#(spoiler alert: none of us are prepared for whatever travis has got up his sleeve)

[thevalleyisjolly]

D&D classes ranked by how much I’d love to see Travis to play them with his new PC:

#14. Barbarian [1/10]

He’s already played Grog, and Ashton’s in the party, so I personally don’t think there are a lot of places to take another barbarian right now (although I’m fully prepared to be surprised once again by Travis Willingham). 

#13. Warlock or Sorcerer (Tied) [1.5/10]

Warlock is another class that Travis has already explored pretty deeply with Fjord, and in terms of party balance, the party’s fairly charismatic already.  Sorcerer is the same in terms of balance, with the added factor of giving the party another squishy caster.

#11. Bard [3/10]

Pretty much the same reasoning as before with party balance, but a little higher up because Travis hasn’t played a bard before and that could be really interesting (really, Travis could do a great job with any of these classes).

#10. Cleric [4/10]

Under no circumstances will Matt allow a two-cleric party again, but given what we’ve seen of Macaroni Samsonite, Travis could absolutely rock a more martial cleric.  Actually, what are the odds on Travis being a troll again and pulling out Macaroni Samsonite as his next PC?

#9. Wizard [4.5/10]

A little higher up than sorcerer because party balance aside, I think that Travis could do amazing things with a wizard and it’d be a lot of fun to see him playing a high INT character.  The only reason I’m not personally putting it higher is because I think it makes the party a little too squishy, but hey, I’m sure Matt would find a way to balance things if Travis really wants to play a wizard.

#8. Blood Hunter [5/10]

I’m gonna be honest, I’m personally not super into blood hunters as a class which is why it isn’t higher up, but Order of the Lycan is pretty much Travis’ werewolf dream come true.

#7. Paladin [6/10]

I know Fjord was a paladin multi class, but I’d love to see a paladin starting class.  I’d also love to see someone play an Oathbreaker paladin someday, and I think Travis could take that to some really interesting places.

#6. Fighter [6.5/10] 

Sure, Bertrand was a fighter, but I raise you this: Eldritch Knight Travis or Echo Knight Travis (or a home-brew subclass by Matt!)  I also think the party’s got the magic side of things pretty well covered right now, and a more martial-focused class would help round things out a bit.

#5. Rogue [7/10]

Now, a rogue isn’t a guarantee that the party will be able to pick the lock on a door or sneak around quietly, but it sure couldn’t hurt to have one around.  I also feel like Travis is up to the challenge of taking a fairly common, somewhat stereotyped class, and doing something unique and interesting with it.  Vax and Vex and Nott were each very different explorations of their respective rogue subclasses, and as a biased rogue player myself, I think rogues are a great RP challenge in terms of building a unique character beyond the class.

#4. Monk [8/10]

Mechanically, I love monks.  That’s pretty much it, although after that incredible Earthbreaker Groon fight in Campaign 1 and Beau in pretty much all of Campaign 2, I also think it would be a lot of fun to see where Travis would take a monk.  

#2. Ranger or Artificer (Tied) [9.5/10]

5e rangers haven’t had the best reputation, but with the amount of work that’s been done since release and with the amount of home-brew this campaign, I’d love to see Travis take on a revamped ranger (and Laura piping up with reminders about Hunter’s Mark, oh how the tables have tabled).  Artificer would also be super fun as one of the few INT-based classes (let Travis play high INT characters!), and it’d occupy a really unique support niche in the party. 

What I also really love about these classes is that they allow the player to lean into different roles as they please - both rangers and artificers can, depending on the build, deal damage or cast spells or provide various types of support or even just serve as fairly sturdy secondary tank.  And that’s not even taking RP into account.  So there’s a lot of variety depending on how you want to customize the character, and given how versatile and optimal Fjord’s build ended up being, I think Travis could knock either of these classes out of the park.

#1. Druid [10/10]

Remember that C2 intro where Travis aimed a can of silly string at Matt and there was that fantastic moment in time when Matt realized that he was about to silly stringed right in the face?  Without even factoring in the player’s RP, druids as a class are a can of silly string to the DM’s plans, and Travis has such a great gift for finding that clear line of sight. 

Also, I’d love to see another druid interact with Fearne, because you either get 1) a less chaotic druid juxtaposed against Fearne as a kind of character foil, or 2) two really weird druids.  Either way, more Travis-Ashley interactions!