Since there are a TON (111, not incusing unofficial Critical role content or UA) subclasses in the game, I was curious what people considered to be the best subclass in the edition. I am curious about it on all aspects that people want to judge the subclass by, be it mechanics, cohesion with the base class, themes, pure DPS, level of balance within the game, or some other category. This is a partner thread to what people consider to be the worst subclass in the game.
I just want to know what people consider to be the best subclass in the game.
There is no best subclass in the game. There is a best subclass in the game RIGHT NOW... but so far, every single one has been fun to play. Sadly, I will not have had a chance to play all of them before 6e arrives in 2077.
You can pick different runes to customize your build
The runes and tool proficiency grant a lot of out-of-combat utility, which is pretty rare for fighter subclasses
Giant's Might is fun and flavorful, and has a lot of potential for fun scenes ("I enlarge myself and grapple the dragon!")
Circle of Stars Druid
Provides a wild shape alternative to provide an option very different than a "regular" druid
Evocative flavor that isn't well represented elsewhere
All the options of the main "Starry Form" feature are strong and situationally useful
You get little fun bonuses like extra spells and a star map
Every other feature is meaningful and useful as well
Honorable mention to Gloom Stalker which pretty much singlehandedly kept the pre-Tasha's Ranger out of in-combat irrelevance and is still just a really good set of features.
For me it's the genielock. I love elemental themes, and I love the fact that warlocks basically offer you a second subclass via the pact. Combine the two and you get close to what I consider the perfect class.
The only thing which could ever top it for me would be elemental ranger or paladin subclasses.
The best depends on the situation you're in, for me anyway I would have to pick the following:
Best for Tanking: Totem Warrior Barbarian Best for Solid Meleeing: Battlemaster Fighter Best for Social Encounters: College of Eloquence Bard Best for Annoying the DM: School of Divination Wizard Best for Shock Value: Path of the Beast Barbarian Best for being an Edgelord: Tough one... but I'll go with Oathbreaker Paladin Best for Dipping One Level into to Min-Max: Hexblade Warlock
For me its the Peace Cleric if you allow Tasha's followed up by the Twilight Cleric. Both are great on their own but heaven forbid you have both in the same game.
6th level Protective bond combined with Twilight Sanctuary pretty much trivializes any combat by letting PCs swap into and out of the fight choosing who is best able to take the dmg while passively healing. Oh also, all you have used is reactions to string these two abilities together, which even at 6th level you can do 3x per long rest. Assuming a 6th lvl party of 4, the bad guys will have to do ~40 dmg a round just to deplete the temp HP of the party which will replenish every round.
There is nothing more satisfying in D&D as a player than telling the DM "well, actually no". Divination/Chronurgy Wizards are great for this.
I get why it can feel good as a player to seem to have power over the DM, but... I urge people to resist the urge to make it a competition.
In my experience as a DM, the best way to diffuse that is to cheer just as loud as everyone else when it happens. It's only an adversarial situation if both sides interpret it as such.
Moon Druid is borderline broken at low levels, and since I tend to run low-level games, it's probably the strongest for me. However, I think being overpowered makes for a bad subclass more than a good one.
My favorite subclass (whether it's the best I'm not sure) is the Grave Domain cleric. Its level one feature encourages you to let people actually go down before healing them and makes Cure Wounds a far better option than Healing Word—which both make for a much more fun and thematic healer, as opposed to the MMO-esque "keep everyone topped off" Life Cleric. The bonus action ranged Spare the Dying is also great, since it makes it very hard for anyone to die even if they get hit while they're down. And it's really fun to have a darker death-related aesthetic without being edgy or evil—you're a badass undead-hating protector of the grave!
I’m a big fan of Warlock’s in general, so I may be biased, but it would have to be Hexblade warlock as my favorite. It’s really fun, adds a nice spin to warlock, has great story uses in campaigns since your always with your patron, and it can be really strong when min-maxing, although for me the min-maxing part is the least important. Some honorable mentions are Scribes Wizard and Spores Druid.
In terms of being the best at that one thing they do: Berserker barbarian.
In terms of doing the greatest number of different things well, and keeping a high average in all but all situations: Lore bard.
Other than that, I dunno.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
A group of 4 necromancers will plow through all the available campaigns. Survive to level 5 then send 48 zombies and/or skeletons. Go past level 6 and they all get stronger. The end.
Much easier to try and figure out what you think is the best subclass for a given class - although if you think one base class is head and shoulders above the others, the best subclass would obviously be one of the choices for that class.
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Since there are a TON (111, not incusing unofficial Critical role content or UA) subclasses in the game, I was curious what people considered to be the best subclass in the edition. I am curious about it on all aspects that people want to judge the subclass by, be it mechanics, cohesion with the base class, themes, pure DPS, level of balance within the game, or some other category. This is a partner thread to what people consider to be the worst subclass in the game.
I just want to know what people consider to be the best subclass in the game.
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"Play the game however you want to play the game. After all, your fun doesn't threaten my fun."
There is no best subclass in the game. There is a best subclass in the game RIGHT NOW... but so far, every single one has been fun to play. Sadly, I will not have had a chance to play all of them before 6e arrives in 2077.
Illusionist and anybody who tells you otherwise is wrong :-)
A couple of front-runners for me:
Rune Knight
Circle of Stars Druid
Honorable mention to Gloom Stalker which pretty much singlehandedly kept the pre-Tasha's Ranger out of in-combat irrelevance and is still just a really good set of features.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
It depends:
The answers changes constantly and weaves in and out of the above bullet points. That being said, I'd have to say-
Those would be my picks this week.
All things Lich - DM tips, tricks, and other creative shenanigans
For me it's the genielock. I love elemental themes, and I love the fact that warlocks basically offer you a second subclass via the pact. Combine the two and you get close to what I consider the perfect class.
The only thing which could ever top it for me would be elemental ranger or paladin subclasses.
The best depends on the situation you're in, for me anyway I would have to pick the following:
Best for Tanking: Totem Warrior Barbarian
Best for Solid Meleeing: Battlemaster Fighter
Best for Social Encounters: College of Eloquence Bard
Best for Annoying the DM: School of Divination Wizard
Best for Shock Value: Path of the Beast Barbarian
Best for being an Edgelord: Tough one... but I'll go with Oathbreaker Paladin
Best for Dipping One Level into to Min-Max: Hexblade Warlock
LOL... Yes a player should definitely be looking to do that...
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
For me its the Peace Cleric if you allow Tasha's followed up by the Twilight Cleric. Both are great on their own but heaven forbid you have both in the same game.
6th level Protective bond combined with Twilight Sanctuary pretty much trivializes any combat by letting PCs swap into and out of the fight choosing who is best able to take the dmg while passively healing. Oh also, all you have used is reactions to string these two abilities together, which even at 6th level you can do 3x per long rest. Assuming a 6th lvl party of 4, the bad guys will have to do ~40 dmg a round just to deplete the temp HP of the party which will replenish every round.
There is nothing more satisfying in D&D as a player than telling the DM "well, actually no". Divination/Chronurgy Wizards are great for this.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
I get why it can feel good as a player to seem to have power over the DM, but... I urge people to resist the urge to make it a competition.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Bruh, it's the Battle Master. Yeah, it's because I said so, and yeah, because I'm basic but y'know what?! Where was I going with this again?
Oh yeah! Thanks for also picking just one thing because it's your favourite! *fist bump*
In my experience as a DM, the best way to diffuse that is to cheer just as loud as everyone else when it happens. It's only an adversarial situation if both sides interpret it as such.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
Moon Druid is borderline broken at low levels, and since I tend to run low-level games, it's probably the strongest for me. However, I think being overpowered makes for a bad subclass more than a good one.
My favorite subclass (whether it's the best I'm not sure) is the Grave Domain cleric. Its level one feature encourages you to let people actually go down before healing them and makes Cure Wounds a far better option than Healing Word—which both make for a much more fun and thematic healer, as opposed to the MMO-esque "keep everyone topped off" Life Cleric. The bonus action ranged Spare the Dying is also great, since it makes it very hard for anyone to die even if they get hit while they're down. And it's really fun to have a darker death-related aesthetic without being edgy or evil—you're a badass undead-hating protector of the grave!
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
I never said it had to be a competition, I prefer my games to be a collaboration between the Players and DM to have the players more awesome.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
With a Divination Wizard, it isn’t a competition.
I’m a big fan of Warlock’s in general, so I may be biased, but it would have to be Hexblade warlock as my favorite. It’s really fun, adds a nice spin to warlock, has great story uses in campaigns since your always with your patron, and it can be really strong when min-maxing, although for me the min-maxing part is the least important. Some honorable mentions are Scribes Wizard and Spores Druid.
There's no single best subclass. However:
In terms of being the best at that one thing they do: Berserker barbarian.
In terms of doing the greatest number of different things well, and keeping a high average in all but all situations: Lore bard.
Other than that, I dunno.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
A group of 4 necromancers will plow through all the available campaigns. Survive to level 5 then send 48 zombies and/or skeletons. Go past level 6 and they all get stronger. The end.
Much easier to try and figure out what you think is the best subclass for a given class - although if you think one base class is head and shoulders above the others, the best subclass would obviously be one of the choices for that class.