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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 3762269" data-attributes="member: 5143">There is ALWAYS something to do, sure.  The question is: Is it WORTHWHILE and EFFECTIVE?I love playing ALL the roles in the party.  The thing is, I have to feel like my role is doing something important in the combat.I'm not helping and I'm not important if:-An enemy has 800 hit points and someone else in my group is doing 100 damage per hit and I can do 1d6 damage per hit-The enemy is hitting for 100 damage a round and I can only heal 1d8+1 damage with a scroll-Everyone in my party has +20 to hit and the enemy has a 22 ac, and I'm giving the party +1 or even +2 to hit-I am trying to loosen an 80 hp, hardness 8 stalactite with 1d8+1 damage-It is a DC 25 diplomacy check to reason with an enemy and I have -10 to the roll due to it being a "rushed diplomacy check" and I have a modifier of +4-I manage to convince the DM that something I do counts as a distraction and gives the enemy -2 to hit(mechanically, I've just given myself a 10% that my action has any effect at all)-I minus 1 from all cover for the party(in this case I've basically giving +1 to hit, ONLY with ranged weapons, and ONLY against targets with cover, and it only matters if the die roll is exactly ONE off.  Statistically, it should happen..once in...never)Assuming you had ALL of these as options, you basically don't HAVE options.This isn't saying that it's no fun to play a support character.  When you do something really cool as a support character, they are a LOT of fun to play and a great character concept.  However, I have to feel that I'm turning the tide of battle and without my powers we wouldn't win.That's exactly the point.  I love the cooperative part of D&D.  In my mind cooperative means "codependent".  Each person has a job to do that is absolutely vital to the success of the party.  If anyone doesn't do their job, then we all die.  Thus, we cooperate in order to win.Most MMORPGs have this balance worked out pretty well.If one of the roles fails, everyone fails.  So, for instance:-If the cleric doesn't heal, the tank dies-If the tank doesn't protect the party, they die-If the rogue doesn't do damage fast enough, the battle goes on too long and strains the healing of the cleric and everyone dies-If the wizard doesn't control the battlefield well enough, the party gets overwhelmed and diesHowever, when everyone works together, then everyone lives and has a fun and exciting encounter.  That's when the cooperative nature of D&D is at it's most fun.</blockquote>

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