NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Remathilis" data-source="post: 4571311" data-attributes="member: 7635">Love 'em for the opposite reason everything hates them.It allows multiple archetypes to fill a party niche.Long in D&D's history, we've assumed a fighter, cleric, thief, mage. Why not ranger, druid, illusionist, bard? Well, because none of those classes can fill the role of the former "generic" or main classes (hence sub-class status). A ranger (at least a 2e or 3e one) can't take blows (lower AC, lower hp) than a fighter. He rarely does equal damage except to his favored foes. Against powerful foes (giants, orc barbarians) he's roadsplat.A druid is a stong caster, but a poor healer. He lacks cures to many common negative status ailments, cures typically weaker than a cleric, and lacks raise dead. A druid playing the role of healer has to sacrifice much of his power (including wild-shaping) to do so.An illusionist lacks much of the common damage-dealing and transportation magic wizards (or magic-users) are known for. A bard can't find traps, scout, open locks, and isn't typically a good fit for the thieves job of keeping people alive and safe in dungeons.We typically think of a ranger as a fighter-type, a druid as a priest, etc. However, they don't fill the same ROLE in a party as their generic counterparts.Put each party against an equal CR foe, see which one has the most casualties. Roles for the most part, eliminate that. Any class which is a defender is as good at melee defense as a fighter. You can play a fighter, or a paladin, or a swordmage, or a warden* and know you might be doing your job a bit differently than a fighter, but your ever bit as good.Same with leaders (being roughly equal in general healing/status as a cleric), or controllers (druids make just as good as wizzies so far) or Strikers (rogues, rangers, warlocks, barbarians) all are good at high damage.It allows you to fill a missing niche, but not get stuck doing it badly.</blockquote>

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