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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 5622599" data-attributes="member: 82106">No, not really. It is hard to generalize. Controllers have usually been considered back rankers and they mostly have the least hit points and surges, but nothing is universally true in 4e. Druids for instance are front line controllers with a secondary in striker or leader depending on the build. They're designed to wildshape, head into the fray, and lay around effects that pin the enemy down. Outside of wildshape they generally manifest their leadery subrole more, but they have plenty of good control things like summons too.You can also certainly build a front line 'melee' wizard. Use Staff of Defense and Staff Expertise, and keep your CON up some. With a high int and spending a few resources now and then you can have an AC that is nicely competitive with any defender. There are plenty of good close spells you can lay around you, plus feats like Arcane Reach. One final observation is that it isn't the defender's job (or good tactics) to stop ALL enemy engagement of other characters. There's no point in ending a day of adventuring with the fighter at 0 surges and the wizard sitting in back with his 6 intact. The job of the fighter is to be traffic cop and punish the enemy when they DO attack the wizard. That way the fighter can 'tank' a proportion of damage, and the 'squishy' characters can pull some hits when they need to. The real tough ones are melee rogues and melee rangers. A Brutal Scoundrel is going to want to get right in and flank when he can, but the bad guys are going to make him pay for that with his limited surges. The defender should be pulling enemies off him as much as possible, but really the player needs to be smart and not hang around in a crowd. Things like Cloak of the Mountebank are handy there (teleport you after being hit, prevents Slobbo's brothers from joining the party).</blockquote>

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