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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mustrum_Ridcully" data-source="post: 4249719" data-attributes="member: 710">I have never played or read D&D before 3E, so my description might be insufficient. A Fighter is still a Fighter. He has lots of hit points, and he deals lots of damage. He also is hard to hit because he's usually heavy armored. He is considered a "Defender", meaning he is in the face of his enemies, drawing their fire and keeping his allies safe.A Rogue still backstabs, wears light armor, and has less hit points then a fighter. Backstab is now called "Sneak Attack", and it's a little easier to use, I presume, but it requires maneuvering on the battlefield (or surprise). A Rogue is considered a Striker, which means that he probably will deal some more damage to individual foes then the Fighter, but he can't stand close to them for long.A Wizard still normally won't wear armor, and he has less hit points. He still uses spells and a spellbook, but some of his "bread & butter" spells (that he uses in combat at least) can be done more or less independent of that book. These spells can be cast very often (some even every round), but they are not as powerful as the spells you might remember.. His spellbook is now also filled with rituals, basically spells that require longer to cast and provide the real utility stuff (Detect Secret Doors or Knock, as examples). He is considered a Controller, which means he has spells that shape the battlefield (think Wall of Stone), limit the enemies options (think Hold Person) and deal with groups of foes (think Fireball).The Cleric is still the healer guy good vs. Undead. His prayers (spells) have a similar "frequency" of use, but focus on protection and aiding his allies. If he deals damage with his prayers, it is often "radiant", which is particularly harmful vs undead. He can still turn undead and overall is probably still the best defense against undead.He is considered a "Leader", which means he is helping his allies to do their respective jobs better, granting them bonuses to attack, damage, defense, or heal them. Something I didn't mention yet for Rogues and Fighters: They also get abilities that resemble something between "spells" and "combat maneuvers", called "Exploits". All classes have powers, and they are resources (similar to spells) that need to be managed over the day, over a single combat, or even from combat round to combat round. They are similar to spells in that way that spells are the classic examples of powers that are resource managed. You have only a limited number of uses, and you need to carefully manage when and how to use them. They are in effect not spells though, since they grant combat maneuver like effects - shoving enemies around, tripping them, and so on.Unlike earlier editions, the resource management of spells and other powers are not "daily" only. There are powers that refresh daily, and there are powers that refresh after each combat (so you can use them only once during your combat). There are also a few powers that can be used at-will. For someone only familiar with earlier edition power management, the powers for non-spellcasters might be the hardest to understand. Normally you'd expect that you can perform a combat maneuver as often as you like (or rather: try as often as you like), while spells - well, spells are magic, and they can work however the universe tells us magic works.The best way to approach these powers is to assume that the maneuvers could theoretically attempted as often as you liked, but to really have it work, a certain element of luck and planning is involved that is not being replicated in the combat rules directly. (Since we're only measuring distance in 5 ft x 5 ft squares, a lot of detail compared to the real world is not described in the rules). Instead of trying to describe this "subtle" maneuvering, we just assume that the specific situation can only occur once per day or once per 5 minutes, and the player gets to decide which time of the day or encounter specifically.</blockquote>

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