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Paladins aren't OP they're just a safe choice and make for a decent party face, and most people wouldn't actually be able to play a real Paladin without falling because they're very restrictive. Any form of deception from a Paladin is considered dishonorable, even in combat ... they'd not fight nearly as dirty as most players have them fight etc etc ... like just going invis and tailing a person would be considered shameful to a Paladin ... in game though they don't have to really follow much of an oath other than "don't be the final blow on that possibly innocent person."
This is why I like paladins in a few other systems but rarely play one in 5e.
They are a little or even a lot harder to outright break things with in a few other systems (unlike 5e where they break a lot of things via multi class cause of smite), the subclasses have more variation in abilities & feel and the oaths are much more defined in what you can & cannot do. (PF2e for instance has a multitude of types.
Some are limited to specific alignments, some can have a variety but are stuck on one side of the alignment graph like they can be any holy, or any unholy, or must be tied to law, or tied to chaos
And each one gets access to different reaction abilities, feats etc.... so they end up playing differently.)
And all of them are very clear about their edicts and anathema for what you should and shouldn't do.
Same with clerics.
I hate when a class has restrictions on what it is allowed to do but the restrictions are so vague that depending on the GM & their mood at the moment the ruling can vary wildly.
Give me some consistency so I can build a character and play its character consistently.
I think it is about how you approach it. I quite like the notion of a normal person picking up a swords and saying "With this weapon I will carve my own fate."
Nah.
I'm talking about Wind Walk.
3 of your party members are lvl 10 Abjuration Wizards. The last two levels could be Sorcerer or Tempest Cleric or Warlock (for Twin Spell, Wrath and Armor of Agathys, respectively - my fave is 1 lvl Tempest + 1 lvl Warlock).
Stack damage reduction - Arcane Ward, obviously, but also heavy armor mastery and force conduit. Armor of Agathys for cold dmg retribution.
Turn everyone into gaseous form with Wind Walk. You now have damage resistance.
Trigger attacks of opportunity to trigger Armor of Agathys and/or Wrath. If an attack does less than about 60 dmg or so (depending on your Arcane Ward), it won't even dmg the temp hp on your Agathys, it will only deplete a charge on your Arcane Ward.
Before transforming, have everyone lay down a concentration based AoE.
Unfortunately, there are only three items in the game that give force conduit, and one of them is a weapon that you have to attack with to get it, but the other two are not.
You can get 30+ damage reduction on top of resistance, which is why any attack less than 60 won't hurt you at all, then you just need to recharge your Arcane Ward.
The best part though, is that Wind Walk doesn't require concentration and lasts until long rest.
Note: There's a trade off between using Wind Walk vs. Gaseous Form. WW only gives resistance to non-magical dmg and doesn't require concentration, while Gaseous Form provides resistance to all dmg, but requires concentration. Take your pick.
Edit: perhaps Frost Farts for the alliteration bonus.
If I remember correctly, this was based on what people rolled their main characters, wasn't it? I would think the position of a few of the classes don't represent what people think of the class well, because you practically start with a companion of the class. With so many players either playing the game more than once (having game knowledge about companions from the second playthrough on), looking up companion lists on their first playthrough, or rerolling in Act 1 over and over again, this would surely influence results significantly.
You all but have Shadowheart fall all over you at the start of the game, which could help explain why Cleric is so low on the list. It's nearly impossible to miss her if you're paying even the slightest bit of attention.
Other classes likely similarly impacted are Wizard (Gale), Warlock (Wyll), Rogue (Astarian), and Fighter (Lae'zel), as you can also get these companions practically off the bat. Although Karlach exists, most players won't run into her until around level 4-5 as opposed to 2 for just about everyone else in Act 1, so I'd think the impact on Barbarian's numbers would be lesser.
Ranger and Druid are probably not too impacted by this. Though the knowledge that Minsc and Jaheira were in the game probably informed the class choice of some fans of the first two BG games, I doubt it made a significant impact on class choice.
Sorcerer is probably dramatically boosted by the fact that it's The Dark Urge's default class, and, iirc, roughly 14% of players in the anniversary stats played The Dark Urge.
For the most part, I'm curious if Cleric and Wizard would not be higher and Sorcerer would not be a little lower if not for this.
Beyond that, I also think that needing a "face" for the party, a high-Charisma main character, strongly influences these choices as well, arguably more than companion availability. Half the game is dialogue dice rolls based on Charisma, and you can't get your companions to chime in for you for whatever reason. Paladin and Sorcerer being the top two make a lot of sense from this perspective, being the Charisma-based Martial and the Charisma-based wizard-like caster.
Least favorite class; don't really have one. They all have their merits and I bring some mix of all of them at some point. If we narrow it down to Subclass then I can name some.
Arcane Trickster
Wild Magic Barbarian
Trickery/Life/Knowledge/Nature Domain
Champion (I dislike it being a three level dip just for -1 for a crit roll, and Action Surge)
Conjuration/Enchantment/Illusion Wizard
College of Lore
Sadly illusion/enchantment wizard is a joke compared to how good it was in earlier editions.
Illusion magic used to have spells that could mimic the effects of evocation spells.
If the people in the area didn't know you were casting a "shadow evocation" they got a save to disbelieve it and if they passed it did nothing.
If they failed the damage was slightly lower then true evocation but was all the = of what is now psychic damage.
And you or anyone you had a way to warn would always pass your own saves which made it quite entertaining and useful for clever people.
And enchantment had quite a number of spells that could mess with multiple people at once swinging a fight.
Similar for Conjuration builds as there used to be a lot of great spells for different summoned creatures, animated creatures, ways to customize them etc....
(one of my 3,5 builds back in the day by level 8 had raised a bunch of skeleton chickens and upgraded them with the "blody" and "Explosive" archetypes that allowed them to reassemble over time if not killed with holy magic and explode when downed which could lead to a chain of explosions. My DM at the time nicknamed my character the mad dairy farmer)
As for the other subclasses you are sadly correct, a couple might be worth a dip in for some niche builds (a bit more so now for lore bard with the 2024 update) but sadly the reasons for even dipping them are very niche.
Truth.