What are some the "niches" found in the game? Obviously there are a few that spring directly to mind, but I am wondering what everyone else thinks of as distinct and unique niches to be filled in games.
- Non-magical Damage Dealer; e.g. Fighter, Barbarian, Monk and Rogue, Ranger
- Out of Combat Utility; Bard, Rogue, Wizard, Cleric, Paladin in some builds
- Magical Damage; Wizard, Sorcerer, Cleric
I basically see a 3 point system as the above, with all classes lying somewhere inside a triangle bound by those three points. Thoughts?
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Three roles in combat. See The Forge of Combat for more details
Out of combat, there are skills (including but not limited to trap finding and disarming), heals, utility casting, face time, and other various role-playings.
The roles out of combat are a lot less defined than in combat, and that hopefully serves to encourage RP.
My view?
1. The person who hits things(does damage in melee combat) and gets hit (be it with high AC, miss chance, being expendable, or boatloads of hit points)
2. The person who is skilled in social encounters (bluff, diplomacy, sense motive etc)
3. The person who is skilled in dungeon encounters(perception, disable device, knowledges)
4. The person who is skilled in wilderness encounters (perception, survival, knowledges)
5. The person who can recover negative conditions(disease, ability damage, negative levels, etc) and hp loss.
6. The person who prevents the opponents from operating at peak efficiency (debuffs, battle field control)
7. The person who enables the party to perform at its own peak efficiency (buffs, battlefield control)
All classes can potentially cover multiple of these roles or parts of them. For instance, the wizard might be #6 with battlefield control, but he might also be number 1 by summoning expendable minions. A cleric might cover 2, 5, 7 and even some of 1.
Please note I dont consider straight damage dealer IE the striker/glass cannont, to be a legitimate role. It can be part of a character, but it isnt strictly necessary, as the best damage dealers in the game are often the front liners, who cover role 1, so being able to only do part of role 1 isnt particularly useful on its own.
Three roles in combat. See The Forge of Combat for more details.
The Forge of Combat is good but extremely limited.
There are several different types of hammer, for example : ranged attacker, melee tank, skirmisher, and so forth. There are several different kinds of anvil, and so forth.
It also misses one key role -- cockroach or damage sponge. While this doesn't often work as a standalone role (e.g., usually this will be combined with another role, as otherwise opponents will simply ignore the sponge as he can't do anything), it's the sponge who absorbs enough enemy actions. I prefer a variant of Treantmonk's categorization: Tank, Glass Cannon, Buffer, and Debuffer (both of which he folds into the controller-of-reality).
Please note I dont consider straight damage dealer IE the striker/glass cannont, to be a legitimate role. It can be part of a character, but it isnt strictly necessary, as the best damage dealers in the game are often the front liners, who cover role 1, so being able to only do part of role 1 isnt particularly useful on its own.
Ranged attacker. IMHO, that's the glass cannon's role.