Roles within a party...

[Klaus]

So I've been trying to assemble a party that filled all the usual roles a classic party (fighter, cleric, wizard, rogue) would have. That entailed me listing these roles, then applying these roles to the core classes (plus artificer). So here goes:

Fighter: Primary Combat

Cleric: Healing, Support Magic, Undead-dealing, Secondary Combat

Wizard: Magic Artillery, Support Magic

Rogue: Reconaissance, Opportunistic Combat, Trap-dealing

The 9 roles are:

Primary Combat: High BAB, High AC, High hp, High damage output
Secondary Combat: Helps Primary Combat
Opportunistic Combat: Archery or mobility oriented, but low staying power
Magic Artillery: Big BOOM spells
Support Magic: Buffs, counterspells, divination, transport
Reconaissance: Sneaks around and/or asks questions, wilderness survival, avoids party being surprised
Healing: Cure wounds, removes poison, dispels adverse effects
Trap-dealing: Finds and disarms traps, mundane and magical
Undead-dealing: Turns undead and/or protects party from undead abilities

Artificer: Support Magic, Magic Artillery, Trap-dealing

Barbarian: Primary/Secondary Combat, Reconaissance

Bard: Support Magic, Opportunistic Combat, Reconaissance

Druid: Support Magic, Healing, Reconaissance, Secondary Combat

Monk: Reconaissance, Opportunistic Combat

Paladin: Primary Combat, Undead-dealing, Healing

Ranger: Primary/Secondary Combat, Reconaissance, Healing

Sorcerer: Magic Artillery


How does that sound? I could try and add the Complete classes in there as well.

 

[diaglo]

break it down into 2 categories.

Living/Surviving vs. Dead/Dead



or Combat vs. Noncombat.

edit: everything else is flavor text

 

[Crothian]

That sounds about right, make sure they all get their shirts though telling them what roles they have.

 

[Shadowdancer]

Bard also has Healing

Sorcerer also has Support Magic

Ranger should be Primary/Secondary Combat

 

[Rabelais]

I generally run Opportunistic Combat/Support Magic types. Bards, Monks, Rangers and such. I almost always select Dex as my primary attribute, it tends to pay off when you run that style of character.

 

[beaver1024]

Both clerics and druids can also fulfill the roles of magic artillery. In fact they can fulfill the roles of everything on your list except trap-dealing.

 

[Tonguez]

I generally run Opportunistic Combat/Support Magic types. Bards, Monks, Rangers and such. I almost always select Dex as my primary attribute, it tends to pay off when you run that style of character.

One way of measuring troop types is by looking at their combination of Weapon Systems, Defense Systems and Mobility and Support systems (Support systems = quality of Intelligence and Supply factors

eg
Heavy Infantry = Weps +, Def +, Move -
Light Cavalry = Weps 0, Def -, Move +
Chariot = Weps + Def - Move 0
Catapult Wep ++ Def - Move --

Support Magic generally effect either Weapon systems (bonus to attack or damage) or defense systems (AC bonus) and healing can be consider as Defense systems or as part of 'supply' (ie the ability to keep troops in the feild)


So anyway in DnD we have

Fighter Wep + Def + Mov 0 Sup -
Ranger Wep + Def 0 Mov 0 Sup +
Barbarians Wep ++ Def + Mov + Sup 0
Rogue Wep 0 Def 0 Mov o Sup +
Wizards Wep ++ Def -- Mov + Sup +

etc translating these to Ability scores we get something like this:

Str Weapon Systems
Con Defense
Dex Mobility
Wis Recon
Cha Supply (?)
Int Artillery (Spellcasters afterall)

 

[Klaus]

Bard also has Healing

Sorcerer also has Support Magic

Ranger should be Primary/Secondary Combat

I considered all that, but the Bard has limited Healing, so I chose to fold it into Support Magic, since they can heal a bit here and there, but not to the extent of a Cleric or Druid.

Sorcerer have to choose carefully which spells to use, and are better off choosing spells that can be cast repeatedly (generally, boom spells). But yeah, I should probably add Support Magic to the Sorcerer, since they can always pick up scrolls and wands of appropriate utility spells.

Clerics and Druids have some Artillery spells, but nowhere near as many choices as a Wizard/Sorcerer. And if they choose to go down that route, they might neglect other roles.

I see your point about the Ranger. I'll edit my first post accordingly.

The whole point of this list is that I usually have only three players, and I'd like them to have their bases covered.

 

[Snapdragyn]

I considered all that, but the Bard has limited Healing, so I chose to fold it into Support Magic, since they can heal a bit here and there, but not to the extent of a Cleric or Druid.

I don't disagree with this point, but find it odd that you go with this line of logic here when having Barbarians listed as Reconnaisance. Of the roles you list under that heading ("Sneaks around and/or asks questions, wilderness survival, avoids party being surprised"), barbarians can fill only one -- the one which I would suggest has the least utility to the 'find out what's going on ahead of us without getting caught' nature of recon work.

 

[Klaus]

I only put Barbarians with a Reconaissance role because they tend to wear lighter armor, have Listen as a class skill and get bonuses against traps (always good in recon work). But I see your point.

Maybe I should split Survival, Reconaissance and People Skills?

This is why I am tapping onto the collective mind of EN World!