Help:Adventuring Groups
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Contents
Character Roles
Character roles within an adventuring team are important. If everybody decides to be a jack-of-all-trades, then the party generally won't be as successful as groups that split up roles to various members so that they can be mastered. This list gives examples of some of those roles.
Keep in mind that a character can take on multiple roles, and that by no means is the following list of roles exhaustive. Using many roles and coming up with one's own will be to the benefit of both the adventurer and her cohorts, as it means that a group can better react to changing circumstances.
Combat Roles
Direct Mêlée
A Direct Mêlée character focusses on dealing large amounts of damage with mêlée weapons. Even though this seems like a very narrow focus, there is a multitude of ways a character can go about doing this. For example, a duelist who specializes in Rapiers would qualify for this role just as much as a hulking warrior with a greatsword.
Direct Ranged
A Direct Ranged character is similarly focussed on causing damage, but through ranged weapons. The skill set is dramatically different; a good Ranged character must be able to cause a lot of damage and avoid any direct confrontation.
Battlefield Shaper
A Battlefield Shaper character's job is to disrupt and hamper opponents in order to set them up for attacks from other members of the party. This includes things like tripping opponents, moving opponents around using the Throw feat, disarming opponents, and using weaponry designed to discombobulate characters such as Nets, and Bolas. The primary goal of a Battlefield Shaper is to set opponents up for a devastating attack.
Shadow
A Shadow tends to quietly duck away from combat once battle is joined, but they're not running away. A Shadow specializes in showing up where opponents least expect him and taking advantage of them when they are weak. These characters will focus on staying hidden, quickly acting, and then slipping back into the background.
Magical Roles
Assault
Filling the Magical Assault role means that a character uses her magical power to directly harm and hinder opponents. From lightning blasts to fire storms, and even to mind-control, the number of ways to fill this roll are limited only by a player's imagination.
Control
The Magical Control role is focussed around controlling the battlefield and changing it to be more advantageous to one's party. This can mean slicking down the floor with ice or literally reshaping the lay of the land to create walls and towers of earth and rock. This role is about creating areas of control and funneling enemies in.
Support
The Magical Support character is the character who helps his companions with stat-boosting spells and healing magic. This character is the one that quickly heals a maimed party member, throws up a protective barrier to deflect incoming arrows, and infuses the berserker's muscles with magical power.
Intelligence
This roll effectively serves as a party's eyes and ears when they would otherwise be in the dark. Magic Intelligence characters use remote viewing to scout ahead of their tracks, they talk to animals to learn what transpired when no human was looking, and they tap into opponents' minds and discover their intentions.
