[Telelion]

What's the best class (for any definition of "best") you have ever seen in a MUD? I'm sure there's lots of good ones out there; please just take the time to justify your choice briefly.

For my money, Avendar's Void Scholar class is the best. The class depends on finding inscribing symbols and casting spells to summon an insane menagerie of hellish servants, each with its own horrifying description and widely diverse abilities. Adding to the mystique, each demon can only be summoned by a specific combination of factors, many of which can be discovered through well-hidden riddles in the game. The lore behind the class is breathtaking; I've never seen anything with comparable depth.

[KaVir]

Personally I think I'd probably nominate my dragon class as the "best capturing of an epic fantasy creature" within my mud. It includes chromatic, metallic, celestial and crystal dragons, hydra, wyverns, serpents, draconians and four types of dracolich (as well as human-form dragonriders and dragonslayers). You can customise your breath weapon and the colour of your scales, choose between land-, air- and water-based breeds, replace your scales with fur or feathers, collect a treasure hoard or wear barding, and wield draconic magic if you so desire. The class is flexible enough to let you design a wide range of characters based on well-known dragon concepts, including oriental dragons, sea serpents, Soletaken, Valheru, Quetzalcoatl, and so on. You can even begin play as a dragon hatchling (although not a full class, it has the same sort of feel on a smaller scale).

[MudMann]

For me it is always the ranger class.. ever since my early D&D days, I have always favoured them. I know its very generic.. but who cares.. sue me.

oh sorry.. I had to be specific in MUD's I have played..

ergggg.....

Well I suppose the rangers in Threshold had all the elements to make a great Ranger character... some of the players didnt quite get it (wheras some were awesome, such as Aldurin).. so yeah.. I will stick with that class. You had all the totems (limited.. but with so much potential), and ambushing skills, creeping around and hiding in the wilderness, could create customised wooden objects from whittling (an actual object that could be given to folks).. it was missing some of the more vital elements like combat animals / pets.. hunting for food.. ranged combat.. proper tracking.. but hey.. it was a while ago.. that could all be different now. You also had to work your arse off to get in.. could not just start as one, hence you really earned it

[Delerak]

Darksun campaign had a sorcerer class with defiling and preserving magic. I always favored it in terms of magic classes. Also there was a sorcerer-king class as well.

[prof1515]

What's the best class...?

Health 301: Elven Sexuality

Just kidding. When I played H&S, I tended to prefer simple classes. I found the crude mechanics of classes a bit annoying so I went with simplest forms. The basic Warrior/Thief/Cleric/Mage was preferable to a larger variety since inevitably on most MUDs they tended to be nothing more than combinations of these four. My preference of the four was Warrior because it was sufficient to solo and didn't require worrying as much about eq and stats (no mana consideration to account for). While Cleric and Mage spell use could be interesting at times, I avoided Thief classes altogether.

Ultimately I chose to play games that didn't restrict themselves to classes but to each their own.

Take care,

Jason

[valan]

Warrior is always my favorite class.

SMASH! BASH! KILL!

[Delerak]

Originally Posted by prof1515 Health 301: Elven Sexuality Just kidding. When I played H&S, I tended to prefer simple classes. I found the crude mechanics of classes a bit annoying so I went with simplest forms. The basic Warrior/Thief/Cleric/Mage was preferable to a larger variety since inevitably on most MUDs they tended to be nothing more than combinations of these four. My preference of the four was Warrior because it was sufficient to solo and didn't require worrying as much about eq and stats (no mana consideration to account for). While Cleric and Mage spell use could be interesting at times, I avoided Thief classes altogether. Ultimately I chose to play games that didn't restrict themselves to classes but to each their own. Take care, Jason

You bring up an interesting point. Games have slowly been starting to drift away from classes and doing their own thing. A prime example would be the popular Fable and Fable 2. Both use classless systems where you can customize what you do. Then again a game like Borderlands went ahead with character classes. Meaning the character you pick is the class you have to become. Kind of like Diablo where the only female character was the rogue.

I think players are starting to want customization over everything else though. Which is why GW 2 is so appealing. The only problem is the lack of plots and stories to satisfy those people that would want to utilize such a great coded system but not just for killing other players.

Do you think we're seeing the decline of the traditional "class" ?

[Saire]

I'd have to say my favorite was the Sage class on the MUD Evarayn that is no longer around. I'm forgetting a lot of it but... as a Sage you had the ability for "storytelling" which was really fun. You could tell a group of people a story as a form of entertainment within the game.. and you got exp for listening and telling. Also you could give out "benevolence" which saved the person once from death. Umm... oh yeah!!! I almost forgot.. how could I forget that... You could harvest herbs and plant them. Then make crystals out of them for healing purposes! I loved that part in Evarayn. It was simpler than most games I've seen that in and the process was lots of fun for making the crystals! Plus in Evarayn it was always a great way to make gold and then you can buy ships! Lots and lots of ships! .....

Yeah I miss that MUD....

Anyway that was the Sage class.

[MudMann]

Originally Posted by Delerak You bring up an interesting point. Games have slowly been starting to drift away from classes and doing their own thing. A prime example would be the popular Fable and Fable 2. Both use classless systems where you can customize what you do. Then again a game like Borderlands went ahead with character classes. Meaning the character you pick is the class you have to become. Kind of like Diablo where the only female character was the rogue. I think players are starting to want customization over everything else though. Which is why GW 2 is so appealing. The only problem is the lack of plots and stories to satisfy those people that would want to utilize such a great coded system but not just for killing other players. Do you think we're seeing the decline of the traditional "class" ?

I have tried several games that had this classless thing, but never quite got to grips with it. Bring in a class tends to define so many hidden 'mental' parameters on how you will play.

The new Dungeons and Dragons engine.. (v4?) like that used in Neverwniter Nights was interesting, you defined a broad class.. but then you could choose from a plethora of skills which could give your chracter a unique 'sub class' with 1000's of possible choices.

[Newworlds]

Originally Posted by Telelion What's the best class (for any definition of "best") you have ever seen in a MUD?

By far the Retter on New Worlds Ateraan.

[KaVir]

Originally Posted by Delerak Do you think we're seeing the decline of the traditional "class" ?

I think that classless and class-based represent two conceptual extremes, but that most real implementations fall somewhere between the two.

[Ghyath]

I always liked (sub)classes with option to specialize within the class without chance to maximizing all available options (which in result meant every character of given subclass was unique).
To be more exact, I liked Midnight Sun's Druid and Wu-jen/Vampire specialization of Tsunami.

[Milawe]

Garou from Darkwind! Great lore, fun powers, and shapeshifting.

[Anjanas]

I like the Wiccan on Lusternia.

[AldoRaines]

When the monk class is done properly, it can be a lot of fun to play.

On an old mud called Ebon Mists, the monk class would be encumbered by armor and weapons. The best method was to forgo armor other than neck/wrist/finger gear and get yourself a set of hand weapons that granted claws. Since the combat was based on a character speed system, you would often attack faster than most. The main tactic was to knock down an enemy and use one of many pounce attacks for various effects. It was as fun to play as it was simple.

[warkeolien]

My favorite class in a mud was Darkness Falls The Crusade's Zombie. It was immune to disease(zombies are maggot infested)/bleed(zombies dont have blood hehe), Could only be killed by magic, could pummel (attack that struck at a players health+fatigue) people unconsciousness. Regenerated about 1/6 of hitpoints+fatigue per tic, a tic being about 3 seconds.

[Tristan1992]

Whew.
Well on GateWay it was Ranger to be sure. Not standard rangers like on SillyMuds. GW Rangers get free Heart Bows which fire bolts of energy. The spells are also cool. Vortex hits all evil creatures but sometimes backfires and hits you. Jynx is neat too, it causes a monster to become jynxed so that all other monsters attack it. Rangers can only wear non-metallic armour which made finding the best stuff quite a challenge.
On the SillyMuds the best class was probably a toss up between Veggie Druids and Vampire Mages. Too much fun trying to either stay in or out of the sun respectively. Ratwere Mages were also cool. You had to eat Warpstone to regenerate your mana.

These classes sound much simpler than what some have posted. I guess I like them to have some complexity but not too much.