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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7895285" data-attributes="member: 996">D&D is a game with strong traditions, yes.Yes, it's one of many labels chosen in D&D that does not quite match what's in the tin.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />I suppose 'Marshal' could be ahead because people are voting on the basis of the meaning - a high ranking military officer certainly leads, and troops who do not follow are subject to severe discipline. Support. Buffing offense/defense, action-preservation/granting, hp preservation/restoration, a little de-buffing which could shade into control...  the Support character is a multiplier to the party's force.  It's resources and functions flow to the rest of the party, it can be a less dynamic role (back when it was the old-fashioned Cleric mostly obliged to heal, for instance) and is generally a less flashy/spotlight-grabbing one. It seemed to me at the time an alternative to "Cleric" (the game's original support class, back with it was just the Fighter, Cleric, & Magic-user - and the Druid didn't become a viable alternative to it until 2e at the earliest) or "Healer" (which was often viewed as boring).  The explanation of Leader made the support function clear and went out of it's way to explain that it didn't imply 'party leader' in the sense of bossing players around.  So it was an attempt to make an oft-regarded-as-lame role sound 'cool' - that they were clearly worried, from the beginning, may have overstepped.4e was unusual in that it expanded the range of concepts and dynamics of participation that could fulfill support the needs of a party.  From Cleric, and less well, Druid or Bard, or later Favored Soul, to Cleric, Warlord, Bard, Shaman, Artificer, Ardent, Rune Priest, or later, Sentinel Druid.   The Warlord stands out in that list because it's unique in providing support, without boasting supernatural powers.  (The Ardent was also unique in being psionic, and some prefer to treat psionics as a supernatural power distinct from spellcasting and magic in general, though 3.5 had gone there, before.)Sure.Paladin = Peer of Charlemagne, for instance, was newer than Fighter, Cleric & Magic-user. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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