Sacrosanct
Legend
Disclaimer: I realize I'm probably in the minority here, but I prefer niche protection, and there's really a pretty simple reason for it.
What I mean by niche protection is that certain characters will shine in certain areas, while maybe not being able to in other areas. Boxx might be a great fighter against melee opponents, but may struggle against challenges that don't rely on his brute physical strength. Contrast that to a non-niched focus, where pretty much every character has some way of resolving every challenge, and will always be useful all the time.
So here's my argument for niche protection:
* it drives a teamwork approach. Boxx may shine in this encounter, but Coxx might shine in another encounter or challenge. The PCs rely on each other as a team, rather than only worrying about themselves to resolve the issue.
*it drives down resentment of other players. I've seen it argued many times that people will feel resentful if another player happens to have a higher stat in something. In non-niche protection, this is exemplified because every PC can attempt something in every challenge, so the person with the higher stat will always do batter. In niche protection, it doesn't matter if another player has a higher stat. It's why old school D&D used random stat gen and yet every PC was still effective at their role. If the challenge is one where player A is designed for, than player A will still do better even if they don't have as high of a stat, which results in an end campaign where everyone gets their time to shine, which leads to...
*no PC gets lost in the "average". In niche protection, all PCs get an opportunity to shine at some point. having your PC shine is enjoyable, by most players. It's human nature. If everyone is relatively the same in competence to overcome all challenges, everyone just feels the same
*it's supported by literature. This is probably the big one. When I started D&D in 1981 as a kid, it was all about replicating some of the great stories in our own vision with our own characters. In all of the great stories, it's all about niche protection. From LoTR to Star Wars, each character had a certain niche they filled that allowed them to shine at some point. Those characters were memorable because of the thing they did that no other character really good.
What I mean by niche protection is that certain characters will shine in certain areas, while maybe not being able to in other areas. Boxx might be a great fighter against melee opponents, but may struggle against challenges that don't rely on his brute physical strength. Contrast that to a non-niched focus, where pretty much every character has some way of resolving every challenge, and will always be useful all the time.
So here's my argument for niche protection:
* it drives a teamwork approach. Boxx may shine in this encounter, but Coxx might shine in another encounter or challenge. The PCs rely on each other as a team, rather than only worrying about themselves to resolve the issue.
*it drives down resentment of other players. I've seen it argued many times that people will feel resentful if another player happens to have a higher stat in something. In non-niche protection, this is exemplified because every PC can attempt something in every challenge, so the person with the higher stat will always do batter. In niche protection, it doesn't matter if another player has a higher stat. It's why old school D&D used random stat gen and yet every PC was still effective at their role. If the challenge is one where player A is designed for, than player A will still do better even if they don't have as high of a stat, which results in an end campaign where everyone gets their time to shine, which leads to...
*no PC gets lost in the "average". In niche protection, all PCs get an opportunity to shine at some point. having your PC shine is enjoyable, by most players. It's human nature. If everyone is relatively the same in competence to overcome all challenges, everyone just feels the same
*it's supported by literature. This is probably the big one. When I started D&D in 1981 as a kid, it was all about replicating some of the great stories in our own vision with our own characters. In all of the great stories, it's all about niche protection. From LoTR to Star Wars, each character had a certain niche they filled that allowed them to shine at some point. Those characters were memorable because of the thing they did that no other character really good.
) D&D has tried to have their cake and eat too by watering down the niche protection while still keeping the class system; all with varying levels of success, depending on play style and user preference.
