Best Class of 3.5

[GM Elton]

I missed this thread but I didn't want to resurrect it. So, I'll just clone it.

The best class of 3.5 in my view. Okay, I'm biased, but it has to be the Shaper side of the Psion. Here are the reasons why -- really. It isn't silly. Although the Wizard could also count for the reasons below for those who think that a line between Fantasy and Science Fiction shouldn't be crossed -- but the Wizard is a cop out compared to the Shaper side of the Psion.

What the Bleep do we know?

The Secret -- the book is better than the movie.

Abraham Hicks -- the books are highly recommended.

Think and Grow Rich -- not as much "mysticism," but it contains the same. (as an aside: Mysticism is the art of blaming others for your problems, not a professed knowledge in something supernatural)

When it comes right down to it, if you are looking for a class that replicates our REAL LIFE(tm), you can't really get too far from a Shaper psion. The shaper psion represents the quintessence of what it means to be alive. :)

now for pure martial art coolness, the Fighter is the best class out of all of them. For absolute cool on the other end of the spectrum, the Artificer from Eberron is the most resourceful class built for 3.5. But the most thematic class of all 3.5 has to be the Barbarian from the Conan RPG 2nd Edition.

[SmiloDan]

I liked the Scout. I like skills, I like tactical movement, I like bonus feats. :-)

[SwnyNerdgasm]

I never got to play one but I always liked the idea of the marshal class

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

I was fond of the warlock/wizard PRC.

[Malachi Silverclaw]

I love the Warlock!

I'm still playing Honey Snow, who's just hit 16th level Warlock. : )

[Orthos]

Binder.

Runners up:
Warlock
Dragonfire Adept
Tome of Battle classes

Special mention:
Shadowcaster and Truenamer. Cool ideas, poor executions (endlessly so in the case of the latter).

Psions are cool and all, but their upgrades in Dreamscarred Press's PF adaptation are worlds above their 3.5 versions, IMO.

[Reshar]

SwnyNerdgasm wrote:

I never got to play one but I always liked the idea of the marshal class

+1 to this.

Also, I love the Scout class. I'm currently playing one in a homebrew 3.5 campaing actually.

[Byrdology]

I liked bards and rogues. The beguiled was a good cross if it wasn't for the poor BaB. I liked to gestalt beguiled and swashbuckler tough... Good times.

[DeathQuaker]

It had its issues, but Favored Soul. I liked the idea of it, I like a spontaneous divine caster (PF Oracle is a nice spont caster but it's TOO pigeonholey for flavor).

[Ughbash]

Artificer.

[Sloanzilla]

Druid still beats Wizard and Cleric, IMO.

Wizards HAVE weaknesses, and clerics lack some mobility and diversity.

You can't make a bad 3.5 druid, and they can do anything. You can turn into a polar bear, cast some level 7 spell, and then have your animal companion do more damage than the fighter.

[Alexander Augunas]

Orthos wrote:

Binder.

Runners up:
Warlock
Dragonfire Adept
Tome of Battle classes

Special mention:
Shadowcaster and Truenamer. Cool ideas, poor executions (endlessly so in the case of the latter).

Psions are cool and all, but their upgrades in Dreamscarred Press's PF adaptation are worlds above their 3.5 versions, IMO.

That's right, you better answer "binder!" :-P

[The Shaman]

No mention of the Incarnate and Totemist? A pity, I thought them quite interesting. The totemist in particular could give the binder a run for his money, imo.

[ResidualRose]

Dread Necromancer. Talk about a class with FLAVOUR! Death magic, channeling negative energy, raising undead, summoning dark powers...the potentional for villians, anti-heroes, and tragic figures was massive. Sometimes all 3 at once!

Runner up is the good ol'Rogue for it's adaptabilty to pretty much anything. Villager shang hai'd by a cadre of dwarves to be a burglar? Yes! Cagey cad of a warrior? Yes! Adventurerous Archaeologist? Sure! Dwarvern Siege Engineer? Yes! Bow-wielding Bandit? Yes! Scurvy pirate? Throw in a few levels of Swashbuckler and the Daring Outlaw feat, and yes!

[Karish Conway]

Alexander Augunas wrote:

Orthos wrote:

Binder.

Runners up:
Warlock
Dragonfire Adept
Tome of Battle classes

Special mention:
Shadowcaster and Truenamer. Cool ideas, poor executions (endlessly so in the case of the latter).

Psions are cool and all, but their upgrades in Dreamscarred Press's PF adaptation are worlds above their 3.5 versions, IMO.

That's right, you better answer "binder!" :-P

I daren't do otherwise. =)

[Orthos]

The Shaman wrote:

No mention of the Incarnate and Totemist? A pity, I thought them quite interesting. The totemist in particular could give the binder a run for his money, imo.

Oh yes, a definite thumbs-up to all the Incarnum classes. Soulborn was pretty cool too, if a little on the lacking side compared to the Paladin it was supposed to emulate. And yes, Totemist was very fun and very versatile - I had one in my Savage Tide campaign, and he was quite adept at tearing things apart.

Ditto for the Archivist and Dread Necromancer from Heroes of Horror. Played one of the former - as a Killoren, from Races of the Wild - for a good six months, one of my favorite characters of all time still.

[darth_borehd]

I miss the noble class from Dragonlance. I think it filled a missing roleplaying niche for a variety of different character concepts.

[SmiloDan]

I also like binders, druids, and warlocks. Never got to play a marshal, but it looks real cool too.

[Beckett]

Favored Soul and Dread Necromancer, (though I think it should have been a divine flavored class rather than arcane). I wanted to try out the Crusader, but never really had a chance.

[GM Elton]

darth_borehd wrote:

I miss the noble class from Dragonlance. I think it filled a missing roleplaying niche for a variety of different character concepts.

That is one class that should have been added to the SRD. :)

[ShadowcatX]

Warblade.

And for prcs' the druid / arcanist dual caster with the companion familiar.

[Ciaran Barnes]

SwnyNerdgasm wrote:

I never got to play one but I always liked the idea of the marshal class

I loved the idea of it too, and played one for several levels. It was okay, but I wanted to see a little more versatility from it. The marshall -begins- to shine with a large melee group, which I kind of had depending on who was present at the session.

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

Ultimate magus was my favorite PRC.

[Commander PK]

I'll take best class by most OP, and it's definitely druid.

[Kirth Gersen]

Commoner was totally OP! Unlike the druid, they had no daily limit to their abilities. Druids had (and still have) both limited spell slots and limited wild shape uses per day. Commoners could be common all day long!

[draykhar]

The entire incarnum concept was awesome, definitely a step outside the box for our coastal arcane friends. But I too am a Psionics fan, and a well made shaper was one of my favorite classes to play.

"Oh no, we don't have food" Give him a minute
"Oh no, we need to poison the duke discreetly, but we don't have any poison." Give him a minute
"Oh no, we've made it to the town to warn them about the upcoming invasion, but they have no weapons." Give him a couple minutes.

I also really enjoyed the dread necromancer, although all of the games I played one in fell short of level 8 (the level a dread nec gains the ability to actually animate the dead)

[GM Elton]

I forgot to mention that the Warlock (from Complete Arcane) is a very strong class for it's use.

[Majuba]

Fochlucan Lyricist by far.

[Kairos Dawnfury]

Ah, Kensei PrC! "Oh, you want me to jump out of the way? No." Concentration checks in place of reflex saves was awesome. I Duskbladed into Kensei and loved it.

Dragon Order Cavalier kinda took over Marshal, but I'm not a mounted combat fan. I rolled a Marshal when my group wanted to try a monstrous mercernary company campaign and I found a Grendel (Half troll). We didn't know how level adjustment actually worked so he gave me HD. After I one shot a Wyvern with my Large Bastard sword, the GM scrapped the campaign because he didn't know how to balance it.

[Laiho Vanallo]

I loved the warmage!

[+5 Toaster]

lets see as far as prc's go my top 5 goes as follows.
1.Geomancer
2.Geomancer
3.Geomancer
4.witchborn binder
5.Geomancer
geooommmmmmaaaaannnnnnnnccccccceeeeeeeerrrrrrrrr!!!

[DankeSean]

Honestly surprised that we're more than half of a page down and nobody's chimed in with Factotum as a fave.
Well, I'll do so. I love classes that are versatile with the role they can play in a party, and I love skill freaks. Combine the two into one and I drool.

[Byrdology]

Factotum was great! I drew inspiration from it for my "rogue styles" base class tweak.

[Howie23]

Archivist. Spell book caster with all divine spells available. Nice "collect 'em all" feel. Nice RP hooks.

[thaX]

Get this....

I played the first AP, Rise of the Rune Lords, playing a soul knife lady. She went into the Pyrokineticist PrC and never actually ever carry a real weapon.

Wish we could have completed that before the DM moved away.

[SmiloDan]

I might actually join a 3.5 group. I guess it's kind of a killer DM situation too. Considering a barbarian, druid, ranger, or dragon shaman or duskblade (if allowed).

[Maerimydra]

3.5 classes that I really like and that I would play in a Pathfinder campaing (if allowed):

- Crusader (Tome of Battle: Book of the Nine Swords)
- Dragon Shaman (Player's Handbook II)
- Favored Soul (Miniatures Handbook/Complete Divine)
- Knight (Player's Handbook II)
- Marshal (Miniatures Handbook)
- Scout (Complete Adventurer)
- Shadowcaster (Tome of Magic)
- Warblade (Tome of Battle: Book of the Nine Swords)
- Warlock (Complete Arcane)

Yeah, I like having two ''casting'' stats as a concept because I think that this is a good fix to the martials/casters disparity. Like DeathQuaker, I think that the PF Oracle is too pigeonholey for flavor and that's why I still like the Favored Soul.

[Zog of Deadwood]

Scouts. Fun, fun class to play.

Druids with the shapeshifting ACF (a great tool if GMs allowed them to be used as 1st level single level dips to create PCs from tribes of shapechanging humans). I really enjoyed playing Ka'ato, warrior of the Cat People. The party didn't even know he HAD a human form for quite a while.

Wizards (liked them then, like them better now).

[Quintin Belmont]

Factotem....'Nuff Said. Being able to replace just about enyone at the table is always fun. Plus He's INT Based Combatant!!!

[TriOmegaZero]

Warblade, for being a better Fighter.

[Silver Eye]

Psion (love the flavor and mechanics, strong and versatile. I liked him so much that was nicknamed psion in my closest friends table)
Swordsage (I really like having options and fun stuff to do as a martial character)
Dread Necromancer (The most dramatic char I played was a DN brother to a Paladin of another PC)
Wizard (There's something attractive about being able to create a dozen diferent characters concepts with the same class)

[TheRedArmy]

Beguiler was so cool. Rouge BAB in my game.

Knight was also awesome.

Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil. All day. Best arcane duelist in the world.

In the RPGA, I had a half-elf bard/marshal. Never got past level 3, but she was fun. 21 diplomacy at level 2, I believe. Marshall was OK by itself, but nothing great.

[Craig Frankum]

Warlock!!!

[ericthecleric]

There were lots of good 3.5 classes. My favourite non-core one was the binder.

I liked the idea of that one in the Dragon Compendium where someone gained powers from dark forces, but thought it would work better as a template.

[Sissyl]

Ultimate magus. Nuff said.

[SmiloDan]

I might get to play a 20th level binder.

[ericthecleric]

SmiloDan wrote:

I might get to play a 20th level binder.

Cool! Hope you do, and have fun!

[SmiloDan]

ericthecleric wrote:

SmiloDan wrote:

I might get to play a 20th level binder.

Cool! Hope you do, and have fun!

Thanks!

Any tips on feats or skills?

Good combos for vestiges?

[KenderKin]

Was I the only one who liked the swift blade and the chameleon?

[Sloanzilla]

I'm pleased to see people mentioning dragon shaman, as I always thought it was perhaps the most underrated class.

Not uber powerful, sure, but gave you a lot of good options. Kind of an inquisitor build in some ways, and fun to play. I ran one in a L5 one nighter campaign and was easily the star of the show.