D&D 4E 4E Roles

[ZombieRoboNinja]

In the context used, it most certainly is a MMORPG influence. Specifically, it's a major World of Warcraft influence: Defender = Tank, Striker = DPS, Leader = Healer, Controller = Crowd Control. The specifics behind how these effects work varies but the result is exactly the same- you have one group member lock down loose monsters (CC), one buffing/healing the rest to keep them up (Healer), one holding a couple of monsters' attention on him (Tank) while the last one actually shanks them to death (DPS).

Have you even PLAYED WoW? There are no "Crowd Control" classes; that "role" is divided up between mages (polymorph), warlocks (fear and banish), druids (sleep and roots), priests (mind control, fear, shackle undead), shaman (kiting), hunters (traps and kiting), and rogues (sap/stunlock). In other words, just about everyone has "crowd control." Not to mention that parties in WoW consist of five people, not four.

You seem to be thinking of Everquest or something and projecting that onto WoW, which you're then projecting onto D&D. When really, all these "roles" are actually doing is solving the "jack of all trades, master of none" problem, making sure the formerly crappy classes (ranger, bard, paladin, etc.) are actually useful by giving them the same basic job as the old "essential" classes (so ranger=rogue, bard=cleric, and paladin=fighter).

 

[The Little Raven]

Have you even PLAYED WoW?

Not to mention encounters designed to turn normal conventions on their head, like the Instructor Razuviouz encounter (which required you to have Priests [specifically] in the party to Mind Control his apprentices, and use them to tank the boss, since no player tank could survive long... thus turning a Leader into a Defender for that encounter) or the High King Maulgar encounter (which comes with a group of minions, one of which must be "tanked" by a mage using Spellsteal to take a buff from him... thus turning a Striker into a Defender for that encounter).

 

[Deverash]

I imagine no more than you are hosed if you don't have a defender in 3e. An argument for ritual spells like Tenser's transformation, or to pack a golem along.

To continue the point, you always had to have someone who could go toe-to-toe with the monsters in melee combat in any edition. And the core of the defender role is to be able to do that, and secondarily make the monster not want to go hit the squishy guys(just about anyone else).

 

[Scholar & Brutalman]

To continue the point, you always had to have someone who could go toe-to-toe with the monsters in melee combat in any edition. .

I recall a quote in Races and Classes that "if you can't choose a defender, the monsters will choose one for you." In my experiene that's always been the case.