There are lots of classes, races, and characters to play I'm still fairly new to DND I just want to know what the best class to play as (or your personal favorite)
There isn't a best class, that's not how D&D works. It's more of a story telling game than a death match (although it certainly can be played as one). It's more of a question of which class best suits the character you want to play.
You'll get further with which one is a personal favourite. I've only done a few classes so I can't say which is my favourite yet. I liked the Wizard, but he's also my longest running one, so it might just be that.
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Personal favorite classes are Sorcerers, Warlocks, and Artficers, though I’ll play just about anything if I’m feeling up for it. I love the theme of the Sorcerer being their own source of arcane power and learning to control and master it. Warlocks allow for all manner of background, motivation, and creativity as you come up with a patron and how you forged the pact that gave you your powers and how that pact might affect you and the campaign as you adventure (or not affect you if you are so inclined but I find that boring). I enjoy the tinkerer/magic smith/ambitious scientist feeling that the Artificer can provide.
For races, I’m partial to monstrous races like Thri-kreen, Dragonborns, Yuan-Ti, Kobolds, Lizardfolk, Tortles, and Kenku, but I will also play humans that are either faithful to dragon gods or philosophies, or are somehow related to dragons.
As far as actual characters, that depends on the campaign setting and its themes, as well as what kind of person I think fits with a specific class that I choose.
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"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
My favorite races are eladrin (because you get to be a walking mood ring), aasimar (free healing ability plus cool angel wings), and halfling (tiny badass trope ftw).
For class, I tend to prefer things with a mix of martial ability and healing/utility magic, and I often multiclass. So cleric, druid, fighter and artificer are up my alley. I also prefer getting to prep spells every day rather than having a static list.
As for characters, I usually enjoy subverting a class feature or stereotype. I love roleplay, and I enjoy giving my characters something personal to overcome. My druid was cripplingly shy. My fighter was physically weak and young. My cleric was a war vet haunted by her past. My drow paladin worships the sun god, lol.
I'm a big fan of Changelings, Reborn, and Hexbloods because of the way they inspire me (though honestly I enjoy any unique interpretation of a character). I don't have a favorite class, probably because I am the forever DM and don't get to play often, but I do have a few Subclasses that I LOVE; Spores Druid, Zealot Barbarian, Grave Cleric, Mercy Monk, Horizon Walker Ranger, and Chronoturgy Wizard.
I really like goblins... mechanically, it's a great race because the ability to disengage/hide as a bonus action for all classes is a huge game changer. I've missed that ability ever since playing my first long campaign as a goblin where that was such a major part of my gameplay strategy, despite playing a bard. Fury of the Small also has some really fun flavor to it, since it's really hard not to picture that taking the form of marching up to someone bigger than you and punching them square in the nuts.
But also, I like the flavor of goblins. Less so the "violent chaotic psychopaths" that they're sometimes written as for stories where they're treated as monsters, but more leaning into the idea of them being very chaotic and creative but with vastly different morals and beliefs than other races. You can always justify doing something wildly unpredictable or just indulging in something silly for the fun of it by just saying, "Well, I'm going Goblin Mode".
As for classes... I think Warlock is kind of my personal favorite. I love the customization you can get with Eldritch Invocations, even if it is a bit more homework to keep track of spell slots and other features. I also like that they're one of few classes that get their class features right at level 1, so you can feel like you're your own personal Warlock right off the bat. I also like the roleplay aspect of it... having a Patron always gives you an important NPC somewhere in your character's backstory... whether its someone or something that contacts you regularly or if it was just a strange deal you made in the past that might come back at some point. It's also the only class where you can fully justify your character not having undergone any training or discipline prior to gaining their first level... well, that and Sorcerer, I suppose. But still, the majority of the other classes imply that your character has either studied magic, or trained in combat, or did something for some time that prepared them for adventuring... but you can totally justify a Warlock being a complete nobody who knows nothing about magic that just suddenly gets thrust into this because it was given to them by some more powerful being.
As others have stated, there is no “best” anything in D&D really. However….
My favorite classes to play are Artificer, Bard, and Warlock. They all suit my personal play style as a cooperative/support player very well, while also still letting my PC shine as a star in their own right. I like to play support because my damage rolls are always in the toilet, so not trying to be a DPR machine is better for me. But those classes either help mitigate that unholy bad dice luck of mine (Warlock), or they allow my characters to shine in other ways (Bard & Artificer).
As far as my favorite races to play, I’m a huge fan of Elves, but I roll a lot of natural 1s (a lot), so any time I don’t play a Hin (Halfling) I always miss not having that Lucky trait in my back pocket. It’s a crutch, I know, but when you got a metaphorical bum leg, there’s nothing wrong with a crutch IMO. 😂
Overall though, I’ll play any character, any race, any class, doesn’t matter. I know I’ma have fun no matter what because it’s D&D.
My favorite race are the tieflings. I often play variant humans to start with a feat, but I love tieflings thematically and because there are so many tiefling options. My favorite class is the bard, with the cleric being a close second. Bards can do it all and clerics are pretty great offensively in addition to being remarkable supports.
My fav race(s) are: Elves! All of them! xD so far I played a Wood Elf (Land Druid) and a Drow (Horizon Walker Ranger) and in the future I want to play more Drow (Soulknife Rogue & Oath of Ancients Paladin) and also High Elves (Glamour Bard & Archfey Warlock).
I also like Tieflings, but I haven't played one yet. =)
Race-wise, I guess I'd have to say elf/half-elf? Not that I have any particular reason or attachment to them, but now that I think about it, out of my 4 longest running characters (all to level 15+) 3 of them were either elf or half-elf! unconscious fave maybe lol
Class wise I think I'd have to say either paladin or rogue (based on what I've played). I like the damage nova combat style. I blame this on monkey brain saying "oooh big number, lots of click-clack".
As for character itself, I tend to lean towards face characters. I like being the diplomat, negotiator, diffuser, liar, and if need be, intimidator. I honestly didn't realize this until semi-recently, I thought back on all the characters I've played for any significant amount of time and they were ALL high charisma people-persons. I honestly didn't even realize I was doing that until I thought about it lol
My fav race(s) are: Elves! All of them! xD so far I played a Wood Elf (Land Druid) and a Drow (Horizon Walker Ranger) and in the future I want to play more Drow (Soulknife Rogue & Oath of Ancients Paladin) and also High Elves (Glamour Bard & Archfey Warlock).
I also like Tieflings, but I haven't played one yet. =)
This kind of struck me with the mention of Elves and Tieflings, as they both have so many sub-races that you could exclusively play as some flavor of Elf or Tiefling for years and not repeat subraces once.
My fav race(s) are: Elves! All of them! xD so far I played a Wood Elf (Land Druid) and a Drow (Horizon Walker Ranger) and in the future I want to play more Drow (Soulknife Rogue & Oath of Ancients Paladin) and also High Elves (Glamour Bard & Archfey Warlock).
I also like Tieflings, but I haven't played one yet. =)
This kind of struck me with the mention of Elves and Tieflings, as they both have so many sub-races that you could exclusively play as some flavor of Elf or Tiefling for years and not repeat subraces once.
I know! xD I think the only thing that's stopping me so far, is that I haven't been able to think of good characters for the Pallid Elf, Sea Elf, or Shadar-Kai subraces. (I do have some Eladrin charas living in my head)
As someone said before me, there are not "better classes to play" in D&D. If we talk in terms of pure power probably Wizard is "the best class", but for me the one best class is what mechanically fit your concept of character the most (i personally feel boring be always in the backline, so i wouldn't play normally a pure Wizard even maybe, and only from a certain point of view, he is the most powerful class, and much more important than this maybe you are searching some specific concept. I for exemple played a Barbarian/Warlock, a multiclass that have not too many sinergies, however is still more than viable and he get couple very interesting combos, sometimes thanks to armor of agathys and bear totem resistence i ended dealing a Huge ammounts of damage just leaving my AC low, but anyway i played it just becouse mechanically it matched the concept for a male drow character i had in mind. Luckly 5e seem more forgiving with suboptimal multiclassing than prior editions, however, as i said before, in 5e pure classes, especially the full casters, are normally more powerful than almost any multiclass possible, becouse delaying spells is never really worth except, indeed, for add versatility). Classes do different things and no class can do everything by it's own, D&D need cooperation, so i suppose it's better to start from the role your character should have in the party. Do you like to be an healer? Than a Life Cleric is a strong option. Do you like to deal lots of damage? Probably Battlemaster is what you are searching for, Paladin if you like to be tanky and deal nova damage. Do you like be in the backline and have a huge batterfield control power? Any Wizard is for you, as any Sorcerer or Warlock. Do you like be stealthy and deadly with one single attack per turn? Go with Rogue. Do you like to be a Tank? Dex Barbarians do a great job and also Paladins are very good to it. Do you want to be the Buffer? Bard will do it. Do you want be in melee but you still want some magic? Eldricht Knight, Arcane Trickster and any Ranger can help you. Of course any class have it's exception as there are many subclasses and also you can use, if it's allowed, the multiclassing optional rule. But as you said you are a beginner i want to say to you that normally multiclass add just versatility, with some exception (and in my opinion much less than what many people think) a pure class is normally "better" than a multiclassed character.
That said, i mostly like Gish charcters, i like to be in melee and still have magic powers. I experiment a lot, even odd multiclass. Now im thinking to play a wizard (probably war magic) with 1 dip in fighter for armors, fighting style, Con saves for concentration and later on, probably around lv 15 of the character, action surge. He gonna get Crusher, PAM and Warcaster along the way (VHuman) and cast mostly area concentration spells pulling his enemies in webs, wall of fires, sleet storm, evard's Black tentacles and so on. Im considering also a Monk 1/Wizard x (Bladesinger) for the same purpose, but i believe the other option is more viable. But as you can imagine i started from the fact that, mostly for lore reasons, but also becouse i want to try this mechanic, i want a melee wizard that pull enemies in difficult terrains that add some nasty conditions for have a good battlefield control but without stay in the backline (dealing anyway a good amount of damage, however for sure far from "the best" melee damage possible), i believe this multiclass is the best to do it (even im still not sure lol), but i started from what i want my character do and than i went to search what can do it in a good way.
I personally like the races of goblins, hobgoblins, orc, bugbear. warforge, githyanki and aasimar are my bread and butter. favorite class? its probably not recognized as one but bloodhunter. I like the magic swordsmen archetype alot, so for official classes it would be a 4 way tie with like bladesinger wizard, eldritch knight fighter, hexblade warlock, and even paladins.
There are lots of classes, races, and characters to play I'm still fairly new to DND I just want to know what the best class to play as (or your personal favorite)
There isn't a best class, that's not how D&D works. It's more of a story telling game than a death match (although it certainly can be played as one). It's more of a question of which class best suits the character you want to play.
You'll get further with which one is a personal favourite. I've only done a few classes so I can't say which is my favourite yet. I liked the Wizard, but he's also my longest running one, so it might just be that.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Personal favorite classes are Sorcerers, Warlocks, and Artficers, though I’ll play just about anything if I’m feeling up for it. I love the theme of the Sorcerer being their own source of arcane power and learning to control and master it. Warlocks allow for all manner of background, motivation, and creativity as you come up with a patron and how you forged the pact that gave you your powers and how that pact might affect you and the campaign as you adventure (or not affect you if you are so inclined but I find that boring). I enjoy the tinkerer/magic smith/ambitious scientist feeling that the Artificer can provide.
For races, I’m partial to monstrous races like Thri-kreen, Dragonborns, Yuan-Ti, Kobolds, Lizardfolk, Tortles, and Kenku, but I will also play humans that are either faithful to dragon gods or philosophies, or are somehow related to dragons.
As far as actual characters, that depends on the campaign setting and its themes, as well as what kind of person I think fits with a specific class that I choose.
"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
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For myself its lizardfolk anything, I just really enjoy the simplicity of a lizard.
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I love playing as goblinkin (hobgoblins, goblins, bugbears) & humans and clerics, druids, & artificers.
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My favorite races are eladrin (because you get to be a walking mood ring), aasimar (free healing ability plus cool angel wings), and halfling (tiny badass trope ftw).
For class, I tend to prefer things with a mix of martial ability and healing/utility magic, and I often multiclass. So cleric, druid, fighter and artificer are up my alley. I also prefer getting to prep spells every day rather than having a static list.
As for characters, I usually enjoy subverting a class feature or stereotype. I love roleplay, and I enjoy giving my characters something personal to overcome. My druid was cripplingly shy. My fighter was physically weak and young. My cleric was a war vet haunted by her past. My drow paladin worships the sun god, lol.
I've always loved to play as a Human Barbarian. I've enjoy being the tank of the group.
I'm a big fan of Changelings, Reborn, and Hexbloods because of the way they inspire me (though honestly I enjoy any unique interpretation of a character). I don't have a favorite class, probably because I am the forever DM and don't get to play often, but I do have a few Subclasses that I LOVE; Spores Druid, Zealot Barbarian, Grave Cleric, Mercy Monk, Horizon Walker Ranger, and Chronoturgy Wizard.
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I really like goblins... mechanically, it's a great race because the ability to disengage/hide as a bonus action for all classes is a huge game changer. I've missed that ability ever since playing my first long campaign as a goblin where that was such a major part of my gameplay strategy, despite playing a bard. Fury of the Small also has some really fun flavor to it, since it's really hard not to picture that taking the form of marching up to someone bigger than you and punching them square in the nuts.
But also, I like the flavor of goblins. Less so the "violent chaotic psychopaths" that they're sometimes written as for stories where they're treated as monsters, but more leaning into the idea of them being very chaotic and creative but with vastly different morals and beliefs than other races. You can always justify doing something wildly unpredictable or just indulging in something silly for the fun of it by just saying, "Well, I'm going Goblin Mode".
As for classes... I think Warlock is kind of my personal favorite. I love the customization you can get with Eldritch Invocations, even if it is a bit more homework to keep track of spell slots and other features. I also like that they're one of few classes that get their class features right at level 1, so you can feel like you're your own personal Warlock right off the bat. I also like the roleplay aspect of it... having a Patron always gives you an important NPC somewhere in your character's backstory... whether its someone or something that contacts you regularly or if it was just a strange deal you made in the past that might come back at some point. It's also the only class where you can fully justify your character not having undergone any training or discipline prior to gaining their first level... well, that and Sorcerer, I suppose. But still, the majority of the other classes imply that your character has either studied magic, or trained in combat, or did something for some time that prepared them for adventuring... but you can totally justify a Warlock being a complete nobody who knows nothing about magic that just suddenly gets thrust into this because it was given to them by some more powerful being.
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As others have stated, there is no “best” anything in D&D really. However….
My favorite classes to play are Artificer, Bard, and Warlock. They all suit my personal play style as a cooperative/support player very well, while also still letting my PC shine as a star in their own right. I like to play support because my damage rolls are always in the toilet, so not trying to be a DPR machine is better for me. But those classes either help mitigate that unholy bad dice luck of mine (Warlock), or they allow my characters to shine in other ways (Bard & Artificer).
As far as my favorite races to play, I’m a huge fan of Elves, but I roll a lot of natural 1s (a lot), so any time I don’t play a Hin (Halfling) I always miss not having that Lucky trait in my back pocket. It’s a crutch, I know, but when you got a metaphorical bum leg, there’s nothing wrong with a crutch IMO. 😂
Overall though, I’ll play any character, any race, any class, doesn’t matter. I know I’ma have fun no matter what because it’s D&D.
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My favorite race are the tieflings. I often play variant humans to start with a feat, but I love tieflings thematically and because there are so many tiefling options. My favorite class is the bard, with the cleric being a close second. Bards can do it all and clerics are pretty great offensively in addition to being remarkable supports.
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My fav race(s) are: Elves! All of them! xD so far I played a Wood Elf (Land Druid) and a Drow (Horizon Walker Ranger) and in the future I want to play more Drow (Soulknife Rogue & Oath of Ancients Paladin) and also High Elves (Glamour Bard & Archfey Warlock).
I also like Tieflings, but I haven't played one yet. =)
Race-wise, I guess I'd have to say elf/half-elf? Not that I have any particular reason or attachment to them, but now that I think about it, out of my 4 longest running characters (all to level 15+) 3 of them were either elf or half-elf! unconscious fave maybe lol
Class wise I think I'd have to say either paladin or rogue (based on what I've played). I like the damage nova combat style. I blame this on monkey brain saying "oooh big number, lots of click-clack".
As for character itself, I tend to lean towards face characters. I like being the diplomat, negotiator, diffuser, liar, and if need be, intimidator. I honestly didn't realize this until semi-recently, I thought back on all the characters I've played for any significant amount of time and they were ALL high charisma people-persons. I honestly didn't even realize I was doing that until I thought about it lol
This kind of struck me with the mention of Elves and Tieflings, as they both have so many sub-races that you could exclusively play as some flavor of Elf or Tiefling for years and not repeat subraces once.
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Favorite races? Elves, Aasimar, Lizardfolk, Dwarves.
Favorite classes? I probably like Wizard the best, but I end up playing it the least. I like experimenting to much.
I know! xD I think the only thing that's stopping me so far, is that I haven't been able to think of good characters for the Pallid Elf, Sea Elf, or Shadar-Kai subraces. (I do have some Eladrin charas living in my head)
As someone said before me, there are not "better classes to play" in D&D. If we talk in terms of pure power probably Wizard is "the best class", but for me the one best class is what mechanically fit your concept of character the most (i personally feel boring be always in the backline, so i wouldn't play normally a pure Wizard even maybe, and only from a certain point of view, he is the most powerful class, and much more important than this maybe you are searching some specific concept. I for exemple played a Barbarian/Warlock, a multiclass that have not too many sinergies, however is still more than viable and he get couple very interesting combos, sometimes thanks to armor of agathys and bear totem resistence i ended dealing a Huge ammounts of damage just leaving my AC low, but anyway i played it just becouse mechanically it matched the concept for a male drow character i had in mind. Luckly 5e seem more forgiving with suboptimal multiclassing than prior editions, however, as i said before, in 5e pure classes, especially the full casters, are normally more powerful than almost any multiclass possible, becouse delaying spells is never really worth except, indeed, for add versatility). Classes do different things and no class can do everything by it's own, D&D need cooperation, so i suppose it's better to start from the role your character should have in the party. Do you like to be an healer? Than a Life Cleric is a strong option. Do you like to deal lots of damage? Probably Battlemaster is what you are searching for, Paladin if you like to be tanky and deal nova damage. Do you like be in the backline and have a huge batterfield control power? Any Wizard is for you, as any Sorcerer or Warlock. Do you like be stealthy and deadly with one single attack per turn? Go with Rogue. Do you like to be a Tank? Dex Barbarians do a great job and also Paladins are very good to it. Do you want to be the Buffer? Bard will do it. Do you want be in melee but you still want some magic? Eldricht Knight, Arcane Trickster and any Ranger can help you. Of course any class have it's exception as there are many subclasses and also you can use, if it's allowed, the multiclassing optional rule. But as you said you are a beginner i want to say to you that normally multiclass add just versatility, with some exception (and in my opinion much less than what many people think) a pure class is normally "better" than a multiclassed character.
That said, i mostly like Gish charcters, i like to be in melee and still have magic powers. I experiment a lot, even odd multiclass. Now im thinking to play a wizard (probably war magic) with 1 dip in fighter for armors, fighting style, Con saves for concentration and later on, probably around lv 15 of the character, action surge. He gonna get Crusher, PAM and Warcaster along the way (VHuman) and cast mostly area concentration spells pulling his enemies in webs, wall of fires, sleet storm, evard's Black tentacles and so on. Im considering also a Monk 1/Wizard x (Bladesinger) for the same purpose, but i believe the other option is more viable. But as you can imagine i started from the fact that, mostly for lore reasons, but also becouse i want to try this mechanic, i want a melee wizard that pull enemies in difficult terrains that add some nasty conditions for have a good battlefield control but without stay in the backline (dealing anyway a good amount of damage, however for sure far from "the best" melee damage possible), i believe this multiclass is the best to do it (even im still not sure lol), but i started from what i want my character do and than i went to search what can do it in a good way.
Hope this helps.
Favorite race? Easily lizardfolk.
Class? Artificer, cleric, rogue, ranger, or fighter.
By role? I like playing the face or straight damage, though I enjoy most roles, except for support, which I'm just not good at.
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I think the paladin is my favorite so far
I personally like the races of goblins, hobgoblins, orc, bugbear. warforge, githyanki and aasimar are my bread and butter. favorite class? its probably not recognized as one but bloodhunter. I like the magic swordsmen archetype alot, so for official classes it would be a 4 way tie with like bladesinger wizard, eldritch knight fighter, hexblade warlock, and even paladins.