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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jason Kain" data-source="post: 3760626" data-attributes="member: 46949">I have to agree with CADfan on this one. Active support can be fun. However, I think he misses a bit of the split. Supporting a party isn't just active and passive. There's another divide: Singular or Co-operative.I think the main problem with the idea of 'support' classes is that most of the ideas of support are singular. Cast ____ on someone else, so they get better. That's where the problem comes in, because most of the time it's a no-effort, no-interaction solution to the problem. I hate to do this here, but you can look at World of Warcraft. Every successful group needs some type of healer/buffer. When they're in a battle, healing, there's usually no thanks, no excitement, no nothing. It ceases being an RPG and becomes whack-a-mole with whoever needs help. Meanwhile, the rest of the party is doing something to influence the battle. I know, healing does influence the battle, but for the most part, it's just making sure someone else can influence it longer.A lot of the problem is most singular support characters don't have a chance to shine unless the group is in deep trouble. When everyone is low on health, a character is at -9 and falling, and the cleric pulls max numbers on his heal, getting the character back on his feet, that's exciting. When the big buff spell is the only thing that lets the fighter hit the monster, that's kind of cool. However, this dynamic is also the problem of singular support. In order for it to shine, someone else has to stop shining. In order for most singular support to be fun, the potential of another player(the dying character, the fighter that can't hit unless buffed) not having fun has to be introduced.The main trick with co-operative support is that while others are benefiting from his actions, the actions aren't spent specifically to have you allies benefit. Casting bless is an action spent just to benefit someone, healing someone when you attack an enemy is an action spent that benefits someone. It's a subtle difference in text, but it's there.I've played a psion in one campaign. I was having fun, as I spent my actions on whatever I felt like, and the party benefited from it. The least fun moments came near the end, when I was dealing damage for the sake of dealing damage. Everyone else was doing my job just as well as I could, a lot of the times better. After that character died, I built a cleric. Full healing/buffing based, but focusing on the mass spells. Every time I made someone else better at their job, I was getting better at my own. It worked, because I wasn't just helping other people have fun, I was making it easier to have fun myself.</blockquote>

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