In almost twenty years of playing rpgs, mostly 3.x, I have never needed to worry about party make up or roles, nor optimizing my characters.
However, in this one game I just joined I already have the GM expressing concern about my lack of optimization particularly because I'm the primary arcane caster.
So I'm curious what exactly everyone expects from the various party roles, preferably in more detail than "Tank equals taking all the damage."
I always figured the point of arcane casters in terms of party role was the damage type for getting around DR and the knowledge and spellcraft skills, and perhaps the occasional utility spell such as invisibility or magic item use.
So my character has chill touch and orb of acid for the damage type aspect and has the k arcana, k planes, and spellcraft skills. Then I built the rest of the character as a stealthy deceptive combat caster.
Yes I asked the GM, but I figured I'd also get comments from the community out of curiousity.
I don't place any expectations upon the players as far as roles go. If they all want to play wizards, we'll do a wizard campaign. If none of them want to play a healing class, but want to do a traditional campaign where a healer is expected, they can take an NPC healer with them or compensate in another way.
I think it would be helpful to know what the GM's concerns were. That you're not going to have fun because the other characters are more powerful than you? That you're not going to contribute to n level where n level is the optimal level in the GM's eyes, etc.
If it is the first, simply tell the GM you're okay with not being as powerful as the other characters, and you should be all set. If the later, take your character sheet to the advice section and see if others can power your character up.
I encourage my players to help fill party roles, but ultimately they decide which classes they play and how.
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I dont see roles so much as necessary as being able to overcome the challenges an adventuring group faces. Its up tot he party to kill their foes, disable/bypass traps, solve puzzles or gather clues, interact with NPCs, heal and remove debilitating effects.
How they achieve the above is up to them. If they all take classes like ranger, pally, bard and split up the healing/restoration cool. If they use archetypes for trap disabling instead of taking rogue levels great. However they do it is up to the party. I dont do cohorts or GMPCs in my games. I will adjust for a party to make it easier for them to rise to challenges if necessary, but the party has to make some effort to meet me in the middle as GM.
@thealicornsage your caster does sound limp. If I was going to go about it id use the magus instead for a sneaky damage dealer. Though if the rest of the party is cool with it, I wouldnt give you hard time about your PC as a GM or player.
When I think of party roles, I think in terms of a general task or set of tasks to be accomplished. (I even made a thread for it a while back.) I think as long as the party can either a) handle the challenges, or b) circumvent the challenges, you are fine. Some classes, of course, do better at certain roles than others. And some roles are more important than others.