Mustrum_Ridcully
Legend
I'd love to see other genres (espionage, super heroes, Old West, sci fi, etc.) use 4e's concepts. I'd love having roles, because they help make combat more enjoyable for me. However, I hit a wall when I think about Defenders in some modern style games (Old West, Espionage, etc.), because Defenders are usually melee-based but most combat is with ranged weapons, ie guns. Better game designers than me will have to tackle the issue, and I can't wait until they do.
I tend to think that Controller and Defender tend to ... merge somewhat in modern games. Both try to control the flow of the enemies attacks and their effectiveness, but the Defender ensures that it hits him, while the Controller deflects attacks away from everyone.
I played a "ranged Defender" effectively already by multiclassing (including paragon multiclassing" a Fighter with a Wizard. Of course, in truth I was still focused on melee combat, but I used area bursts to mark multiple foes at range.
Still, even a modern game might have a defender that works in melee. But he would probably not work like the Fighter that is mostly "sticky" (since that would require him to be able to attack enemies that stick together, which is not a given with lots of firearm wielders), but more like a Paladin (who tends to have lots of abilities to force a single enemy to attack him.). A Paladin also is basically a Bodyguard (at least with the right build), using Lay on Hands and powers like "Strike me Instead" to take damage originally directed at his allies.
