Rank the D&D 3.5 classes!

[Gradine]

The best class is the one you're playing right now.

 

[Beal]

You guys are investing too much into too many skills as rogues.

Rogues didn't need much rope use at all. Nearly none. Tying a knot was the only thing you really needed to be able to do. You're already investing a bunch into climb, so you don't need to throw a grappling hook in the vast majority of instances. You just climbed up and tied off the rope. If you were in a huge hurry, you got the Wizard to cast Fly or Dimension Door or something.

Same with Jump. Jumping is one of the few skills the Fighters and Barbarians had that was class and useful. They pretty much all took it and they had the strength to go with it. If you hit a ravine or whatever that the Rogue couldn't just climb down one side of and up the other, you let the big lug make the jump while holding the rope. I almost never put even a single point into that skill as a Rogue.

Many of the other skills didn't need to have points put into them at every level. You could just be satisfied with being really good at them instead of infallible. Once you did that, you took the extra points you saved there, along with those you guys are putting into rope use and jump, and became good at 3-4 other skills that were actually useful, like having both bluff AND diplomacy, and maybe some other knowledge skills since you could take a feat to make those into class skills.

Rogue, Fighter, Cleric and Wizard were my top 4 favorite classes in 3.5.

I might suggest that rope use would be invaluable in a nautical campain or a situation where an individual needs to be taken prisoner/restained. Tying down loads that need to be moved quickly on cart or hoisted up a cliff.
It comes down to the campaign, team and DM...

 

[Maxperson]

I might suggest that rope use would be invaluable in a nautical campain or a situation where an individual needs to be taken prisoner/restained. Tying down loads that need to be moved quickly on cart or hoisted up a cliff.
It comes down to the campaign, team and DM...

As I said...........enough to tie a knot. DC 10. Or if on that ship with funky knots, DC 15. With an 18 dex and the ability to take 10, you needed 1 whole rank.

 

[Beal]

Small parties where individuals survive through versitility, I pick
Driud
Wizard
cleric
Ranger
monk

Parties of average size, 4 or larger, I grab classes that specialize.
Fighter
Scorcerer
Rogue
Barbarian

Personally, I'm not crazy about paladin or bard,
But again, comes down to players, campaign, and dm...

Battling the undead, the paladin is a no-brainer.
City campaign with lots of diplomacy and guile, you need a bard.


Thats how I play.
But if I'm introducing a new player, I'd recommend a scorcerer over a wizard, primarily for ease of play. Fighter over ranger, to again keep it simple... but that doesnt put one over the other.

 

[Beal]

As I said...........enough to tie a knot. DC 10. Or if on that ship with funky knots, DC 15. With an 18 dex and the ability to take 10, you needed 1 whole rank.

I get it... but on a rogue with all those points, I will almost certainly have ranks in it. Maybe ranger too. It's just how I envision the class. Scaling a castle wall could benefit from compitent skills, or a tightrope, scenario.

DC 10 is reflective of a skill that half of all people could perform without difficulty, or something that all people can do half the time. 50/50 with no skill or understanding. Does rope use need 24 ranks? Definitely not... knowledge royalty/nobility probably doesnt either. My point was only that the skillsets of some classes offset the proficiencies and spells of others. The rope was only an example.

 

[Maxperson]

I get it... but on a rogue with all those points, I will almost certainly have ranks in it. Maybe ranger too. It's just how I envision the class. Scaling a castle wall could benefit from compitent skills, or a tightrope, scenario.

That's fine. I've picked skills, spells, class levels, etc. based on RP lots of times. Most of the time, even when not optimal for anything other than the RP. My point is just that there are a number of skills that Rogues don't need to take that leave points left over for other useful skills.

DC 10 is reflective of a skill that half of all people could perform without difficulty, or something that all people can do half the time. 50/50 with no skill or understanding. Does rope use need 24 ranks? Definitely not... knowledge royalty/nobility probably doesnt either. My point was only that the skillsets of some classes offset the proficiencies and spells of others. The rope was only an example.

DC 10 is reflective of an unskilled person succeeding automatically by taking 10. It's not even 50/50 unless pressured somehow. So it takes an unskilled person to be under pressure to have a 45%(1-9) chance of failure to tie a knot. Rope use is just one of those skills that doesn't require more than a rank or two unless it's for a thematic reason.

 

[haakon1]

That's another thing the tier lists try to encompass- all levels of play, not just the first 5 or even 10.

Monk Some of their abilities rarely matter, and others can be detrimental, like having spell resistance to make it harder to heal or cast vital buff spells on them.

Spell Resistance doesn’t stop Harmless spells, but it does take a Standard Action by the creature with SR to allow it.

I never noticed 13th level Monks get SR because, in 21 years of playing 3e/3.5e, we only once played characters at that level, because we found it tedious to play such complex and powerful characters, and super tedious for the DM. Obviously, we have very different styles of play!

 

[James Gasik]

Spell Resistance doesn’t stop Harmless spells, but it does take a Standard Action by the creature with SR to allow it.

I never noticed 13th level Monks get SR because, in 21 years of playing 3e/3.5e, we only once played characters at that level, because we found it tedious to play such complex and powerful characters, and super tedious for the DM. Obviously, we have very different styles of play!

I've never had this problem with Monks, but I have had them with Drow PC's. They drop to 0 and the player starts begging me to cast a healing spell. And I'm like "ok, but if it fizzles, I'm not wasting another one on you"...and even then, they're probably getting a cure minor wounds for their trouble!