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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Little Raven" data-source="post: 4031879" data-attributes="member: 10095">We can call them by the original roles in which Gygax openly based them: infantry (the units that hold your line; fighting-man), combat medic (the units that keep other units fighting; cleric), special forces (units that do specialized tasks, including single-target elimination; thief), and artillery (units that wreak havoc on large portions of the battlefield; magic-user). Tack on the design considerations that make it so that a fighter will be the guy absorbing more of the damage (higher HP, compared to the M-U's small amount), a cleric will be the guy healing (since noone else was a healer at that point), the magic-user will be the guy laying down AoE damage (since noone else could do that, either), and the thief would positioning himself for special purposes or bonus damage (backstab)... and you get classes that were obviously designed with roles in mind.D&D has had roles since the beginning.Roles help designers just as much as players, because they help them keep focus on what the class should be able to do without any customization on the part of the player. So, all fighters will be able to be Defenders, even if you want to gear yours towards being a Striker instead.I think clearly presenting roles that have existed (and evolved) since the beginning of the game is a good thing, too.This is wrong, as five minutes playing WoW will demonstrate. Some monsters will flee once they reach a certain % of health (to make sure you're paying attention, since previous MMOs had problems with people just turning on auto-attack, then walking away for a few minutes), some will enrage, some will call others for help. Not all monsters do the same thing.This is 110% true. Inspiration for good mechanics comes from any source.</blockquote>

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