digital insider: Monk in PH3, playtest in May

[Majoru Oakheart]

OK. To me, in order to be a Controller, you need to limit your opponents choices in terms of movement or actions (via status effects).

It can't just be that, however, otherwise nearly every class is a controller. They all can bestow status effects that limit movement or actions. There has to be something that differentiates controllers from everyone else.

 

[Nymrohd]

OK. To me, in order to be a Controller, you need to limit your opponents choices in terms of movement or actions (via status effects).

Cheers

Exactly. I know some people do not like the comparison but in CRPGs the role of the controller is rather more explicit than it yet seems to be among the D&D community. A controller takes away monster turns. In D&D he can do that by eliminating minions, removing move actions, or removing standard actions. The wizard does this to some degree, most effectively with damaging zones and spells that grant mass status effects. Yet a controller is not really about AoE. A single target polymorph or charm are among the archetypical control spells, both belonging to the wizard identity, none of them in his current spell list. Also circumstantial spells are a big aspect of control. Silence effects to neutralise spellcasters, shields against artilery (abjurations and wardings are as much control as they are defense), wingbinds for flyers; all these are control effects.

The class feature that should have been there to make the wizard a good controller is not some effect tacked on his attacks but rather a spellbook that lets him design from multiple options so that his utilities and dailies could be circumstantial.

What I am not certain is where exactly the debuffer belongs. The ability to reduce the effectiveness of enemies does not seem to be a signature skill of any of the current roles, at least not conceptually.