Inq. of the Week: Know Your Role
Arguments of firing from space and beaming into the sun aside, the Quinto vs. Quinto matchup was won by the super-villain Sylar. I thought his role and fate by the end of the last season were pretty interesting, though I’m sad to learn that everyone thinks that not even the scientific genius of Vulcan’s favored son could stand up to an immortal, shape-shifting, power-stealing psychopath. Let us hope that we are never forced to endure that fight.
Only a short Inquisition this week, since I have lots more Origins goodness to send your way soon, including an epic recounting of our journey to victory over the Ultimate Dungeon Delve, another seminar by Monte Cook (this one about designing dungeons), a seminar about 4e villain design, and my recap of the show’s exhibit hall, along with a few very short podcasts that describe some of the cooler games from the show floor.
Without further interruption, as suggested by our Ultimate Dungeon Delve teammate Krog, I ask the following:
Loading ...Discuss your preferences as far as roles and the strengths and weaknesses, but if you want to bash the role system, might I recommend starting a thread on your favorite RPG forum?
TheGame is Dave Chalker, a lifelong gamer, freelance game designer, Master of Arts, and son of Jack L. Chalker. Dave is the Editor-in-Chief of Critical Hits and so runs the place. He is the envy of geeks everywhere because he's dating e, the Geek's Dream Girl. (Email Dave or follow him on Twitter).
If I’m in the mood to kill lots of stuff, I love strikers. Stabbie McRogue was AWESOME for the Ultimate Dungeon Delve. However, I also love playing Mielka the cleric, because she’s a team player and makes life better for everyone else in the party.
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I love playing my Warlord. I get to boss other people around =)
“You.. attack for me.”
“I don’t need to move this turn, why don’t you?”
And Lead the Attack is just full of win.
Strikers and Defenders can be fun also. Haven’t played a Controller yet though.
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I am the group’s main DM, but Bard is the class for me when they let me play.
“I don’t want tracts of land… I just want to sing…”
I was actually a big fan of the ranger in earlier editions, but the 4e striker is a little flat for my tastes and the rogue doesn’t fulfil my swashbuckler urges well enough. I am tempted to try out the warlock though, since the power sources open up all sorts of roleplaying opportunities and fluff.
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I love playing the 4e Fighter. It can do so much stuff depending on its choice of weapon and powers. It has athletics and if you train acrobatics, you can do some kinds of stunts as well, since chain mail only gives a somewhat small penalty to such things that can be offset with the proper equipment. Or hell, you can live dangerously and wear leather, bump Con, be a Battlerager, and go crazy.
I like that people look to me to defend them and that I can do so. I like the idea of being able to protect others and still also be able to fight well.
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I’m jealous of the Striker’s damage output, but I like the Leader (in particular the Warlord.) the look of joy when I get to grant someone an extra attack is worth the price of admission. I’m in the process of trying out a Bard as well. Defender is probably role number two for me. I’ve a classic meat-shield mentality I guess. I used to play a lot of Black in M:tG, so I’m used to using life (hp) as a resource.
I know drawing analogies to WoW is opening up a whole other can of worms, but my favorite role in WoW was the tank and I think that has carried through to my D&D preferences a lot! I’ve been DMing 95% of my time with 4E but I definitely enjoy the Swordmage, Warden, and Paladin the most in my parties with Controllers being right behind it. They just seem to be the classes/roles that most ruin my plans as a DM, which is perversely fun for me in a lot of ways! As such I voted for Defender.
My favorite class has always been Fighter and defender is my favorite role. I mainly DM and play during campaign hiatuses, where another member of the group DM. The game we are playing now as a convert from 3e, where I didn’t play many fighters on account of the poor fighters giant suckitude. I was playing a warmage, now sorcerer. I’ve been trying to get him killed so I can roll a fighter or warden.
Leader classes, specifically the Warlord!!!! My favorite class though I’m terrible at playing one and they aren’t very useful in a party full of ranged strikers/controllers. I just like yelling,”Rub some dirt on it!” and the like during battles. RIP Irthos.
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I’ve found that I enjoy primarily playing strikers and leaders. There’s just something so viscerally appealing about the raw focused damage that striker classes bring to the table that appeals to me. Leaders on the other hand are a lot of fun for completely different reasons, as they can facilitate those massive numbers for the rest of the party. All sorts of fun there!
I do love my Warlock… moving around the battlefield, cursing as many opponents as I can… it’s annoying I don’t have enough luck to mow through people but when I do, oh everyone is envious of my damage rolls…
Leaders are cool to play too… but you need a party that fights with you instead of randomly going places and leaving you to die…
As I write this, striker is leading the pack in the poll. I’m shocked, SHOCKED I say to find this is so. My favorite, controller, is in last place. Ok, it’s ahead of banana.
I’ve long played mezzers in MMO’s and while wizards aren’t quite that, at least at low levels, that’s my play. I love turning a fight that looks overwhelmingly bad into a killing assembly line. In 4e, sometimes that means putting 10 minions to sleep. Or killing them all with one well aimed encounter power.
Yum.
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I would’ve expected the Striker to win the poll. I like leaders because I like to grant other people bonuses (boni?).
Leader, hands down.
Making *everyone* else rock harder than they could on their own? oh yeah, that’s the stuff!
I’ve got to go with strikers, although to be honest it was close call between them and leaders. I DM almost exclusively, but my friends and I get together and make teams of adventurers, and then have them battle it out. I know, not the way the game is meant to be played, but it can be really fun.
Through those short melees I’ve come to truly wonder over the unbeatable Warforged Barbarian Frenzied Berkserker, and that’s what won this for me.
Of course, inspiring human warlord was a close second.
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