The Modern-Day Party: Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, and Rogue

[Donny Brook]

Me an my group don't run campaigns that I consider super combat heavy, but nevertheless, it's rare that any of the PC will lack combat competence. No-one wants to be useless when the S is hitting TF. So everybody is a Fighter, though specializations will vary.

Then on top of being fighty, everyone can have their schtick, which each tend to revolve around one or two Talents: Fighter/Artificer/Tech, Fighter/Medic/Driver, Fighter/Face/Operative, etc. Also in our games it is rare that there won't be someone with a minimal ability to back up any function.

Of course, this only works in games where supernal hyperspecialization is not the only way to succeed. Which is why I don't play D&D.

[corwyn]

Originally Posted by RedMattis

I mean, the trinity of D&D classes are barely relevant in Fantasy, were it not for D&D balancing.

What I figure you need in a party facing a big mixture of challenges is roughly:

1: Social Ability ("The Face")
2: Combat (Any of the D&D classes, really.*)
3: Infiltrator ("Rogue")
4: Specialist/Professor/Engineer/Mage/...

The fourth one is the tricky one obviously, and varies hugely from setting to setting. In some settings it is absolutely critical, in others almost irrelevant. Spaceship needs a pilot. Would be a bit strange to play cyberpunk world without a hacker. Dungeon delving in a high-fantasy world without at least an NPC with magic ability to detect cursed magical items and such would be extra-hard mode. Healing is usually very useful in settings where it is available.



* Even a party of lightly armored 250-point GURPS combat mages would be effective, especially if they tactically/build compensate for the lack of a frontline

I've found that Blink Other is a fine substitute for my front line Wizard. Most characters don't have Body Sense and even dedicated rogues will have a tough time with DX-6.

[Inky]

Originally Posted by RedMattis

Would be a bit strange to play cyberpunk world without a hacker.

I'm not so sure - if that was a large part of the action, the other characters would be a bit left out; it might be better for all the characters to have hackerly skills in varying degrees and specialities, just as in many games they all have at least some kind of combat skills.

[corwyn]

I've read where some Shadowrun groups have the hacker/runner be an NPC that they hire for runs.

[AlexanderHowl]

In Shadowrun 4e, hackers were much more active than the other editions, so they tended to be quite fun because they were in the action with everyone else. A good eight person crew was one conjurer, one sorcerer (the blaster, the detector, the healer, the illusionist, or the manipulator), two combat specialists (one close combat and one ranged combat), a face, a hacker, an infiltrator, and a rigger. The rigger and the summoner exists for crowd control, the face, hacker, and infiltrator exist for gaining access and information, the combat specialists exist to draw aggro and kill things, and the magician is the wildcard.

Now, the hacker and the rigger could overlap, as could the conjurer and the sorcerer or the close combat specialist and the ranged combat specialist, but you rapidly run into issues with the action economy. In Shadowun 4e, it was better to run with a crew than a team, but it is hard to get eight people to run together, so you tended to end up with a few NPCs. In general, I found that it was good to have the NPCs being opposites of the PCs in order to produce a contrast that let everyone shine.