Every single D&D class explained

uh-oh your friend is forcing you to play Dungeons and Dragons and they told you to make your first character and read all the rules and do all that before your first session but you don't know anything about Dungeons and Dragons because you're too busy not being mentally ill and your friend tells you just make sure you read all of this and look at all the races and classes but that's not enough cuz you also have to read all of this cuz it's like just as important as the player's handbook uh oops I thought this was supposed to be a game not school because school is for nerds and Dungeons and Dragons is for cool people but don't worry because I'm here to explain every single Dungeons and Dragons class to you and make it as easy as possible so that hopefully you can at least figure out what your class is going to be and that's like half the battle almost everything I mentioned will be directly from the player's handbook so if your DM has that or if you want to purchase the player's handbook you can learn way more just by looking at that there are a couple of things I'm going to mention that are in xanathar's guide which is official but just make sure it's cool with your DM that you're using that anyway let's start with my first category of classes which are the weapon Fighters do you like getting down and dirty with a bow or a sword or a great Axe well then you might be a weapon fighter do you think magic is kind of overrated and a little bit spooky then you might be a weapon fighter do you wish this bit would end me too Barbarian if your favorite superhero is the Hulk then you should probably play Barbarian barbarians are big buff damage dealers they swing down massive axes or swords or anything else they can find to do huge amounts of damage with each blow they get their Power from Just naturally being incredibly strong and they're really really strong barbarians are extra cool cuz they actually get a bonus for fighting naked and that's because regular armor would just get in the way of them killing people barbarians are generally really high Health really high strength characters which means they're extremely durable in combat and really excel at getting face to face with their enemies and killing them before they have a chance to do anything barbarians can withstand a ton of damage and sometimes they even want to take damage that's because of their main class ability called rage rage does a lot of cool things but it all boils down to making you way stronger than you already are is there a thick metal door that needs to be opened rage will help you kick it down way easier is there a bad guy that needs to be taught a lesson rage will let you do even more damage did an arrow just hit you in the freaking face rage will cut that damage in half because you're too busy being angry to feel pain barbarians are a lot of fun to play and on top of that they're really easy to play almost every turn is just going to be you trying to get to an enemy and hitting them really hard with your weapon if there's any downsides it's that generally barbarians are a little bit on the Dumber side which makes them really fun to role play and kind of makes you an adorable bloodthirsty teddy bear but you might not enjoy that kind of play style also they have super low Mobility which means sometimes getting in range of people to attack them with your weapon can be kind of a a pain especially against spellcasters GH but trust me when you do catch them they'll be dead before they even get a word out fighter fighters are like barbarians if barbarians were nerds Fighters believe it or not are really good Fighters they can use basically any weapon a bow a sword dual wielding a sword and a shield whatever you want you choose that right when you make your fighter but unlike barbarians who just use their natural strength to do a bunch of damage Fighters really excel at their battle training that they've received over years Fighters I would say are the most varied of any class based on which fighting style you choose but typically Fighters wear heavy armor and do a lot of damage so unlike the Barbarian who can just withstand a lot of hits a fighter is just harder to hit your fighter will really come into its own at third level when you choose what's called a marshall archetype do you want to be a tactical Mastermind who knows how to exploit the weaknesses in your enemies or help rally your allies then you could be a Battle Master fighter do you want to focus on really doing as much damage as you possibly can well then you want to be a champion fighter or are you the rare kind of fighter that's looking at all your friends casting fire spells all over the place and you're like man I want to do that well then you could be the eldrich Knight which still gets all the benefits of being a fighter but can cast spells too plus it's called an eldrich Knight that's so cool that's such a cool name again like barbarians Fighters are really easy to play and they can be whatever you want them to be so if you're kind of unsure of what exactly you want your character to do fighter might be good pick just to get you started Ranger you know uh legalis uh yeah this is like basically legalis Rangers are primarily bow Fighters but again like fighter you can kind of choose whatever weapon style you want to choose Rangers are excellent trackers and hunters and they really excel in the outdoors and they get really cool features because of that Rangers get something called a favored enemy which is an enemy they know so much about that they actually get physical benefits when they fight them because of your experience hunting and TR tracking down this specific enemy you'll always be able to track them down way easier than anything else and you also can recall information about them really easily like their weaknesses or their attack styles on top of that you also get something called natural Explorer which gives you a favored terrain which just means you get to pick an environment that your Ranger particularly enjoys being in and you get all sorts of benefits when you're in that environment no matter what you're doing you're always going to be alert to Danger which means you're not going to be ambushed while you're in your favorite terrain all the skills you're proficient in which means you're already good at them will get an extra bonus while you're in your favorite terrain too so it's really just awesome and it really lends itself to some cool role playing on top of that Rangers do Veer a little bit into the spell casting territory because they do get a small set of spells they can use to ens snare their enemies or cause Vines to erupt from the ground with their arrows it's a really cool class overall it is a little bit underpowered though so if your DM is comfortable with it ask them about the Unearthed Arcana Ranger it it's not official yet so I'm just going to say that about it but it is cool monks they don't use weapons they uh they don't use weapons a monk's best weapon is its fist because monks are really really good unarmed Fighters and they excel at doing a little bit of damage a lot starting at first level monks can already do two attacks in one turn by punching and then punching again I guess you have two fists so that makes sense at second level though is when you get access to what's called key which is basically the energy that monks can use to manipulate their attacks and their foes you use this key by spending what's called key points and the most exciting one of them all is called Flurry of Blows where when you punch someone you can spend a key point and punch them two more times monks are also extremely mobile not just by using their key points but also just naturally they have 10 ft of extra movement which is for most characters like 30% more movement per turn and at third level things just get cooler by using your key points to knock people down or push them away or surround them in darkness while you assault them sneakily monks are just really cool they're also really out there they're definitely the most different of all the classes but it's really cool to roleplay like why did your character become a monk why did they leave their Monastery what did their monastic training teach them if you don't care about role playing maybe it's not for you but if you like punching it's for you Rogue Boo Here I Am I snuck up on you because I'm a rogue step step step step rogu specialize in stealthing around and using light weapons like daggers and short swords and they can even dual wield and use bows their main feature that they get right from the start is something called a sneak attack which does extra damage if you have advantage against the opponent Advantage just means you get to roll twice and take the higher results so you have a higher chance of hitting s attack is actually more complicated than that but we're not going to go into it it's fine a rogue's stealthing ability and damage dealing makes them really interesting to play Not only in combat but but also out of combat cuz you can use your tools to avoid combat entirely do you need to go steal a Precious Diamond you can just go in there and be like mine now and no one will know I mean they might know you might fail your stealth roll and then start a big fight and your party's going to be like you can't just keep stealing off without us you have to tell us when you're going to stealth away and you're like I don't think so um yeah also Rogues might be for you if you grew up listening to Lincoln Park because Rogues are edgy that's like the M um just keep that in mind Rogues are also really really easy to play and they're a lot of fun to play I think they're a great class for beginners but still you can just play whatever sounds fun to you don't worry too much about what's hard to play spellcasters you know what sucks weapons oh hate them yuck getting up close and personal and getting blood on my hands uh no thanks I'll just sit back here and cast Fireball if that sounds appealing to you then you should consider playing a spellcaster wizard Wizards are your standard spell casters they're exactly what everyone thinks of when they think of a spellcaster Wizards are people who are just massive nerds and read a lot of books and that's how they got their magical ability they really worked for it and for that reason they have access to like every single spell in the game this wide range of spells can make Wizards a little bit overwhelming but it also means you have a large variety of things you can do one of the choices you'll make early on as a wizard is which school of magic you want to belong to do you want to raise the dead you should be a necromancer do you want to make massive tentacles here and slap your enemies maybe that's a conjuration but even the school you join doesn't limit your spell list it's just the particular spells you're really good at and can learn really easily all a wizard ever does is cast spells if you're in combat or out of combat you're casting a spell you're not using a weapon and spell casting is a finite resource per day because Wizards and all spellcasters use something called a spell slot to cast a spell so that means you have to be a little bit picky when you're going to choose to cast certain spells and that's an extra layer of decision making on top of already a lot of decisions Wizards have to make because every single day a wizard has to prepare certain spells they have a huge list of spells that they can prepare at the beginning of a day but they only get to pick a handful each day to actually use and then when you're in combat you have to choose which spells you want to use really with Wizards there's a lot of options like an infinite amount of options and it can be really overwhelming but it's a great chance to be creative with their character and to really make combat memorable so I really like wizards but a lot of people think it's the hardest class to play and I can't argue with that so just know what you're getting into if you want to play one sorcerer Sorcerers are cool because it's like hey Wizards are really hard and it's like okay Sorcerers they're just easier Wizards it also makes sense from a role player perspective because Sorcerers don't do any reading or learning no they're the nepo baby of spellcasters they just got their spellcasting either by random chance or usually by having a spellcasting mommy or daddy or some other member of their bloodline the big difference with Sorcerers versus Wizards is something called sorcerer points sorcerer points let you affect your magic in different ways do you want to cast a single Target spell on multiple targets your sorcerer points can do that do you want to double the range of one of your spells sorcerer points can do that but wait that doesn't sound like it's easier that sounds like there's more to that than being a wizard well Sorcerers don't have the huge list of spells that Wizards have not only do they not just learn spells by going around the world they also just have a smaller list of possible spells they can learn at each level up so Sorcerers don't need to do the whole preparing spells every day or anything like that it's a lot easier to play in my opinion one of the cool things to pick at the very beginning of making your sorcerer though is its sorcerer origin where did you get your spellcasting from in the player's handbook you have draconic ancestry which means dragons in your bloodline and there's also wild magic which means there's a chance of some random effect happening whenever you cast the spell and it can be really funny but Sorcerers is where I really recommend checking out zanthar guy there's some really cool origins in here and I think they're actually better than what's in the player's handbook but again ask your DM and if you don't want to shot the money it's fine warlock you are a person of great magical ability but not because you worked for it it's like the sorcerer you see I'm doing like the sorcer a bit warlocks got their magic by making a deal with some sort of great powerful being it could be they made a deal with a devil or a God or a fay which is like a cool little nature thingy this usually comes at a price for the Warlock it could be anything from a couple dollars to your entire soul usually it's the Soul Thing warlocks are awesome from a role playing perspective but they're also really unique spell casters they have way fewer spell slots that I mentioned before than any other Caster but they get them back on a short rest usually you have to wait for the day to end and get a full night's sleep to get your spell spell slots back with a warlock you just take a quick little power nap of like 1 hour and boom you got all your spell slots back warlocks are also really cool as they level up because their Patron the person they made the deal with will give them extra abilities you'll get things called eldrich invocations which can make your spells more powerful it give you the ability to cast spells you normally wouldn't be able to and at third level you get what's called a packed Boon which is like your Patron giving you a little treat for being such a good boy or girl and it's like you're a good little warlock warlocks just have a really interesting set of spells and like sorcerer you don't have to repair any of them you just always have them ready but warlocks are one of my personal favorite classes just for like the story you can write about them but I'm a nerd you don't have to worry about that they're fun to play they cast magic they're cool Druid is there an animal inside of you that you just need to unleash but you also don't want to become a furry Druid sounds like it might be for you Druids are spellcasters who get their magical ability by being super in tune with nature and just inhabitants they work somewhat similarly to wizards where they had to prepare a list of spells to use every day and again that can be overwhelming but Druids are so freaking cool starting at just second level you will gain an ability called wild shape which lets you literally transform into any Beast that you have laid eyes on before there are limitations on what exactly the kind of Beast you can transform into is but those limitations go away as you level up oh man but what if I turn into a beast and it dies and then I die that would suck no wrong actually if your hit points go to zero in your Beast form you just turn back into yourself with whatever hit points you had before it's so NE it's so neat it's so neat that's so that's so neat the only concerning part is where your weapons go um you kind of absorb your weapons when you go into wild shape so I'm pretty sure your weapons go in your butt when you reach third level as a druid you get to join a druidic circle but the one everyone joins is called the circle of the Moon because the circle of the Moon lets you use your wild shape as what's called a bonus AC what that means is on the same turn during combat you can transform into an animal and then slap your enemies on the same turn Druids are so cool man Druids are so freaking cool Druids are also good if you don't want to be just a pure damage dealer but you also want to help out a little bit cuz Droids do have a lot of healing and restoration spells so droids are just really well-rounded spellcasters and I think they're so much fun to play and yes they're a lot to handle but just give it a shot you'll have fun supporters are you a people pleaser or do you often take the corner pieces of the brownies because everyone already ate all the good parts that's right I don't like the corners of brownies and I'm not afraid to admit it well if any of that sounds like you then you might want to play a support class Support classes are friendly people who heal their allies and give their allies special abilities uh and they're really nice and it's really great when you have one in your group Bard everyone's little funny favorite little funny little guy they're not like actually little unless you choose to play a smaller race it's just very frequently people who want to play BS want to play smaller races science doesn't know why yet but it is true barns are musical masterminds who play their instruments so good they literally have magical effects they do have a relatively small list of spells to use but what they can do is really really important both in and out of combat their main ability is called Bic inspiration where they can play a little diddy for their friends and then their friends all of a sudden become really good at attacking or at picking locks or really at anything if you have a rogue trying to break into a mansion the bar just has to bust out its Loot and be like keep going and the rogue's like yeah yeah yeah I can do this but there is a dark side to bards because they're not always happy go-lucky smiley healing people no they are also the most vicious bullies since Regina George bars has several abilities and spells meant to harm people the most notable of which is called cutting words cutting words is basically The Bard saying something so viciously mean that the enemy becomes less able to hit or even able to do less damage BS also have a spell called vicious mockery which is just them saying something so mean that it literally makes the enemy take damage so BS are like they're cool I like BS bards are also pretty easy to play and everyone loves having a Bard so I highly recommend bards cleric God that's who you love now you love God your chosen deity has granted you great power because you've shown yourself to be a super devoted good little cleric your most notable power is your ability to be an extremely good healer but you're also heavily armored usually wield a pretty badass weapon and are just generally awesome clerics are Far and Away the best healers in DND and it is not close but they can be so much more than healers at first level you choose what's called a domain for your cleric and your domain will really decide how your cleric plays there's the life domain if you do want to go the Healer route but there's also the Light domain so you can have access to a bunch of fire spells or the Tempest domain where you can make wind or if you're feeling a little naughty you can go with the trickery domain which will let you use things like charm person so that people will like you or disguise self so you look a little different all I'm saying is clerics are awesome they are great healers but you should not be afraid to play them however you want the one issue is that clerics can be a little tough to roleplay because your chosen deity and your chosen domain will dictate so much about who your character is that there's not as much creative freedom but I still think you can have a good time with a cleric very easily paladins God that's who you love now your chosen de wait nope sorry that's the script for clerics paladins are like Warriors for God so instead of casting a bunch of spells like clerics do they cast a bunch of Sword into the face of their enemies I debated putting paladins into weapon Fighters but paladins do have a lot of healing and empower ing abilities so I do think they're kind of a support fighter hybrid class paladins have sworn an oath that dictates basically everything about who they are and you will choose your oath at first level do you want to kill anyone who wrongs an innocent even a little bit the oath of vengeance is for you do you want to hold yourself to the highest possible standards oath of devotion might be what you're looking for the type of oath that you choose will dictate what kind of spells you get as a paladin but really just choose whatever sounds the coolest to you a really cool thing about Paladin is something called smites poin can use smites to add extra damage or effects to their weapon attacks the most popular one by far is called Divine Smite where you literally just add god-given damage to your sword strikes it's really freaking cool but paladins are also gentle lovers who can use something called the lay on hands everyday paladins get a pool of Health that they can use through lay on hands to heal their allies but if they don't need to heal their allies they can also cure poisons or remove diseases it's a really powerful very useful spell to have around like clerics paladins can be a little hard to role play because of the whole you know oath basically dictating who you are but they can also be really fun to role play especially when you look into something called an oathbreaker Paladin it's not in the player handbook so I won't mention it but it is official and it's very cool so that's all of the classes in D and D and if I had any recommendations for which you should play whichever sounds the coolest to you if you're with a halfway decent DM they'll help walk you through everything that class can do and answer any questions and ultimately even if you do pick a hard class that just means you have more to learn and the learning is a really cool part of D and D yeah I know it sounds nerdy but it's true if you hear people say things like oh Rangers are super weak or oh Rogues are super boring to play don't listen to them it's an opinion everyone has one make your own opinion just play what you want anyway I'm going to um uh go to sleep

Channel: Alphagnome

Views: 205,984

Keywords: dungeons and dragons, D&D, dnd, dungeons & dragons, tabletop rpg, rpg, TTRPG, tutorial, d&d classes, bard, cleric, fighter, paladin, barbarian, druid, wizard, sorcerer, warlock, rogue, ranger, how to play d&d, how to, guide

Id: K4YtOhYzOfo

Length: 20min 56sec (1256 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 02 2023