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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 5977980" data-attributes="member: 996">It does come into it, a bit. As you note, 4e was less dependent upon party composition for encounter balance and balance over the day.  At the same time, formal roles made it easier for players who wanted to to pull together a 'complete' party.The 5e playtest presents a watered-down version of healing surges, called HD, that don't go as far in helping a party perservere in spite of composition issues (like the classic lack of a cleric, which made a huge difference in the past).That's a very real concern, and there are '5MWD' threads going into it in great detail.  One of the stated goals of 5e is to return to more mechanically differentiated classes, which, obviously, is going to tend it back towards party composition making a bigger difference (whether they want to limit that tendency or how successful they might be at doing so remains to be seen).   One design consideration that's already been decided is the return of Vancian casting, that mechanic, as you're no doubt aware, makes the performance of the party vary a good deal depending upon how relevant the casters spell selection is that day and how many spells he uses in a given encounter.  With these returns to past mechanics, it's reasonable to expect a return of issues we've had in the past, like the 5-Minute Work-Day, the necessity of a dedicated healer, and the high significance of casters.  All of which could be hurdles to overcome in a 2-3 encounters/day average campaign with inconsistent attendance.But, while it's interesting to look at the current state and direction of 5e and speculate how it might turn out, the best thing you could do with your concerns would be to participate in the playtest, see how it works under the conditions you're dealing with, and provide WotC with some good feedback.</blockquote>

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