HeavenShallBurn said:
Yes but the classes have never been directly built on the roles. They've been built around broader cultural archetypes.
Before, the system
depended on those classes because the game expects you to have Wizard/Fighter/Rogue/Cleric. So of course they were broader - because you
had to take them.
Another thing you're overlooking is that the roles are
combat only. A Rogue's role of "Killing things quickly" has nothing to do with what he's doing outside of combat. He could be a thief. He could be a charismatic guy. Or he could be an acrobat. And if he's an acrobat and has no skills slotted to traps, then he's not going to be doing any trap finding.
The wizard's versatility has been narrowed down
in combat. He can still teleport. He can still go invisible. It's been narrowed what he can do
in combat, but out of combat will be handled by
Rituals. As for "Boom", it looks like Wand will have buffing/protection spells, and the Orb will have Wall, the various Cloud spells, etc.
The problem with the 3e wizard is that he could do
everything just as good as the other classes (Except, unamusingly, Necromancy). I do not believe that the Wizard's Archetype should be "I can do anything you can do, anything You can do I can do better." Generalist implies that one can
do anything, but they are weaker at it than the specialist, and the 3e specialists are a joke (one more of my school's spells and +2 to spellcraft? Wohoo). Instead, the Generalist wizard will likely be able to cast invisible, but the Illusionist will be able to do Greater Invisibliity; the Wizard will be able to Charm, the Psion will be able to Dominate and Modify Memory.
MMO classes only do
one thing, while 4e classes went from doing 8 things to 5. Yes, it is A Narrowing, but not to the limited degree that is an MMO.
Some of the classes do what they always have but others have been narrowed significantly in scope. My personal disagreement is with how they're changing the Wizard but you can not deny that they've changed the available ability sets of several classes, limiting what were broader archetypes. For example the shtick of the fighter was that he was the best at fighting, now if you want an archer you need to go Ranger.
And you cannot deny that an Archetype cannot be accomplished by using another class. What does it
matter if you have to use a ranger class to facilitate "Fighter who uses a bow"? What is the problem? You just write "Ranger" beside and can still call yourself an archer in the army. Is the issue because the Ranger isn't called "fighter"?
Might I point out the lack of Necromancy?
Might I point out that in 3e, Clerics make better Necromancers than Necromancers? Each class is being made so that no one steps on their toes and does their thing better.
Or the nerfing of enchantment to make a place for Psionics?
R&C says that the significant enchantments were taken out for
other classes, not just Psionics. In fact, it says that
Bards use both Enchantments
and illusions for the most part.