What's Your (Favourite) Role?

[TarionzCousin]

Leader is also a good choice for that annoying guy who always wants to tell the other players what they should do. You know the type.

Personally, I'm willing to listen to the cleric's player direct us* as long as he keeps the sweet, sweet healing flowing our way.









*Most of the time we all say "Great idea!" and do our own thing regardless.

 

[KarinsDad]

I'm actually surprised leaders are doing so well...I didn't know there were that many board goers that liked the leader style of play.

I suspect that Healing might have nearly as much to do with that as buffing does. Buffing is nice and is probably the ability that many Leader players enjoy using the most, but healing (and to a lesser extent, additional Save acquisition) as an ability is the key ability that PCs get that NPCs generally do not. It really is the crux of the PC advantage over NPCs. It allows the PCs to maintain the Action Economy of all PCs using actions nearly every round, something the NPCs slowly lose over time.

Leaders might not do the sexy damage of Strikers, but they are the engine that runs the entire team and most players do realize that they don't want to tick off the Leader. There's a certain amount of influential power gained at the table by playing a Leader. They are called Leaders for a reason, even if not all players take advantage of that.

I like playing Controllers, but if I could play a Controller that could also heal (more than once per day), sweet.

 

[Fifth Element]

Defender for me. My last three characters have been a swordmage, a fighter and a warden. I enjoy making the DM's life difficult in a fight, I guess.

 

[Holy Bovine]

I'm actually surprised leaders are doing so well...I didn't know there were that many board goers that liked the leader style of play.

This did surprise me too at first. But as I thought about who in the groups I've played in seems that the most memorable character the answer in 3 out of 4 is the leader (a Dragonborn InspWarlord, an Eldarin TacWarlord and a dwarf Shaman). I guess they finally made healing 'sexy'?

It is not too surprising that controllers are pretty far behind (the other three being very even at the moment) since they are a harder class to play and more situational in their powers and such.

Perhaps another problem is too much of their power is buried in dailies, and most players, in my experience, are loath to use dailies. Wizards in particular suffer from this.

This is very true. The best played controller I have seen to date is a human Wizard played in my Eberron game. When he gets a daily off it is often 'game over' for the enemy. He single handedly turned the tide of a battle with one well placed Stinking Cloud. Without it I honestly think the party would have been tpk'd.

I suspect that Healing might have nearly as much to do with that as buffing does. Buffing is nice and is probably the ability that many Leader players enjoy using the most, but healing (and to a lesser extent, additional Save acquisition) as an ability is the key ability that PCs get that NPCs generally do not. It really is the crux of the PC advantage over NPCs. It allows the PCs to maintain the Action Economy of all PCs using actions nearly every round, something the NPCs slowly lose over time.

Leaders might not do the sexy damage of Strikers, but they are the engine that runs the entire team and most players do realize that they don't want to tick off the Leader. There's a certain amount of influential power gained at the table by playing a Leader. They are called Leaders for a reason, even if not all players take advantage of that.

This is true from my experience as well. The group seems to naturally gravitate towards following the leader's advice over others.

I like playing Controllers, but if I could play a Controller that could also heal (more than once per day), sweet.

Sounds like a great hybrid combo to me!!

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I've only played strikers so far (a star warlock, and then, when PH2 came out, my DM allowed me to convert her to a sorceror).

Don't get me wrong, I love my sorceror powers (spark form and thunder leap especially), but I'm the kind of person who feels guilty when I do more damage in a round than the rest of the party combined, or when I kill a monster some other PC has been working at, round after round. So I don't think striker is the best fit for me.

Rather, I suspect leader is. I see the eladrin tactical warlord in the game I DM, tossing out powers that turn clerics and charisma paladins into strikers, and I think "That's super awesome". Personally, I think that's the fit for me - doing stuff that makes everyone else look like a star. The healing bit of it is important, but not really the draw for me - the draw is letting the others shine rather than helping them stand back up.

 

[lukelightning]

One of my favorite leader things is when your power gives an ally an attack, and that attack kills the monster. The striker thinks he won the day, but you really know it was your genius tactics that did it.

 

[Jhaelen]

I don't really have a favorite role. Judging by the number of classes I like, it's probably striker. Leader's a close second and Controller's last.

 

[Zaran]

Controllers for me. Although I only have experience with the Wizard. While I have playing the Defender as well, I like being able to have big flashy effects that alter the battlefield.

 

[Holy Bovine]

I have to say I am amazed that the poll shows what amounts to a 3 way tie amoung Striker, Defender and Leader (35, 32 & 32 votes respectively). I expected Striker to win this by a huge margin (like 15-20 votes) not squeak into top spot by 3 votes! Controller I expected to fair poorly as they are a harder category to get a handle on especially if you are new to RPGs.