A well-rounded party of characters requires a variety of abilities offered by the classes found within the game.
[3][13] For example, the Samurai class introduced in the Oriental Adventures book may not make sense in a game set in a standard European-style realm.
Non-humans, on the other hand, can "multiclass" where they effectively learn two (and rarely even three) classes at the same time at the cost of slower level progression for that character.
The 3rd edition version of Unearthed Arcana includes rules for gestalt characters which combine the advantages of two classes.
[17][18][19] In the original Dungeons & Dragons boxed set, there are only three main classes: the Cleric, the Fighting man, and the Magic-User.
The first supplement, Greyhawk, added the Thief as a fourth main class, as well as the Paladin as a Fighting Man subclass.
These four fantasy gaming archetypes represent four major tactical roles in play: the Fighter offers direct combat strength and durability; the Thief offers cunning and stealth; the Cleric provides support in both combat and magic; and the Magic-User has a variety of magical powers.
The book also made changes to how the strength score of a character affects their chances to hit in combat and cause damage, as well as how much weight they can carry, and the roll to open doors successfully.
A higher intelligence score grants an increased chance for both knowledge of spells and ability to learn languages.
The Companion Set introduced four optional classes for high-level characters: the Avenger, Paladin, and Knight for Fighters, and the Druid for Clerics.
The Creature Crucible series (Tall Tales of the Wee Folk, Top Ballista, The Sea People, Night Howlers) is about other racial classes, and Gazetteer series includes many optional classes for humans and non-humans, including the shaman (GAZ12) and shamani (GAZ14).
Each of these groups has a "base" class which only requires at least a 9 in the "prime requisite" ability in Fighter, Mage, Cleric, and Thief; these were intended to be playable in any setting.
[15]: 84 The Dungeon Master's Guide clarifies the rationale behind the decision in a section on creating new character classes: What is a Viking but a fighter with a certain outlook on life and warfare?
A vampire hunter is only a title assumed by a character of any class who is dedicated to the destruction and elimination of those loathsome creatures.
The assassin, barbarian, and monk were re-implemented in such fashion (although some kits were expanded to full classes in supplements).
As an example, a specialty priest of Tempus, the god of war in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, can incite a berserker rage in allies and lacks the "only blunt weapons" restriction of normal clerics.
Many other sourcebooks introduced additional prestige classes, such as the Bladesinger in Tome and Blood; Blighter, Geomancer, Shifter, Verdant Lord in Masters of the Wild; Divine Champion in Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting; Cerebremancer and Elocater in Expanded Psionics Handbook; Fochlucan Lyrist in Complete Adventurer; and Chameleon in Races of Destiny.
Controllers focus on affecting multiple targets at once, either damaging or debuffing them, or altering the battlefield's terrain.
Strikers are focused on mobility, dealing heavy damage to single targets and avoiding attacks.
The optional prestige classes from earlier editions were replaced by paragon paths and epic destinies as methods of character customization.
For example, fighter paragon paths improve a character's toughness, resilience, or damage with melee weapons.
A common feature of an epic destiny is to allow characters to (usually once per day) return to life or otherwise continue to function after dying.
[30][31] The campaign setting book Eberron: Rising from the Last War (2019) introduced the Artificer as a new class for the edition;[32] it was later revised in the sourcebook Tasha's Cauldron of Everything (2020).
[citation needed] Christian Hoffer of ComicBook.com explained that in the original 5th Edition ruleset the Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, and Wizard classes gained "access to their subclass at either 1st or 2nd Level.
A large reason for this is how those classes are presented in the lore" such as the Cleric or Warlock respectively declaring their god or otherworldly patron at the first level.
[37] In SLUG Magazine's review of the 5th Edition Player's Handbook (2014), Henry Glasheen wrote: "I didn't feel like any race was unduly pidgeonholed into one class or another [...].
Wezerek wrote "When I started playing 'Dungeons & Dragons' five years ago, I never would have chosen the game's most popular match: the human fighter.
[48] On the 2024 5th Edition update to class progression, Christian Hoffer of ComicBook.com thought that "while subclass standardization might make sense from a rules and balance perspective, it does unfortunately rob some Dungeons & Dragons of some roleplaying flavor.
[35] Henry St Leger of GamesRadar+ opined that "the D&D rules revisions seem to be a net improvement to one of the best tabletop RPGs", however, he felt some classes lost "flavorful aspects" in exchange for "utility elsewhere".
He stated that "I'm hugely excited to try each of the revised classes for myself, and inevitably there were going to be losses alongside the many gains in this semi-new edition.