Most interesting DnD classes in 2023

Every Dungeons & Dragons adventure starts with the character creation.  The class you choose for the character will define them. That character will accompany you through the whole campaign, so it isn’t an understatement to say that choosing the class of your character is the most important decision you will have to make in a campaign.

Character creation isn’t that big of a deal in short campaigns, since they take only a few sessions to complete. However, more often than not, Dungeons & Dragons players embark on long campaigns that take over a year to complete. You might have an idea of what your character will look like after 20 sessions, but you will have to plan that build during character creation. If you are looking for inspiration, don’t worry, I have prepared some interesting builds for you.

Best D&D classes for beginners

The complexity of playing D&D is determined by the class you play. With that in mind, beginners should stick to classes that are simpler to play. I have seen many new players who don’t want to play a straightforward class and go for complex caster builds right off the bat. After a few sessions, they tend to start pulling their hair out while coping with their multiclass caster with metamagic feats. Trust me, you will have more fun if you avoid playing complex builds while learning how to play Dungeons & Dragons.

Every class can be fun to play because the fun in Dungeons & Dragons comes from roleplay and a good story. For example, fighter is the most straightforward class in D&D. If we determined classes for The Lord of the Rings characters, both Gimli and Boromir would be Fighters. If you don’t find Gimli and Boromir boring, you shouldn’t hesitate to play a simple D&D class.

Fighter

Because of their simple mechanics, fighters are one of the best classes for beginners. They are a durable front-line class that excels at tanking and dealing damage. A simple fighter build is straightforward; compared to any caster class, it is really hard to mess up when playing a Fighter.

I know I said Fighters are the simplest class in the game, but different subclasses add different levels of complexity. This means that with Fighter you can tailor the complexity of the class to fit your experience. The Champion subclass is the best choice for complete beginners, as it adds almost no complexity to the core class. 

Barbarian

Speaking of straightforward classes, Barbarians exist to jump into the middle of the fray and dish out damage. Barbarians aren’t known for versatility, they are good at one thing; standing at the frontline. Barbarians are perfectly equipped for facing the dangers on the frontline, so barbarian players should never hesitate to charge at enemies.

The biggest hit die in the game, coupled with Danger Sense and resistance to damage that comes from Reckless Attack makes barbarians one of the most durable classes in the game. Your enemies will have to worry about how to survive before considering how to take you down because raging barbarians with extra attack can deal a huge amount of damage. Barbarian’s simple but enjoyable mechanics make it an excellent class for new players.

Goliath Fighter Champion – A build for beginners

All fighters belong to one of the two groups; strength-based fighters and dexterity-based fighters. This build is a build for a strength-based fighter. The two main ability scores you will want to focus on are Strength and Dexterity. For this build, we are using a new race that came out in Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse; Goliath.  Goliaths add +2 to Strength and +1 to Constitution score, making them a great choice for strength-based fighters. Stone’s Endurance adds additional survivability to the fighter and helps him stand on the frontline with no fear of dying.

Athletics skill is the most valuable skill for fighters, so it is good that Goliaths start with athletics as a racial skill. Your other ability scores will be lowered, so you won’t be able to rely on other skills as much. Perception is always good to have in a party, pick it as one of your skills. For the third skill, we will take Survival.

Choose defense as a fighting style to further improve your survivability. Your starting equipment should consist of chain mail, a shield, and a one-handed martial weapon of your choice. With equipment and fighting style chosen, your Goliath Fighter is ready to smash some goblins.

Most interesting DnD class and race combinations

In Dungeons & Dragons, your character build starts with two things; race and class. You can considerably improve any class in D&D by a good choice of race. But sometimes, it isn’t fun to play optimized character and race combinations. After all, D&D is a game, so fun should take priority over character optimization. 

If you got bored by all the old race and class combinations, check out Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. The rulebook was released in May 2022 and brought new playable races to Dungeons & Dragons and updated some old ones. If you prefer getting inspiration for builds by watching other people play, there are excellent D&D streams on Youtube and Twitch.

Earth Genasi Armorer Artificer

Artificer is the newest class in D&D 5e added in Tasha’s Cauldron of everything. Depending on the subclass, the best races for artificer will vary. One thing common to all artificers is that they need high Intelligence and Constitution.

For this combination, we sacrifice Intelligence to create an Iron Man inspired spy. Armorer subclass will give Artificer an option to create infiltrator power armor. This model of armor removes the disadvantage on Dexterity (Stealth) check armor would normally impose. Earth Genasi can innately cast the Pass Without Trace spell, which adds +10 to Dexterity (Stealth) checks. With the right infusions, this class/race combination makes infiltrating even the most guarded locations a simple task.

Centaur Barbarian

When choosing a race, the two things barbarians need the most are Strength and Constitution increase. Barbarians that want to wield large two-handed weapons will want to avoid small-sized characters. Other than that, traits that work well with the usual barbarian strategy are always welcome.

Centaurs add +2 to your Strength and extra movement speed and Charge, which are both perfect for Barbarian strategy. This class race combination is perfect for those who enjoy crushing adversaries under centaur hooves and finishing them with a huge war axe.

Fairy Bard

Bard players will always be happy with races that increase their Charisma score. Constitution and Dexterity are the second two attributes to pay attention to. Beyond that, races with innate spellcasting and charisma-based skills you are missing are good choices for bards.

Fairy race lets you distribute two bonus points to one attribute and one to another attribute, or 3 points to three different attributes. In addition to attribute bonuses, Fairy will let your bard fly as long as they wear light armor. If you ever dreamed of playing a flying bard and buffing your allies from above, this is a class combination for you.

Duergar Monk

In D&D monks are nimble martial artists that rely on their fists in combat. Monks want to have high Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom.  Monks can benefit from innate spellcasting, but there aren’t many races with innate spells that work well with monk skillset.

One such race is Duergar, a race of dwarves from Underdark that developed psionic powers as a consequence of experiments mind flayers performed on them. Starting at the 3rd level, Duergars can cast the Enlarge/Reduce spell on themselves. Enlarge/Reduce will give your monk extra damage in precarious situations. The innate ability to cast invisibility can also come in handy.

Dragonborn Conquest Paladin

Paladins uphold justice and righteousness, but that doesn’t mean they have to be nice about it. Dragonborn Conquest Paladin relies on their menacing presence more than their sword to smite enemies down.

The most important element of this build is the combination of Aura of Conquest and Dragon Fear feat. Dragon Fear lets Dragonborn expand a use of a Breath Weapon trait to roar. When they roar, each creature within 30 feet that fails a Wisdom saving throw will be frightened for 1 minute. Aura of Conquest is a menacing aura that prevents all creatures that are frightened of you from moving and deals damage to them every turn. With this build, you will be able to walk into a group of enemies and defeat them with a single roar.

Fun DnD multiclassing combinations

Every class in Dungeons & Dragons has some innate weaknesses. One way to deal with such shortcomings is multiclassing. Multiclassing will let you take a level in multiple classes as long as you meet ability score prerequisites for each class.

Evocation Wizard / Artillerist Artificer

Wizards are powerful spellcasters, but they suffer from a lack of innate defense. The ideal class to fix this problem is artificer. Artificers are a versatile class, but they can be quite sturdy. They mix naturally with wizards, since both classes are intelligence-based.

In addition to survivability, artificer adds some useful features to Wizard. With the artillerist subclass, you can turn a wand, staff, or rod into an arcane firearm that is used as a conduit for your spells. Every spell you cast through an arcane firearm gets a d8 bonus to one of that spell’s damage rolls.

Paladin / Sorcerer

Both paladin and sorcerer are reliant on Charisma, which makes these two classes function well together. You can build this combination of classes in many ways. Paladin offers sorcerer additional durability, while sorcerer improves paladin’s spellcasting. The choice of the primary class in this combination will depend on what playstyle you want to adopt.

Any Barbarian / Echo Knight Fighter

This build needs three levels of fighter to work. All other levels can be used for leveling up your barbarian class. At 3rd level, echo knight fighter gets Manifest Echo ability. This ability will let you swap places with your echo, make your attacks originate from the echo, and most importantly, make additional attacks from your echo’s location. If you enjoy hitting your enemies with huge weapons but want to add a bit of trickery to a usually straightforward class, this multiclass is the way to go.  

Author - Ante Radoš