Class Tierlist

[.Master Jiren, The Strongest]

Rank the classes by any criteria you want. you dont have to write as much as I did but at least state the criteria you used to reach your conclusions. You can rank them by your personal favorite or by what you think is best, just say whatever criteria. This is so people can get a feel for how the community feels about each class in an organized way.

I explain my reasons for each ranking but if you dont want to read it all just know I consider reliability in combat, utility , and ease of use, I tried to keep personal bias out of it.

S Tier:
None. I don't think any of the classes are going to be "perfect" for every situation.

A Tier:
Paladin. The high armor and powerful smites means this is going to be the best for boss fights, a high single damage character, and a reliable tank that wont go down easily. With their access to healing and buff spells they can fill a support role to your main tav as well as easily upping a downed squishy that might have more damage. I also consider martial to be more reliable damage wise than casters, but I understand not everyone agrees.

Warlock: The ability to get back your spell slots on a short rest is good, but eldritch blast and its invocations I feel can potentially become game breaking. it also has d8 hit die so its not the most squishy, and has some of the best spells like Darkness to make basically unkillable as well as having some of the best utility in the game (though we dont know what value that will have outside of theft)

Sorcerer: I'm not entirely convinced that Sorcerer is A tier, maybe its B tier. It does have a lot of powerful damaging spells, and its meta magic makes it probably the #1 damaging class in the game in a single turn (maybe), but it only has d6 for hp and doesnt wear armor normally. However, the real reason i'm putting it in A tier is because of the multiclassing potential. Paladin, Warlock, and Sorcerer, in my opinion, are the top multiclassing classes, and I think every multiclass build will use at least one of these classes. For that reason they all get A tier.

B Tier: These classes stand on their own
Cleric: Personally, i'd probably put this in S tier because this is my favorite class. But i'm going to ignore my bias and put it in B tier because I know not everyone agrees with my obsession with Cleric. It can wear armor, sometimes even heavy armor. It can wield weapons, sometimes even martial weapons. It has healing spells, buff spells, and it even has access to full caster spell slots making it literally perfect. But as people will point out the actual class features arent great, focusing on Undead, which is only good if you're fighting undead, and if you're going to talk about its melee abilities you have to acknowledge its D8 hit dice, which will good for a full caster, isnt great for a melee character. That said, theres no way a class with this much healing and tank potential could ever be lower than B tier. It's a perfect solid choice for anyone without exception as it has everyone you could ever want, I consider this the true jack of all trades class, sorry bard.

Fighter: This is probably a controversial pick and i'm not even sure myself. I think Fighter is a solid pick. It has armor, and reliable damage. But it doesnt do area of effect very well, and it doesnt have any good subclasses compared to the capabilities of other classes (for example nothing a fighter gets ever compares to a Paladins Divine Smite). That said, Fighter is a great multiclass option if you just want to grab action surge or second wind you can get it early, its an easy dip to get armor and weapons for a caster, and to get some nice d10 hp for early levels to make a caster better. So its multiclassing potential is good and it has solid combat reliability. But it doesnt do anything exceptional, so B tier for reliability and safety.

Druid: Druid can be a one man party. It can heal, it can morph into a tank. And wisdom is the best stat in the game. In fact, in table top, Druid is the only immortal class that cannot die. But all of that is just theory. The reality is druid is never optimal, and depending on its implemented might be restricted in what it can wear. People also struggle with which abilities it can use during wild shape, in fact, people cannot even decide which subclass to take because you sacrifice a lot with either option. Druid can do a lot, in fact, Druid can do -too- much which makes it one of the harder classes for people to play as they often try to do everything all at once and up making mistakes because of it. Expert class only

[.Master Jiren, The Strongest]

C Tier: These classes have alternatives that do it better
Barbarian: I'm not going to say much about these classes, they just arent that interesting. The Barbarian has the highest hp in the game, which is the only thing its good for. It doesnt NEED to wear armor, but being forced to put points into both STR and Dex to make use of your primary class feature is an L in my book as it takes away player choice. Rage is only good if you're playing Totem Barbarian of the Bear, which is really good, but not very exciting. Barbarian is a good tank class but it has to be specced in a certain way and doesnt really do anything else. Paladin is also tanky and way more fun with more options. Only play this if you like the theme of big strong shirtless warrior yelling all the time.

Rogue: most of these subclasses just dont do anything good. The only thing this class does well is stealth and sneak attack which can do a lot of damage but you know, a flametongue greatsword does a lot of damage too. You dont get heavy armor yet you have to be in melee combat. You get sneak attack damage, once, but you cant use high damage weapons, and the game caps at level 12 so you never get Death Blow and never get to really max out your sneak attack damage. Theres also easier ways to steal (Darkness from a Warlock), but, the theme is really fun so, im sure you could have fun with this, but that doesnt make it good.

Ranger: This would probably be a B Tier for me. In fact, Ranger can be A tier for one shots on table top. But thats all just theory. The reality is people struggle with the Ranger and can never figure out what to do to make it work. Wisdom is a great stat, but the spells you get are not very good. They are mainly self buffs. You dont have heavy armor, but you DO get martial weapons and can use any weapon. People almost always just make a dex archer though, and you absolutely dont have to do that. But i'm rating this lower because its a confusing class that people struggle with all the time. Its actually not a bad class, it does reliable damage, more than fighter or barbarian, and it has a good main stat, but i think its a victim of its own versatility leaving people unsure of exactly what this class is meant to do. I like the ranger, but I rank it lower because it isnt clear what it does best which isnt good for new players.

Wizard: Hot take, I know. People love wizard. For me, other spellcasters do it better, the only thing this class does well is that it has TONS of utility. But given that enemies will always beat the saving throw, and one shot your d6 hit die since you dont wear armor, and as other classes have the same or better damaging spells, you really are just the Bard of the group, your job is to cast neat spells like Knock Identify and Arcane Lock, and then be defeated and wait to be helped up. You can be a necromancer though, so..S tier?

Bard: Bards a weird one. Like the Rogue and Wizard your job is utility. Rogues do skill checks, Wizards do utility spells. the Bard does both, and its a full caster like Wizard with the D8 of a Rogue. They can wear armor like a rogue and wield similar weapons. They can even heal and have some really neat spells. Their bardic inspiration is also really cool. That said. We already have Charisma classes that are way better in combat, and they can all be the face of the group already. And if you just needed support you could just take a Cleric. Bard is mainly for the theme, but I will say if you wanted to argue for a higher Tier for Bard, i can totally see why. It does a lot of things, and its not as confusing as Druid or Ranger. But theres already 3 other Charisma classes that are just better.

D Tier: None. No class is that bad. They all have uses. If I had to pick an absolute worst class it would be Barbarian and Rogue but they have their uses (and they have their fans)