Class and Subclass Tier List in D&D 

Just wanted to say, having those timestamps in the description is really nice.

What gets missed in a lot of class tier lists, including this one, is how 5E D&D monsters get relatively WEAKER to hit point damage as the game goes on. Not stronger like in 3E/4E; weaker. Bruiser monsters like the CR 5 Barlgura have a respectable 68 hp, with the CR 8 Frost Giant having 138 hp. A 200% increase in three CR bumps. But a CR 20 Pit Fiend or Ancient Brass Dragon has 'only' 300 hit points. A 220% increase in TWELVE CR bumps. The upshot to this is that martials, even though the ones without spellcasting stop really getting 'win the adventure' abilities past level 6 or so, get better at KILLING as the game goes on, especially if magical items drop.

Artificer's need their own spells, obviously they have their own spell list, but nothing on there is unique, they need some special spells like the ranger has.

Put "Tier List" in the title for more views!

Fighter is ranked pretty low and I think it has a lot to do with the way the game scales. The power of a caster is mostly in the hands of the player. Make one and you will be strong because you get your spells guaranteed. Martial classes scale up much better with gear. So if you have a DM that is a little generous with loot it can turn on its head quickly. A fighter with a Flametongue is a thing to be feared.

Stumbled onto this channel as a random RU-vid recommended video. I haven’t played D&D for probably 20 years now but these videos have really brought me back and I am really enjoying listening to content like this!

Rogue has Uncanny Dodge and Evasion for some great defensive abilities, and Cunning Action. Sneak Attack isn't the only thing they have going for them.

Lore Bard’s Cutting Words is so helpful. Your party can almost ensure winning the fight because the Lore Bard can knock down the BBEG’s initiative roll most of the time. Inspiration is so helpful because of its subtlety.

I think what makes Druids fall flat compared to other spellcasters is that they by-and-large don't get subclass abilities that compliment their spellcasting. Bards, Clerics, Warlocks, Sorcerers, and especially Wizards get enhancements to the strongest ability in the game, but non-Circle of the Shepherd Druids don't and even druid combat summons have their problems in T3/T4. Non-CotS Druids are either doing additional spellcasting with no spice (Land) or are getting abilities unrelated to their spellcasting (Spores, Moon, Dreams, etc.) So while Druids have a great spellcasting feature that's by-default better than the Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, and Cleric -- especially in T2/T3 -- they can't make the most of it. If they published a Druid subclass that functioned like the Lore Bard or Evocation Wizard or Shadow Sorcerer, that subclass would shoot up the tier list.

Given your assessment, I find it amusing that your brand avatar is a monk.

I've seen tier lists for D&D before, but I think it's trouble to try to make one irrespective of level. A barbarian is overall the strongest class at level 1, having high hp, high damage, and resistance to the most common damage types at that level. By level 2, it's moon druid. From level 5 onward, it's arguably wizard, though that says little of how other classes are doing compared to each other. You'd rather have a fighter at level 11, but a barbarian at level 5 (usually, since a CBE Sharpshooter fighter can start absolutely murdering enemies by level 6). You also need to know what kind of table you're playing at. Warlocks, fighters, and monks all become much stronger when short rests are plentiful but long rests are limited to once a day. Rogues and even champion fighters are fantastic in campaigns where the players can barely rest at all and have to go from one fight to the next. When fighting in wide open spaces, there is _nothing_ in the game better than being able to throw the clip in the AK and slay from far away (eldritch spear warlock / sorlock, sharpshooter fighter / ranger). Arguably the most effective way to play a monk in a normal campaign is by being a Kensai, using a longbow, taking sharpshooter, and using your ki to keep yourself out of harm's way. And regarding the monk, I've said it before and I'll say it again, Monks are actually quite strong a late levels, especially the long death monk who can flatly ignore death for just 1 ki point. That's a character who can walk into the room ahead of the party knowing he's probably safe, giving the others time to see the threat and prepare for it. For this reason, a long death monk + wizard duo is especially potent at high levels when the wizard can't scout as easily just by sending a familiar or unseen servant ahead. And monks _are_ good at running into the back lines and dealing with enemy spellcasters, who can otherwise cause a lot of trouble. The main issue with monks is that they don't do well on a turn for turn basis, and that's how the game is played. If left to their own devices, weak characters like the sun soul monk can win a 1v1 fight with many creatures in the game, provided that they have room to move. There are few characters I'd rather send up against a vampire solo (arguably a cleric or paladin will get the job done better, and a light cleric would be ideal). And they do make good scouts with their ranged attacks and high speed, able to lure enemies into traps with a coordinated party. But letting one character run ahead, assess a situation, maybe do some damage, and come back is not a tactic that most tables use. The moment some character starts a fight somewhere, everyone at the table starts interrupting to try to get their own character into the fight, never mind that their characters might not even know that a fight is happening. I had a situation where the entire party knew that our longbow ranger could handle that group of giants in the distance without taking damage, yet they STILL insisted on running in, getting several of them knocked unconscious in the process. They didn't want her to handle things on her own, despite her having built the character specifically for that kind of situation. That's the monk's main problem. When other characters get into a fight, they'll be able to dish out more damage or more hazards than the monk will turn for turn. And other players absolutely _will_ get into the fight almost immediately, whether it's them or the DM insisting upon it. So, even though monks make excellent scouts and can do things on their own that no one else can do reliably, it doesn't matter because that isn't how people play. And even when it _is_ how people play, a monk really needs a grid in order to make full use of their excellent movement speed and mobility options, else the DM will just say that the creatures run in and attack because no one will know exactly how far away the monk is. But, if you're at a table that: 1. Uses a grid 2. Have players who coordinate with each other and try to handle encounters efficiently 3. Will play past about level 8 or so Then a well-played monk is a great asset.

I know it's been mentioned already but just wanted to tell you that I appreciate the timestamps. Hopefully my redundant comment helps with analytics.

I love how Chris instantly dumpsters the Monk straight out of the gate. Savage.

Thank you for your insight, it is always appreciated.

Okay I'm psychic guys... Monk is going to be bottom ranked and wizard will be number 1... haven't even watched the video :p

I'm looking forward to the monk breakdown! I've always been curious about your thoughts on the class

I’d LOVE to see you do a Eloquence Bard build video from 1-20. That would be awesome! Loving the videos! Keep it up!

Great video, and thank you for adding time stamps and notes to refer back to later!

After you were bagging soo much on the monk in all of your "worst at x"-level and "worst overall"-lists, I'd really *LOVE* to see a Beastmaster-style optimization guide for a pure Monk from 1-20 from you ! I'm sure you could find and explain some diamonds in the rough there, Shadow and Kensei Monk in particular seem to get some good stuff, but Open Hand and Long Death also have some neat tricks to work with.

Artificers could be a B-Tier or even A-Tier class with their ability to attune additional magical items. The problem is that 5E D&D gives no guidance on how many magical items people should have and even when they give a vague number like in the DMG it doesn't match how people actually play. Even within Adventurer's League, I've seen people parade their Cloaks of Invisibility and Staff of the Magi as early as T2 while some frontliners didn't get a magical weapon better than +1 until T3. Even when you compare hardcovers to other hardcovers it's very inconsistent. Compare the generous Curse of Strahd and Storm King's Thunder to the much stingier Rise of Tiamat and Tomb of Annihilation.

Fantastic! Always some surprising insights. Thanks Chris.

Really enjoyed this, as always. I will throw my hat in the ring with picks for subclasses that deliver on flavor but fall short on mechanics. Artificer: Alchemist Barbarian: Battlerager Bard: Swords Cleric: Knowledge Druid: Dreams Fighter: Arcane Archer Monk: Kensei Paladin: Crown Ranger: Horizon Walker Rogue: Inquisitive Sorcerer: Storm (not bad, but ugh) Warlock: GOOlock Wizard: Transmuter or Bladesinger

CHRIS ON DEM TIER LISTS. Hell yeah love it. I haven't commented in a while but been watching you and commenting since Day 1. Glad this channels doing well. Keep sharing your love for D&D with the world.

Great list, I mostly agree with it. And even in the parts where I disagree, I like that you explain your reasoning. Imo the Charisma classes (Paladin, Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock) get a lot of great options for multiclassing. I know you didn't want to go over multiclassing in these ranking videos, but it's worth mentioning that these classes all have great options multiclassing with each other. Any full Charisma caster benefits by dipping Paladin, and any Paladin gets a lot from a dip into a Charisma caster.

I think fighters are pretty good honestly, simply for A) reliable, consistent damage B) fairly good durability, and of course, C) so many ASI. I'm not going to comment on the echo knight because that entire book is unbalanced to a degree that I prefer to pretend that it doesn't exist. You can get some very good sustained DPS at level 11, and while wizards/bards are getting simulacrum and forcecage and whatnot only 2 levels later, you still need someone to be dealing damage, and the fighter gives the wizard a very good target for the aforementioned simulacrum. You also get the ability to use range while still dealing good damage, unlike the paladin. While your damage doesn't increase much from 11-20, the fact that fighters can still remain very good in terms of damage up until 9th level when you get all manners of brokeness says something. Sure, they don't get the questionably balanced save aura of a paladin, but said aura isn't _that_ unreasonable given that you're limited to a 10ft aura until very very high levels, and said aura is a bit of a standout in any case.

Thank you for the great analysis, as always. I would love to see your take on a Chronurgist build. It would be nice to see your Guide to Wizards complete :)

Nice piece of work as always, you help us all improve our knowledge

Explained clearly with reasons. Even your icons used are easily recognized. Chris you are my go to for guides on classes man!! Optimum video as usual. I don't think I'll ever run games without your Variants. You understand Classes ...the Flavour and the efficiency. Really love tier lists personally. Thank you!! P.S. so many other guides (outdated and updated) gave a new Player/DM a simplistic view on classes based on alot of conjecture. Go Treantmonk optimancy i say!!

I, for one, would love to hear your detailed analysis of the Monk. I've drafted a homebrew subclass and would be thrilled to be able to address as many systemic deficiencies as I can without altering the unique flavor of the class.

Great job, for all ranking vids u made. I enjoy all of them! Whats next? Top 10 best multi-class builds?

Ugh, I feel like Artificer should be waaay further up the list, but I understand your reasoning. Battlesmith is amazing with a stronger offense and defense than a comparable fighter and then gets half-caster spells on top of it. Artillerist has insane party shields at low levels and is a strong ranged damage contender at high levels. It's just Alchemist. It is such a trap choice. I can make a build playable with it, but not actually good. It seems unfair to judge a class by such a turd of a subclass, but you do have to include it in the average I guess.

Great video as always! :) I was surprised to see the Paladin above the Druid since you generally seem to value Spells so highly but the mentioned class abilities arguably do make up for it.

Great video. Never have I seen a ranking that I agree more with. People generally underestimate Bards and Clerics in my experience.

I have to mention your valor bard build is so useful, incredibly in dept into potential scenarios a wimpy halfling might bump into, this bard ends up able to counter spell anytime, crazy mobility, crowd control, healing/buff/debuff, 20AC for breakfast, Extremely active role play in all non-combat state of the game. When time is rough, FIREBALL is on the tip of the finger when the PC needs it.

Great points. I think you make the perfect case of the main balance problems in D&D5.

I agree Barbarian doesn't scale so well, but I think it starts off so powerful in combat that it still outclasses the fighter. Resistance, bonus damage, and advantage on attacks when it needs it? Super strong, I'd usually multi-class out after 5th level, but even if I don't it's pretty powerful.

Cleric (Tempest) is definitely S tier It has high Ac, can deal with massive damage, and can still support/heal.

Trying Valour Bard for the first time on your recommendation. Thanks for this series.

Great video! I really like how you take a very comprehensive and pragmatic approach when analyzing abilities and their actual use in different roles and tiers of play. How do you feel about the Ancestral Guardian Barbarian considering battlefield control? I've been playing one (having wanted for a change as a long time player of spell casters) and it's been a blast to punish enemies for attacking others while sometimes throwing hatchets from across the battlefield to seriously hinder their damage potential.

I just love your videos and perspectives so much! I do, however, want to point out a few things I’d slightly contest on this tier list though: Spellcasters scale better into the late game if you’re looking at a class on its own, but Martials rely on equipment to be effective. Of course spellcasters also have gear that makes them stronger, but a spell’s effectiveness or power doesn’t vary based off the quality of the components/focus, while a Fighter or other Martial’s does. About Barbarians not getting much other than improved crit, their rage dmg scales pretty well, and if you take into account feats, Great Weapon Master with Reckless Attack will make for huge damage output, high crit chance, high chance for a third attack as bonus action if you didn’t start the rage that turn, making it an even higher crit chance. Very powerful mid level and still sustainable high level with good equipment. Plus the cap of +4 to Con and Str is really cool Relating to the Fighter not having a flavour of their own, to me they are more of a jack-of-all-trades for Martials. Not in the mechanical sense (that would be the Paladin) but flavour-wise. A Barbarian goes in wild and brutal, a Monk attacks with great agility and manouvering, the Rogue is sneaky and dangerous, and to me the Fighter uses all of those to make a powerful mix. To me, Fighters are the standard Knight (Paladins could make a strong case here too) Finally, about the Monks, while I agree they’d be on the weaker side of the classes overall, despite no class being bad, in my opinion, he is misunderstood: he isn’t the best at anything, but that is sort of the point, I think. While they don’t excel at any function alone, they are one of the best at pretty much anything. The only downside of the Monk that doesn’t get him higher is that they don’t get much use off equipment. They won’t use +x armour and not all their attacks will benefit from a weapon’s bonus. Despite that, I still found this video to be really cool! I think you have a great mind and a logical thought process. I’m always waiting to hear your opinions and strategies, and I’ve learned a lot from you, truly as your Apprentice. Keep making awesome videos, Grandmaster Wizard!

Summarizing: spells, go for spells.

nice analysis ! good job TT :)

Perhaps the most essential DND vid now on RU-vid. After weeks of analysis (probably much longer) this is the culmination of awesome work. Thanks dude!

Hi Chris! I know this video was realesed almost a year ago but in the Artificer comparison you said that the Battle Smith is the strongest subclass of the Artificer, now that with Tasha's the Armorer was introduced, does that changes?

I would love to see some paladin builds.

I am currently enjoying my level 3 War Wizard. Normally I play a martial class so it has been good to change it up.

I would love to see the in depth Monk video

If we were including the 2020 Bloodhunter, where would you guys put it on the tier list?

Hey Chris, love the channel. Would you do a Chronurgy wizard build video? Thanks sir!

Would you change any of this in light of Tasha's?

hi my guy, just wanted to point out barbarian is missing from the timestamps

I'd like an updated version of this after Tashas. It'd be very interesting

Could we get an updated list of this or do you think it is more or less the same?

Just wanted to ask, are you going to play bg3? If so what race/class are you planning on with your first toon?

Sry if someone already asked: are you gonna do a chronurgy wizard build video?

IMO Bard is the Best class in the game, Wizard is a very close 2nd, followed by Cleric. I think because most Wizards I see squander their potential (Fireball, firebolt and Shield over and over and over) yet still somehow manage to be super effective. I have the Artificer somewhere in the middle (love the class) but overall great list, I understand and agree with your reasoning throughout. I Never Understood why people rank Bard low either. Every Bard I've played with made a gigantic difference in the game and was consistently bailing us out, sweet talking everybody, shoring up the weakest saving throws, using Archery for big damage AND supporting the team with a huge spell list. Simultaneously being the Support caster, Damage dealer, Skill Monster, and face of the party is a ridiculous resume for any 1 player.

When I told a friend that the monk wasn't "good at anything", and didn't have any particular role it filled, he didn't believe me. Then he tried to think up roles, but in half the situations it already seemed like a worse rogue. "but they can get more ac", was one of the responses. But the only way to achieve that is by putting all asi into dex and wis, costing con. A rogue on the other hand has 1 asi increase more and isn't dependent on so many ability scores. A monk that got 16-16 for wis and dex has an ac of 16, but the rogue at that level can reach 15 with studded leather. And if the rogue really wants more when it peaks at 20dex it can take defensive duelist. And whereas a rogue can just bonus action disengage for "free", no ki-less option does that for a monk. And if there's no rogue, a bard is usually better at sneaking than a monk, especially if a player chooses to use expertise on stealth. And then there are those "but combat abd sneaking is only a small part of the game". Well, it's second highest stat is shared with druids, clerics and rangers. Except that for the first 2 it's their primary stat. So tough luck getting good use from that. Because of the needy dex-wis-con, monks also tend to score low on the charisma department, so they are poor at trying to be the party face. And in case you every thought the wallrunning/waterwalking etc. Is amazing, these effects can be done with fairly mundane spells. You'd be tempted to say that at least monks can run in and out of combat the fastest, but it's just shocking how many teleport abilities are available throughout the board. Yes they have better sustained movement, but the movement is used up fast if there's teammates in your way. Besides, they have barely any effects/firepower to double down on control. The only thing monks excel at is being the best in melee when disarmed. But that shouldn't come up often.

Great video as always. I agree with the top half, though I think Artificers belong higher on the list.

Hey Chris, love your guides and vids. I'd like to point out that typically in a tier list, the items closer to the left are better than the ones to the right. So when you placed Ranger in the list, and say it's third worst behind Monk and Artificer, it should be placed to the left of Artificer. Otherwise, people looking at the image will think you believe Artificer is better than Ranger.

Would you consider the conquest paladin stronger than the oathbreaker?

I agree with most of your list. I would switch the sorcerer (I also feel the shadow magic subclass abilities are better than having access to the cleric spell list) and warlock as a class but if you only rate the Hexblade than I agree with the placement.

IME, given AL play, fighters are really really good when optimized. All such optimizations I've seen have been some flavor of hand-crossbow archer, or polearm master. Multiplying fighter attack counts by +10 damage, and having magic weapons and/or picking your equipment really makes them brutes at killing things. Yes, controllers/pure casters are "better", but I'm not aware any anyone much better at doing pure hitpoint damage. I don't feel like fighters and rogues are on the same tier at doing hitpoint damage, and I wish those were farther apart. Also, in aggregate (with less lower-level play than average), I put Warlocks below sorcerers. It's a great dip, but it's not a great class.

Barbarian totems never go out of the style.

i agree with the placement of the rogue but i'd like to point out some things i've done in the past to circumvent its poorly scaling damage output. it's actually pretty simple; you just need reactions. things like the martial adept feat/battle master multiclass (for riposte) and the sentinel feat let you make attacks more reliably outside of your turn, which means two sneak attack procs per round instead of one, which is a game changer

I kinda would have liked something like how the jaronk tier list was done, where it looked at extremely different scenarios, not just abilities overall.

Where would you rank Bloodhunter?

Thanks for mentioning the devotion paladin. I think they are a seriously underrated subclass. I love the immunity to charm at level 7!

Will you expanding on the best subclasses you haven't really talked about before like Eloquence Bard? This is the first time I've heard of it.

Explorer's guide to Wildemount needed more playtest and adjustment. The chronurgy is simply broken. What were they even thinking?

This is the first time ever, in years of this type of exercise, that such a long list has exactly matched my own thoughts. I'd have expected at least one flip-flop somewhere. I guess it was bound to happen eventually. Well, great list. No arguments here. 😆 Honestly, I've gained so much of my understanding of mechanics throughout the years by reading (and now viewing) the guides you pioneered and with which others have continued. Thanks for that. This has greatly expanded my enjoyment of the game throughout the years.

On Critical Role, Beauregard (A monk) does win some fights with stunning strike. Stillness of Mind to end a charmed effect has also saved the party. I think a level 1 fighter, Monk X could be super strong (Hit hard, then "Dodge") - they do have some cool abilities. Monks also don't need armor - great at times like waking up while others are on watch; ballroom party adventures.

Another thing worth noting about the Arcane Trickster, is that they also have the highest damage output of any non-multiclassed Rogue, because they can take the Booming Blade cantrip, which helps compensate for the Rogue's lack of scaling damage.

Where would you rank the Class Feature Variants UA updated Ranger - with the non-concentration hunter's mark and tireless at 1st level, along with lots of other improvements? And more broadly what do you make of that UA in particular and what it could signal for future class updates?

The only thing I'd say competes with the Gloom Stalker for best ranger class might be Horizon Walker, if only because of their access to Misty Step and Haste and overall better bonus spells. However, Gloom Stalker beats it out with Greater Invisibility and Seeming and even more so with class abilities. As for the Rogue, if I have to guess why it gets so high, it's because players are taking advantage of Cunning Action and Uncanny Dodge. Multiclassing isn't mentioned, but Rogue also has a lot of strong potential to multiclass into. With just one level in it, you get an additional skill proficiency (though Bard gets this, too), proficiency with Thieves Tools, and sneak attack. A few more levels, and you could get the advantage of Cunning Action and various archetypes. Stay in long enough, and you might be able to catch up on ASIs you would normally lose from multiclassing (fighter may be better for this, though).

Second question: I'm in a two-player game and the other player is a Chronurgy Wizard. Which class would you play.

The way I would have answered this is based on the idea of it I had two of a class what would change upward the situations the party can take. So for me two wizards or paladins do that most (S class). Next would be two druids, clerics, Sorcerer, bard and rogues (A class). The least would be rangers and monks (D Class). (The thing that I see Rogues as better then Bards at is saving the party with mischief and being way more survivable. And that always alters the battle as I as a DM would try to pressure the entire party. ) Thanks for the video love seeing your thoughts. (Would give you tip if I had money. )

Was Way of Mercy released when Chris did this video? I thought he rated the Mercy Monk the highest of the bunch in other videos.

The only thing preventing me from agreeing that Conquest is the best Paladin outright is running into enemies immune to frightened, which isn't a super-rare immunity. Also on Ranger subclasses, I do think the Horizon Walker starts catching up to the Gloom Stalker after Lv. 11.

Great list! And good despite that I haven't seen the other videos leading up to it yet. Wondering where the adorably generous edgelord Bloodhunter would rank. Alongside my beloved tool-monkey misfit Artificer and the super-versatile, super-interesting Fighter (how anyone calls this class "boring" is beyond me), they are the three classes I find myself having to make up excuses not to take just so that I don't have all my characters end up too similar. Then again I single-class roughly as often as I enthusiastically take Find Traps so, maybe I'm a bit of a skewed weirdo to judge such things. :)

I realized I never brought up the question which might change this tier list a lot. Does this tier list take feats into account?

Can you do a video on resource attrition in 5th Edition? Since your top classes primarily includes spellcasters, I feel you should give some thoughts on what players believe is the main reason why martials keep up. Of course assuming there is a 6-8 encounter day coming.

I played a Bard to level 6 (before the campaign folded); and in two different campaigns, I had two different Bards, who both got to around level 6 before they died and decided to make a new character rather than get a Resurrection (I guarantee Resurrection for any PC a player wants to keep). A big issue they all had, was the lack of any decent Attack cantrip... my Bard used a crossbow most of his time, as that d4 damage on Cutting Words isn't very enticing... (my two players took Feats to get Eldrich Blast/Firebolt).

Monks need some love in this edition, after having played a slightly broken monk in d&d 3.5 (combined with a dash psionicist to inrease size/damage die), I find them really lackluster now. My quick fix would be to let them flurry without using KI points, but the KI point maximum (or current KI points) determines how many times they can use it in one encounter.

Trickery is really solid for its spells. But I would also toss Forge domain into the ring, (particularly where most games occur). Having spells like Identify, heat metal, and animate objects allows for some excellent versatility both in and out of combat. The bonus to AC and immunity to fire damage, up there with poison as the most common elemental damage type is simply phenomenal for making sure you can wade into combat and be that front line support/bruiser. Finally for low level games, having access to the ability to just make any weapon or armor you come across a +1 is so powerful. It is the easiest way to just start any campaign at level 1 with a magical weapon for you or for you most adept martial player. (channel divinity is also really solid with nearly limitless potential, but open to dm interpretation, which means your mileage may vary)

You should make a tier list for your varaint classes - really put your rebalancing to the test. (Personally, I think you definitely helped push everything up towards at least B tier)

I checked out your Forge Build Cleric. He is my first roleplaying character ever, and having a blast. The lvl 1 19 AC is just so good at the beginning. My character seems powerful, and the RP for me is top tier. Dwarf Forge Cleric is like the perfect combo.

I dunno, level 1 wizard gets sleep, which is pretty much the best level 1 damage spell in the game.

Creativity challenge. You should join me for my "Let's Party" where I discuss the viability of a full party of a single class.... for the monk.

I know Way of the Shadow Monk brings spellcasting into the table, but do you really consider it better than Way of the Long Death? I'm currently playing one and it is the best Monk subclass, for me, by far. With Flurry of Blows, It's easy to 'pick' on low health targets to keep your Temporary HP maxed (even more so if you, like me, play a non-Good Protector Aasimar Monk, that can apply his level to the damage dealt on one hit each one of your turns). You have a fear area of effect that doesn't have costs and if the target succeeds, he still can be affected. You can easily move around the battlefield to avoid targetting enemies and it has a lot of roleplay purpose. And you can spend one ki point to avoid death. Of course you shouldn't rely on this every round, or it will drain your ki point, but with your mobility it is easy to run away, drink a potion and go back into combat, in a scenario where other classes would've just fallen down. Touch of the Long Death is just the icing on the top, a weaker quivering palm, but you can adjust the damage on how much you want to spend. You can't cast spells as way of shadows can, but shadows spellcasting is rather poor. I don't think it is worth the cost. Curious to know what you think about it. Thanks in advance!

Glad to see Bard and Druid near the top of the list

If your in a game where blood hunter is allowed where would it fall in this list by your way of thinking

Wizards are so versatile, too. You can make almost any kind of character out of a Wizard.

I do like that the druid is up there because I have played a druid that I still play today from Level one all the way to level 20 now granted I didn't pack the moon Druid or the Druid of the shepherd I just went standard with the land druid but even then I've been able to hold my own against so many foes. And even at times when the fighters are out front taking on the enemies and I'm in the back healing them at times and supporting them with animals I can still throw some pretty damage and spells out there and it will actually work and help out. One of my favorites is bones of the Earth a really good spell to use. You pretty much summon six pillars they can do one D6 bludgeoning damage and if the person fails on their deck save they're going to take that full damage and they're going to get pinned down to the ground by all the pillars. Granted it has to come out of a stone surface that could be big enough to have a stone pillar come out of it but still it works. That and since I went with the mountain because of the land Druid I also get lightning bolt one of my most favorite spells that I use that can deal a lot of damage if I put time and effort into it. The race I picked for it was the kobold I would say probably not the greatest race for a druid spell caster but he's lived for over a whole year and has gone against things like the tarrasque and even demon gods and devil gods so yeah a druid can still be very useful. Even at those late games

love your videos man I rate Vengeance Paladin higher then Conquest on account of three thing. 1) Vow of Enmity 2) Better Spell list 3) Better Flavor

Thanks

Is Echo Knight that good? It seems solid but I don't see how it outshines the Battle Master. It gets a few extra bonus action attack every long rest but this is a fighter who already gets a bunch of attacks. It can take a hit for you once. It has one hit point so any saving throw that halves the damage will still kill it forcing you to use your bonus action to summon it again. I am assuming flanking isn't the reason because that is a variable rule. You can teleport with it but I see that as utility and not damage. Battlemasters can impose advantage and affect and move the enemy and add damage. Echo Knight let's you Nightcrawler around and hit a little more.

Is this like an average over all subclasses type of deal? A hexblade is clearly in the top tier over all possible subclasses, the undying warlock, probably bottom tier. is this more about the base class itself? For instance I wouldn’t put the battle Smith in D tier, but I’d be tempted to keep the artificer as a whole where you placed it. It depends on definition.

I wonder where you'd put Blood Hunter on this list

If the Max level was 12, would you change any position?

I think people underestimate Draconic Sorcerers. Specialized elemental damage may be less versitile, but they also get that extra armor that most pure casters don't. Having an AC of up to 18 without armor isn't anything to sneeze at, especially considering the elemental resistance and damage output. If you take the Elemental Adapt feat for your chosen element, you ignore resistance and do consistently more damage than even an evocation wizard. Plus at later levels you get a flying speed without using a spell slot, which is extremely useful. The only downside is that they are overspecialized for damage, and certain enchanted cloaks can make the AC redundant. All of that AND sorcery points put it way above the other in my personal opinion.