Adventurer Party Roles

[SirKerry]

Are there any blogs, wikis, magazine articles, etc that discuss and define adventurer party roles? Roles like bricks, powerhouses, healers, etc?

Kerry

 

[Asmor]

This site has a lot of good information on party roles that's applicable to D&D.

Sorry, I had to.

 

[SirKerry]

This site has a lot of good information on party roles that's applicable to D&D.

Thanks, that's kinda what I was looking for. I came across a d20 derived game, Charles Rice's Modern20 which uses adventurer party roles as character classes and was wondering how complete/comprehensive this was (it only has 6 classes), the following is excerpted from the Modern20 rule book:

Character Classes
Character classes represent your character’s adventuring role. Powerhouse characters have the best Base Attack Bonus, while Speedfreak characters have the best Defense, Tank characters have the most hit points, Brainiacs the most skill points, Empaths the best all around saves and Stars the best Reputation.

Powerhouse
Powerhouse characters are the enforcers, those who specialize in taking the fight to their enemies. In many organizations, Powerhouse and Tank characters comprise the “front line”, with Powerhouse characters specializing in expanding influence, while Tank characters specialize in protecting and consolidating any gains.

Speedfreak
Speedfreak characters are combat oriented, but use their high Defense and enhanced mobility to great effect, attacking where their opponents least expect it.

Tank
The Tank specializes in sucking up damage. He can take hits that would fell even other combat-oriented characters and come back for more.

Brainiac
Brainiac characters are thinkers. They are able to master more skill types than any other character class. Brainiac characters are not great fighters but they aren’t completely useless in a fight either.

Empath
Empaths are always in touch with their surroundings, making them excellent healers and outdoorsmen. They also have the best saving throws of any class, because they are centered and calm in the face of dangers of all types.

Star
Stars live the good life. They may not be a “star” in the sense of a famous performer but wherever the Star works, he is, well, a Star.

 

[Asmor]

I was being tongue in cheek, but if it helps you... Cool. (That page is for the World of Warcraft MMORPG, and it's a recurring joke on this board that D&D is trying to be more like WoW).

Anyways, for a more serious answer, D&D (3rd edition, at least, 4th edition is specifically monkeying with this stuff) isn't really based on party roles, although there are 4 basic roles a well-balanced party should have:

A fighter. Basically, they're the muscle that stands in front and tries to engage enemies before the enemies can engage the glass-jaws. Typically does moderate, but reliable, damage and has the best defenses.

An arcane magic user. To provide support and firepower. Excellent damage capabilities and environmental control. For most intents and purposes, no defense at all.

A divine magic user. To provide buffs and healing. With magic, can usually do as much damage as a fighter, and has the second best defenses. However, in combat is actions are usually spent helping allies, not fighting.

A rogue. Primary role is to take care of all the non-combat encounters; can also dish out a lot of damage with a little skill and teamwork, thanks to sneak attack. Good, but unreliable, damage; good defense.

The classes you listed seem to be based off of the d20 Modern starting classes, which are in turn each based around a particular stat.

Powerhouse = Strong Hero = Strength
Speed Freak = Fast Hero = Dexterity
Tank = Tough Hero = Constitution
Brainiac = Smart Hero = Intelligence
Empath = Dedicated Hero = Wisdom
Star = Charismatic Hero = Charisma

These aren't really party roles so much as they are focuses for the character. For example, Powerhouses and Tanks could both probably fill the "fighter" role, and an Empath or Brainiac who was an EMT/Doctor/etc could fill the role of the "divile magic user," but there's really no equivalent to an arcane magic user in a modern setting, at least not without adding a bit of supernatural stuff.

 

[SirKerry]

I was being tongue in cheek, but if it helps you... Cool. (That page is for the World of Warcraft MMORPG, and it's a recurring joke on this board that D&D is trying to be more like WoW).

Hmm, didn't catch the tongue in cheek bit, but yeah I found it useful (my google searches just weren't turning up what I was hunting for and I never even thought to try looking at MMORPGs as I don't play them).

Anyways, for a more serious answer, D&D (3rd edition, at least, 4th edition is specifically monkeying with this stuff) isn't really based on party roles, although there are 4 basic roles a well-balanced party should have:

A fighter. Basically, they're the muscle that stands in front and tries to engage enemies before the enemies can engage the glass-jaws. Typically does moderate, but reliable, damage and has the best defenses.

An arcane magic user. To provide support and firepower. Excellent damage capabilities and environmental control. For most intents and purposes, no defense at all.

A divine magic user. To provide buffs and healing. With magic, can usually do as much damage as a fighter, and has the second best defenses. However, in combat is actions are usually spent helping allies, not fighting.

A rogue. Primary role is to take care of all the non-combat encounters; can also dish out a lot of damage with a little skill and teamwork, thanks to sneak attack. Good, but unreliable, damage; good defense.

Okay, so basically a well rounded D&D type party would be (to put it in Modern20 terms) a tank (fighter), a powerhouse (arcane), an empath (divine/healer), and a star (rogue).

The classes you listed seem to be based off of the d20 Modern starting classes, which are in turn each based around a particular stat.

Powerhouse = Strong Hero = Strength
Speed Freak = Fast Hero = Dexterity
Tank = Tough Hero = Constitution
Brainiac = Smart Hero = Intelligence
Empath = Dedicated Hero = Wisdom
Star = Charismatic Hero = Charisma

This was my take on this when I first read it, but the game designer claims otherwise.

These aren't really party roles so much as they are focuses for the character. For example, Powerhouses and Tanks could both probably fill the "fighter" role, and an Empath or Brainiac who was an EMT/Doctor/etc could fill the role of the "divile magic user," but there's really no equivalent to an arcane magic user in a modern setting, at least not without adding a bit of supernatural stuff.

In Modern20 it looks like the magic system(s) will be skill based so I guess the Brainiac or Star would the closest to the arcane as they get the most skill points, but if you go with what the arcane accomplishes generally (dealing massive damage from a distance), I think the speedfreak would be the closest equivalent.

Kerry

 

[BeauNiddle]

in combat you need a defender, a striker, a controller and a leader (to borrow 4th ed terminology)

a defender stops the enemy getting to you. The guy who holds the doorway, or the guy who charges the enemy so they have to deal with him and not the weaker people.

A striker does large amount of damage to specific targets. He's the one who snipes the enemy leader (or how stabs them from the dark). strikers who can do area effect attacks are also good (grenadiers / artillery / casters)

Controller penalises the enemy team in some way or other. It could be by affecting the battle field (wall of iron / covering fire) or more affecting the enemies (status effects)

Leader / buffer / support adds your team in some way (morale / healing / beneficial status effects)


On top of that you have a ranged / melee split. The defender can't really be a ranged specialist and the controller can't really be a melee but the other 2 roles can be implemented in a ranged or melee form.

That means you have 6 basic roles that can be filled in combat. You don't need all of them but knowing which ones you have and have NOT allows you to plan tactics.


Outside combat you tend to need a faceman, a skill man, a stength man and a mobility man.

Faceman deals with people you meet - gets information, deflects attention.

A skillman defeats blocks in your path - lockpicking, trap finding, computer hacking (depending on game period)

A strength man deals with the remaining blocks - pushing away obstacles, forcing doors, punching through walls.

A mobility man moves around the game world - climbing, jumping, flying, swimming, balancing, driving, etc. Gets himself (and maybe others) to the blocks for the others to deal with.


I think that covers the basic roles. So you have 6 combat and 4 non-combat that can be combined in assorted ways and having multiple coverage of some areas is always good (multiple defenders often work well)