Dungeons & Dragons is meant to be a game about teamwork. The reason each character has to choose a class is so that they can be given a set of unique abilities that set them apart from their teammates.
The players then have to work together in order to face the overwhelming odds that the Dungeon Master will set up them. This is the very reason why a party will start to endure hardships when there is a lack of cooperation among the of the team.
The classes that appear in Dungeons & Dragons are expected to fit within certain roles, such as fighters and paladins charging into the front lines and protecting their weaker comrades from harm, while the priests heal and the thieves sneak around, as the mages cast spells that can turn the tide of battle.
There have been hundreds of different character classes created throughout the history of Dungeons & Dragons and they have ranged from being incredibly useful to totally worthless.
These are the kinds of classes that will help you conquer the most difficult adventures... or will leave you begging for a healing spell after getting beaten up by a kobold.
We are here today to rank the best and the worst classes in the history of Dungeons & Dragons, from the arcane spellcaster with the power to bend the rules to the silly wizard who hides their magic in a piece of wax.
Here are The 10 Strongest (And 10 Most Worthless) Dungeons & Dragons Classes, Ranked!
Best: Sorcerer In 5th Edition
The mages of the older editions of Dungeons & Dragons had to memorize their spells before they cast them, which limited their abilities, as they could only prepare a certain amount of spells each day.
The sorcerer class was introduced in the 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons as an alternate arcane spellcasting choice.
Sorcerers were people with the natural ability to cast spells, in a similar manner to how mutants developed their powers over time in The X-Men comics.
Sorcerers could access all of their spells at once and could cast more each day, but this was let down by the fact that their pool of spells was very limited and it took them longer to learn new levels of magic.
Wizards also gained bonus feats every couple of levels, as well as receiving Scribe Scroll for free. This made wizards the superior choice when sorcerers were first introduced.
The current edition of Dungeons & Dragons has finally given the sorcerer class its due. Sorcerers no longer have to wait to access higher levels of spells and they have exclusive access to the old Metamagic abilities.
This means that Sorcerers can bolster their spells and even cast several in a single turn by spending points, without having to increase the level of the spell.
Worst: Ranger, Beast Master In 5th Edition
The 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons gave the player several ways to use animals and monsters as allies through the use of magic.
Druids could have several animal companions with them at all times and could summon additional creatures through the use of the summon nature's ally spell, while clerics and arcane spellcasters could use the summon monster spell to bring all manner of creatures onto the field.
The 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons has toned down the options for summoning creatures by a considerable amount.
One of the exceptions to this is the Beast Master archetype for the Ranger class, which is often considered to be one of the worst class choices in the game.
The Beast Master gains an animal companion, which has to have a challenge rating of 1/4, with panthers and wolves being a common choice.
The problem with having an animal companion is that you have to use an action command in order to make it attack.
Your animal buddy won't assault an enemy without your express permission, which means that you have to waste turns in order to use an ally who will likely be weaker than everything you are fighting.
The bonuses you grant your animal companion are also pretty weak, which means that it won't be pulling its weight in combat.
Best: Spellwarp Sniper In 3rd Edition
Friendly fire doesn't exist within the world of Dungeons & Dragons. This means that if you throw a fireball spell into combat, then your allies will also be affected by it.
Spells that deal damage usually come in two forms; there is area of effect spells that require a saving throw, or single target spells that require an attack roll.
As you face tougher monsters, their saving throw bonuses tend to become stronger, making area of effect spells less effect than straight attack rolls.
The Spellwarp Sniper offers a unique way to turn area of effect spells into a ray attack. This means that you can transform a fireball into a single target spell.
There are several benefits for making this change, as you have to make an attack roll instead of giving the creature a Reflex save, which is especially useful against enemies with the Evasion ability. This means that you can also add Sneak Attack damage to fireball, as well as being able to double the damage through dealing a critical hit.
The Spellwarp Sniper gains the Raystrike ability, which is essentially a few extra Sneak Attack damage dice. They also gain the ability to strengthen one of their ray spells with the Empower Spell feat without having to raise the level of the spell.
Worst: Vigilante In 3rd Edition
The majority of time in each Dungeons & Dragons campaigns takes place in the wilderness, with cities mainly being used as shops and places to acquire new quests.
There are some city-based campaigns but these tend to favor roleplaying over adventuring, as it gets increasingly difficult to justify the presence of dungeons within cities (unless your players love sewers.)
This is one of the many reasons why the Vigilante prestige class is such a letdown. The idea behind the class is that it is a detective who possesses abilities that will help them solve crimes and catch criminals.
The actual skill set of the Vigilante leaves something to be desired.
They have the ability to use Smite Evil... but only on enemies that they have personally seen commit a crime and only within their home city.
You can only use this ability within three days of the crime being committed, which means that the forces of evil are protected by the statute of limitations.
The rest of the Vigilante's skill set is equally unimpressive; they can cast speak with dead (which most clerics can cast at level five) and can perform certain skill checks quicker than normal.
The best Vigilante ability is Mettle, which acts like Evasion for Fortitude and Will Saves. They don't get this until level nine, at which point most players will have given up and played something that is far more effective at the Vigilante's job, such as a bard.
Best: Hulking Hurler
The most popular weapons in Dungeons & Dragons tend to be melee weapons that you can use to bash or slice your enemies to pieces with, or ranged weapons that you can use to fire ammunition into your enemy's stupid face.
Thrown weapons generally aren't as popular, due to the fact that they aren't as powerful as bows or crossbows. The exception to this was the darts in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, though most players weren't aware of how powerful they were.
The true master of hurling items at the enemy is the Hulking Hurler class. It has a rather steep requirement in the form of having to be a large creature (which will severely restrict your choice of race) but it's worth it for the damage you will rain down on your enemies.
The Hulking Hurler class takes the idea of throwing weapons and applies it to anyone and everything. They possess the ability to throw anything and deal damage based on the item's size and weight.
This is where a bag of holding or portable hole will come in handy, as having easy access to boulders will mean that you can easily deal more damage than the spellcasters in the party with a single rock, thanks to their third level trick which lets them deal double their Strength modifier when throwing an item.
Worst: Forsaker In 3rd Edition
Magic is at the core of every Dungeons & Dragons world, to the point where it has come close to destroying many of the established settings.
The world of Dark Sun is ravaged by the defilers who drain the life from plants in order to power their magic, while the setting of Forgotten Realms suffered terribly when Karsus's insane plan for godhood backfired.
The Forsaker prestige class is made up of those who have chosen to abandon all magic. They gain some pretty cool benefits for doing this, such as new stat points every level, natural spell resistance, and the ability to overcome damage reduction.
The price for becoming a Forsaker is far too high, as you have to give up all magic and actively destroy it wherever you can.
This would make the Forsaker a pariah in most campaigns, as he would not associate with of most of the other classes in the game.
The Forsaker's ability to reduce damage dealt to them is also tied to the number of magic items that they have destroyed. This means that they have to hunt down and smash the items which are intended to help you on your adventures.
Best: Clerics (Strength Domain) In 3rd Edition
The divine magic used by clerics has also been one of the biggest assets to any adventuring party, as it allows player characters to be healed after whatever stupid stunt they just pulled.
It hasn't always been easy to play a cleric, due to some of the strange restrictions on the class in older editions. There was a time when clerics were restricted to using bludgeoning weapons, as drawing blood was considered a sin, even if you were an evil cleric. The magic they used was also capped at seven levels, while mages had nine.
The 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons gave several major boosts to the cleric class. The biggest of these was the Domains, which gave a cleric access to unique abilities and spells for their class.
Clerics who chose the Strength Domain were in for a treat, as it granted the ability to add your cleric level to your Strength modifier once per day.
The Strength Domain also gave you free access to all of the best cleric buffing spells, including righteous might.
With the right build, it's easily possible to turn a Strength Domain cleric into the heaviest hitting member of your party. All of the modifiers combined will give you a massive bonus to damage when entering melee combat.
Worst: Monk In 3rd Edition
The medieval fantasy setting that is used in most Dungeons & Dragons campaigns takes a lot of inspiration from Arthurian legends and the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.
This hasn't stopped Dungeons & Dragons players from mixing ninjas and samurai with the knights and knaves.
The monk class brings some mythical kung fu action to the fantasy stereotypes in the Player's Handbook. You might find that the monk is also misplaced due to its terrible abilities.
The first problem with the monk is that you need four amazing stat scores to play it (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom) otherwise you may as well not bother.
Monks are let down by the fact that they have a slow Base Attack Bonus progression compared to other fighters, which means that it takes them longer to gain multiple attacks. You can use the Flurry of Blows ability to gain more attacks, but this also adds a penalty to the accuracy of each hit.
The monks get access to many different class abilities as they level up, but these tend to be versions of cleric & wizard spells that are already outdated by the time you get them, as the spellcasters of the group will have already had access to them for a long time.
Best: Ur-Priest In 3rd Edition
The gods of the Dungeons & Dragons universe are kind of the like the haunted ments in that one Halloween episode of The Simpsons. This is due to the fact that they need to be worshiped in order to maintain their power. It's possible for a god to be destroyed if their name is forgotten.
Only the most heretical and atheistic individuals possess the ability to become an ur-priest in Dungeons & Dragons. This is ironic, as these people learn how to tap into the very essence of divinity and can by the gods while still gaining access to divine magic.
Ur-priests gain access to a full cleric spell list, despite the fact that there are only ten levels of the class.
This can allow for some amazing cross-class combinations. They also possess the ability to burn lower level spells in order to create a higher-level spell, though they are limited in how often they can do this.
The most frightening aspect of ur-priests power is their highest level ability, which allows them to steal spell-like abilities from other creatures.
The range of abuse with this ability is staggering, but the most obvious is the fact that they can steal wish spells from creatures like Solars and cast them for free without any cost.
Worst: Cavalier In 1st Edition
Horses are a popular part of fantasy fiction, due to how important they were in warfare during medieval times. This is something that is less important in Dungeons & Dragons, with many players preferring to fight unmounted.
The rules of the game have rarely offered a noticeable benefit to fighting while mounted (unless you are on the back of a flying creature) and most players don't want to be stuck on top of a creature that could be easily spooked or controlled by enemy magic.
The cavalier class in the first edition of Dungeons & Dragons was an attempt at creating a mounted knight class within the game.
Cavalier's actually had some impressive abilities, such as being immune to fear and not falling unconscious when reaching negative hit points. They also gain significant bonuses while fighting with lances and on horseback.
The problem with the cavalier class is that they cannot be controlled in battle.
A cavalier has to charge into battle and fight the nastiest enemy on the field. They are not allowed to run away or fight tactically in any way that doesn't involve a suicidal charge.
The cavalier's death charge is an easy way for the Dungeon Master to screw with the player, as they have to attack a Tarrasque if it happens to show up. The presence of a cavalier turns all fights into bloody brawls that prevent proper planning and preparation.
