Roles and Power Sources

Well running a bit late but I shall carry on regardless, this one is a brief (well I say brief) introduction to the types of class there are in 4e well that and the power sources that there are aswell.

Character Classes can be split up into 4 Roles they are the following, Controller, Defender, Striker and Leader each with varying abilities and effectiveness in combat. so let us begin with Controllers.

Controllers are an interesting bunch. their job is not destroy everything in sight (though some can do that anyway) their job is to make life harder for the DM (Dungeon Master for those who no fuck all about D&D) now that's not what it says they are for in the book but that really is their role.say the DM sends swarms of minions at the party (low grade monsters with 1 health point usually just rush the party and die quickly) a Controller like say a Wizard can take out 9 of these with a regular at-will powers and if they are not minions lower the stats of the monster making them easier to kill out of all the class roles controllers are the least needed purely because 2 or more strikers can easily deal with waves of enemies with out much fuss but they are fun in the right players hands and also if you prefer to play magic based classes it's not a bad choice but be wary as these classes are known to be very squishy and tend to be easier to hit (Wizards can't wear any armour meaning and have the lowest health so they need to stay in the back at 95% of the time the other 5% they should be running away).Best suited for players who enjoy tactics and make the life of the party easier.

Defenders are probably the joint second most needed party members (tied with strikers) their job is to, well defend. especially the squishy Wizard like classes they also make enemies focus all of their efforts on them by issuing marks that lower the enemies attack rolls if they don't hit the Defender (baring the later Knight and Cavalier classes that has an aura instead). they also tend to wear the best armour and use pretty much any weapons baring the ones considered superior. though mainly not damage dealers (unless built to deal vast amounts of damage and trying to steal the spot light from the Strikers or are just plain badly built). not a Role for newcomers especially if your new to a game you want be doing something epic and standing still whilst a bunch of enemies swarm you and keep attacking you isn't always epic also if you are not sensible it will probably end with your character dead or the whole party dead aswell and you will then be the most popular person in the room even the DM will like you for ending his campaign early for them. so in short good for people who are responsible and like playing the tough guys.

Next is probably the most popular (and the ones that eventually need advanced calculus once they get a high enough level) the Striker. The Striker are the damage dealers.They tend to be fast and deal shit tonnes (an actual measurement just rarely used) of damage. these are perfect for beginners purely for the moments of glory they can get (my first character was a Rogue (My favourite class when I review them you can hear me gush over them) killed a wolf in one shot and hog tied the main boss and stole his crossbow the next turn) these classes also tend to get huge bonuses to damage rolls or getting and extra dice rolls to their damage rolls (Rogues add 2 six sided dice when they hit with combat advantage (when a character has an advantage against the opponent and gets bonus for it) or even more if they get to higher levels or use feats (which will be explained next post)) or Warlocks who can "curse" their enemies and deal even more damage when they hit with their spells. This role is also the favourite of the Munchkin (a player who plays to win against even their own allies and not very popular with other players) so be wary of players if they show this sort of attitude. on a lighter note easiest to grasp for a newcomer and a veteran can easily make these classes 1 man-armies

The final Role is the Leader which is by far the most important role in the entire game these classes are the healers and classes that give buffs to the party. the classes that are Leaders are Clerics, Bards Warlords (probably my favourite leader class just for the humour of how they work) and so on. what makes them so important? each leader has the ability to heal party members no other class type can do this bar the Paladin that is a Defender but can only heal a few times a day (in game time not real time) where as leaders heal twice an encounter (a day can have up to 5 or 6 encounters in it) so that makes them irreplaceable. a party can live with out a controller purely because of strength. some parties don't defenders due to the damage output they can put out even a party without strikers can work (but makes things take a far longer time then it should normally) but with out a Leader the party's screwed. again recommended for people who can be responsible for the party or maybe someone who can be a good tactician if the party does't have a controller.

in general the average party of players can be anywhere from 4 (the bare minimum really 3 is doable but nothing special can really happen without complications) but usually are 5-6 and sometimes to horrendously high numbers like 10 if you have more than 4 I recommend each role be filled at least once  and if you have 8 players maybe fill em out twice but it's up to the party of course.

Power Sources:
this will be brief as well there isn't as much fluff needed for all these as each power source has at least (usually) 1 class that fulfil a role listed above they are the following
Martial: rely on the physical with use of weapons and skilled combat in the case of the Warlord who is the only Martial Leader their powers are hilarious when you think about them (more on them later)
Arcane: magic users much like wizards each role is covered as before nothing out of the ordinary though the Bard (again a leader) can heal by using music (but again not as funny as the Warlord)
Divine: well these are the holy classes nothing much to say other than the gods help these classes a lot tend to have classes that can heal (3 leader classes and a defender who can also heal) good if you want to play a deeply religious character)
Primal: users of the power of nature they commune with spirits in some form or other each role is filled a couple of times except the Defender with only 1 (the Warden a Defender which probably has the most health at level 1 by a mile) can be a good counter balance to Divine classes as although both are Spiritual in their own way they are both radically different.
Psionic: oh Psionic classes how fond I am of you (not at all, they are really out of place in D&D) these classes use the powers of their mind (except 2 of them (there are only 4 of them which makes it even less interesting to talk about them)the other 2 use their bodies in odd ways) these classes have a unique feature called power points in stead of encounter powers (except the Monk class though it really seems redundant that they are Psionic if they don't use the power points Guess they couldn't come up with a good Psionic Striker) gives a bit of variety but that's about it (MY opinion not a fact).
Shadow: up until recently there where only 1 of these classes but have gotten a couple of more (the Executioner and the um Vampire... (not Sparkly)) shadow remains the smallest of all the power sources (well unless you include the Primal-Martial classes the Scout and Hunter or even the Martial-Shadow class that is the Executioner (which in itself is a misleading name)) all classes so far with the Shadow power source are Strikers a Shadow Defender or Leader would be really interesting and a Shadow Controller is probably the easiest to do. that's about it for this post this is Owler signing off for now  and whatever you do, do not look The Lady in the Face.