Whenever I have players create a new party, I ask for a first and second choice for character class. I tell everybody that I will try and give them their first choice, but for party balance reasons, they might get their second choice. I have yet to have any problems with party balance.
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Forked Thread: DM advise for an all-striker party?-Pushing/Forcing players into roles
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Nifft
Penguin Herder
My previous 3.5e game had no Cleric, Druid or Bard (or healer of any other type). They muddled through okay.
I'd honestly like to see an all-Striker party, to get an idea of what the other roles bring to the table. I'd like to see an all-Leader party for much the same reason.
IMHO it'd be an educational experience for everyone involved. So yeah, if it happens, I'd run with it. When PCs die, players may decide to change role -- but that's up to them. Having a balanced party isn't a guarantee of survival.
Cheers, -- N
I'd honestly like to see an all-Striker party, to get an idea of what the other roles bring to the table. I'd like to see an all-Leader party for much the same reason.
IMHO it'd be an educational experience for everyone involved. So yeah, if it happens, I'd run with it. When PCs die, players may decide to change role -- but that's up to them. Having a balanced party isn't a guarantee of survival.
Cheers, -- N
True, but it is a hedged bet.
I presented the idea differently to the group than as a balance motivation.
I said "Let's each take a different class and a different race so that we get a feel for how the game works."
This could have resulted in 3 strikers, but it ended up with 2 defenders, 1 controller, 1 leader, and 1 striker.
After a few sessions, one of the players (who is a school teacher and has the entire summer off to design a campaign) decided he wanted to try his hand as DM. I jumped at the chance to play. The player of the controller was not having as much fun, so he switched to a striker and I took a controller.
We now have 1 defender, 1 controller, 1 leader, and 2 strikers.
It has worked out real well, but the group became balanced not because that was our goal, but because we decided to each take a different race and class in order to more easily learn the game system.
If everyone is "forced" to take a different class instead of a different role (via group consensus), it might still result in a group without a leader. But, this is more of a "soft force" than a "hard force" and it will probably result in a reasonably balanced group nonetheless. The group might just be missing a role (or possibly two, but unlikely).
I said "Let's each take a different class and a different race so that we get a feel for how the game works."
This could have resulted in 3 strikers, but it ended up with 2 defenders, 1 controller, 1 leader, and 1 striker.
After a few sessions, one of the players (who is a school teacher and has the entire summer off to design a campaign) decided he wanted to try his hand as DM. I jumped at the chance to play. The player of the controller was not having as much fun, so he switched to a striker and I took a controller.
We now have 1 defender, 1 controller, 1 leader, and 2 strikers.
It has worked out real well, but the group became balanced not because that was our goal, but because we decided to each take a different race and class in order to more easily learn the game system.
If everyone is "forced" to take a different class instead of a different role (via group consensus), it might still result in a group without a leader. But, this is more of a "soft force" than a "hard force" and it will probably result in a reasonably balanced group nonetheless. The group might just be missing a role (or possibly two, but unlikely).
seusomon
Explorer
Party composition is something that should generally be discussed when the group first comes together, before or during character creation. There needs to be a consensus about whether the party should be more or less balanced, or whether it is more important to have each player play their favorite class.
As a DM who creates nearly all my own adventures, I would not object to an unbalanced party; I would find it an interesting challenge to create appropriate encounters for them. But I would make sure everyone understood that many of the game rules assume a balanced party, and some things are just going to be made more difficult by departing drastically from that assumption.
If I were planning on using published adventures, I'd probably advocate for a more balanced party, but if the consensus were against me, I wouldn't insist.
Enjoying your character is the heart and soul of D&D. Personally, I enjoy playing all character classes, so I'm flexible. But there are people who really only relate well to a particular class or two. It's important to respect that and work with it, IMO.
As a DM who creates nearly all my own adventures, I would not object to an unbalanced party; I would find it an interesting challenge to create appropriate encounters for them. But I would make sure everyone understood that many of the game rules assume a balanced party, and some things are just going to be made more difficult by departing drastically from that assumption.
If I were planning on using published adventures, I'd probably advocate for a more balanced party, but if the consensus were against me, I wouldn't insist.
Enjoying your character is the heart and soul of D&D. Personally, I enjoy playing all character classes, so I'm flexible. But there are people who really only relate well to a particular class or two. It's important to respect that and work with it, IMO.
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billd91
Not your screen monkey (he/him) 🇺🇦🇵🇸🏳️⚧️
I encourage but do not require balanced parties. I'll tell them that they're responsible for making up for any deficiencies they find in their party composition. I'll usually adjust some challenges for the party's composition so that all classes get a chance to hold the center stage, but will also make sure much of it has its own internal plausibility regardless of the current character composition. If that makes things either particularly easy or hard because of character development choices, then them's the breaks. If they consistently have trouble with those segments, I may suggest but ultimately leave it up to them to decide how they want to deal with it.
Anthony Jackson
First Post
As a GM, I would encourage players to play a mix of classes and roles; having everyone do the same thing can get bland. However, I'm not going to compel the players. On the other hand, I'm not going to let the player mix compel me either; if I want to use swarms of minions in an encounter, I'm not going to let the PCs lack of area effect attacks prevent me from using swarms of minions.
Telling someone what they have to play is something I am just not comfortable with. Why was it that person that was told he had to be a Cleric or a Warlord? Was he just slowest to pick?
If you absolutely demand a balanced party allow the players to decide. Tell them that they cannot exit character creation without one of each type and leave it up to them as to who does what.
WarlockLord
First Post
We have 2 strikers, a controller, and a defender (who only shows occasionally). We do fine.
keterys
First Post
I would never force someone to play a certain way, but I'll be up front and say, for instance, "I'm running a published module and don't intend to change it to work well for a party of all strikers" (though I think that could be a cool game, I just choose to spend my time in different ways) and my general advice has been "You probably want a defender and a leader, and the rest is gravy. You can get away without them, but you'll probably be more comfortable if you have them."
In a game I converted, they have no leader but the defender multiclassed into cleric and I gave them each a daily healing word-ish style ability (they actually had a group fast healing ability in 3.x so that was just the manifestation of the ability converted)
In a game I converted, they have no leader but the defender multiclassed into cleric and I gave them each a daily healing word-ish style ability (they actually had a group fast healing ability in 3.x so that was just the manifestation of the ability converted)
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