Damage- fighters (any, but melee is better now), frenzy barbarians, vengeance paladins. Warlocks can likely do really strong damage too.
Taking- wild heart barbarians, fighters and paladins (about the same) moon druids are good too
Healing- life clerics, stars druids (using chalice), the new alchemist if UA is I'm to use seems like it might be a decent healer. Bards can heal fairly well, and do damage or pretty much whatever.
Crowd control (even though you didn't ask)- wizards, sorcerers, bards, druids
Don't sleep on rangers. Great at exploration, and do a little healing and strong damage.
Monks are hyper mobile. Rogue damage is ok.
All that said, the game doesn't really need everyone to make meta choices. I've had tons of fun playing a monk in 2014 rules where they were widely considered the worst class (especially after Tasha's when they made rangers gopd)
Damage- fighters (any, but melee is better now), frenzy barbarians, vengeance paladins. Warlocks can likely do really strong damage too.
Taking- wild heart barbarians, fighters and paladins (about the same) moon druids are good too
Healing- life clerics, stars druids (using chalice), the new alchemist if UA is I'm to use seems like it might be a decent healer. Bards can heal fairly well, and do damage or pretty much whatever.
Crowd control (even though you didn't ask)- wizards, sorcerers, bards, druids
Don't sleep on rangers. Great at exploration, and do a little healing and strong damage.
Monks are hyper mobile. Rogue damage is ok.
All that said, the game doesn't really need everyone to make meta choices. I've had tons of fun playing a monk in 2014 rules where they were widely considered the worst class (especially after Tasha's when they made rangers gopd)
I would be careful on how I was building a warlock for damage, however. At high levels I favor the fighters. Monks are decent for combat with a lot of mobility.
Tanking is definitely barbarians, fighters, and paladins.
Clerics are the best healers. Druids are decent; and bards can be decent, but losing Song of Rest in the 2024 rules cut them back and hurt their healing overall. Paladins are decent enough healers too because of Lay on Hands. Artificers at high levels can be -- alchemists get disrespected but they have bonuses to spell healing, bonus elixirs for healing, and bonus status effect removal abilities.
Crowd control would be druids and wizards. Bards and sorcerers can be great at it too but they still need to be built for it because of how their spell prep works.
Whats are the best classes/subclasses (PHB 2024) if your campaign is heavily focused on Combat encounters?
Lets say you are playing a campaign that is 70% combat, very little NPC interaction and just a bit of map exploration..
What would be the classes that make a big difference in terms of damage, healing or tanking?
In terms of combat encounters, party composition is more important than individual character classes, generally speaking 4 fighters won't perform quiet as well as a fighter, a cleric, a wizard and a rogue.
All classes inflict damage, just some are better at it than others, the martial classes tend to stand out on one-vs-one damage but do less well in many vs many scenarios as casters get AoEs which generally inflict far more damage overall as they hit far more targets. For 1v1, Fighter, Barbarian, Paladin and Rogue all do good damage in 2024, Monk also does good damage, Ranger does more than reasonable damage and Warlock tends to be considered a good base line.
For the vs many situations, Casters tend to do a little better, more so Sorcerer and Wizard, Druid has a few good AoEs too as does Warlock, Cleric also has a few good AoEs, some of which have proven to be a bit too exploitable in 2024 (looking at you, Spirit Guardians). Martials tend to perform less well unless they have a feature or spell that does multiple hits, cleave weapons now exist and so 1v2 can be done too with greataxe or halberd.
In terms of healing, Cleric is still king, followed by Bard, Druid, Paladin and Ranger. Paladin gets a dedicated healing resource, but it's touch ranged, Cleric and Paladin get Prayer of Healing, which is basically now a fastened short rest with healing on top where Ranger and Druid get some spells only accessible to them too, including goodberry but Bard starts off with the most limited list, until it gets magical secrets where it gets full access to both the Cleric and Druid spellcasting lists.
In terms of "tanking", Barbarian, Paladin, Fighter & Cleric can all tank quiet effectively, it is also possible to tank with other classes. Paladin and Fighter start with access to heavy armor while Cleric also gets that option via class feature too (no need to sacrifice a feat). Paladin and Fighter both have good self-healing options while Barbarian gets the biggest HP pool in the game and ability to reduces a significant amount of incoming damage. Cleric and Paladin also get a few spells that can assist in holding enemies focus, such as sanctuary (cleric) or compelled duel (paladin).
so in terms of these three categories, I think the best choices for all categories is Paladin or Cleric. for one-on-one Vengeance Paladin stands out while for many-vs-one or many-vs-many, realistically Devotion Paladin may actually be the better choice as Vengeance loses it's main benefit if there are other sources of advantage going around, i.e. Faerie Fire or being near a wild heart barbarian using wolf for their rage. For cleric, War cleric is going to be more tanky and damage dealing while life cleric is going to be more healing. for fighter, I'd say Battlemaster is still king and for Barbarian, Berserker or Zealot wins on damage while wild heart wins on tankiness and world tree is sort of in the middle with it's own utility on the side.
Overall there are still other parts of combat not covered under these three categories, as Ashrym has pointed out. For example Druid and Ranger get spike growth which is a great zone control while Warlock gets repelling blast on eldritch blast and they can literally push hostile creatures back and bard is second to none as a support while being a "jack-of-all-trades" else wise able to do almost everything but not quiet as well as other classes do. You also do need that one stealth character who can pick locks, normally a rogue, ranger or bard fulfils this role.
Whats are the best classes/subclasses (PHB 2024) if your campaign is heavily focused on Combat encounters?
Lets say you are playing a campaign that is 70% combat, very little NPC interaction and just a bit of map exploration..
What would be the classes that make a big difference in terms of damage, healing or tanking?
For a combat-heavy campaign, consider the Fighter (especially Battle Master or Champion) for high damage and versatility, Barbarian (Path of the Beast or Ancestral Guardian) for tanking and offense, and Cleric (Life or War Domain) for healing and support.
I am running an Illrigger Painkiller who is basically a massive tank. Once you figure out how to use the Interdicts properly, you have the ability to deal massive damage and constantly refresh your hit points from your opponent.
Honestly, I mostly agree, even though paladin got a bit nerfed.
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I'm just your everyday dungeon master. Ignore that jar full of souls. And those bones in the corner are just props, don't worry. I'm definitely NOT a lich. Definitely.
Yes, I like beholders. Yes, I curated an exquisite personality for commoner #2864. Yes, my catchphrase is "are you sure?"
Depends on what you want out of combat. Paladin and Barbarian are probably best for full wade into the melee fray and survivability doing so. Rogue is king of Damage per Round, and have a few more tricks in 2024.
But Wizard, Cleric, Sorcerer are your biggest combat encounter influencers. But again that depends on having the above characters as buffers.
It sounds like Paladin and Barbarian excel in frontline combat, while Rogues specialize in high damage. Wizards, Clerics, and Sorcerers play crucial roles in shaping encounters, particularly with the right support.
Exactly! Each class offers a unique strength—Paladins and Barbarians thrive in tanking, Rogues deal high damage, while Wizards, Clerics, and Sorcerers provide versatile support, shaping outcomes with spells and strategy.
Personally, I love the rogue. Out of combat, you can just steal everything. In combat, (first round especially) you can do pretty good damage. In 1v1s, you can attack, use cunning strike to move half speed without triggering opportunity attacks, cunning action to dash and get right out of the melee. With a shortsword and scimitar, you don't use your bonus action for the two weapon fighting, and the scimitar has advantage. With the lucky feat, you can easily get the sneak attack bonus with your shortsword.
In group fights, attacking an enemy while an ally is close automatically grants your sneak attack bonus.
Personally, my favourite rogue subclass is assassin. Soul knife attacks seem kind of sad, 1d4 and 1d6, without nick just makes it worse. Arcane trickster is ok, but I'm not much of a caster. Thief seems pretty good, climbing speed, dex for jumps, extra turn at 17th level. But assassin has a chance of doing double damage at 17th level so its basically the same. Also, I normally play tabaxi for the mobility, so I already have a climbing speed.
Can someone please explain why the world is obsessed with vengeance paladins, I never really saw why they are good.
Can someone please explain why the world is obsessed with vengeance paladins, I never really saw why they are good.
Can't answer that, personally I don't think they are all that great. Just like how many people thought the 2014 monk was poor, when it was actually the opposite, it was good. Every monk I played and saw was REALLY good and a huge threat to the baddies. Can't count how many big baddies I saw melt because the monk got within melee range of them, especially in 2014 where you could try for a stunning attack on EVERY hit. (I had a 5th level monk pretty much solo a Mummy Lord between stun and patient defense)
Y'all are sleeping on monks a bit. Yes, they are hyper mobile, but I'm using a Monk character that tanks like crazy. Taking the farmer background, you already have the same average heath per level as a barbarian, and my character is a dwarf, the result is a character that tanks as well as a barbarian, deals dpr almost equaling the rogue, and has more mobility than a centaur with long strider.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I'm just your everyday dungeon master. Ignore that jar full of souls. And those bones in the corner are just props, don't worry. I'm definitely NOT a lich. Definitely.
Yes, I like beholders. Yes, I curated an exquisite personality for commoner #2864. Yes, my catchphrase is "are you sure?"
Have to agree, 2014 monk were really good, in and out of combat. Insane mobility, and also, walking on water?! They also deal a decent amount of damage. The monks subclasses aren't great at third level, none of the 3rd level stuff does much. Monk of mercy uses a focus point to do 1d6 plus wis, but your dex should be higher than wis, unless you are multiclassing, so flurry of blows actually does more damage.
But at higher levels, mercy and other subclasses do great stuff.
Can someone please explain why the world is obsessed with vengeance paladins, I never really saw why they are good.
In 2014, people could abuse Vow of Enmity and great weapon master. With 2 attacks per turn that are getting the -5/+10 at advantage and smites, they could blow up combat encounters in the first round or two. Paladins in general were considered the strongest class in the game with huge damage potential, outrageous burst damage, solid healing and party buffs, and access to spells as a half caster.
Generally, paladins are still one of the best classes. Great weapon master was reworked and smite is only once per round now, but generally those were needed nerfs.
Classes heavily focused in Combat
Whats are the best classes/subclasses (PHB 2024) if your campaign is heavily focused on Combat encounters?
Lets say you are playing a campaign that is 70% combat, very little NPC interaction and just a bit of map exploration..
What would be the classes that make a big difference in terms of damage, healing or tanking?
In order (off the top of my head)
Damage- fighters (any, but melee is better now), frenzy barbarians, vengeance paladins. Warlocks can likely do really strong damage too.
Taking- wild heart barbarians, fighters and paladins (about the same) moon druids are good too
Healing- life clerics, stars druids (using chalice), the new alchemist if UA is I'm to use seems like it might be a decent healer. Bards can heal fairly well, and do damage or pretty much whatever.
Crowd control (even though you didn't ask)- wizards, sorcerers, bards, druids
Don't sleep on rangers. Great at exploration, and do a little healing and strong damage.
Monks are hyper mobile. Rogue damage is ok.
All that said, the game doesn't really need everyone to make meta choices. I've had tons of fun playing a monk in 2014 rules where they were widely considered the worst class (especially after Tasha's when they made rangers gopd)
Really, all of them. D&D is a combat-focussed game, and all the classes are built around combat capabilities first and foremost.
(While they all have non-combat stuff they can do, it's not the dominant thing for anyone.)
I would say the Fighter and any Fighteresque class: Ranger, Paladin and Barbarian.
After that is definitely the Monk, then Cleric and Warlock.
The best species (not RACE), is Human, followed by Asimar.
I generally agree with this list:
I would be careful on how I was building a warlock for damage, however. At high levels I favor the fighters. Monks are decent for combat with a lot of mobility.
Tanking is definitely barbarians, fighters, and paladins.
Clerics are the best healers. Druids are decent; and bards can be decent, but losing Song of Rest in the 2024 rules cut them back and hurt their healing overall. Paladins are decent enough healers too because of Lay on Hands. Artificers at high levels can be -- alchemists get disrespected but they have bonuses to spell healing, bonus elixirs for healing, and bonus status effect removal abilities.
Crowd control would be druids and wizards. Bards and sorcerers can be great at it too but they still need to be built for it because of how their spell prep works.
In terms of combat encounters, party composition is more important than individual character classes, generally speaking 4 fighters won't perform quiet as well as a fighter, a cleric, a wizard and a rogue.
All classes inflict damage, just some are better at it than others, the martial classes tend to stand out on one-vs-one damage but do less well in many vs many scenarios as casters get AoEs which generally inflict far more damage overall as they hit far more targets. For 1v1, Fighter, Barbarian, Paladin and Rogue all do good damage in 2024, Monk also does good damage, Ranger does more than reasonable damage and Warlock tends to be considered a good base line.
For the vs many situations, Casters tend to do a little better, more so Sorcerer and Wizard, Druid has a few good AoEs too as does Warlock, Cleric also has a few good AoEs, some of which have proven to be a bit too exploitable in 2024 (looking at you, Spirit Guardians). Martials tend to perform less well unless they have a feature or spell that does multiple hits, cleave weapons now exist and so 1v2 can be done too with greataxe or halberd.
In terms of healing, Cleric is still king, followed by Bard, Druid, Paladin and Ranger. Paladin gets a dedicated healing resource, but it's touch ranged, Cleric and Paladin get Prayer of Healing, which is basically now a fastened short rest with healing on top where Ranger and Druid get some spells only accessible to them too, including goodberry but Bard starts off with the most limited list, until it gets magical secrets where it gets full access to both the Cleric and Druid spellcasting lists.
In terms of "tanking", Barbarian, Paladin, Fighter & Cleric can all tank quiet effectively, it is also possible to tank with other classes. Paladin and Fighter start with access to heavy armor while Cleric also gets that option via class feature too (no need to sacrifice a feat). Paladin and Fighter both have good self-healing options while Barbarian gets the biggest HP pool in the game and ability to reduces a significant amount of incoming damage. Cleric and Paladin also get a few spells that can assist in holding enemies focus, such as sanctuary (cleric) or compelled duel (paladin).
so in terms of these three categories, I think the best choices for all categories is Paladin or Cleric. for one-on-one Vengeance Paladin stands out while for many-vs-one or many-vs-many, realistically Devotion Paladin may actually be the better choice as Vengeance loses it's main benefit if there are other sources of advantage going around, i.e. Faerie Fire or being near a wild heart barbarian using wolf for their rage. For cleric, War cleric is going to be more tanky and damage dealing while life cleric is going to be more healing. for fighter, I'd say Battlemaster is still king and for Barbarian, Berserker or Zealot wins on damage while wild heart wins on tankiness and world tree is sort of in the middle with it's own utility on the side.
Overall there are still other parts of combat not covered under these three categories, as Ashrym has pointed out. For example Druid and Ranger get spike growth which is a great zone control while Warlock gets repelling blast on eldritch blast and they can literally push hostile creatures back and bard is second to none as a support while being a "jack-of-all-trades" else wise able to do almost everything but not quiet as well as other classes do. You also do need that one stealth character who can pick locks, normally a rogue, ranger or bard fulfils this role.
For a combat-heavy campaign, consider the Fighter (especially Battle Master or Champion) for high damage and versatility, Barbarian (Path of the Beast or Ancestral Guardian) for tanking and offense, and Cleric (Life or War Domain) for healing and support.
The paladin is the king of combat.
I am running an Illrigger Painkiller who is basically a massive tank. Once you figure out how to use the Interdicts properly, you have the ability to deal massive damage and constantly refresh your hit points from your opponent.
Honestly, I mostly agree, even though paladin got a bit nerfed.
I'm just your everyday dungeon master. Ignore that jar full of souls. And those bones in the corner are just props, don't worry. I'm definitely NOT a lich. Definitely.
Yes, I like beholders. Yes, I curated an exquisite personality for commoner #2864. Yes, my catchphrase is "are you sure?"
.-. .- -. -.. --- -- / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . .-.-.-
Any character can contribute to one of the Combat, Social or Exploration pillars but there's builds shining in some more than others.
Depends on what you want out of combat. Paladin and Barbarian are probably best for full wade into the melee fray and survivability doing so.
Rogue is king of Damage per Round, and have a few more tricks in 2024.
But Wizard, Cleric, Sorcerer are your biggest combat encounter influencers. But again that depends on having the above characters as buffers.
It sounds like Paladin and Barbarian excel in frontline combat, while Rogues specialize in high damage. Wizards, Clerics, and Sorcerers play crucial roles in shaping encounters, particularly with the right support.
Exactly! Each class offers a unique strength—Paladins and Barbarians thrive in tanking, Rogues deal high damage, while Wizards, Clerics, and Sorcerers provide versatile support, shaping outcomes with spells and strategy.
Personally, I love the rogue. Out of combat, you can just steal everything. In combat, (first round especially) you can do pretty good damage. In 1v1s, you can attack, use cunning strike to move half speed without triggering opportunity attacks, cunning action to dash and get right out of the melee. With a shortsword and scimitar, you don't use your bonus action for the two weapon fighting, and the scimitar has advantage. With the lucky feat, you can easily get the sneak attack bonus with your shortsword.
In group fights, attacking an enemy while an ally is close automatically grants your sneak attack bonus.
Personally, my favourite rogue subclass is assassin. Soul knife attacks seem kind of sad, 1d4 and 1d6, without nick just makes it worse. Arcane trickster is ok, but I'm not much of a caster. Thief seems pretty good, climbing speed, dex for jumps, extra turn at 17th level. But assassin has a chance of doing double damage at 17th level so its basically the same. Also, I normally play tabaxi for the mobility, so I already have a climbing speed.
Can someone please explain why the world is obsessed with vengeance paladins, I never really saw why they are good.
Can't answer that, personally I don't think they are all that great. Just like how many people thought the 2014 monk was poor, when it was actually the opposite, it was good. Every monk I played and saw was REALLY good and a huge threat to the baddies. Can't count how many big baddies I saw melt because the monk got within melee range of them, especially in 2014 where you could try for a stunning attack on EVERY hit. (I had a 5th level monk pretty much solo a Mummy Lord between stun and patient defense)
Playing D&D since 1982
Have played every version of the game since Basic (Red Box Set), except that abomination sometimes called 4e.
Y'all are sleeping on monks a bit. Yes, they are hyper mobile, but I'm using a Monk character that tanks like crazy. Taking the farmer background, you already have the same average heath per level as a barbarian, and my character is a dwarf, the result is a character that tanks as well as a barbarian, deals dpr almost equaling the rogue, and has more mobility than a centaur with long strider.
I'm just your everyday dungeon master. Ignore that jar full of souls. And those bones in the corner are just props, don't worry. I'm definitely NOT a lich. Definitely.
Yes, I like beholders. Yes, I curated an exquisite personality for commoner #2864. Yes, my catchphrase is "are you sure?"
.-. .- -. -.. --- -- / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . .-.-.-
Have to agree, 2014 monk were really good, in and out of combat. Insane mobility, and also, walking on water?! They also deal a decent amount of damage. The monks subclasses aren't great at third level, none of the 3rd level stuff does much. Monk of mercy uses a focus point to do 1d6 plus wis, but your dex should be higher than wis, unless you are multiclassing, so flurry of blows actually does more damage.
But at higher levels, mercy and other subclasses do great stuff.
In 2014, people could abuse Vow of Enmity and great weapon master. With 2 attacks per turn that are getting the -5/+10 at advantage and smites, they could blow up combat encounters in the first round or two. Paladins in general were considered the strongest class in the game with huge damage potential, outrageous burst damage, solid healing and party buffs, and access to spells as a half caster.
Generally, paladins are still one of the best classes. Great weapon master was reworked and smite is only once per round now, but generally those were needed nerfs.
Haste, Misty Step, and Vow of Enmity are pretty good on a martial class I'd say.
Thematically, they get good press for not being seen as a "goody two-shoes" like Devotion.