Dungeons & Dragons/Classes

Every once in awhile, you get that urge to make that perfect character. But how do you do it? Will you copy fictional works and go for a Conniving Thief? How about a Stupid Bard?

Perhaps you will try to do something less overdone than a Drizzt Do'urden clone, or perhaps you will choose a simple meat shield fighter to give your wizard less to complain about. Either way, here is a compiled list of almost all archetypes of classes. Good luck. -

Assassin
A sub-class of the thief in 1st Edition, the assassin became a Prestige Class in 3rd Edition.


 * Boring but Practical: The 3E Assassin has a very small list of spells they can use, but it contains almost all the spells a stealthy character would want (read: Invisibility), and the ability to cast arcane spells at all opens up huge new options for them.
 * Character Alignment: Required to be evil for some reason in 3rd Edition.
 * A variant known as the "Avenger" was released by Wizards of the Coast on April Fools' Day. It instead is required to be any non-chaotic alignment, due to their stats as a government agent for acting against foreign powers.
 * Stealth Expert: Even more so than the Rogue.

Barbarian
Class Handbooks: WotC 3.5 version, Brilliant Gameologists 3.5 version (copied from the GiantITP version), Gleemax 4E version.


 * Badass Normal
 * Barbarian Hero
 * The Berserker
 * Canon Immigrant: The barbarian first appeared in the British fanzine White Dwarf before being adopted by TSR.
 * Character Alignment: Cannot be lawful for obvious reasons.
 * Charles Atlas Superpower
 * Lightning Bruiser: In 3.x, the barbarian has the highest base movement speed of any class except for the monk. In addition to that he has uncanny dodge, meaning that he reacts so quickly to danger that he gains a bonus to reflex saves against traps and cannot be flanked or sneak-attacked in combat.
 * Made of Iron: Traditionally, barbarians have the highest hit points of the core classes, and in most cases, actually take reduced damage from all physical attacks at higher levels (the DR is so small that it only outright prevents Scratch Damage, though).
 * Nature Hero
 * Never Learned to Read: Possibly; in the third edition, barbarians must spend skill points for literacy, whereas other characters are automatically literate.
 * One Stat to Rule Them All: In 1st Edition, Constitution. In 3rd, barbarians benefit from all physical stats.
 * Unstoppable Rage: The barbarian's distinguishing characteristic in 3rd Edition. The original 1E barbarian from White Dwarf also had this ability, but the official one by Gary Gygax did not (it was defined by its extreme resilience).

Bard
Class Handbooks: Gleemax 4E version, Gleemax 3.5 version, Brilliant Gameologists 3.5 version


 * The Bard: Duh.
 * Character Alignment: Lawful Neutral, Neutral Good, True Neutral, Chaotic Neutral, Neutral Evil: The alignment options for 2nd Edition bards, on the theory that a bard needs some degree of objectivity.
 * 3rd Edition bards must be nonlawful, under the presumption that the spontaneity required by bards cannot live in a lawful soul.
 * Magic Music: Third edition made the bard's magical abilities into this; previous editions had them as merely bits of lore that the bard had picked up from his travels.
 * Master of None: Bards have half-decent fighting abilities, a little bit of arcane (wizard) magic, and some thieving skills, but aren't particularly good at any of them. The best ways to make them good all involve specializing (as they are given plenty of options in source books due to their status as a core class).
 * Music for Courage
 * The Power of Acting
 * The Power of Rock
 * Prestige Class: The original class in 1e was the Ur Example.
 * Spoony Bard: Owing to their lack of specialization, many players dislike bards.
 * Wandering Minstrel: Often joins up with an adventuring party to chronicle their exploits in song.

Cleric / Priest
Class Handbook: Gleemax 4E version, Brilliant Gameologists 4E version, Gleemax 3.5 version, Brilliant Gameologists 3.5 version.


 * All Monks Know Kung Fu: The Cloistered Cleric (no armor or weapon abilities in exchange for knowledge skills and divination) variant in 3.5 finally provides an aversion for the system, as a class for a western book copying monk.
 * Combat Medic
 * Detect Evil: one of the cleric's spells is the trope namer
 * Evil Counterpart: Many evil cleric spells are evil counterparts to good cleric spells. In addition, evil clerics' ability to channel negative energy to cast inflict spells or rebuke and command undead is the evil counterpart to good clerics' ability to channel positive energy to cast cure spells or turn and destroy undead.
 * Healing Hands
 * Holy Hand Grenade
 * Technical Pacifist: In the first two editions, clerics cannot cause bloodshed, and thus cannot use slashing or piercing weapons. Apparently, bludgeoning people to death with a big, heavy mace is just fine, though.
 * Turn Undead: Though in the third edition, this applies only to good clerics and ones who are neutral but channel Positive Energy
 * Evil Clerics get to control the undead instead -- but be careful when trying to tame more powerful spirits.
 * Warrior Monk
 * Good Shepherd/Sinister Minister: Or neither, depending on the cleric's alignment.
 * White Magic and/or Black Magic: also depending on alignment, but traditionally leaning toward White Magic because of their support role.

Druid
Class Handbook: Gleemax 4E version, Gleemax 3.5 version Brilliant Gameologists 3.5 version.


 * The Beast Master
 * Character Alignment: Lawful Good, Lawful Evil, Chaotic Good, and Chaotic Evil are prohibited to 3rd Edition Druids, as they must on some level mirror the indifference of nature regarding moral and ethical standards.
 * Druid: Well, duh.
 * Healing Hands
 * Nature Hero: To the extreme.
 * Speaks Fluent Animal
 * Squishy Wizard: Only in 1st Edition, where they had similar armor restrictions to wizards.
 * The Red Mage: Druids fall outside the dichotomy of white-magic clerics and black-magic wizards, with both healing and damaging spells regardless of alignment.
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting

Fighter / Fighting Man

 * Badass Normal
 * Charles Atlas Superpower
 * Mighty Glacier: Although they do not have to be played this way, Fighters can equip the heavy class of armor, and are the only core class capable of properly wielding a tower shield (at least by default).
 * Weapon of Choice: Fighters gain an ability called "Weapon Specialization", which gives them bonuses when they use their chosen weapon.

Illusionist
Originally a sub-class distinct from the magic-user class and with its own spell list (though there was overlap). Became "merely" one type of specialist wizard among several others as early as AD&D 2nd edition.


 * Master of Illusion
 * Spiritual Successor: The Beguiler in 3.5.
 * Squishy Wizard

Monk

 * All Monks Know Kung Fu
 * Arrow Catch
 * Awesome but Impractical: Regardless of its flaws, not many other classes can literally punch out Cthuhlu.
 * Bare-Fisted Monk: Duh to the twentieth power.
 * Character Alignment: Lawful Good, Lawful Neutral, Lawful Evil: In 3.x all monks must be of a lawful alignment, due to the fact that being a monk requires a very high degree of discipline and self-control.
 * Charles Atlas Superpower: Most of the monk's abilities are not magical in nature, but merely stem from years of training. Including the ability to do lethal damage with their fists, the only Core class that can do so without taking a feat.
 * Flash Step: Abundant Step.
 * Fragile Speedster: Even if you happen to roll 18 for all your ability scores, monks will never get as strong or as tough as the true fighting classes, with their naturally high AC and movement speed bonuses being their main boons.
 * Lightning Bruiser: In any combat situation where characters have no armour, weapons, magic items, or magic.
 * Invulnerable Knuckles: Said knuckles count as magic weapons for the purpose of piercing magic defenses. This also has the side-effect of letting a Monk punch ghosts.
 * Healing Factor
 * In a Single Bound: Leap of the Clouds.
 * Ki Attacks: 3rd Edition describes many Monk abilities as being quasi-spiritual.
 * Master of None: Have a lot of "flavour" abilities with no value, like the ability to partially slow your fall by using nearby walls (most wizards can completely slow all falls, period, with a level 1 spell). Most of its abilities are contrary, as well: The monk has a lot of mobility-enhancing powers that would lead to hit-and-run attacks... But Flurry of Blows only work when the monk stands still.
 * The Paralyzer: Stunning Fist.
 * Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Flurry of Blows.
 * Touch of Death: Quivering Palm.
 * Became a Useless Useful Spell in 3.5 when it could no longer affect targets of higher Hit Die than the monk. Most mooks at the level you gain it have more Hit Die than player characters, nevermind targets you'd actually feel like expending it on.
 * It doesn't have to be instant-death, either; the monk is able to simply will the target to die at any time for at least a week after landing the attack (depending on the monk's Wisdom and level), and if the target fails a Fortitude save, they drop dead. Paranoia Fuel and extortion ahoy!
 * What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Monks have tons of filler abilities that are easily replicated by cheap, common, magic items (What good is limited access to slow fall over 20 levels if a Ring of Slowfall is dirt cheap and easily afforded by the time you start getting the basics of the ability and does more than it ever will?).

Paladin

 * Combat Medic
 * Cool Mount: The paladin's warhorse Mount, gained upon reaching level 4. Not only is it tougher than a standard warhorse Mount, it shares an empathetic bond with the paladin and levels up as he/she does.
 * Detect Evil: One of the paladin's abilities duplicates the effect of the cleric spell of the same name, which is the Trope Namer.
 * Evil Counterpart: The Blackguard prestige class.
 * Healing Hands
 * Holy Hand Grenade
 * Jackass Genie: Some DMs in regards to the Paladin Code.
 * Knight in Shining Armor
 * Magic Knight
 * Right Makes Might: A paladin's powers are tied directly to his alignment; if he strays from the path of righteousness, he loses all his special abilities.
 * Warrior Monk
 * White Magic

Ranger

 * The Archer: One of two specialization options.
 * The Beast Master: Not to quite the same extent as a Druid, though.
 * Bow and Sword in Accord
 * Dual-Wielding: Somewhat mutually exclusive with archery proficiency, though.
 * Forest Ranger: Natch.
 * The Hunter
 * Nature Hero
 * Speaks Fluent Animal

Rogue / Thief

 * Back Stab: Sneak Attack!
 * Badass Normal
 * Combat Pragmatist: Being the only core non-spellcaster with Use Magic Device as a class skill (the skill governing use of magic items like scrolls and wands) gives one a lot of options.
 * Loveable Rogue
 * Master of Unlocking
 * One Stat to Rule Them All: Dexterity, big time.
 * Stealth Expert
 * Trap Master: Only rogues are allowed to have any chance of successfully disarming exceptionally difficult traps.

Sorcerer

 * Empathy Pet: In the form of...
 * Familiars
 * Glass Cannon: Like wizards, sorcerers can dish out huge amounts of damage with their spells, but their d4 Hit Dice means that they won't have many Hit Points.
 * In the Blood: A sorcerer's powers are innate, as opposed to wizards, who require years of study to learn their magic.
 * Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards
 * Puberty Superpower
 * Ryu and Ken: With Wizards.
 * Squishy Wizard
 * Not That Kind of Mage: Once again, with wizards.
 * Magic Missile
 * Vancian Magic: Of a different sort than wizards and most other spellcasting classes. Rather than being required to prepare spells in advance, sorcerors can spontaneously cast any spell they know, and are allowed to cast only a given number of spells per day (sorcerors also get to cast more spells per day than wizards). On the other hand, sorcerors are only allowed to know a limited number of spells, period. This gives sorcerors great flexibility to adapt their plans on the fly (in contrast to wizards, who are screwed if they go up against something they didn't prepare for ahead of time), but less flexibility in terms of the total range of situations that they can tackle.
 * White Magic and/or Black Magic: depending on alignment

Wizard / Magic-User / Mage

 * Achilles' Heel: Wizards cannot prepare spells without their spellbooks. Very sadistic GMs wanting to equalize the sorcerer/wizard gap are known to exploit this fact.
 * Badass Bookworm: Wizards study dusty old tomes for years to gain the ability to blow stuff up with a flick of the hand.
 * Crazy Prepared: The 2nd and 3rd/3.5 edition wizard was best played with this mindset. Without the cleric's access to all spells each level, wizards must carefully shop for scrolls and prepare the 'right' ones each day.
 * Creator's Pet: The 3rd edition creators, rather infamously, hated the idea of Sorcerer and made sure Wizards were better at every turn.
 * Empathy Pet: Familiars.
 * Familiar
 * Glass Cannon: See Squishy Wizard for clarification.
 * Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards
 * Magic Missile: One of the earliest spells a wizard learns, and one of the most useful.
 * Not That Kind of Mage
 * Ryu and Ken: With Sorcerers.
 * Spell Book: A wizard's spellbook carries notes on the spells that they've studied and learned.
 * The Smart Guy: The only core class whose most important stat is Intelligence.
 * Squishy Wizard: Had d4 hit dice in the 2nd and 3rd editions. That's between 1-4 hit points per level!
 * Vancian Magic: Played completely straight.
 * White Magic and/or Black Magic: Depending on alignment.

Archivist
Introduced in Heroes of Horror.


 * Badass Bookworm: Archivists add spells to their prayerbook from divine scrolls, and can learn any divine spell in the game, giving them the most versatile spell list around.
 * Recycled In Religion: They're essentially Divine Wizards.
 * Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: The flavor of their "Dark Knowledge" feature, though it has no actual mechanical detriment.

Ardent
Introduced in Complete Psionic.


 * Psychic Powers

Artificer
Introduced in the Eberron Campaign Setting.


 * Clothes Make the Superman: Artificers cast spells indirectly by enchanting equipment. In other words, they can't fly, but their boots just suddenly sprouted little wings.
 * Crazy Prepared: Being only as good as the stuff they carry, experienced artificer players will have whole manifests of stuff they have in their interdemensional storage spaces. And if they don't have the exact right thing, their Infusions (at higher levels) can make a stick into a Holy Orc-bane Stick of Impact.
 * Difficult but Awesome: Artificers require a massive amount of bookkeeping -- keeping track of all of their magical items, how much XP was lost in creating all of them, how many charges each magical weapon has, how many Action Points they have at any given time -- but when pulled off, they are awesomely powerful.
 * Gadgeteer Genius: For that player who wants to craft their own equipment.
 * Science Hero

Battle Dancer
Introduced in Dragon #159, updated for 3.5e in the Dragon Compendium.


 * Dance Battler: If the name didn't already tip you off...
 * Invulnerable Knuckles
 * Lightning Bruiser: Not quite to the same degree as a Monk, but they're still pretty fast compared to most classes.
 * Walking on Water: Battle Dancers gain the ability to do this over limited distances.

Beguiler
Introduced in Player's Handbook II (3.5e).


 * Charm Person: One of the most important spells a beginning beguiler has.
 * Expy: Borrows the Warmage's system of casting, but for illusion and mind-control spells instead of blasting.
 * Guile Hero: More or less a quintessential one.
 * Magic Knight: Magic Rogue, more like.
 * Invisibility: A popular spell for them.
 * Stealth Expert

Binder
Introduced in Tome of Magic.


 * Ars Goetia: Many of the Vestiges that Binders make pacts with are based off of demons from the Ars Goetia.
 * Continuity Nod: Some of the Vestiges are based off of characters from events in previous editions of D&D that, due to how they died or were destroyed, have slipped outside of the normal order of existence.
 * Deal with the Devil: While there are plenty of innocent or neutral vestiges, the whole process is considered unnatural. In the default setting, expect at least three Law-aligned deities demanding your head on a plate at any given time.
 * The WOTC message boards used to have an epic thread of fan-made vestiges. Many of these were also pop-culture icons, for those players who want to channel Ghost Rider or Homsar.
 * Red Right Hand: Shows up when channelling -- sometimes it is a literal deformity, other times it is a personality quirk like being unable to lie.
 * Willing Channeler: The whole premise of the class, really.

Crusader
Introduced in Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords.


 * Arrogant Kung Fu Paladin: Pretty common; the class is essentially a Paladin 2.0 with the Tome Of Battle rules, and renowned for being so.
 * Kung Fu Jesus: They use divinely inspired martial arts to fight. Inspiration is represented by the DM offering them 3 random cards a turn, each card corresponding to a maneuver.
 * Made of Iron: Damage taken can be delayed up to one round, and the Crusader can heal that damage before it happens (or use the Stone Power feat to negate it outright).
 * Mighty Glacier: It's the only class in the Book of Nine Swords that is proficient with Heavy Armor. The class also has a strong focus on Hit Points (though not receiving as many as the Warblade), and is very hard to actually kill if played properly.
 * Obvious Beta: In hindsight, anyway. Wizards of the Coast has confirmed that they were testing gameplay mechanics for fourth edition with this and the other classes in Tome of Battle. It's more obvious here than with earlier classes like the Warlock (see below).

Death Master
Introduced in Dragon #76, updated for 3.5e in the Dragon Compendium.


 * Bad Powers, Bad People: Death Masters must be evil.
 * Spell Book

Divine Mind
Introduced in Complete Psionic.


 * Psychic Powers: From God(s).

Dragon Shaman
Introduced in Player's Handbook II (3.5e).


 * Breath Weapon: The "Dragon" part of the name...
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience: Dragon Shamans must choose a type of dragon as their totem and must adhere close to that type of dragon's alignment.
 * Status Buff: The "shaman" part of the class manifests in part through its auras. It works in a way similar to the Marshal, but with a smaller area and more overtly magical.

Dragonfire Adept
Introduced in Dragon Magic.


 * Breath Weapon: While other characters can pick one up through spells, feats, items, and class features down the line, the Dragonfire Adept is the only class that gets a breath weapon at level 1.
 * Expy: Uses the same casting system as the Warlock.
 * Full-Contact Magic: Compared to other Arcane Users. Not supremely strong, but certainly tougher than others.
 * Squishy Wizard: Averted.

Dread Necromancer
Introduced in Heroes of Horror.


 * Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Dread Necros have a limited spell list, drawn nearly exclusively from the Necromancy school.
 * Expy: Borrows the Warmage's system of casting, but for necromancy spells instead of blasting.
 * Healing Hands: Can expel negative energy at a touch. Infinite healing for any undead (or rare living being healed by negative energy), including themself with the right options.
 * One Stat to Rule Them All: Charisma powers everything the Dread Necro needs to do.
 * Soul Jar: The Dread Necro's level 20 class feature is an automatic transformation into a Lich, complete with the obligatory Phylactery. They even get Craft Wondrous Item as a bonus feat to construct the phylactery, in case they didn't already have it.
 * Squishy Wizard: While only slightly less squishy than normal casters in theory, their infinite healing makes them fairly tankish at times. (For comparison, even the Monk's Healing Factor is limited to twice the Monk's class level per day.)
 * Useless Item: WotC CustServ has infamously claimed one of their class features does absolutely nothing beyond give them a box. This is one of the more frequently cited reasons why no one uses CustServ rulings.

Duskblade
Introduced in Player's Handbook II.


 * Magic Knight: The best single non-Prestige class example.

Eidolon
Introduced in Ghostwalk.

(Needs entries)

Eidoloncer
Introduced in Ghostwalk.

(Needs entries)

Erudite
Introduced in Complete Psionic.


 * All Your Powers Combined: Unlike standard Psions, Erudites can learn powers from all six psionic disciplines.
 * Psychic Powers
 * Secret Character: The Erudite was hidden away in one of the last pages of Complete Psionic, segregated from the other three classes introduced in that splatbook. Consequently, a fair number of people don't even know it exists.
 * It was actually a Dragon Magazine-exclusive before it was printed in Complete Psionic. The class was originally slated for the Expanded Psionics Handbook, but was cut for space.

Factotum
Introduced in the book Dungeonscape.


 * Genius Bruiser: A Factotum can supplement an attack or damage roll with their Intelligence modifier, but only a limited number of times per encounter. Also, they gain the ability to constantly apply their Intelligence modifier to Strength and Dexterity-based checks.
 * Lightning Bruiser: Action Initiative is done with a Dexterity check...
 * Healing Hands: A Factotum can eventually do this.
 * Jack of All Stats: This is what a Factotum is made to be.
 * Iaijutsu Practitioner: One of the more popular builds for the class exploits this.
 * One Stat to Rule Them All: Intelligence. Definitely Intelligence.
 * Revive Kills Zombie: Possible using the above-noted Healing Hands.
 * Turn Undead: A Factotum gets this ability. Rebuking doesn't work for a Factotum though, even an evil one.

Favored Soul
Introduced in the Miniatures Handbook, and introduced again in Complete Divine.


 * Power Gives You Wings
 * Recycled In Religion: The Favored Soul is the Divine counterpart to the Sorcerer.
 * The Chosen One: Your deity talks to you directly. Don't expect much vacation time.

Healer
Introduced in the Miniatures Handbook.


 * Expy: The most common first step in fixing the class among fans is to make it one of the Warmage expies (why it isn't one in the first place, when they debut in the same book, is not understood).
 * Healing Hands
 * Revive Kills Zombie: Without Sanctified Spells, this is probably the only reasonable way a Healer can fight until they get their Celestial Unicorn companion.
 * Unicorn: The base companion for a Healer is a Celestial Unicorn (as mentioned above).
 * Virgin Power: Averted; there is nothing in the rules saying a Healer has to be a virgin to keep their Celestial Unicorn companion.
 * White Magic: The class specializes in healing spells.

Hexblade
Introduced in Complete Warrior.


 * Magic Knight

Incarnate
Introduced in Magic of Incarnum.


 * Difficult but Awesome: Once you've learned how to play the class, you are nearly on-par with a Factotum.
 * Incarnates are capable of utilizing defenses that are normally reserved for spellcasters/manifesters, and are numerically capable of covering any of the four standard roles. Whats more, an Incarnate can change his entire build within 9 hours' time.
 * Guide Dang It: The Incarnate was introduced in a book that wears the title of Most Confusing Splat EVER. Very few people have the know-how to play the class, even on the most popular forums like GiantITP.
 * Made of Iron: Thanks to having a huge amount of defenses and being focused nigh-exclusively on Constitution, an Incarnate is very durable. Only the Totemist and Crusader (and, to a lesser extent, the Barbarian) are comparable out of the non-casters.

Jester
Introduced in Dragon #60, updated for 3.5e in the Dragon Compendium.


 * Joke Character/Lethal Joke Character: All in the title.

Knight
Introduced in Player's Handbook II (3.5e).


 * Determinator: A knight can continue to fight, even when they should be dead. Even when they ARE dead.
 * Duel Boss
 * Knight in Shining Armor
 * Mighty Glacier: The class's main purpose is to call out enemies in single combat to keep them away from your allies. As a result, the Knight has very high Hit Points (but for some reason, a poor Fortitude save). Notable for being actually being semi-effective at it, as they have abilities to prevent enemies from just targeting others.

Lurk
Introduced in Complete Psionic.


 * Badass Abnormal: Essentially a Rogue with psionic powers up their sleeves.
 * Overshadowed by Awesome: Lurk is an OK class, but since the Psionic Rogue published on the official website for free already did what it was aiming for better and Complete Psionic is disliked by the people who would be inclined to play a psionic class, Lurk is largely ignored.
 * Psychic Powers
 * Stealth Expert

Marshal
Introduced in the Miniatures Handbook.


 * Status Buff: The class's main specialty is its auras, a means of buffing one's allies just by being there.
 * The Strategist: What this class is supposed to be.

Mountebank
Idea suggested in Dragon #65, introduced in the Dragon Compendium.


 * Back Stab: Of a sort. A Mountebank's Deceptive Attack deals bonus damage against opponents whom they successfully feint against OR whom they have beguiled or otherwise lulled into a false sense of security.
 * Deal with the Devil: The literal, sell-thy-soul-for-power kind. Not even a minion either, but a bonafide demon prince or a Duke of Hell.
 * Greed: Whether for power, wealth, or the grim satisfaction of watching the world burn, Mountebanks tend to be big on the greed.
 * Hypnotic Eyes: One of the class' earliest abilities, which naturally works rather well with their Deceptive Attack feature.
 * Manipulative Bastard: The class' modus operandi when there's no fighting going on.
 * Your Soul Is Mine: Regardless of your quality of service, at level 20, your infernal patron gets impatient and comes to collect his payment.

Ninja
Introduced in Complete Adventurer.


 * Nerf: It's like a neutered Rogue. Even with the ability to become invisible, it's not that powerful.
 * Ninja: The name says it all, folks!
 * Stealth Expert

Psion / Psionicist

 * And I Must Scream: Psionic powers can be nasty.
 * Back from the Dead: There are a couple of ways to go at it, some more complicated than others.
 * Mana: Called Power Points, but function as a mana meter, in contrast to normal Vancian Magic casters.
 * Mind Rape: In several delicious flavours. Injecting an enemy's mind with a second, simultaneously-functioning personality that hates them is only one example.
 * Psychic-Assisted Suicide: A normal Charm Person spell specifically cannot do this. A Psion can develop a power that specifically can.
 * Psychic Powers: See the name.
 * Your Head Asplode: Kind of expected...
 * Decerebrate is not quite this, but comes close. You teleport part of the target's brain out of his head.

Psychic Rogue
Introduced in the Wizards of the Coast's Mind's Eye articles.


 * Back Stab: Much like their nonpsionic cousin class, Sneak Attacks are part of the deal. Psychic Rogues get a slower bonus damage progression, but can potentially reinforce them with psychic power.
 * Loveable Rogue
 * Master of Unlocking
 * Psychic Powers: It's in the name.
 * Stealth Expert

Psychic Warrior

 * Empathic Healer: Can donate their hit points to their teammates, and later learns to drain enemies for quick healing.
 * Magic Knight: The psionic version thereof.
 * Poor Predictable Rock: Averted: Most of their attack spells do acid damage, but very few stock creatures resist acid and the ones that do tend to be obvious (breathing or being made of acid).
 * Psychic Powers

Samurai
Introduced in Oriental Adventures (3.0), revised and reintroduced in Complete Warrior (3.5).


 * Dual-Wielding: As a class ability, they receive Two Weapon Fighting as a bonus feat, but it only applies when using a daisho.
 * Lawful Stupid: The initial 3.0 version, unbearably so...

Savant
Introduced in Dragon #140, updated for 3.5e in the Dragon Compendium. Notably, it is the only one classes from that book to be entirely original rather than a variant of an existing class.


 * Master of None
 * Overshadowed by Awesome: Essentially a worse, more clumbersome, Factotum.

Scout
Introduced in Complete Adventurer.


 * Fragile Speedster
 * Kiting: The class's specialty.
 * Stealth Expert: Not to the same extent as the Rogue, since its Skirmish ability doesn't rely on surprise like a Rogue's Sneak Attack, but Scouts are still good at remaining unseen.
 * Took a Level in Badass: The Swift Hunter feat turns this class and the Ranger into a solid Tier 3 build. It's also possible to combine Swift Hunter with Cleric spellcasting, making it even better.

Shadowcaster
Introduced in Tome of Magic.


 * Dark Is Not Evil: Shadowcasters are not inclined toward evil any more than other classes.
 * Magic A Is Magic A: Many Shadowcaster spells are technically spell-like abilities or supernatural innate powers, causing many a Rules Lawyer to Squee with delight.

Sha'ir
Introduced in the Al-Qadim setting for 2nd Edition, updated to 3.5e in Dragon #315 and reintroduced in the Dragon Compendium.

(Needs entries)

Shaman
Introduced in Oriental Adventures.


 * Evil Counterpart: Similar situation to Clerics.
 * Invulnerable Knuckles
 * I See Dead People: Shamans gain the ability to see ethereal creatures, such as ghosts that are not currently manifesting in the Material Plane (a manifested ghost would be visible to everyone). To a Shaman, ethereal creatures are visible, but appear translucent and somewhat indistinct.
 * The Beast Master: Shamans get up to two animal companions (with a total Hit Dice limit), and can easily charm other animals into helping out in a pinch.
 * Turn Undead
 * White Magic and/or Black Magic: Much like Clerics in this regard.

Shugenja
Introduced in Oriental Adventures, reintroduced in Complete Divine.


 * Elemental Powers: Its spell list consists of Cleric and Wizard spells re-flavored as elemental spells.
 * Shock and Awe: One of their notable features compared to other divine casters is their ability to get Lightning Bolt as a divine spell, qualifying them for the Hexer prestige class. Since that was intended to boost the NPC class adept to boss level threat, its quite potent on them.
 * Squishy Wizard: Since the 3.0 version was for Rokugan, where Shugenja wearing armor was socially unacceptable, they have no armor proficiencies despite the lack of penalties for armored divine casters. It unfortunately retains that limitation even when stripped of the setting specific flavor in its 3.5 update.

Sohei
Introduced in Oriental Adventures.


 * Unstoppable Rage

Soulborn
Introduced in Magic of Incarnum.


 * Holy Warrior: What the class is billed as.

Soulknife

 * Laser Blade: The Soulknife's signature weapon is his Mind Blade, a glowing sword formed from psychic energy.
 * Throwing Your Sword Always Works: "Throw Mind Blade" is a class feature gained at later levels, and the Soulknives default option for ranged combat.

Spellthief
Introduced in Complete Adventurer.


 * Anti-Magic: Spellthieves have a natural spell resistance to offset the inherent danger of their profession. At higher levels, they are absorbing fireballs like some sort of fire sponge.
 * Impossible Thief: Specializes in stealing units of Vancian Magic from spellcasters. Later branches out to stealing innate spell-like abilities and elemental resistances from monsters.
 * Stealth Expert

Spirit Shaman
Introduced in Complete Divine.


 * Ascended Extra: While the class remains very obscure, its unusual spellcasting method became the standard for prepared casters in Fifth Edition.
 * Difficult but Awesome: About as good as you'd expect a Spontaneous Druid to be, minus the Wildshape and Animal Companion. Still relatively good, and is the only Spontaneous Caster capable of completely rewriting its own spell list every 24 hours.
 * Nature Hero

Swashbuckler
Introduced in Complete Adventurer.


 * Genius Bruiser: Swashbucklers can apply their Intelligence to their damage when using certain weapons, but only when unburdened.

Swordsage
Introduced in Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords.


 * Arrogant Kung Fu Guy: Pretty common amongst swordsages.
 * Plays like a Monk, but with AWESOME mixed in for good measure.

Totemist
Introduced in Magic of Incarnum.


 * Badass: The only class in the game capable of keeping up with Polymorph in terms of sheer power, but is balanced by comparison. Seriously, name a class capable of grappling a Great Wyrm Gold Dragon without using spells.
 * Difficult but Awesome: As with everything Incarnum-related, this class takes a lot of effort to learn. Thankfully, the payout is worth-while.
 * Gaia's Vengeance: Basically a Druid that focuses on Magical Beasts and can't cast spells.
 * Made of Iron: Almost better than the Incarnate thanks to a Soulmeld or two.
 * X Meets Y: Basically a Druid's Wildshape mixed with the Incarnate's Meldshaping.

Truenamer
Introduced in Tome of Magic.


 * Game Breaking Bug: Due to the way Truenaming checks scale compared to levels (the DC of the checks scales twice as fast as a character can acquire ranks in the skill), the Truenamer gets worse as it levels up, until it hits around level 19 and can Gate in Solars, which can Gate in Solars, which can Gate in Solars.... It also has key information missing for an entire set of class features in initial printings.

Urban Druid
Introduced in Dragon #317, reintroduced in the Dragon Compendium.

(Needs entries)

Warblade
Introduced in Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords.


 * Badass Normal: Lack any real supernatural abilities by default, but fairly useful despite this.
 * Blood Knight: According to fluff text, warblades really love fighting.
 * Calling Your Attacks: Not technically part of the mechanics, but almost inevitable when playing with the Tome of Battle maneuver system.
 * Genius Bruiser: Most of the class features apply your Intelligence score to different combat tactics.

Warlock
Introduced in Complete Arcane. Unlike most non-core classes, support for it appeared in most subsequent books.


 * Ascended Extra: The one non-core base class to appear in Neverwinter Nights 2 without mods or expansions, and managed to make the core for both Fourth Edition and Fifth Edition.
 * Dark Is Not Evil: A Warlock does not have to be evil (they can be chaotic instead), despite often getting their powers from fiendish sources.
 * Magic Knight: The Glaivelock build.
 * Not That Kind of Mage: With sorcerers and wizards.

Warmage
Introduced in the Miniatures Handbook, and introduced again in Complete Arcane.


 * Fireballs: Blasting things is their intended purpose. Blasting isn't very good in 3.5 though.
 * Lethal Joke Character: Any ability that improves their spell list turns them into this.
 * Poor Predictable Rock: An arcane caster with only damaging spells, lacking in debuffs, buffs, and utilities. Unless you have large hordes of easily disposable cannon fodder Zerg Rush you, the Warmage's utility is fairly limited.

Wilder

 * The Berserker: In psionic format, no less.
 * Psychic Powers
 * Puberty Superpower
 * Tim Taylor Telekinesis: A Wilder can put MORE POWER into their psychic... powers... by adding more power points, but doing this too much or too often can have consequences.

Wu Jen
Introduced in Oriental Adventures, updated for 3.5e in Complete Arcane.


 * Elemental Powers: Each Wu Jen specializes in one particular element. The choices are: Earth, Fire, Metal, Water, and Wood.
 * Weaksauce Weakness: Each Wu Jen selects various taboos they must keep to avoid losing power for the rest of the day. Most of the suggested taboos only cover their own conduct, but some are exploitable if an enemy knows that they can't touch dead bodies.

3.0 & 3.5 Edition Prestige Classes
(Needs Entries)

Alienist
A Prestige Class introduced in Complete Arcane. The Alienist is a spellcaster who summons things from beyond and deals with things man was not meant to know.


 * Body Horror: Alienists tend to grow eyes, tentacles, or mouths where there previously were none. Any Familiar the alienist has develops them first.
 * Eldritch Abomination: You get to summon minor ones. You also need to meet one first to qualify to become an Alienist.
 * Humanoid Abomination: Eventually, Alienists become this.
 * Insanity Immunity: You might want to hold off reading their minds, too.
 * Power Born of Madness: Alienists gain an insanity score which equals half their class level. This score is detracted from their Wisdom attribute (meaning they may not be hearing or seeing the things normal folk do), but added to their Intelligence attribute for additional spells. Once or twice per day, they can pull off crazy stuff because of their insanity.
 * Summon Magic/Enemy Summoner: Now with added tentacles!
 * Squishy Wizard: As with most spellcasters, Alienists aren't that hardy (barring creative use of the half-Farspawn template), but gain a measure of Damage Reduction, energy resistances, and immunity to some Standard Status Effects.
 * Tier-Induced Scrappy: as written in Complete Arcane, the Alienist appears to be a wizard who specialises in summoning otherwordly things from beyond stars. However, they lose the ability to summon anything which cannot be made into a pseudonatural creature, such as demons or angels. This means that at later levels, they have a much smaller pool of creatures they could potentially summon than any other wizard of the same level. As a result, people are either recommended to not use the class, to adapt the class itself or to create an alternative monster pool from which they could chose summons.

Arcane Archer
A prestige class from the Dungeon Master's Guide. This is an elf-specific class that mixes spellcasting with bow-wielding skill.

(Needs entries)

Arcane Trickster
A prestige class from Tome and Blood, updated to 3.5 in that version's Dungeon Master's Guide. This class mixes spellcasting ability with trickery akin to that of the Rogue class.


 * Ascended Extra: Originally created for the supplement Tome and Blood, it became one of the core prestige classes in 3.5, and a core rogue "Roguish Archetype" in Fifth Edition.

Archmage
A prestige class from the Dungeon Master's Guide. Archmagi delve deeply into the workings of magic, learning to eke out more abilities from their spells.

(Needs entries)

Assassin
(See the Assassin entry in the "1st through 3rd Edition Core Classes" folder)

Blackguard
A prestige class from the Dungeon Master's Guide. Blackguards are evil divine warriors much in the way that Paladins are good ones.


 * Evil Counterpart: To Paladin.

Frenzied Berserker

 * Berserk Button: Taking damage has a chance of triggering the character's frenzy.
 * The Berserker: to the point where once he runs out of enemies, she starts attacking the rest of the party.
 * Unstoppable Rage: Steps up the barbarian rage required to take the class in the first place. While frenzying, the frenzied berserker can't died of hit point damage.

Gray Guard
""How're we supposed to see the pally comin' when 'e wears armor blacker than ours?”"

- Griv "Goblin Father" Chos, unfortunate cultist guard

A prestige class from Complete Scoundrel. These are paladins who fight dirty and can smite virtually anything.
 * Good Is Not Nice: These are experienced paladins who combat evil by whatever means necessary. The illustration shows a gray guard strangling a necromancer with his bare hands in a scene that looks like it's referencing Darth Vader in A New Hope.
 * Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Debilitating Touch lets you use Lay on Hands to cause pain, and the entry suggests use in interrogation.
 * Knight in Sour Armor: Almost a class requirement.
 * Lawful Good: Class requirement. Violating the code of conduct costs them their powers, but doing so in service to the faith negates the experience requirement of an atonement spell.
 * The Paladin: The vast majority of entries are paladins (it requires class features that, among the Player's Handbook classes, only paladins have).

Sunmaster
A prestige class from Lost Empires of Faerûn. Sunmasters claim the 3E sun god Lathander is really the ancient Netherese sun god Amaunator. 4E reveals they were right. They have great powers over light.
 * Blinded by the Light: Defied: the 2nd level ability grants an immunity to being blinded or dazed by light effects.
 * Glowing Eyes of Doom: Starting at second level, their eyes glow orange, and they can shoot beams of light from them.
 * Law Versus Chaos: Strongly on the law side. Amaunator was viewed as a deity who brings order to the world.
 * Light Is Not Good: Potentially. Lawful Evil is an allowed alignment.
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting: 10th level sunmasters can turn into an Energy Being similar to a miniature sun once a day.

3.5 Edition NPC Classes
Not everybody can be a hero. These classes are for background characters and Mooks, although you can play them too if you are feeling masochistic (or are using the right crazy build).

Adept

 * Lethal Joke Character: Typically rather high on Character Tiers lists, as their spell list has some surprisingly useful gems despite its shallowness.
 * We are not kidding when we say it's a higher tier than the Samurai.
 * Religion Is Magic: Less magical than a Cleric, but magic nonetheless.
 * Squishy Wizard: These are normal, average-joe ministers, not badass warrior-priests.

Aristocrat

 * Royals Who Actually Do Something: The inexplicable armor and weapon proficiencies would suggest this.

Commoner

 * Lethal Joke Character: The "Chicken Infested" joke "flaw" lets them produce infinite chickens. Due to its lack of everything, its common to use the class to showcase absurd things that can be achieved with feats, skills and items alone.
 * Muggles: A Commoner is about as weak as a class can get without already being dead. Few hit points, skills more suited for menial labor than adventuring, and no unique abilities whatsoever.
 * This Loser Is You: Averted. The Dungeon Master's Guide is very clear on the fact that the NPC classes are not suitable for player characters, on the basis of their laughable weakness.

Expert

 * Iaijutsu Practitioner: While not as good as the Factotum at it by virtue of no other abilities, an Expert is also able to exploit their "any 10" class skills with this.
 * Lethal Joke Character
 * Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: The D&D class version. Experts are generic classes that are allowed to have whatever skills the Game Master wants, letting the same class represent any profession.

Magewright
An NPC class integral to the setting of Eberron.


 * Lethal Joke Character: While not to the extent of Adept, they can still overshadow some of the worse player classes, especially when using things that expand their spell list.
 * Fridge Logic: Magewrights were born from the question of who is manufacturing all these cheap magic items. See, there are these weak, common arcane spellcasters with only passive spells...

Warrior

 * Redshirt Army: This is the generic class given to untrained humanoid enemies like orcs and goblins (as well as common guards and foot soldiers), which allows them to handle a sword without actually giving them any distinguishing features. Good for a Zerg Rush and not much else.

Ardent
The ardent is a Psionic Leader from the Player's Handbook 3.


 * The Empath
 * Psychic Powers

Artificer
The artificer is an Arcane Leader from the Eberron Player's Guide.


 * Science Hero: In a way.
 * Sufficiently Analyzed Magic

Assassin
The assassin is a Shadow Striker from Dragon magazine.


 * Casting a Shadow
 * The Dark Arts
 * Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja
 * Master Poisoner
 * Tier-Induced Scrappy: Its striker feature fails at high levels.

Executioner (Assassin)
The executioner is a Martial and Shadow Striker sub-class of the assassin from Dragon magazine and Heroes of Shadow. It differs from the standard assassin by not having attack powers (except for certain weapons), instead using only basic attacks modified by powers and poisons.


 * Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja: The Way of the Ninja guild.

Avenger
The avenger is a Divine Striker from the Player's Handbook 2.


 * Badass Preacher
 * BFS
 * Church Militant
 * Holy Hand Grenade
 * The Hunter
 * Religious Bruiser (If not a Church Militant)
 * Warrior Monk

Barbarian
The barbarian is a Primal Striker from the Player's Handbook 2.


 * Animal Battle Aura
 * Barbarian Hero
 * The Berserker
 * Dual-Wielding
 * Magma Man: The "Stonefire Rager" paragon path.
 * Make Me Wanna Shout
 * Nature Hero
 * Throwing Your Sword Always Works (They have a feat that lets them do this)
 * Unstoppable Rage

Beserker (Barbarian)
A Martial/Primal Defender/Striker introduced in Heroes of the Feywild.
 * The Berserker: Well, duh.
 * The Mario: A reasonably good Defender, and a pretty decent striker.
 * Turns Red: When bloodied, the go into an...
 * Unstoppable Rage

Bard
The bard is an Arcane Leader from the Player's Handbook 2.


 * The Bard
 * Jack of All Stats
 * Magic Music
 * Make Me Wanna Shout
 * Musical Assassin
 * Music for Courage
 * The Power of Rock
 * Wandering Minstrel

Skald (Bard)
The skald is an Arcane and Martial Leader sub-class of the bard from Heroes of the Feywild.

Battlemind
The battlemind is a Psionic Defender from the Player's Handbook 3.


 * Chrome Champion
 * Made of Iron: And more literally than other examples.
 * Psychic Powers
 * Super Reflexes

Cleric
The cleric is a Divine Leader from the Player's Handbook.


 * Combat Medic
 * Frickin' Laser Beams: A cleric who chooses mostly ranged, radiant damage prayers is known as a "laser cleric".
 * Healing Hands
 * Holy Hand Grenade
 * Technical Pacifist: With the Pacifist Cleric feat, a cleric who damages a bloodied enemy becomes stunned. Using a non-damaging power that lowers defenses or creates vulnerability is fine.
 * Turn Undead
 * Warrior Monk

Warpriest (Cleric)
The warpriest is a Divine Leader sub-class of the cleric from Heroes of the Fallen Lands. It differs from the standard cleric by having specific domains as class features.

Druid
The druid is a Primal Controller from the Player's Handbook 2.


 * Bee-Bee Gun
 * Nature Hero
 * Summon Magic
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting

Sentinel (Druid)
The sentinel is a Primal Leader sub-class of the druid from Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. It differs from the standard druid by being a melee weapon-user, and having an animal companion based on a season chosen as a class feature.


 * The Beast Master
 * Bond Creature

Protector (Druid)
A Primal Controller reminiscent of the Wizard. Introduced in Heroes of the Feywild.

Fighter
The fighter is a Martial Defender from the Player's Handbook.


 * Badass Normal
 * The Berserker: The Battlerager Fighter Build, from Martial Power
 * Charles Atlas Superpower
 * Combat Pragmatist: The Brawler Fighter Build, from Martial Power 2
 * Dual-Wielding: The Tempest Fighter Build, from Martial Power
 * Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The Guardian Fighter Build, from the Player's Handbook
 * Made of Iron
 * Weapon of Choice

Knight (Fighter)
The knight is a Martial Defender sub-class of the fighter from Heroes of the Fallen Lands. It differs from the standard fighter by not having attack powers, instead using only basic attacks modified by stances and powers.


 * Knight in Shining Armor
 * Simple Staff

Slayer (Fighter)
The knight is a Martial Striker sub-class of the fighter from Heroes of the Fallen Lands. It differs from the standard fighter by not having attack powers, instead using only basic attacks modified by stances and powers.


 * Simple Staff
 * Bow and Sword in Accord: Due to the slayer's use of basic attacks and high Dexterity, they can do this better than other fighters.

Invoker
The invoker is a Divine Controller from the Player's Handbook 2.


 * Bolt of Divine Retribution: Several powers have you calling these down on your opponents.
 * Divine Intervention
 * The Heretic: May be viewed as one for eschewing the church for a more direct connection to the deity.
 * Mission from God: And not the church, which is what separates Invokers from Clerics and Avengers.
 * Summon Magic

Monk
The monk is a Psionic Striker from the Player's Handbook 3.


 * Bare-Fisted Monk
 * Carry a Big Stick
 * Fragile Speedster
 * In a Single Bound
 * Invulnerable Knuckles
 * Psychic Powers
 * Simple Staff
 * Supernatural Martial Arts: Justified by the fact that they're psionic.
 * Warrior Monk: While the monk is not necessarily religious, Religion is a monk class skill, and training in it is a prerequisite for the Radiant Fist paragon path, which is particularly Divine.

Paladin
The paladin is a Divine Defender from the Player's Handbook.


 * Cool Horse
 * Combat Medic
 * Healing Hands
 * Holy Hand Grenade
 * Knight in Shining Armor
 * Magic Knight
 * Warrior Monk

Blackguard (Paladin)
The blackguard is a Divine (with some Shadow) Striker sub-class of the paladin from Heroes of Shadow. It is more similar to the cavalier, but chooses a vice instead of a virtue.


 * Dark Is Not Evil: It is actually possible to play a Good or Lawful Good Blackguard. Not very easily because your vice will often put you at odds with your alignment, but possible. Probably play up the zealousness aspect.
 * Actually, the way the rules are written, you can't.
 * Evil Counterpart

Cavalier (Paladin)
The cavalier is a Divine Defender sub-class of the paladin from Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. It differs from the standard paladin by having specific virtues as class features.

Psion
The psion is a Psionic Controller from the Player's Handbook 3.


 * Crystal Ball: One of the Implements they can use.
 * Simple Staff: One of the Implements they can use.
 * Mind Control
 * Psychic Powers
 * Squishy Wizard
 * Summon Magic
 * Mind Over Matter: Telekinetic Build.
 * Telepathy: Telepathic Build.

Ranger
The ranger is a Martial Striker from the Player's Handbook.


 * The Archer: The Archer Build.
 * Badass Normal
 * The Beast Master: The Beastmaster Build from Martial Power
 * Bow and Sword in Accord: The Hunter Build from Martial Power 2
 * Dual-Wielding: Two-Blade Build.
 * Forest Ranger
 * The Hunter
 * Nature Hero

Hunter (Ranger)
The hunter is a Martial and Primal Controller sub-class of the ranger from Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. It differs from the standard ranger by not having attack powers, instead using only basic attacks modified by powers.

Scout (Ranger)
The scout is a Martial and Primal Striker sub-class of the ranger from Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. It differs from the standard ranger by not having attack powers, instead using only basic attacks modified by powers.

Rogue
The rogue is also a Martial Striker from the Player's Handbook.


 * Back Stab
 * Badass Normal
 * Combat Pragmatist
 * Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja: Stealthy warriors that get automatic proficiency with shuriken.
 * Knife Nut
 * Loveable Rogue
 * Master of Unlocking
 * Master Poisoner: The Master Of Poisons paragon path.

Thief (Rogue)
The thief is a Martial Striker sub-class of the rogue from Heroes of the Fallen Lands. It differs from the standard rogue by not having attack powers, instead using only basic attacks modified by tricks and powers.

Runepriest
The runepriest is a Divine Leader from the Player's Handbook 3.


 * Drop the Hammer: "Wrathful Hammer" runepriests gain proficiency in military hammers and maces.
 * Instant Runes
 * Status Buff
 * Heroes Prefer Swords: The "Serene Blade" build.

Seeker
The seeker is a Primal Controller from the Player's Handbook 3.


 * The Archer
 * Nature Hero
 * Trick Arrow

Shaman
The shaman is a Primal Leader from the Player's Handbook 2.


 * Bond Creature
 * Nature Hero

Sorcerer
The sorcerer is an Arcane Striker from the Player's Handbook 2.


 * Breath Weapon: Many Dragon Magic powers are described as these.
 * Glass Cannon
 * In the Blood
 * Knife Nut: Can cast spells through daggers.
 * Magic Missile
 * Simple Staff
 * Squishy Wizard

Swordmage
The swordmage is an Arcane Defender from the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide.


 * Fire, Ice, Lightning: They have other powers as well, but these are their main go-to elements for damaging opponents.
 * Genius Bruiser: They require a high Intelligence stat to function, like most Arcane characters, but their combat role is based on mixing it up in the melee.
 * Magic Knight: Perhaps one of the purest examples of a "Gish" class to be made for D&D.
 * Teleport Spam: Not quite so adept at it as the Battlemind, but Swordmages get a lot of teleporting moves.
 * Weapon of Choice: Go on, guess.
 * Though, because their class is keyed off of using "Light Blade" class weapons and "Heavy Blade" class weapons, it's just as viable for a swordmage to be wielding a scythe, glaive or khopesh as it is for them to carry a dagger or sword.

Warden
The warden is a Primal Defender from the Player's Handbook 2.


 * Combat Tentacles
 * Gais Vengeance: Their class fluff actually explains they have been empowered by the Primal Spirits to defend nature.
 * Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me
 * Made of Iron
 * Nature Hero

Warlock
The warlock is an Arcane Striker from the Player's Handbook.


 * Dark Is Not Evil: Spelled out in the handbook.
 * The Dark Arts
 * Deal with the Devil
 * Lovecraftian Superpower
 * Magic Missile
 * Magic Wand
 * Star Power: Star Pact warlocks, who gain their powers by making a pact with an Eldritch Abomination that lives among the stars.

Hexblade (Warlock)
The hexblade is an Arcane Striker sub-class of the warlock from Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. It differs from the standard warlock by having a melee weapon granted by its eldritch pact, making it similar to Elric of Melnibone.


 * Evil Weapon: According to one of the pacts.
 * Infernal Pact gets the Blade of Annihlation, a BFS
 * Star Pact gets the Starshadow Blade, a reskinned Bastard Sword.
 * Gloom Pact Whips it good with the Scourge of Exquisite Agony.
 * Fey Pact gets two: Either the Sword of the White Well or the Blade of Winter's Mourning AKA the best weapon in the game.
 * Magic Knight
 * Summon Magic

Binder (Warlock)
The Binder is an Arcane and Shadow Controller Warlock subclass from Heroes of Shadow. It differs from normal Warlocks by being geared towards controlling the battle rather than dealing massive amounts of damage.


 * An Ice Person: At-will power slows opponents with cold.
 * Summon Magic

Warlord
The warlord is a Martial Leader from the Player's Handbook.


 * The Archer: Skirmishing Warlords, introduced in Martial Power 2.
 * Badass Normal
 * The Captain
 * Drill Sergeant Nasty
 * Genius Bruiser
 * The Strategist

Wizard
The wizard is an Arcane Controller from the Player's Handbook.


 * Crystal Ball: Orb of Imposition Features.
 * Glass Cannon
 * Magic Missile: One of The Level 1 At-Will Spells.
 * Magic Wand: Wand of Accuracy Features.
 * Not That Kind of Mage
 * Simple Staff: Staff of Defense Features.
 * The Smart Guy
 * Spell Book: Spellbook Features.
 * Squishy Wizard
 * Summon Magic

Mage (Wizard)
The mage is an Arcane Controller sub-class of the wizard from Heroes of the Fallen Lands. It differs from the standard wizard by having schools of magic as class features.


 * Casting a Shadow: The Nethermancer school from Heroes of Shadow.
 * Necromancer: The other school from Heroes of Shadow.
 * Playing with Fire: The Pyromancy School.

Witch (Wizard)
The witch is an Arcane Controller sub-class of the wizard from Heroes of the Feywild.

Vampire
Vampires. Obviously. A Shadow Striker class from Heroes Of Shadow.


 * Bare-Fisted Monk: Vampires are geared towards melee combat, and have literally no need to use weapons, as one at-will power (which doubles as a basic attack) does 1d10 damage at first level; this puts their basic damage on par with a fighter using a greatsword.
 * Blood Magic: The powers that cost them healing surges are flavoured as such.
 * Cast from Hit Points: Many of their powers become stronger if you sacrifice a healing surge.
 * Dark Is Not Evil
 * Healing Factor: The only class that heals itself automatically. This means that anything that doesn't instantly kill them will just make them angry.
 * Lethal Joke Character: Very weak in combat, dealing lower damage than even the Assassin. Also, Made of Iron.
 * Our Vampires Are Different: Close-combat experts that develop magical powers which put the original Dracula to shame.
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting: Into a bat.
 * Weakened by the Light