There's a reason I recommend creating characters as a group: most game systems are designed to make sure a character can only be good at one or two things. The primary reason for this is the simple nature of Table-top role-playing is a group activity, and people in a group feel better about working together when everyone can contribute.
How a system does this will vary. Open point-buys like GURPS, The HERO system, or the One-Roll Engine may offer an illusion of being able to create a jack-of-all trades, but in practice it never works out. Savage Worlds, both versions of the World of Darkness, and FATE all restrict the way points can be spent to better encourage the "pick a specialty" mentality. And, of course, D&D and most d20-based games use class systems to encourage a specialty. Even the revolutionary Apocalypse World and it's hacks use "playbooks," really a variant of the class system.
Since this blog is about Encounters, we'll focus on 5e D&D. Despite it no longer being a "focus," the roles of 4e are still built into many classes. To review, they're defender, sometimes called "the tank," specializing in drawing attacks and withstanding them. The striker, sometimes called "DPS" (Damage Per Second, as in maximized for). The controller, specializing in AOE (area of effect) attacks and changing the shape of the battlefield. And the leader, sometimes "the healer" or "the buffer." What's good about these roles is that they help a party in tactical combat.
The fact that these roles aren't hard coded into classes in 5e is something of a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that advanced and creative players can build unusual characters with varying and wide-ranging capabilities. Even relatively new players can do it! Kyla's first ever D&D character, Vanora, used the Eldritch Knight build, and she made it pretty effective. The curse, of course, is trying to help newer players get their feet. Hillary has been needing a fair bit of help with her druid, since it could be built as a controlling caster, a healing and buffing caster, or a shape-shifting tank. Heck, in one battle she could potentially be all three! Kyla, who's more experienced and pretty sharp, has had to find a balance between the bard's buffing and healing and attack and de-buffing spell load-outs. Even me, with a paladin, having to walk the tank path, but having to keep my healing and DPS abilities up to speed, too.
Of course, those roles focus on combat. Other typical roles in parties are: the Face, who does all the wheeling and dealing for the team. The Info-dump, who just happens to know all the information the party needs. And the Scout, the one going forward to locate all the dangers before the party has to deal with them. Typically high Charisma characters fall into the first role. In our current party, that could be Ghesh (HA!), Temerity (so far so good, actually), or Artor (good cop AND bad cop). High Int or characters with longer skill lists fill the Info-dump role. Kyla built Temerity with this in mind: a reasonably high Int and her bonuses as a College of Lore bard should mean that she knows most of what we'll need to know. Of course, 5e's break down of skills and background features helps each character take their own turn at providing info-dumps. And Jethro and Grim are, typical of rangers and rogues, performing admirably as scouts.
Lastly, there are "roles" that tend to be adopted by players rather than characters: the Team Leader, the one making executive and/or tactical decisions. The Team Mom/Dad, keeping everyone on track and making sure everyone has a chance to shine. The Accountant, who keeps track of the finances. And the Mapper/Chronicler, keeping track of everything so the other players (and sometimes the DM) don't have to. These roles tend to evolve organically, and while an important part of the group dynamic, they're independant of any mechanics.
Creating a party as a group allows every person to negotiate the kind of character they'd like to play and then build it. They can then use each class's specialty paths to help shore up areas we're lacking in. Druid and bard not quite up to nuke-healing like a life domain cleric? A paladin can fill in some of the gaps. The person playing the fighter wants to use a non-tank build? Circle of the Moon druid, paladin, or certain builds of other classes can fill in a little of the gap. Plus, there's nothing that says you can't have two fighters! Especially since based on the fighting style and archetype choices you make influence how they'll play so much.
Next time we'll look a little bit more on maximizing for these specialties and a little nitty-gritty.
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