User:Majorminor50

ROUGH DRAFT:

Party Composition:

A party is made of 2 or more characters. In order to begin discussing Party Composition, we need to discuss generally what a characters "role" is within a given party.

Characters can fill specific roles within said party based on a variety of factors such as class, items, playstyle, role play potential and ability scores.

Roles are just one way of viewing how a party is comprised and built. Many classes and characters can often fulfill multiple roles within their party. Overlap can and will occur depending on how the character or player chooses to play, how they level up, the class, race and other factors can all contribute to overall character diversity, their role and how those characters build a party.

Roles:

What is a role? A role is in a general sense what your character is good at or fulfills within a party. Just because your character might be "generally" good at something, does not mean you "have" to fulfill a particular role. Typically, your characters role can be broken down into 2 distinct areas. In Combat, and Outside of Combat.

In Combat Roles

- What does your does your character do in a combat scenario? Do they hide in the bushes and attack enemies? Do they run head first into danger? Perhaps they cast spells to blast their enemies away, or instead buff allies. Many different factors, abilities, spells, items and other things can impact what your character "generally" gets up to during any given combat encounter

Out of Combat Roles

- What does your character do when exploring the world? Are they learned in history of the region? Are they perceptive enough to see hidden clues? Do they have knowledge of Arcane Magic and able to utilize it when found?

Factors that Affect Roles

Ability Scores

A characters ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma) play a vital role in not just character creation, but the role your character could play. A character who has a large amount of strength might focus on dealing damage with melee weapons. A character with high Charisma might focus on conversations or buying and selling items to merchants (the "face" of the party). A character with high intelligence might perform certain ability checks

Class

Certain classes receive innate proficiencies with particular skills and weapons. Additionally, classes have many differences in regards to the actions and spells they might have access to, impacting what they might do both in and out of combat.

Race

Your race can impact a variety of things, such as the proficiencies you acquire (Weapons, Armor, Skills), starting Attributes (Humans receive +1 to every attribute to start) and more thematically, race can change how the world of the Forgotten Realms perceives you (A Drow character might be met with suspicion while a Halfing might be welcomed into a tavern or inn more easily)

Role Play

Dungeons and Dragons at its most simple is a Role Playing Game! Regardless of class, race, even ability scores, what do you want your character to do, feel and react to in the world around you. Would you like your character to be the know it all who jumps at the chance to explain an important detail? Or perhaps the lovable buffoon who fights on the frontline to protect their friends from harm? How you choose to play your character can impact the role that you fulfill

Combat Roles

Striker/Blaster:

DPS (Damage Per Second) or in the case of turn based combat, Damage Per Turn. A class or character who's main focus is dishing out damage and doing so consistently.

Tank:

A tank draws aggro (enemy aggression). A character who can take a few hits, while drawing enemy attention away from their allies whether through certain abilities (Goad) or by simply playing right in the enemies face.

Support:

A support focuses on buffing allies and debuffing enemies, typically through abilities or spells.

Controller:

A character who through their spells/abilities/playstyle focus on CC (Crowd Control) and/or controlling the pace of the fight itself.

Summary

Generally speaking, certain classes will be "better" at fulfilling certain roles within a party, just because of how their class is built, what attributes work well with a given class, and what abilities or spells they have access to. Any character, with enough thought put in can fulfill almost any role! Some classes may just be "better" at it than others. But again, what's "better" is subjective.