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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 3788017" data-attributes="member: 5143">Actually, having followed the development of COH, I can tell you that during beta testing of the game, it used a point buy system or at least you could choose your primary and secondary power lists out of all of them instead of being restricted by classes, since they wanted to have the most open experience possible.They found out part way into testing that players almost ALL made what they called "tank mages".  Essentially getting the damage output of the most powerful damage power combined with the defensive strength of the most powerful defensive power.  They would naturally create a character whose role was "best at combat".  No one chose the "weird" powers at all(or very few).The same thing happens in other point based or open MMORPGS.  People pick and choose the best power from every area(or class) and become an uber character.  Almost all the characters in Ultima Online ended up looking exactly the same, since people found the "best" way to mix and match abilities.The same idea applies to D&D just fine.  Why play a fighter when all you can do is wear armor and wield a weapon when you could play a cleric with the right feats and have all the advantages of the cleric and all the advantages of the fighter in one.MMORPGS have been working on a solution to the "problem" created by D&D since they first came out.  They wanted to be games a lot like D&D(which most of them are based on) but when they built a game a lot like D&D, it created huge balance problems and people on their message boards complaining about it.Endless threads were created on the Everquest 1 message boards and the Ultima Online message boards about class balance.  UO went with the open method and there were complaints about how all characters ended up the same and how no one felt useful in a group since everyone was the same.  The thought was "Why should I be in a group with other people when I can heal myself, cast defensive spells, wear the best armor in the game, use the best weapon in the game, and cast area of effect damage spells as well as buffing myself?"  People have a desire to be NEEDED.  Everquest was the first to "fix" this by creating a bunch of classes each of which had a completely different feeling(essentially going BACK to the D&D method).  But some of them stepped on each other's toes by being too close to each other(since that was already a problem with the D&D classes).  That's why they made less classes in EQ2 and WoW.The goal is to make each player(and each character) feel like they are an important part of the group dynamic.  If the opinion of the group is "Why would you make up a Bard when you could just play another Cleric?" then the Bard is not an important part of the group dynamic and needs to be made not only better, but more unique.I know that as a fighter in most groups I haven't felt needed at all.  The opinion of the group was "If we didn't have a fighter, then the cleric would simply have to cast divine power first round or maybe cast an extra healing spell each combat, no big deal."It isn't entirely about making newbies understand the game better.  It's about EVERYONE understanding the game better.  It's about the game flowing smoother: "Alright, I'm a defender, I'll use my ability to protect the mage", "Alright, I'm the striker, I'll take out that big guy" instead of "I'm a rogue...I am not good at fighting so what is it I do during combat?  Do I hide and wait for it to end?  Do I use aid another to make the fighter able to hit better?  Do I throw tanglefoot bags and hope the enemies fail their saves?  Maybe I should have been a 1 Rogue/13 Wizard like my friend who seems to have better rogue skills than me and can cast fireballs."It ALSO helps newbies understand easier, which gets more people playing.  It isn't about calling a class a "Leader" it's about designing the class from the ground up knowing what it should do in a combat situation.  If you do that, you know what type of abilities it should have and you can make thost abilities more interesting and more useful.</blockquote>

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