Personal Tier List just based on power scaling, based on Tactician difficulty since anything that slaps on the highest difficulty will destroy lower difficulties even easier…
Class Tier List
S Tier
S Tier: These ones can be run pure with no dips and handle all the content thrown at them
Battlemaster Fighter. Even without multiclassing this one just destroys things. Combine this with warpriest cleric for more attacks per round plus some utility spells and you’re just a walking/leaping juggernaut of a blender.
Pact of the Blade Warlock. Super potent all on it’s own with the ability to use any melee weapon in the game without issue. Also pairs INCREDIBLY well with Paladin, giving insane burst damage potential with the Hex + Smite combo.
Open Palm Monk. Incredibly economical AC tank, very similar to the battle master fighter but it doesn’t really completely pop off into loony tunes power until level 9, but you can basically all but literally OMAE WA SHINDERU DES people at that point, and your class resource regens on short rests. Also has really good multiclass potential with Clerics, Barbarians, and Rogues since it shares either a beneficial class feature with those or a primary/secondary stat with them. Thief Rogue + Monk = an extra bonus action and stealth potential, Cleric + Monk = Support spells (Taking even a one level dip just so you can have Shield of Faith means you can have AC as high as 24-26 depending on conditions and basically be invulnerable to anything but critical hits) Barbarian + Monk gives access to the rages and an extra attack. The monk just has so much potential and basically can fight naked, so you save tons of gold gearing them up.
Bard. It’s just a sorcerer but better in every way.
A Tier
A Tier: Can be run pure but fall behind S tier without dipping
Barbarian(s). Just straight solid from start to finish, they only lose out to S tier because battlemaster fighter exists. Kinda plateaus in power around level 5, but it never falls off or gets actively worse.
Shadow Monk. This is what Thief and Assassin Rogues wish they could be. With a bit of patience, you absolutely can solo entire encounters with stealth cheese, and can have ridiculous AC values to boot if you do get caught out.
Paladin(s). These things are the tactical nukes of this game. When they hit things with their full potential, they ANNIHILATE whatever they’re hitting. However, they can only do a handful of times before needing a long rest since they rely entirely on their smites. While you can absolutely run a pure paladin from start to finish, these things experience a massive power boost by dipping in to literally any other caster class that gets more spell slots per level than the paladins do. Sorcerer and Warlock are popular choices since they all share the CHA stat as their primary stat, but don’t discount Clerics either, as they have some synergy that can allow the paladin to 1 turn delete nearly every boss in the game if you’re willing to blow those spell slots.
Wizards. Evocation is clearly the best type, but the others are good enough as well. They are also the ONLY class that uses INT as it’s primary stat, so you can cover the INT based skill checks much easier than others, some of which can be important. Their real strength is in their versatility of spells and spell slot regeneration. Metamagic just doesn’t compare to the sheer range of spells you can equip yourself with on a whim.
B Tier
B Tier: Usable / useful with dips
Pact of Tome/Chain Warlocks. The pet from chain is basically relegated to imp and only imp since it has free ambush potential and flight, but it falls off as the game goes on. Tome is just kinda superfluous, if you want more spell variety, just roll a wizard.
Sorcerer. All fireballs, all upcast, all the time! No exceptions! This one loses out to Wizard in terms of utility and spell options, and loses out super hard to the Bard since they’re both CHA casters, but the bard gets better support utility with their bardic inspirations, and better spell selection. I’ve also almost NEVER used metamagic except for the range increasing ones a handful of times. Metamagic is generally too niche (Twin spell barely works with ANYTHING) for the cost associated, especially with wild magic where you can use those points to get your allies free re-rolls. Works best if you dip into other CHA classes. Dragon blood sorc is also great for gish builds thanks to it’s native AC buff.
Clerics. Note a lot of up front damage potential, but lots and lots of utility and healing. Unfortunately, since you can just smash your dudes in the face with healing potions, and the fact that bards also get healing powers AND a once per long rest free short rest power, clerics support abilities aren’t really enough to keep up with the dedicated blasters and smashers on their own.
C Tier
C Tier: Falls off as the game goes on, used as dips instead of pures
Thief and Assassin Rogues. Thief Rogue is the best and will carry itself fine up to about level 6 or 7, and then the lack of action economy quickly causes it to become a liability in combat. Assassin is just a worse version of thief where all of it’s power is frontloaded in the first round or two of combat.
Ranger. The tabletop version of the ranger was notoriously underpowered, even AFTER the supposed fixes. Larian tried to buff the class and to their credit, they did… But it STILL wasn’t enough to get it more than a single shift in the rankings. They’re a rogue with a pet, a pet that has extremely limited utility outside the few top tier choices you get.
F Tier
F Tier: Classes that become a liability, limited dip potential
Druids. Wildshapes fall off too hard, and everything else they can do other classes do better by a longshot.
Arcane Trickster Rogue. This one got massacred by Larian from it’s EA days where it would have been A or S tier easily, all due to the changes to Ghost Hand being a cantrip that recharges on short rest. This was the bread and butter AT Rogues used to set up their shenanigans, but now their one trick is ruined. *** Larian, the whole point of cantrips is that they’re free to use as much as you want! Otherwise it’s not a cantrip!
Eldritch Knight. This is the only class to suffer from MAD like monks used to in 3.5. They need INT, they need STR, and they need CON, with a bit of DEX for initiative, but this game is so stingy with the stat points that in order to run an eldritch knight at all you’ve got two options: Forgo INT and focus only on buff/support magic for yourself since you won’t be able to do much damage/hit anything with spells without the INT, or get that circlet that sets your INT to 17 and literally wear that the entire game. They’re the D&D equivalent to mid-2000’s hybrid cars: They aren’t a car, they’re a compromise-mobile that does two jobs crappy instead of one job well. A good caster does not need a melee weapon or heavy armor to be powerful, and a good fighter doesn’t need spells to slice and crush your enemies.
Trash Tier
Trash Tier: Absolute garbage, never use these, you will not have a fun time, why does this exist?
Champion Fighter. Dear God in heaven I pity the person who plays as a champion fighter. This class. This *** class. It is so awful. The best feature it gets is also the first feature it gets, which is that it can crit on a 19 and a nat 20. That’s it. You know what else it gets? Level 7 – Remarkable Athlete: Proficiency (Subclass Feature)
Level 7 – Remarkable Athlete: Jump (Subclass Feature).
That’s… That’s it. That’s all they get. And those features are diaper fire bad. Why did Larian waste their time and resources putting this in the game? It’s boring and bad on the tabletop, literally nobody likes champion fighters. They’ve been a joke since 5e was released, and they continue to be a joke in BG3. God I hate this class so much, it wasn’t enough that it’s bad and gets zero redeeming features or interesting abilities, but worse still it’s BORING. It is every bad thing people have ever said about Fighters in D&D ever. I could write an entire diatribe three times the length of this post espousing my disgust and hate for Champion Fighters, THAT is how bad it is.
I am still learning the game. But I am playing bard and it is surprise that he is on top of your list.
He can do much as talker/disarmer but in fight he lack dps. Maybe I am doing something wrong but I think there isnt in BG3 for bard option to build him as Swashbuckler. (high dodge, rapier, buckler, good dps)
From my experience I would put on top barbarian that really shine as dps. But I can imagine that pally build can be mix of bard and barbarian because of higher charisma.
Casters is hard to judge because there are many limiting factors in game (like concentration mechanics and put on/off certain spells). But putting sorc 3 levels ahead of wizard smells. I didnt rolled sorc yet but if he can refill spells after short rest as warlock than I understand your conclusion. But wizard can swap spells any time except when in combat that makes him very usefull but having that full potencial unlocked cost lot of gold. I pretty much dont understand all game mechanic yet. But if picking school specialise on wizard affecting only price of learned spells from scrolls and not DC than its very stupid from Larian.