4e Class Role Primer

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Class Roles in 4th Edition D&D (a primer)

This guide is meant to be an introduction to how class roles work in 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons. I want to make it abundantly clear from the onset that every class in the game has some way to break role convention in some fashion, however they all still benefit from how their class is designed for their primary role. Roles were introduced in 4th edition specifically to make it easier for players to understand what they were supposed to be doing with certain classes, and for Dungeon Masters to be better able to balance encounters to make sure that everyone had a viable job in a dungeon group. The Dungeon Master's Guide even has an extensive section on how to tailor encounters to compensate for a role not being present, or how to change encounters if one role is over-represented, so that everyone feels useful.

The purpose here is to inform players as to how these classes and roles work in tabletop, so that they have an idea of what they can expect to happen in future development. It's worth noting that because of the versatility inherent in the design, however, that sometimes a class can be created that defies initial convention (Great Weapon Fighter is our current poster child for it), but at the same time, you can still see a number of similarities in the basic design (GWFs are still very tanky, and still have a number of control aspects). It's also to provide you with information on where your favorite classic D&D class has ended up, to give you an idea of where their development (in tabletop) has went. Therefore, we have four sections that are going to go over the four major roles - Defenders, Leaders, Controllers, and Strikers. Each role has a purpose in combat encounters (non-combat encounters, more emphasis was put on THE PLAYER as opposed to mechanics, to greater encourage and promote role-playing opportunities), and most of a class's mechanics are designed to help them with that role. These are all general guidelines that Wizards of the Coast has created for the tabletop game, that Cryptic then translates (fairly well, IMO) into this game. Things are likely to be changed and lost in translation.

Each class is in the following roles:
Defenders - Warden (Primal), Paladin (Divine), Swordmage (Arcane), Fighter (Martial), Battlemind (Psionic)
Leaders - Shaman (Primal), Cleric (Divine), Bard (Arcane), Warlord (Martial), Ardent (Psionic)
Controllers - Druid (Primal), Invoker (Divine), Wizard (Arcane), Psion (Psionic)
Strikers - Barbarian (Primal), Avenger (Divine), Sorcerer (Arcane), Warlock (Arcane), Ranger (Martial), Rogue (Martial), Monk (Psionic)

Further posts will discuss individual roles - Defensive Roles (Defenders and Leaders) and Offensive Roles (Strikers and Controllers). In these roles, however, I want to again stress that a number of classes have either built-in hybridization potential (every class not in the first Player's Handbook), or tools within that class for specific builds (every class in the game) to apply aspects that allow them to take on roles of other roles. That's the power of versatility and the benefit of adding additional options. I'm also not going to discuss Power Sources (though I have listed the power source for every class above), as those tend to play a very minor role in overall class and role composition. Only one role (Controller) really pays much attention to Power Source, though they can give you a general idea of what to expect from that class within that role (Invokers as Divine Controllers, for example, tend to call on the power of their chosen deity to smite and punish their opponents).

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Defenders

The primary role of the Defender is to prevent damage to the party. They do this through a number of ways, the biggest of which is by creating disincentives for monsters to attack other members of their party. Defenders have a large amount of personal mitigation, and through control abilities, ways to make sure that there are less opportunities for monsters to even get to the rest of their party. They also have a number of solid offense options, making them a threat that can't really be ignored for too long.

The primary mechanic of every Defender class is Marking - an enemy that is Marked by a Defender is hit with a debuff (that varies based on class). Most Defenders also have powers that let them do additional things (more damage, more control, more debuffs) to Marked enemies, and generally when Marked and not targeting the Defender that marked them, they suffer additional penalties for those attacks. This encourages the monster in question to attack the Defender, but allows for more intelligent ones to focus more threatening targets (such as Leaders) instead.

Notable Defender classes are the Fighter, Paladin, Swordmage, and Warden classes. Fighters and Paladins tend more towards the direct mitigation end of the scale through higher defenses and better armor, whereas Swordmages and Wardens are more about avoiding damage and controlling the enemy (though they can take hits fairly well). All four classes can hybridize very easily into Strikers as the need requires, and the Swordmage and Warden both have the tools necessary to make fairly solid Controllers as well.

Leaders

The primary role for the Leader is to act as a force multiplier for their party and either prevent damage (similar to the Defender) or to recover any damage done to the party. They have some ability to help control monsters, but generally they focus more on their party then they do on the enemies (though almost all of their powers have offensive potential in addition to defensive potential; Most pay for this tradeoff in some fashion). They have solid personal defenses, but generally rely on other roles for that, and they do have some damage, but it's not to the same degree of other dedicated roles. They are, however, a very powerful class, and can turn any party up a few notches and are a wonderful addition.

The primary mechanic for Leaders is Inspiration - every Leader has an Encounter ability that can be used multiple times that provides direct healing in some fashion to the party member targetted. Almost all of ther abilities tend to provide benefits to their party as well, either when the ability is used or when they attack whoever was the primary target of the ability itself (such as attack bonuses to that target, or temporary hit points).

Notable Leader classes include the Cleric, Shaman, Warlord, and Bard. Of the four, the Bard and Cleric have the most direct healing potential (though the Shaman is no slouch), whereas the Warlord and Shaman both focus more on additional damage and control options. Clerics and Warlords also have the highest personal mitigation (and some of their builds let them hybridize into Defenders easily), whereas Bards and Shamans are a lot squishier (but bleed over into the Controller territory).

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Controllers

Where Defenders and Leaders protect the team defensively, Controllers defend their team offensively. Almost every single power they have does double duty in debuffing or control in addition to putting a solid dent in their targets health bars. Out of all the roles in the game, they have the most powers and abilities that affect a broad amount of targets - as that is the major focus of their role in combat. Whereas the Striker is the king of damage, they tend to be focused more on removing hard single targets. Cleaning up the smaller mobs is the job that befalls the Controller, and they are very, very good at it. Some builds allow them to compete with the Striker in the single target realm, but they never quite come close (thanks to the Striker's special mechanics).

Unlike the other roles, the Controller has it's primary mechanic baked into every ability it has, and it's right in the title. Individual Controller classes tend to have their own flavor and theme, and outside of the fact that they do area damage and control mobs, they don't have anything that really binds them together as well. However, that plays into letting them do their job - if you need to knock down a hoard of mobs, or keep things from getting out of control, a Controller is the class you want to consider.

Notable Controllers are the Wizard, Invoker, Druid, and Psion. Each one has a special mechanic (Spell Mastery for Wizards, Channel Divinity for Invokers, Shapeshifting for Druids, and Augmentation for Psions) that gives them their own special little flavor that sets them apart from other Controllers, but binds them closer together with classes that share their primary Power Source (almost all Divine classes get Channel Divinity, for example) while still allowing them to shine on their own (Invokers are more easily capable of turning their Channels into raw damage or control). Defensively, Invokers and Druids are the toughest (particularly Druids that have a Shapeshift that offers them some mitigation), whereas Wizards and Psions both have amazing versatility and control to make up for their lack of defense.

Strikers

You need something dead? Then the Striker is for you. While every Role has the ability to do damage, the Striker is the only one that truly specializes in it. It's also the most heavily populated role in the game, with more options to be a Striker across every power source then any other. In addition to their ability to focus down hard targets faster then any other role, they also have powers and abilities that let them play double duty with other roles (namely into Controller and Defender territory), though they generally don't do as well in those areas. They excel in specific at removing single targets (like Solos, Elites, and enemy Leaders), letting the rest of the party take care of the rest of the encounter while they assassinate important threats and then come back to help clean up.

Each Striker has a class mechanic that helps them in this job, such as Hunter's Quarry or Sneak Attack. This lets them dictate a single target that they do additional damage to until that target falls (or they pick a different one), then move on to the next. When a Striker has singled out a target, that target does not last very long. They also tend to gain additional benefit from Combat Advantage (generally granted to them by Defenders, Leaders, and Controllers in some fashion) on the target of their choice, and a party that synergizes well with it's Strikers is one that's going to do very well for itself.

There are a wide number of Striker classes in the game - Rangers, Rogues, Barbarians, Avengers, Sorcerors, Warlocks, and Monks all tend to share similar qualities in that they have average to low personal defense (the closer the Striker is intended to get to it's target, the more defense they have), and incredible damage potential. Warlocks, Avengers, and Sorcerers tend to have a lot more potential for control and team buffing options, whereas Rangers and Barbarians are very tanky and able to act as Defenders in a pinch. Monks trade their defense for more potential in their control abilities. Of the Strikers, the Ranger and the Barbarian are the most likely to be able to handle large crowds of weaker monsters, whereas the Warlock and Rogue are hard to compete with in single target damage even for Strikers.

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Any specific questions, I'm willing to go over or discuss. It's worth noting that you can still see a lot of these conventions applied to the game itself, and the only other thing I can point out is that most of the specific Class Names are based off of specific builds found in some of the sourcebooks. I will not, however, post word-for-word descriptions of anything found in the game. That's not the purpose of this post - it's just someplace that you can find out some general information on how things work in 4e D&D, which Neverwinter is heavily based off of. You can see a lot of the design intent in the game, even if sometimes the implementation leaves a little to be desired.

Neverwinter itself, as a game, also provides more opportunities for the developers to focus Hybrid roles a bit away from their basic roles. We can see this the most with Great Weapon Fighter - it has all the earmarks of being a Defender (marking targets, focusing on light area controls and damage), while also combining in more aspects of a Controller (through having a number of powers that hit multiple targets, or temporarily stun in wide areas) without going too far in either way. Even Determination (the primary mechanic for GWFs) has a lot of Defender potential in it (raising personal defense while it's up, letting you attack faster with At-Wills which raises threat and area damage). So just because a class is in a specific role in tabletop is not a guarantee that it's going to be solely in that role for here.

Hope this helps some people out, or inspires some interesting discussion. Either way, I'm good. Back to my cave, then!

ukatoenasni

No discussion means I just have to bump it myself, though I won't take the opportunity to do so that often. That out of the way, here's some more information on Classes with a discussion on Alternative Class Features.

Diversity through Alternative Class Features

In 4th edition, some class features are set in stone, particularly when those features are baked into the role itself (Inspiration for Leaders, Marks for Defenders). However, how and when those features get applied can change significantly depending on what class features an individual build uses. It's in this way that a lot of player diversity can be introduced, and for this game in specific, how you can make certain classes fill other roles temporarily just by switching out what build is supported when making it. Each alternative feature has a 'build' that Wizards of the Cost has put together for low-level characters, and almost all of them have additional support in the books they're introduced (feats and powers). These are what allow the class to perform it's Role in a new and interesting way, or to even take on characteristics of another Role. These features are chosen at character creation.

It's easier to see through example, though, so let's take a look at one of these classes - the Wizard.

The primary feature of the Wizard as a class is Implement Mastery. Most of the time, this allows the wizard access to a special encounter power that amplifies the wizard's next ability (used as a free action, so you can activate it on the turn you want to benefit from it), and on occasion includes some other bonuses on top of that. For each Implement (Orbs, Wands, Staves, and Tomes) there are one or two specific builds.

The one we're most familiar with in Neverwinter is the Orb of Imposition Mastery path - as it's primary effect, it increases the duration of Control powers or makes it harder to break out of certain effects. This is pretty neatly represented in-game as a function of Spell Mastery, though it was obviously adjusted to provide more options then just control (which is fine - a little flex in translation is good, and even the Orb's encounter effect could be used to extend damage effects, like Acid Arrow's damage over time).

Another Mastery for Orbs is the Deception path - when triggered by missing with any power that has the Illusion keyword, it allows you to instead repeat the attack with a bonus on another target within a certain distance of the original target (as if they were the original target instead). This prevents the power from being wasted, and can even let you hit a target you otherwise wouldn't have been able to affect with the power.

Staff of Defense Mastery grants mostly passive effects - in addition to adding an armor class bonus, it allows you to (once per encounter) gain a further bonus to your defenses on an attack that otherwise would have hit you (which can help you mitigate it entirely). Both only work so long as you are holding a staff, and reflect your ability to use your staff to protect yourself.

Tomes are the other Mastery path that has two options - Binding and Readiness. The former increases the power of any spell used with the Summon keyword (letting the summoned creature attack with a bonus) as a passive effect, while the latter lets you store extra Encounter powers in the Tome to swap out on the fly (by expending a different Encounter power instead) in combat. Both are generally passive benefits, though they both provide some additional utility to the Wizard that has that feature selected.

Wand of Accuracy is the last Implement mastery that a Wizard has access to, and it allows you to spend a Free action to gain a bonus on your next attack (further ensuring that it hits). This makes sure that when you really need to have that power hit the necessary targets, that it actually does so (such as locking down a Brute, or wiping out a cluster of Minions).

While most of these don't seem like they do much, this is all just what the Feature themselves provide. Each power you can select (at-will, encounter, or daily; Utilities don't tend to have bonuses) can have an additional bonus that better suits certain builds and encourage you to select that power. For example, Wand of Accuracy Mastery causes the Encounter spell Empowered Lightining to grant a damage bonus when you use your Accuracy boost, provided you use it before the end of the encounter. Tome of Binding modifies the Tomebound Ooze power, causing it to instead of just damaging a single target when triggered, to explode and damage every target around it. Some powers even require you to have the Implement equipped in order to use it (such as the Thunderstaff daily power, which naturally doesn't work without a staff).

All of these can also further be modified by special feats that give you more benefit for using that Implement (such as Advanced Implement Mastery, which gives you a second bonus for using a specific type of your chosen implement), and further help define your build. Other classes are more or less tied to these features (Wizard is probably the most loosely tied to their primary feature), and some even have additional features (Rangers, in addition to Style, have a second choice in Prime Shot or Skirmish; Fighters also have Style, and Weapon Mastery as options). This provides a lot of options for what development potential there are in classes. It also helps you build a character that better fits how you want that character to work.

Not sure what else to go over. I'm sure I'll come up with something, though.

ordensmarschall

Nice bit of work. I think the next Alternative Class features that could use a write up is for the Cleric.