Great thread! Very interesting!
My top Paizo classes (in no particular order)
Oracle/Cleric: Kind of cheating here, I know, but I only get three! :) I love playing divine classes for the rich role-playing potential, and both of these classes are great
Paladin: Much like above, the paladin has so much role-playing potential, and it's a powerful class!
Ranger: The rugged, nature-oriented Aragorn archetype really appeals to me, especially when you throw in the archer angle, although I prefer my rangers to not be spellcasters ...My top 3PP classes (in no particular order)
Trickster (Kobold Press, New Paths Compendium): A wizard/rogue hybrid class with plenty of versatility - very fun to play
Shaman (Kobold Press, New Paths Compendium) Spontaneous druid - what else do you need to say! ? :)
Theurge (Kobold Press, New Paths Compendium) A powerful arcane/divine spellcasting class that is all about spells, including cool ways to combine them.
What can I say - I know the author! :)
The only true rangers are spell-less Rangers!
1) Fighter (more so since weapon masters handbook)
2) Rogue
3) Inquisitor
What? am I only allowed 1 top 3?
tch!it changes depending on my mood.
1.) Master Summoner: feels more like a powerful wizard than wizards do.
2.) Druid: Great flavor, does it all.
3.) Barbarian: Rich, fun and powerful melee class.
1) Rogue (original, not the unchained)
2) Buccaneer (Gunslinger archetype)
3) Witch
Really, though I like them all and make a different character each time. I rarely play the same class twice in a row.
Since we're doing least favorite classes...
98. Any class without spellcasting.
99. Any prepared or arcane full caster.
100. Inquisitor.
Least favorite classes:
1) Unchained Monk
2) Unchained Rogue
3) Unchained Summoner
That rules out more than half of the classes in the game, even if you apparently consider investigators and kineticists to have "spellcasting." Wow.Since we're doing least favorite classes...
98. Any class without spellcasting.
99. Any prepared or arcane full caster.
100. Inquisitor.
It's almost like I have an opinion that the game would be much better balanced without half the classes in it. Amazing isn't it? Like, how could someone have an opinion like that?
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I just want to say with about 40 classes and several archetypes and options inside each class, everybody should be able to make nearly every fantasy character they want. That's pretty impressive.
I don't really have a bottom three.
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I just want to say with about 40 classes and several archetypes and options inside each class, everybody should be able to make nearly every every fantasy character they want. That's pretty impressive.
Truth, I love classes that give such amazing variety to players even within themselves. It's why I love the alchemist, it's like 100 different concepts just waiting to be brought to life.
I agree, N. Jolly. However, I wish some of the investigator archetypes were better.
Also, TriOmegaZero and darth_borehd, ditto.
My personal favorites are colored heavily by the amount of time I spent playing the various video games (thousands of hours) that have been released over the years (I'm old, Commodore 64 is where I started). Oddly, most of the games I consider "great," are from AD&D 2E, not 3E. As such, the class list is a bit different; different enough that a true comparison is difficult.
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Personal top 3.
1. Druid: It has a great flavor, in class options that completely change its roll in combat and is second only to the wizard in survivalability.
2. Magus: A plethora of in-combat options that ultimately lead to one thing, going nova on the BBG. Also fairly usefull out of combat due to arcane spells and lots of skills due to int mod.
3. Inquisitor, no one ever seems to expect it.
1. Bards - Forever and always. Not only are they extremely well balanced and able to fill any party niche while helping their allies to succeed, but the style of roleplay that bards naturally tend to gravitate towards is incredibly healthy for the gaming table to include in moderation (which is nice since you rarely want two bards in a party anyway unless you're going full musical troupe).
2. Clerics - While mechanically I like oracles just a tiny bit more, having deific ties baked into the class (get your filthy cleric of philosophy away from my table) gives less experienced roleplayers a crutch to fall back on and more experienced roleplayers an additional tool to make their character shine even brighter. The high power ceiling doesn't hurt either.
3. Barbarians - The most mechanically solid and diverse of the non-casters without having to rely on items (although WMH may have made fighters more diverse when fully decked out), barbarians are great at pretty much all levels of play if you wanna play murderface.
Honorable mentions: Inquisitor (basically the divine bard), Vigilante (I like my RP, okay?) and Druid (great at everything and has that fantastic nature vibe - also my longest running character was a druid so I have a little bit of personal bias)
My cleric of Nihilism would like a word with you, or not, he doesn't really care.
My cleric of Stoicism doesn't see a reason to participate.My cleric of Nazism doesn't deal with filthy mudbloods.
All in all this post didn't have much meaning but I guess the cleric of Nihilism already knew that.
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1. Bards - Forever and always. Not only are they extremely well balanced and able to fill any party niche while helping their allies to succeed, but the style of roleplay that bards naturally tend to gravitate towards is incredibly healthy for the gaming table to include in moderation (which is nice since you rarely want two bards in a party anyway unless you're going full musical troupe).
2. Clerics - While mechanically I like oracles just a tiny bit more, having deific ties baked into the class (get your filthy cleric of philosophy away from my table) gives less experienced roleplayers a crutch to fall back on and more experienced roleplayers an additional tool to make their character shine even brighter. The high power ceiling doesn't hurt either.
3. Barbarians - The most mechanically solid and diverse of the non-casters without having to rely on items (although WMH may have made fighters more diverse when fully decked out), barbarians are great at pretty much all levels of play if you wanna play murderface.
Honorable mentions: Inquisitor (basically the divine bard), Vigilante (I like my RP, okay?) and Druid (great at everything and has that fantastic nature vibe - also my longest running character was a druid so I have a little bit of personal bias)
My cleric of Nihilism would like a word with you, or not, he doesn't really care.
My cleric of Stoicism doesn't see a reason to participate.
My cleric of Nazism doesn't deal with filthy mudbloods.All in all this post didn't have much meaning but I guess the cleric of Nihilism already knew that.
My Cleric of Hypocrisy can't stand Half-Orcs, Half-Elves or racists.
My top 3 pathfinder classes.
1) Unchained rogue- Because now I can actually play a rogue and not feel totally useless!
2) Investigator- By far the most fun class to play in my opinion.
3) Magus- I love gish style characters and spellstrike is awesome!
Adrastus
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I have only played a few of the classes so I will rate the top 3 I have played.
3: Gunslinger(Musket Master Archetype) - I almost never miss with this character, the damage output is great, makes me feel like a barbarian with a gun.
2: Archer Bard - Never run out of things to do, lots of skills, a great spell list, buffs and a combat option.
1: Unchained Monk - Not sure why I like this class so much but it is one of my favorites to role play.
1. Sorcerer
2. Summoner
3. Oracle
Yea, most of the time I only play Charisma based spontaneous casters...
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1. Bard. I love Bards. Every party should have a Bard, and they're immensely effective and fun to play on just about every level.
2. Investigator. Especially Empiricist. Just loads of fun to play the guy who knows everything and rocks all skill checks forever.
3. Inquisitor. Again, skills are really fun to have, and being a covert agent for a deity is super cool and lets you do some really neat stuff thematically as well as mechanically.
I really like skills, utility spellcasting as a backup, and actually engaging in physical combat. These Classes allow all of that and are super effective to boot. Honorable mentions go to Vigilante and Slayer, my favorite two mundane Classes these days. And to Oracle, my favorite full caster.
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3. Occultist - The more I understand how this class works, the more I love it. Implement schools are a nice alternative spell progression system, and focus powers are a juicy, versatile little toolkit that let you tailor yourself on the fly and save cash. Probably the true jack-of-all trades, especially with the Reliquarian archetype nabbing you a domain for out-of-class spells.
2. Warpriest - Getting to play with stupid feat trees AND spells is really satisfying. The amount of swift action gating can get fiddly, but it's a blast to play. Lots of resources to manage and on the fly decisions to make, and ability to use many niche spells/feats makes me very happy.
1. Investigator - I just keep coming back to this class. Inspiration is a wonderful system, extracts have a great selection of choices and studied combat means that you're always relevant in a fight. The package takes a while to come online but no argument from me. It's worth it.
1. Magus. It's a class I had been wanting for a very long time, and does exactly what I've wanted. Score.
2. Hunter. This class seemed a little bland at first glance, but it's incredibly flexible and highly thematic. I thoroughly enjoy the heavy amount of teamwork between companion and Hunter.
3. Shaman. It's the Cleric I've always wanted.
My turn?
1. Barbarian. I've got an Invulnerable Rager Unchained Barbarian. She's having the time of her life, even if a few of her options aren't maxed ultraoptimised. (Animal Fury is most fun rage power. Especially NPCs' reactions to it.)
2. Monks and Brawlers. I'd love to try out these. I lean a little towards the (unchained) monk for its flavour and options, but the brawler's flexibility sounds like a fun thing to fiddle with too. (And while I failed with a few in 3rd Edition, I know better than to dump Strength for Wisdom on them now ... )
3. Arcanist. I'm actually a bit afraid of the wizard or cleric style of choosing spells, what with finding myself needing that spell I didn't bother memorising. The empty slots mechanic would help with that, I guess, but something about the arcanist's style sounds good.
(Sadly, in Pathfinder I've only had a chance to use a barbarian. My group keeps giving me the combat monster role ... )
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(1) Sorcerer: Best blaster bar none. Also, very good at adapting to situations. I think all of those "wizard is the best" threads are lame, because they supposedly let the wizard have a days notice of what enemies he will face. In my experience, this never happens. Especially in PFS, you start an adventure, and have to go forthwith, not having a day to prep things.
(2) Mesmerist: I think this is a really fun class. Stare is a nice feature. And with vexing daredevil and enigma archetypes, there is a lot of choice.
(3) Kineticist: You can really build this very strong. If you have a human, you can build dual talent ona 20 point buy and have unbeatable dex and con. The serious optimizers seem to shun the class, but it seems super-strong to me.
1. Slayer - It does what a 20 level assassin should do, and isn't tied to a particular culture (assassin is Middle Eastern in origin). It's is the perfect hybrid class for so many of my dual and multi-classed concepts over the years.
2. Oracle - Being cursed, having "mysteries", the flavor is amazing compared to the cleric. Cleric used to be my favorite class conceptually with domains being a huge draw for me.
3. Witch - The hexes are just such a cool idea to me.
Honorable Mention: Skald - Bard with Biceps! And the names of so many of the archetype are really evocative to me.
1. Wizard
2. Druid
3. Cleric
So apparently I'm feeling all full caster-y today...
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1) Cavalier. There's nothing quite like a cavalry charge and I loves my knight on a destrier in my fantasy games. Kind of occupies a theoretical overlap in a venn diagram of the Fighter, Bard, and Paladin classes without having to multiclass! The class gets enough skill points to invest a few into UMD, so you can adventure with a horse thanks to scrolls of spider climb, carry companion, etc until you can afford your hosteling armor ;) Unfortunately, the class does involve itself with the mounted combat rules which suffer from significant table variation if the opinions voiced on these forums are representative of actual players out there...
2) Cleric. Cavaliers have a decent degree of flexibility in types of builds, but Clerics are the kings of being different from others of their same class. You can play 10 different Clerics and never feel like you're playing the same character twice... and best of all people always love hearing you're bringing one to the table! (Not even Cavaliers get that benefit..)
3) Sorcerer. Lots of love for the class upthread, I'll just add that I love how diverse Sorcerers can be. Almost as much so as Clerics!
3.) Swashbuckler - I mention this class here even though I havent played this version of it. One of my Iconic characters from way back in 2nd Ed was a fighter with the swashbuckler kit. The modern version of this is the swashbuckler. I loved playing that character and had a fairly good personality crafted for him. I miss those days of gaming.
2.) Magus - The last iconic character I played was a Magus. I have always struggled with the big casting classes and I never really liked to multi class so this gave me the best of both worlds in one package. It has strong unique abilities and makes for a fun fantasy adventure. As an objective style player I have a lot of tools to get to my goals. I can step into combat and I can do some support casting. Its a fun class with lots of background
1.) Hunter/Ranger - So this is a tie as my favorite class. The two classes parallel on so many levels yet each has its own merits. I have to almost force myself to play something else when making a new character. Hunter or Ranger almost always end up as my go to class.
So I have been playing since the early 80s and have seen a lot of classes. The three above (or 4)all have similarities in diverse and unique or specialized abilities. Most of my gaming career has been as an objective or goal oriented player and each of the classes above accomplishes this with style.
1. Bard/Skald - I love being a jack of all trades. Whether I want to play a Bard or Skald really depends on the party I am with and the character I am playing.
2. Kineticist - I have long held too much of an obsession with the classical elements. It's no wonder I love the kineticist.
3. Hunter/Ranger/Druid - My childhood favourites. Having an animal companion and being an outdoorsman is about as close as I could get to creating myself.
Super secret actual favourite: Cavalier when you have a campaign suitable to the mount.
1) Alchemist
2) Arcanist
3) Inquisitor
Honourable Mention: Sorcerer/Cleric/Mystic Theurge
1. Witch - Hexes are cool and you can spam them all day long. Int casting means skill points for Africa. Good thematic spell list for casters who have evolved beyond damage.
2. Bard - It seems everyone loves the multifunctional Bard. Fun to play. Always useful and endlessly variable. Great class.
3. Paladin - Gets a lot of criticism but certainly a good class. Can be great fun to play - there is certainly no requirement to play your paladin as a jerk, in fact, A LG alignment suggests you absolutely should not. Classic knight in shining armour.
if we're allowing 3pp
it's
1) shifter, absolutely love shapeshifting
2) Witch
3) Sorcerer/Wizard(I count them equal since i mostly just pick which one based on which theme matches my character better. Int or Cha, etc)
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RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16
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Best designed classes:
1. Oracle - so many different ways you can build one, and they all feel very different.
2. Bard - a wealth of archetypes that take the stock bard, which is amazing on its own, into very different directions.
3. Kineticist - all of the elements feel very different in play. It's like 5+ classes in one.
Favorite classes to play:
1. Bard
2. Wizard
3. Ranger
3. Ninja. I love the rogue in general, add in the ability to turn invisible on a whim and walk on lava without being harmed, you've got a great class in my book.
2. Vigilante. I really like the modular mechanics, it's like a choose-your-own class, but I mostly just love all the roleplaying opportunities it provides. Probably carries over from my childhood, what with the superhero themes and whatnot.
1. Gunslinger. I'm a big fan of guns. They're cool, and playing a gunslinger-type character (Cowboy, grizzled soldier, musketeer, mad scientist) is way fun for me. And even if guns aren't allowed, I can play it with crossbows, which I'm also a big fan of.
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1) Summoner. I have a strong fondness for pet classes, and this one delivers in spades. Eidolons offer tons of customization, and the roleplaying opportunities are limited only by the imagination. Stellar spell list to boot, and its SLA has set the bar for conjuration focused casters.
2) Alchemist. Bombs, Mutagenic elixirs, and a portable pharmacy of tricks. It has a surprisingly wide range of playstyles and a robust kit even before you add in the multitude of archetypes. The ability to indulge in a wide range of physical mutations (outside of costly and temporary spells) is what makes this one my near favorite.
3) Vigilante. Take a solid chasis of d8 hit die and an amazing skill loadout backed up by two good saves, then throw in a flavorful identity mechanic that gives amazing divination protection. Now make every other aspect completely customizable, from the Base Attack Bonus to the Talents to the ability to cast spells. You can build just about anything in this class, and usually with much more style and flash than the Core version.
Two honorable mentions...
Kineticist: fun and flavorful, these dedicted blasters fill a niche that X-per-day casting just doesn't fit. The fact that there are separate camps of people who will call it overpowered and underpowered makes it an interesting topic of game balance.
Unchained Summoner: even after the Eidolon nerfs that were mostly justified, this reboot still ticks most of the boxes that the original does. The implementation of Eidolon Subtypes limits roleplay potential and the evolution restrictions are going to cause some future proofing issues, most notably seen in the well meaning but ultimately mishandled Fey Caller archetype.
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My current favorite Paizo classes ...
Paladin Super fun class with TONS of roleplaying potential
Oracle Close to a perfectly designed spontaneous divine caster
Cleric Versitle class with plenty of roleplaying potential
Favorite Third Party Classes (what can I say, I'm biased :) ...
Priest Like a cleric, has lots of roleplaying potential, but it's a primary caster, so no need to worry about wading into melee combat! I'm playing a Priest in Wrath of the Righteous right now and having a blast!
Trickster Sneaky rogue plus arcane caster = fun :)
Battle Scion Full combat prowess and some cool abilities plus a smattering of arcane might (the so-called 'arcane paladin') - lots of fun to wade into the thick of combat swinging a big sword as well as the occasional well-timed spell or force blast
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I note that many here have yet to mention the Gunslinger, the most OP class in the game.
So Gunslinger is No. 1 on my list as a player. As a GM... not so much.
No. 2 would be the Skald. Who doesn't love Skalds? They're Bards on steroids.
No. 3 is tricky, but I'd go with the Alchemist. Drinking potions that don't (or sometimes do) turn you into a frog? Pretty sweet. Only problem with 'em is that they're not good at straight-up fighting. Summoner comes in as a close 4th, barely edged out by the Alchemist because I love the thematic approach that the Alchemist brings, while in classic fantasy novels there isn't many stories that involve one of the main characters summoning some Abyssal creature from the depths of a forgotten time period.
Bard- Everything that everyone else has said. And again, emphasis on helping the team. It's fun seeing other people succeed and knowing you were part of the reason.
Sorcerer- Normally not fond of full casters because they make me feel dirty, but Sorc is too fun to care about that. Amazing flavor options, fun mechanical quirks for the more build-inclined, and remarkably simple to learn (when in doubt, cast blasting spell).
Hunter- lv 6 spontaneous nature magic, best animal companion around, Animal Focus is super useful and versatile... Hunter may not have a ton of abilities, but the ones it has are excellent. Very focused and effective class.
1. Wizard - I'm the sort that likes to plan ahead, make contingencies for things in game and enjoy versatility. So, naturally my top favorite is a wizard.
2. Occultist - If I go melee, I feel compelled to have some bit of magic in my class. This class has lots of different and useful abilities, a little bit of spell casting and fairly strong martial ability. Not to mention different fun ways to flavor the character.
3. Alchemist - Another versatile class, they also have bombs, can mutate and so offer more of my favorite thing. Versatility and flavor.
Edit - If including third party, I'd easily have the Pactmaker from Radiance House on the list. Very strong versatility potential, and also flavorful. For the most part it's been a blast to play.
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1 - Unchained Monk. I love monks, and this one is flavorful and effective without needing system mastery.
2 - kineticist. I love the flavor of the class, the high floor and low ceiling, and the ability to play a magical character without spells
3 - bards. They are incredibly versatile, can excel in several roles, and make everyone else better while doing so.
Barbarian. First class I ever played and still a favorite.
Fighter. My last archer was a blast to play.
Sorcerer. Shh. Don't tell anybody. I have a reputation in preferring steel to words and gestures of doom and destruction.
Edit: I'm sure Gunslinger would make the list if I ever get around to playing one. Maybe next time.