Dungeons And Dragons Classes Fourth Edition Classes / Characters

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This is the character sheet for classes Dungeons & Dragons introduced during its 4th Edition. Go to Dungeons & Dragons Classes if you want to check out the classes introduced in other editions.

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Ardent

The ardent is a Psionic Leader from the Player's Handbook 3. The ardent's psionic powers revolve predominantly around the themes of empathy and telepathy, allowing them to manipulate the emotions and minds of their enemies and their allies in battle.

The Empath: The predominant motif of the ardent is manipulating emotions. Enemies are hindered by plaguing them with guilt, fear, doubt and rage; allies are bolstered with courage, confidence, hope and joy.
More than Mind Control: Ardents have some telepathic skills as well, but predominantly they use emotional manipulation to attack their foes.
Psychic Powers: The source of their combat effectiveness.
Your Mind Makes It Real: Half of an ardent's attacks are rooted in the target's own mind. The other half is typically rooted in the great big weapon the ardent is hitting them with.

Artificer

The artificer is an Arcane Leader from the Eberron Player's Guide. These mages specialise in "imbuing" temporary enchantments into physical objects or other people. Even spells that don't directly enhance armor or weapons still use a physical object as the source for a spell to, for example, create a burst of electrical energy.

Science Hero: In a way, they are fighting monsters, evil mages and other enemies with items they have engineered for themselves.

Assassin

The assassin is a Shadow Striker from Dragon Magazine. They are similar to the Assassins of 3.5 in that they are differentiated from regular Rogues by having access to magical powers; 4e Assassins use shadow magic to enhance their stealth and to attack their foes.

Casting a Shadow: The reason why they are a "Shadow" class is because they can literally control darkness to attack their enemies or aid themselves.
Master Poisoner: The Assassin gets some powers based on using poison; the Executioner "sub-class" for Essentials relies upon using different kinds of poison for its attacks.

Executioner (Assassin)

The executioner is a Martial and Shadow Striker sub-class of the assassin from Dragon magazine and Heroes of Shadow. It differs from the standard assassin by not having attack powers (except for certain weapons), instead using only basic attacks modified by powers and poisons.

Avenger

The avenger is a Divine Striker from the Player's Handbook 2. Avengers are described as being practicioners of strange, cult-like variants of mainstream religions, giving them access to divine powers that regular Clerics don't possess. They often serve as assassins, executioners or special agents for their faith — and not always with the blessing of their patron god's mainstream church.

BFS: As strikers, avengers prefer to wield double-handed weapons for maximum damage. Swords are favored, but hammers, axes and various big hurty things also get their look in, depending on an avenger's personal faith.
Church Militant: The role of the avenger is typically to hunt down and destroy enemies of the faith, while the cleric's is to heal and lead the faithful and the paladin's is to defend the faithful.
Holy Hand Grenade: The avenger's role is to be a living one of these, using the most offensive array of divine powers to slay the enemies of their church.

Barbarian

The barbarian is a Primal Striker from the Player's Handbook 2. Savage, brutal warriors from the wilderness, barbarians eschew armor in favor of endurance and agility, calling upon the primal spirits of their tribe to possess their bodies and imbue them with supernatural powers in the form of "rages".

Animal Battle Aura: A common effect, as their big powers revolve around letting spirits, including animal totems, possess them.
The Berserker: Made more fantastical by having their berserk rages A: stem from spirit possession, and B: grant them magical powers, like being surrounded by burning flames.
Dual Wielding: The "Twinclaw" path for the barbarian focuses on wielding two weapons at once.
Nature Hero: By way of drawing magical powers from the spirits of nature.
Throwing Your Sword Always Works They have a feat for throwing swords and other not-made-to-be-thrown weapons.

Berserker (Barbarian)

A Martial/Primal Defender/Striker introduced in Heroes of the Feywild.

The Berserker: They're barbarians who really like their rage.
Jackof All Stats: A reasonably good Defender, and a pretty decent Striker.
Turns Red: When bloodied, the go into an Unstoppable Rage.

Bard

The bard is an Arcane Leader from the Player's Handbook 2. Bards use the inherent magic of stories, songs, music and dance to achieve a wide variety of effects. They specialise in demoralising their foes and bolstering their allies.

The Bard: They previous editions, they are an arcane spellcaster who works through songs and performances.
Magic Music: Singing or playing an instrument to cast magic.
Music for Courage: Bardic inspiration.
Wandering Minstrel: A bard adventurer is one of these, traveling to collect songs or perform in far off places.

Skald (Bard)

The skald is an Arcane and Martial Leader sub-class of the bard from Heroes of the Feywild.

Battlemind

The battlemind is a Psionic Defender from the Player's Handbook 3. These psionic characters channel raw psychic energy through their bodies, weapons and armor to achieve spectacular feats of martial skill; the flashiest psionic powers allow them to transform their very bodies.

Chrome Champion: They can transform their bodies into things like iron.
Flash Step: The signature technique of the Harrier path for battleminds, and they have a number of generalist powers that allow this to be pulled off.
Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It's noted in the Psionic Power splat that many battleminds actually don't realise their powers are magical in nature until and unless someone more knowledgeable points it out, instead chalking their spectacular feats up to "luck" and "skill".
Psychic Powers: They have psionic power. They battle with their mind.

Cleric

The cleric is a Divine Leader from the Player's Handbook. Ceremonially invested with a connection to the Astral Sea, clerics draw upon divine powers to aid their allies and impair their enemies.

Combat Medic: The best class in the game at healing, but also heavily armored and quite adept at cracking skulls in his own right.
Energy Weapon: A cleric who chooses mostly ranged, radiant damage prayers is known as a "laser cleric", because he or she basically runs around throwing beams of energy to hurt his enemies.
Light Is Not Good: Even evil-aligned clerics tend to focus on radiant damage. One recommended houserule for evil clerics in the dungeon master's guide lets them use necrotic damage in place of radiant.
Holy Hand Grenade: Holy magic as usual.
Technical Pacifist: With the Pacifist Cleric feat, a cleric who damages a bloodied enemy becomes stunned. Using a non-damaging power that lowers defenses or creates vulnerability is fine.
Turn Undead: Repeling undead creatures is still a feature.

Warpriest (Cleric)

The warpriest is a Divine Leader sub-class of the cleric from Heroes of the Fallen Lands. It differs from the standard cleric by having specific domains as class features (and not having Turn Undead).

Druid

The druid is a Primal Controller from the Player's Handbook 2. Druids communicate with the primal spirits of plants and animals, and have a deep personal connection to a greater spirit known as the Primal Beast, which allows them to assume all manner of bestial or monstrous forms. Some druids even master the art of assuming the forms of swarms of creatures.

Summon Magic: Some druids can summon animal spirits to fight at their sides.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: The class feature of the druid, with one path (the "Swarm Druid") differentiated because of his ability to become a swarm of creatures.

Sentinel (Druid)

The sentinel is a Primal Leader sub-class of the druid from Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. It differs from the standard druid by being a melee weapon-user, and having an animal companion based on a season chosen as a class feature.

The Beastmaster: A subclass of the druid that can command animals.
Bond Creature: They get one animal companion based on a chosen season.

Protector (Druid)

A Primal Controller reminiscent of the Wizard. Introduced in Heroes of the Feywild.

Fighter

The fighter is a Martial Defender from the Player's Handbook. Specializing in all kinds of armor and weapons, fighter paths mostly differ depending on what array of equipment they prefer;

Badass Normal: Fighters explicitly have no magic whatsoever... and can stand up and kick ass just as much as any magic-user ever could.
The Berserker: The Battlerager Fighter Build, from Martial Power, is similar in style to the barbarian.
Charles Atlas Superpower: Though their powers are explicitly not magical in nature at all, fighters can still pull off superhuman feats by virtue of "training hard".
Combat Pragmatist: The Brawler Fighter Build, from Martial Power 2
Dual Wielding: The Tempest Fighter Build, from Martial Power
The Grappler: Brawler Fighters fight with one hand unarmed to allow them to grapple with foes, pulling all sorts of wrestling moves on them.
Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The Guardian Fighter Build, from the Player's Handbook
Made of Iron: All Fighter builds have high hp, but especially the Battlerager Build where many of their attacks can gain them temporary hp or have additional effects when the fighter has Temp hp.

Knight (Fighter)

The knight is a Martial Defender sub-class of the fighter from Heroes of the Fallen Lands. It differs from the standard fighter by not having attack powers, instead using only basic attacks modified by stances and powers.

Slayer (Fighter)

The knight is a Martial Striker sub-class of the fighter from Heroes of the Fallen Lands. It differs from the standard fighter by not having attack powers, instead using only basic attacks modified by stances and powers (and being primarily a Striker instead of a Defender).

Bow and Sword in Accord: Due to the slayer's use of basic attacks and high Dexterity, they can do this better than other fighters.

Invoker

The invoker is a Divine Controller from the Player's Handbook 2. Possessing a direct connection to astral power and the gods by nature instead of by investiture, with example reasons including being chosen by a god or having divine lineage, invokers are often at odds with the other Divine classes and especially established churchs, who view them as dangerous outsiders and potential heretics as often as they view them as messiahs and chosen ones.

Bolt of Divine Retribution: Several powers have you calling down your god's fury on your opponents.
The Heretic: May be viewed as one for eschewing the church for a more direct connection to the deity.
Mission from God: And not the church, which is what separates Invokers from Clerics and Avengers.
Summon Magic: The only Divine class which has access to powers of calling other creatures for aid.

Monk

The monk is a Psionic Striker from the Player's Handbook 3. Monks channel their psychic powers through their bodies through combat training, learning to turn their bodies into psychically imbued weapons and perform superhuman feats. As they gain in skill, they also learn to expel that energy for more explicitly supernatural powers, such as hurling blasts of energy.

Fragile Speedster: Monks aren't good at wearing armor and they have low health, but they are amongst the most mobile classes.
In a Single Bound: The monk has a lot of techniques that include leaping ridiculous distances.
Invulnerable Knuckles: A monk's path feature is that their unarmed hands are valid weapons. This means a monk can punch to death things like living statues of solid metal without breaking their hands.
Psychic Powers: The source behind their "ki powers" is their mind.
Supernatural Martial Arts: Justified by the fact that they're psionic.
Warrior Monk: While the monk is not necessarily religious, Religion is a monk class skill, and training in it is a prerequisite for the Radiant Fist paragon path, which is particularly Divine.

Paladin

The paladin is a Divine Defender from the Player's Handbook. Divorced from their traditional restraints of Character Alignment must always be Lawful Good, 4e Paladins are the armored defenders of the faiths... All faiths. Meaning that paladins of gods like Melora, Asmodeus and Gruumsh are all perfectly valid in 4th edition.

Blackguard (Paladin)

The blackguard is a Divine (with some Shadow) Striker sub-class of the paladin from Heroes of Shadow. It is more similar to the cavalier, but chooses a vice instead of a virtue.

Dark Is Not Evil: Unaligned Blackguards with the Domination vice may be hard-assed Knight Templars, but they're not hypocrites and usually focus on clearly evil threats by default. Blackguards with the Fury vice can even be Good (though not Lawful Good), reserving their rage for foes that well and truly deserve to be torn apart.

Cavalier (Paladin)

The cavalier is a Divine Defender sub-class of the paladin from Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. It differs from the standard paladin by having specific virtues as class features.

Psion

The psion is a Psionic Controller from the Player's Handbook 3. The "purest" psyker, psions use telepathic and telekinetic powers to attack multiple foes at once. Some psions are actually capable of manifesting their thoughts as reality, becoming what are called "Shaper" build psions.

Crystal Ball: One of the Implements they can use for their psyker talents is a classic crystal sphere.
Mind Control: The Telepathic build, of course, will bend the minds of their targets.
Mind over Matter: Telekinetic Build.
Squishy Wizard: Like the traditional Wizard, they have lousy armor and health, but dramatically supernatural powers.
Summon Magic: The Shaper build functions like this, in that it creates objects and creatures from the psion's thoughts to do the psion's will.
Telepathy: Telepathic Build.

Ranger

The ranger is a Martial Striker from the Player's Handbook. A lightly armored warrior, the ranger focuses on offense and manueverability to defeat its foes. Some go to battle alongside a bestial battle companion, some are master archers, some favor melee and ranged combat equally, others wield two weapons.

Badass Normal: Like all Martial types, Rangers have no inherently magical powers, but can keep up with psychics, god-touched, mages and all the other mystics.
The Beastmaster: The Beastmaster Build from Martial Power. Possible beasts they can fight alongside include giant spiders, giant snakes, wolves/hunting dogs, big cats, bears and hawks.
Bow and Sword in Accord: The Hunter Build from Martial Power 2
Dual Wielding: Two-Blade Build.
Forest Ranger: This is literally the archetype that Rangers draw from; they are rangers and they are familiar with forests.
Nature Hero: Downplayed; Rangers are adept at surviving in the wilderness, but they don't have the minor druidic spells and magical abilities of past editions.

Hunter (Ranger)

The hunter is a Martial and Primal Controller sub-class of the ranger from Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. It differs from the standard ranger by not having attack powers, instead using only basic attacks modified by powers.

Scout (Ranger)

The scout is a Martial and Primal Striker sub-class of the ranger from Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. It differs from the standard ranger by not having attack powers, instead using only basic attacks modified by powers.

Rogue

The rogue is also a Martial Striker from the Player's Handbook. They rely on surprise attacks and agility to avoid damage while dishing it out, and excel at crippling their foes to impair their ability to fight on.

Disc-One Nuke: Base weapon damage is ~1d6+6 (assuming Dex of 18 and short sword). Ambush/Tactical trick grants combat advantage in most situations allowing sneak attack (3d6+6). If you take Surprising Charge feat, +1d6. This alone bloodies a single target making it easy for cleanup - or on a critical hit, either does a One-Hit Kill or brings down to a sliver of health. You may even throw in backstab for a better chance to hit and additional damage. While highly damaging in normal play, experienced GMs can counter this tactic by using minions.
Master Poisoner: The Master Of Poisons paragon path.

Thief (Rogue)

The thief is a Martial Striker sub-class of the rogue from Heroes of the Fallen Lands. It differs from the standard rogue by not having attack powers, instead using only basic attacks modified by tricks and powers.

Runepriest

The runepriest is a Divine Leader from the Player's Handbook 3. They use ancient runic sigil patterns, remants from the creation of the world, to call upon the powers of the gods and manifest spectacular effects.

Carry a Big Stick: "Wrathful Hammer" runepriests gain proficiency in military hammers and maces.
Heroes Prefer Swords: The "Serene Blade" build focuses on sword skills for daring deeds.
Instant Runes: The basic nature of their class; they sketch a rune on an item or in the air, and the rune instantly manifests as their power brings it into being.

Seeker

The seeker is a Primal Controller from the Player's Handbook 3. Empowered by the primal spirits to seek out and slay the enemies of the world, the seeker's weapons are conduits to the spirit world

Decomposite Character: In previous editions of the game, rangers were considered to be "mostly martial" characters who nonetheless were tied to the wilderness closely enough to perform some minor druidic magic. In 4e, the ranger was stripped of its magic and left as simply a skilled scout-type warrior. Seekers were born out of the "warrior druid" aspect left behind, focusing entirely on their combination of hunting-style weaponry skills and their magical connection to the Primal Spirits.
Nature Hero: They're a member of the Primal power source, meaning their powers stem from the animistic Primal Spirits, which are the embodiments of nature.
Trick Arrow: Any projectile or throwing weapon used by a seeker can channel a spirit in it, allowing it to perform all manner of strange effects. These include turning blood into acidic slime, making barbed vines sprout from the victim's body, and dissolving in mid-flight into a ravenous swarm of flesh-eating locusts that start gnawing their way into the target.

Shaman

The shaman is a Primal Leader from the Player's Handbook 2. Blessed with the truest connection to the spirit world, shamans are intermediaries between mortals and the spirits. Accompanied by a powerful totem spirit ally, shamans call upon the spirits to empower their allies.

Bond Creature: The "spirit companion" class feature is the center of a shaman's offensive skills and many spells.

Sorcerer

The sorcerer is an Arcane Striker from the Player's Handbook 2. Possessing an innate affinity for raw, wild magic, sorcerers unleash devastating surges of arcane power. Sorcerers are defined by the type of magic that resonates with their soul; dragons, chaos, storms and cosmic energy.

Black Mage: This is the basic role of the Sorcerer, and distinguishes them from the 4e Wizard. Whilst they have their own utility spells, a sorcerer's primary focus is one vaporizing individual targets to small clusters of targets with lots of elemental damage.
Breath Weapon: Many Dragon Magic powers are described as firing from the caster's mouth; dragon, you know.
Glass Cannon: As both an Arcane class (who have a tendency to be Squishy Wizards) and a Striker class (who, likewise, trade high damage output for low defenses), the Sorcerer is one of the frailer 4e classes. The fact two of its subclasses rely heavily on Constitution helps mitigate this somewhat.
In the Blood: One possible origin for a sorcerer's powers is dragon blood in their lineage.
Winds of Destiny, Change!: A variant of the Chaos Sorcerer called the Luckbender was introduced in Dragon magazine. Handled as an assortment of new spells and a Paragon path, Luckbenders specialize in manipulating probability, giving them greater control over the normal "randomness" aspects of Wild Mages.
Wild Magic: The Wild Mage archetype of older editions appears as one of the default "subclasses" for the Sorcerer. Its subclass features are big on randomly generated effects, such as getting special bonuses when an attack roll is a natural 1 or a natural 20, and its associated powers tend to have different effects that trigger based on random criteria.

Swordmage

The swordmage is an Arcane Defender from the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide. Lightly armored, if at all, swordmages combine martial training with any sort of light blade or heavy blade weapon with arcane magic, channelling spells through their swords to create a wide variety of offensive techniques.

Fire, Ice, Lightning: They have other powers as well, but these are their main go-to elements for damaging opponents.
Genius Bruiser: They require a high Intelligence stat to function, like most Arcane characters, but their combat role is based on mixing it up in the melee.
Heroes Prefer Swords: You'll never guess what weapon swordmages favor. Seriously, because their class is keyed off of using "Light Blade" class weapons and "Heavy Blade" class weapons, it's just as viable for a swordmage to be wielding a scythe, glaive or khopesh as it is for them to carry a dagger or sword.
Magic Knight: They train with weapons while also studying magic. They are perhaps one of the purest examples of a "Gish" class to be made for D&D.
Squishy Wizard: Averted, at least in theory. They may be weaker than other Defenders, but they have the highest armor and health of the Arcane classes and their "Aegis" literally shields them from harm by boosting their Armor Class.
Teleport Spam: Not quite so adept at it as the Battlemind, but Swordmages get a lot of teleporting moves.

Warden

The warden is a Primal Defender from the Player's Handbook 2. Charged with defending the natural world from all who would despoil it, wardens allow primal spirits to use their bodies as a conduits to the physical world, allowing them to command nature around themselves or to shapeshift into inhuman, spirit-bestowed forms to do battle with.

Gaia's Vengeance: Their class fluff explains they have been empowered by the Primal Spirits to defend nature.

Warlock

The warlock is an Arcane Striker from the Player's Handbook. Forging bonds, voluntarily or otherwise, with all manner of strange and eerie entities, warlocks wield Black Magic as the most offense-orientated of the Arcane classes.

The Dark Arts: Warlock magic is considered strange and evil, and it tends to draw from sinister patrons that are at best amoral and at worst immoral.
Deal with the Devil: Literally, with the Infernal pact. Other choices include the Fey pact, Star pact, Dark pact (made with assorted shadowy entities) and Sorcerer-King pact.
Ironic Name: the literal etymology of the word "warlock" translates to "oathbreaker." In Dungeons & Dragons, maintaining one's pact is crucial to the class' power.
Star Power: Star Pact warlocks, who gain their powers by making a pact with an Eldritch Abomination that lives among the stars. The Master Of The Starry Night Paragon Path even learns to cut out the middle man and access the stars themselves.

Hexblade (Warlock)

The hexblade is an Arcane Striker sub-class of the warlock from Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. It differs from the standard warlock by having a melee weapon granted by its eldritch pact, making it similar to Elric of Melnibone.

Evil Weapon: According to one of the pacts.
- Infernal Pact gets the Blade of Annihilation, a BFS
- Star Pact gets the Starshadow Blade, a reskinned Bastard Sword.
- Gloom Pact uses the Scourge of Exquisite Agony.
- Fey Pact gets two: Either the Sword of the White Well or the Blade of Winter's Mourning.
Magic Knight: In contrast to the Swordmage, however, hexblades are kind of a Squishy Wizard version. They specialize in fighting with magical sword and wand akimbo, destroying foes with overwhelming magical force before they get hurt in turn.
- The "Knight" angle is played up with Fey Hexblades dedicated to the Lady of the White Well; the backstory for such a character is that they are a would-be suitor of the Lady, a cursed elven demigoddess, who she has gifted with her power via her enchanted blade that they might prove worthy of her heart and thus of freeing her.
Summon Magic: One thing that distinguishes Hexblades and Binders from the standard warlock is that they receive innate class features that allow them to summon magical monsters to aid them, with the precise monster depending on their pact.

Binder (Warlock)

The Binder is an Arcane and Shadow Controller Warlock subclass from Heroes of Shadow. It differs from normal Warlocks by being geared towards controlling the battle rather than dealing massive amounts of damage.

An Ice Person: At-will power slows opponents with cold.
Summon Magic: One thing that distinguishes Hexblades and Binders from the standard warlock is that they receive innate class features that allow them to summon magical monsters to aid them, with the precise monster depending on their pact.

Warlord

The warlord is a Martial Leader from the Player's Handbook.

Badass Normal: Like all Martial type classes, Warlords have no magical ability, but can mechanically keep up with any magical party member.
Boring Yet Practical: A Warlord is a sub-par fighter and a sub-par healer, but grants immense tactical advantages to the rest of the party - bonuses to initiative, extra moves, extra attacks. Great for the strongly teamwork-oriented player, but a poor choice for those who yearn to be The Hero. The saying is: "A barbarian hits you with his axe; a warlord hits you with his barbarian."
Genius Bruiser: Strength is required for many of their abilities, and many Warlords require Intelligence as their secondary attribute.
Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Somehow, without any knowledge of spells, a warlord can make his teammates move faster, attack more often, hit harder, and otherwise act exactly as if certain powerful magical enhancements had been applied to them. This is apparently through either sheer leadership skill (if favoring Charisma) or tactical genius (if favoring Intelligence).

Wizard

The wizard is an Arcane Controller from the Player's Handbook.

Bladesinger (Wizard)

The bladesinger is an Arcane Controller sub-class of the wizard from the Neverwinter Campaign Setting. In contrast to the Swordmage, which strives to be an equally adept master of magic and melee combatant, the bladesinger is a wizard first and foremost, just with some extra melee training.

Mage (Wizard)

The mage is an Arcane Controller sub-class of the wizard from Heroes of the Fallen Lands. It differs from the standard wizard by having schools of magic as class features.

Casting a Shadow: The Nethermancer school from Heroes of Shadow.
Necromancer: The other school from Heroes of Shadow focuses on the dead.
Playing with Fire: The Pyromancy School.

Witch (Wizard)

The witch is an Arcane Controller sub-class of the wizard from Heroes of the Feywild.

Vampire

Vampires. Obviously. A Shadow Striker class from Heroes Of Shadow.

Bare-Fisted Monk: Vampires are geared towards melee combat, and have literally no need to use weapons, as one at-will power (which doubles as a basic attack) does 1d10 damage at first level; this puts their basic damage on par with a fighter using a greatsword.
Blood Magic: The powers that cost them healing surges are flavoured as such.
Cast from Hit Points: Many of their powers become stronger if you sacrifice a healing surge.
Healing Factor: The only class that heals itself automatically. This means that anything that doesn't instantly kill them will just make them angry.
Lethal Joke Character: Very weak in combat, dealing lower damage than even the Assassin. Also, Healing Factor.
Our Vampires Are Different: Close-combat experts that develop magical powers which put the original Dracula to shame.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: They can turn into a bat.

Characters / Dungeons And Dragons Classes Fourth Edition Classes aka: Dungeons And Dragons Fourth Edition

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