Class Guide

There are four character roles in D&D 4th edition and you can find their details on page 15 of the Player’s Handbook. I will break down each aspect of these roles and show how they apply to classes.

Aspects

Blaster: Excels at targeting multiple enemies with one attack.
Buffer: Excels at applying bonuses to ally rolls and stats.
Debuffer: Excels at applying penalties to enemy rolls and stats.
Enabler: Excels at triggering or increasing ally actions.
Healer: Excels at healing allies or reducing incoming damage.
Killer: Excels at high single-target damage.
Limiter: Excels at forcing or limiting enemy actions.
Mover: Excels at controlling enemy movement, either physically moving them or preventing them from moving.
Skirmisher: Excels at movement around the battlefield.
Supporter: Excels at out-of-combat utility.
Survivor: Excels at saves and has high defenses or health.

Roles

Controller: Most controllers have the Blaster and Mover aspects.
Defender: Most strikers have the Debuffer and Survivor aspects.
Leader: Most leaders have the Healer and Buffer aspects.
Striker: Most strikers have the Killer and Skirmisher aspects.

What class (and subclass) do I play?

Most classes are the best at one of the above aspects and excel at two others. So what sounds fun to you? Do you want to be the best Blaster there ever was? Do you want to just take hit after hit and never go down? If you want specific ideas, feel free to ask me. I will note which subclass is the best in the game for each aspect here. This will only give you a partial picture of the class designs.

For example, the Avenger is a killer who is the best skirmisher when it comes to tracking down a single target, but they’re not the best at either of those two individual aspects. What’s important is to identify the aspects you like and see if you can find a class that embodies them. In most cases, the better a class is at one aspect, the more it suffers in its other aspects. Ask me if you need help finding a class.

Best Blaster

The Dragon Magic Sorcerer (Player’s Handbook 2) is the best blaster. The sorcerer is always attacking multiple targets and is able to add a secondary static ability modifier to their attacks. So if they hit three enemies with an at-will blast, roll a 1 on the damage die, they could still easily do 30 damage.

Best Buffer

The Defiant Runepriest (Player’s Handbook 3) is the best buffer. They have the highest and most consistent bonuses to attack rolls, damage rolls, and defenses. They have poorer support than most classes though, so consider a Cleric or Warlord instead which are both excellent at this.

Best Debuffer

The Telepathic Psion (Player’s Handbook 3) and the Wizard (Player’s Handbook 1) are tied for this one. While the Psion has more immediately obvious and focused penalties (level 1 Dishearten is one of the best at-wills in the game), the Wizard has so many options that its impossible to count them out of the running for this. Some implements and their feats improve the wizard’s debuffing even further. Both are great at this.

Best Enabler

The Tactical Warlord (Player’s Handbook 1) is the best enabler. With their at-will, they can direct an ally to attack with a huge bonus. Many of their powers trigger free movement, minor actions, or attacks for allies.

Best Healer

The Devoted Cleric (Player’s Handbook 1) is the best healer. Healer’s Lore adds your primary modifier to all hit points that allies regain because of your powers. You heal allies a lot with your powers. Some of the powers are staggeringly good healing, like the Channel Divinity in Divine Power that lets you heal all bloodied allies near you.

Best Killer

The Archery Ranger (Player’s Handbook 1) is the best killer. What’s better than shooting one arrow? Shooting two arrows. Or three. Or four. When your damage feature requires you to hit and you’re really the only class that can roll multiple attacks at-will, it becomes clear why you’re the best. They also double as one of the best blasters in the game, excelling at choosing multiple creatures in range instead of something like a burst area on the map.

Best Limiter

The Telepathic Psion (Player’s Handbook 3) is the best limiter. Psionics are weird in that they have power points they spend to upgrade their at-will abilities into encounter-level abilities. At level 3, they can use this to move an enemy a number of squares based on their primary ability score and then make an attack with a bonus to the attack AND damage roll. The target is then DAZED afterwards. This is simply insane compared to every other limiter, and their powers only get better. You will daze as an afterthought, stun at-will, and dominate if you really feel like it.

Best Mover

The Telekinetic Psion (Player’s Handbook 3) is the best mover. Even if you only spend 1 power point, this Psion subclass’s at-wills can easily move an enemy 5+ squares in any direction you want. Except instead of using 2 encounter powers in a battle, you might end up using five. They also have one of the only abilities in the game that outright prevents a target from leaving a zone (no save).

Best Skirmisher

The Centered Breath Monk (Player’s Handbook 3) is the best skirmisher. However, Monks are kind of lame and not great so I will always recommend playing a Rogue instead since you can rely on their stealth and they have a huge array of available powers/builds. They’re a close second behind the monk for skirmishing.

Best Supporter

Any Wizard (Player’s Handbook 1) is the best supporter (followed closely by Druid if your DM is not a jerk about beast form). Their access to cantrips, early game rituals, and amazing utility powers makes them the most useful outside of combat for supporting the whole team. I mean who doesn’t want to mass teleport, mass fly, mass stop falling, mass invisibility, mass…

Best Survivor

The Virtuous Paladin (Divine Power) is the best survivor. Paladins start with very high defenses via plate armor and have built-in healing abilities for themselves and allies. With these high defenses, feat support, and self-healing, they are the hardest to kill.