by Eric Brooks

Created on: May 05, 2009

In the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop roleplaying game, choosing a character class is one of the most fundamental questions for a player, arguably even more important than choosing race. This is one of the first decisions you will make as a player and will have a significant impact on how your character performs for the duration of its existence. With that importance in mind, each player should carefully consider the role that they would like to take in the party, because once a class is chosen, it is difficult to modify even given the relative ease of multi-classing in the current rules framework.

Rather than simply or randomly picking a class based on coldly or logically analyzing a list of abilities and characteristics for that class, the player should first decide what style of play they will enjoy in the coming weeks and months. After all Dungeons & Dragons is first and foremost a game and everyone involved should be having fun. The style of play can be roughly broken into three broad categories each of which will be discussed below: warriors, skillful characters, and spellcasters.

I WANT TO HIT THINGS HARD

Combat plays a central role to nearly every roleplaying game and Dungeons & Dragons is true to that form. With a few exceptions, nearly every gaming session will feature some type of fighting and an enjoyable choice in classes is one that excels in this role. There is something inherently visceral and imminently satisfying about playing a character that can stand toe-to-toe with a mighty dragon or ferocious giant and beat it into submission. This is the same character that strides alone into a horde of lesser creatures such as goblins and orcs and leaves a devastating swath of destruction in their wake.

Fighter

As far as the combative characters are concerned, the iconic image is that of the fighter. This is a seemingly simple character that lives or dies by the thickness of their armor and their skill with a sword (or axe or club or spiked chain for that matter.) However, the fighter is also one of the most customizable classes and can run the gamut from armored and mounted knight to lightly armored expert swordsman to deadly accurate archer.

You should select the fighter if you have a clear vision of what type of combative character you would like to play. The fighter also requires a bit of pre-planning in order to select the optimum combination of combat gear, abilities, and feats. Regardless of that combination your role in the party is going

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