickly after that.

GRAVE KNIGHT CR 3
NE medium undead (augmented humanoid) juju zombie knight 1/gladiator 2; Init +6
DEFENCE
AC 26, touch 12, flat-footed 24 (+9 armour, +2 shield, +3 natural, +1 Dex, +1 Dodge)
AC 30 with soft cover
hp 37 (1d10 + 2d12 + 9 + 3 + 2)
Fort +7, Ref +2, Will +1
Defensive Abilities channel resistance +4
DR 5/magic and slashing; Immune cold, electricity, magic missile, undead traits; Resist fire 10
OFFENSE
Speed 20ft.
Melee mwk longsword +9 (1d8+4/19-20)
Honourable Might mwk longsword +11 (1d8+6/19-20)
Or mwk longsword +7 (1d8+4/19-20) and mwk shield +6 (1d8+4)
Honourable Might or mwk longsword +9 (1d8+6/19-20) and Tusked Shield +8 (1d8+3)

Special Abilities Resplendent Power: 9 rounds/day
Honourable Might: gain +4 morale bonus to Strength
STATISTICS
Str 19, Dex 15, Con ---, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 16
Base Atk +3; CMB +7; CMD 19
Feats Weapon Focus (longsword), Extra Resplendence, Dodge, Combat Expertise, Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Shield Bash, Improved Initiative, Toughness
SQ Quality
EQUIPMENT
Other Gear: plate mail, mwk heavy steel shield, mwk longsword

And to make things worse:

GRAVE GUARDIAN CR 2
NE medium undead (augmented humanoid) juju zombie armiger 2; Init +6
DEFENCE
AC 24, touch 13, flat-footed 21 (+2 Dex, +1 dodge, +6 armour, +2 shield, +3 natural)
hp 21 (2d12+2)
Fort +4, Ref +2, Will +3; reflect
Defensive Abilities channel resistance +4
DR 5/magic and slashing; Immune cold, electricity, magic missile, undead traits; Resist fire 10
OFFENSE
Speed 20ft.
Melee mwk glaive +8 (1d10+5) reach
OR armour spikes +6 (1d6+5)
Special Abilities Bulwark: all adjacent allies gain soft cover
STATISTICS
Str 21, Dex 15, Con ---, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 12
Base Atk +1; CMB +6; CMD 10
Feats Dodge, Combat Reflexes, Improved Initiative, Toughness
SQ Armiger Talent (Spear Brace)
EQUIPMENT
Gear: mwk glaive, spiked chainmail, heavy steel shield

As you can see, Gladiator gives a joyous amount of feats over the course of its first few levels, while armiger makes for a wonderful support unit in melee combat. The Grave Knight's Will save was terrible, but they didn't have any primary casters, so it proved to be meaningless.
Juju zombie is a wonderful template though. Definitely worth that mere +1 CR boost.

[DungeonmasterCal]

I've played a Justicar (the spell-less version of the Inquisitor from SGG) and really enjoyed the character, though he died during the adventure. One of my players (the optimizer) plays an Adept Godling.

As far as creating a 3PP adversary, I've used the Death Mage so far. I am going to use the Death Knight in the very near future, too.