D&D 5e Class Tier Rankings Retrospective Review

0:00 - Intro
2:09 - A Look Back
7:54 - Artificer
10:28 - Barbarian
14:31 - Bard
17:59 - Cleric
20:50 - Druid
24:44 - Fighter
27:53 - Monk
33:58 - Paladin
37:59 - Ranger
41:15 - Rogue
45:55 - Sorcerer
48:35 - Warlock
51:29 - Wizard
56:37 - Final Analysis
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[lejandario]

As a monk main, I've never been so offended by something I totally agree with.

[TheZandaz]

With the Monk, I also think of a lot of the 'awesome moments' don't come from being effective, but from the 'coolness' of their abilities. Like you could have an awesome moment where a monk runs across water, up a wall and punches a guy 4 times dealing 35, damage. But then the fighter shoots twice with their bow and sharpshooter for 40 damage, and still has their movement and bonus action left. What's an awesome moment for the monk is often just what another class can achieve effortlessly.

[Stray_GM]

Congrats to Monty for his PhD! The Dungeon Dude becomes the Dungeon Doctor.

[johncarney]

I'll throw my argument for best two-person campaign: Paladin/Druid. It's unkillable, still get healing, and they do not overlap almost at all with scores/abilities/skills

[monsteralta]

"Barbarian is the best class for detect and destroy traps in dungeons"
Said the barbarian in my campaign, single handly stepped on 12 beartraps and triggered 7 poison dart and still make it alive

[JohnPyrich]

On the Monk, my friend had the best comment when his son was thinking about a Monk. He said that the Monk is like a keyboard player in a classic band structure. They add to what’s there, but they can’t replace any of the other core roles.

[thecognitiverambler]

I think the argument for maybe a "C" in exploration that Fighters and Barbarians can enjoy is the fact that it's actually pretty common to need a "strong man". Push a boulder, move a statue, smash a something-or-other. Often a spell can solve the problem, but being absurdly strong doesn't cost a spell-slot, and most classes are dumping their Str scores.

[joshuaherring]

Fun fact: Gf just informed me that Every time these guys introduces themselves I apparently verbally (and subconsciously) ask “And who are you?” Just in time to hear “We are the Dungeon Dudes”

Well done Kelly and Monty. You have wormed your way into my subconscious brain. 😅

[MattyPGood]

The problem with the Monk is that they gave a lot of cool Monk abilities to the Rogue and then gave the Monk worse versions of the abilities

[mrmars]

I still say with confidence after three years of watching that you two are the most informative source of DnD discussion on youtube

[willydstyle]

One of the things that contributes to a Paladin being a good negotiator is that in *many* campaign worlds they occupy a space of authority in the society they are in, which gives them better fictional positioning for negotiating even if they don't have a lot of abilities that support the role.

[Bigswordenergy-bu]

In my opinion getting sick of the warlock spamming Eldredge blast every round is no different from getting sick of the fighter spamming the attack action with their weapon every round their the same

[bray]

The thing with the Artificer is that the class by itself can be very difficult to rank because of how much it's subclasses influence it's playstyle. Armourers and Battlesmiths play differently fron Artillerists and Alchemists. I played an Alchemist and a Battlesmith and they might as well have been completely different classes from how different they felt in play.

[Dramatic_Gaming]

Two critiques on this:
1) The issue with the Ranger, at least from people I talked with, was never about the damage; it was about *everything else.* So many of their exploration and tracking features were tied to Favored Terrain/Enemy that, most of the time, you just didn't have features. Being a half-caster who couldn't swap out spells as needed like the druid just made taking all those ranger-y spells that much harder to do. Plus some features were just outright useless RAW.
2) Monty's arguement of 'the rogue has to play by the rules' never really sat with me, mainly because Reliable Talent and Expertise explicitly make it so you *aren't* playing 'by the rules'. If I can't roll lower than a 25, short of using magic, what class is reasonably expected to beat me? Rouges *don't* play by the rules, magic just plays even less by the rules.

[cameronmeyferth]

I absolutely agree that whether a class has to “play by the rules” or can “break the rules with cheat codes” should be considered. However, I don’t think having to play by the rules is necessarily a bad thing, as it can go the other way for those cheat code using spellcasters. If you have a DM who uses much more strict readings and interpretations of what a spell can do, if they don’t let enemies be easily fooled by simple illusions or get mind controlled by charm spells, if they don’t generally favor the player when making these kinds of rulings or decisions, then you might end up getting more mileage out of more abilities that explicitly say “if you do this, then this happens.”

[FalcnPWNCH]

Monk as a class as a whole feels like its just unnecessarily heavily restricted from having any fun like the other classes, *_the Ki system is far too restrictive_* and it often feels like *_it just hampers and drags down_* most if not all of it's subclasses *_rather than promotes them or improves on each other_* - and because of how all of this works monks are just *_STARVING_* from having any or as many impactful and interesting features and active things to do as the other classes and their subclasses by comparison

[matthewbaldwin]

As a DM for a two-man party of a bard and a Paladin, I agree wholeheartedly that those two are the ultimate two-person party. It’s like they can’t lose!

[dugget]

With the incredible jumping distance, increase move speed and advantage in dex saves as well as being able to ignore being surprised barbarians are actually quite good at exploration and dungeon delving, triggering traps and revealing enemies

[justyouraverageartificer]

Love that y'all took another look at this. The only annoyance is why assume spellcasters choose the good spells but not assume artificer and warlock choose the good options as well. It's really easy to make a useless bard, just like it's really easy to make an explorer Artificer. It's all part of the build

[jansolo]

Rangers are perfectly middle-tier, which is definitely where I'd rate them as well. Probably a top 5 pick for a monoclass party without severely suffering in any category (Fey Wanderer Ranger is mandatory to get an A or B in negotiator).