Recent content by b_took

I would have said that Defender and Controller are similar in that the focus of their class is limiting enemy actions. Likewise the Striker and Controller are similar in putting damage where it needs to go. If anything, I would put the Leader in a separate spot as the role that's about helping...

@EzekielRaiden That is what ended up happening, to be sure. I think the original design intent is closer to what I've described. Most of the options for Fighters/Paladins in the PHB fall under the heading of "Soft" control. I also agree that strict pigeonholing is detrimental. I don't think...

I've heard it distinguished as "hard" and "soft" control. And that is how Defenders work, and should be considered the functional difference between the roles -- a Defender will punish you for taking an action, but a Controller will prevent you from taking an action. Edit: To further...

I would even contest the punishing aspect. If they're still doing what they want, even at a cost, you're not controlling.

How would you categorize the more common riders by role? I think, for example, that a penalty to the target's defenses, though a debuff, would not count as control because it doesn't directly impede the enemy's ability to do things, but rather makes allies more capable of hitting, and is...

Treantmonk's three roles, I believe, were the big stupid fighter, the glass cannon, and God. His theory was that with 4E, they split up the God role into Leader and Controller. Now that I think about it, perhaps the real problem was that when they were translating the Wizard to 4E, they...

One of the things that did hold it down was their uncertainty with regard to the controller role. Had they been dedicated to making it multi-targeting or debuffing, aspects of those wouldn't be so uniformly spread throughout most of the PHB classes, and it would instead be baked into explicit...

I must insist on the distinction between an actual area attack and simple multi-targeting. The latter has an upward target limit, is not affected by the same feats/effects, and doesn't really do jack against swarms. Close attacks are closer to area attacks, but they are still not the same...

Oh, certainly they could avoid the area at-wills -- but Controllers were consistently the only class that could opt in to them. Just as the mark defined the Defender, but was hardly their only tool, or the minor action heal the Leader, though it was not necessarily the primary draw of a given...

I always felt the mechanical identity of controllers was their access to at-will area attacks.

That's interesting. Do you similarly think of Paladins as a special case of Invokers or Wardens as special cases of Druids? (Not trying to start an argument or anything; I'm just wanting to understand the perspective.)

Monster attacks are (originally; I can't recall if MM3 changed anything in this regard) Level+5 vs AC and Level+3 vs NADs per the DMG. Minimum AC for heavy armor is 6, so the average monster will hit on a 10. Go up to plate and a heavy shield, and the average monster will hit on a 14. The...

If one is to assume that they intended the standard array (16,14,13,12,11,10) to be functional, and that they wanted any race to be able to be any class, then it's reasonable to assume the game's math works so long as there isn't anything lower than a final result of 16 in the primary attack...