Do you believe in a balanced party?

[JoeGKushner]

If the party is missing some 'crucial' elements, I tend to fill them in with NPC's of appropriate power. Helps me playtest various classes like the Healer fromt he Minature's Handbook or the Explorder from Mongoose's Power Class booklets.

 

[Starglim]

A party is always in danger in combat without at least one reasonably effective fighter. Otherwise the lack of one class or another is a difficulty rather than a crippling flaw.

 

[diaglo]

the players can play whatever class they want.

but this game is about covering all the bases and your backside.

so they have to know where they are lacking or where they are strong and work with it.

 

[Psion]

If you are doing a classic dungeon scenario, then yeah.

But if all my players wanted to play wizards, or fighters, or whatever, it would make for an interesting variant campaign.

That said, despite MY attitude here, my experience is that most players are sensitive to what other players are making, and generally try to fill the "basic four".

 

[Bront]

Is it usefull? Yes. Is it nessessary? no. In fact, one of my current campaigns I'm in lacks a rouge of any kind, any full blown healer (One ranger/cleric, one Blessed/Acrobat/Halfling Paragon) and the only mage is a warrior mage (Wizard/Fighter/Elderich Knight). The only other char in the game is a fighter. We have fun, and genrealy find ways through traps (Generaly the "Ouch, that was a trap" method)

 

[MonkeyDragon]

I prefer when all the roles are filled, but it's not absolutely necessary. I rather people focus on playing what they want to play.

Ditto that

 

[JoeBlank]

I believe in a balanced party, but the role that is most essential is the healer. That can be anything from a cleric to a bard, but if the party is without a healer they're in trouble. I don't mind if the players pick something completely different and go for fighter-types only, but I usually point out that a healer of some sort would be handy.

I voted no, but the caveat is the players and/or the DM have to be aware that the group is lacking in some area and adjust accordingly. As DM, I did this for my group by adding a few extra Cure X potions to their treasure because they were lacking a healer.

As a player in the same group (we rotate DMs), we went thru several near-TPKs in a row, and the group could not figure out what they were doing "wrong". The other players are more casual gamers, and do not put as much thought into the game as we ENWorlders like. That is fine by me, but I saw the need to help out so when my dwarf barbarian/rogue went down I made my new character a cleric. The difference in the group's success rate has been very noticeable, and a few of them have pointed out that this is attributable to having ample healing on hand.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I've never in my life DMed for a balanced party. The only time it's been a problem is when a module is designed for the standard four-character fighter, cleric, rogue, wizard party.

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

I agree re frontline warriors, though NPC Warriors, Cohorts or Companion Animals may make viable speedbumps. Scouting abilities can be emulated by Wizard spells though (eg Prying Eyes).

Truely, I wasn't thinking that any PC "has" to be the warrior or scout or even that they should be a fighter or rogue specifically, rather they can do the job by whatever means.

The issue that springs to mind is that even if everyone are wizards, wouldn't the fact that they buy healing potions, use scrying magic, & summon warrior-monsters, imply that 'they' believe in a balanced party? If that is the case, which I think is so, then I have to give a limited tick to say I "believe' in a balanced party, but I make no claim that the PC's should fill the archetypes.

 

[ARandomGod]

That spell doesn't really help much with those DC 20+ traps where you need the rogue for.

Bye
Thanee

Naw, all you need then is 'summon monster' for the really advanced traps, and 'mount' for the less advanced traps.

'Mount' is an awesome trap-finder.


(Note: While I say this, I've never actually done it. Been tempted though.)