Hi. Thanks for stopping by. Today's topic is Combat Roles. If your group is anything like the ones I've played with in the past, your PCs get into fights. A lot. In the ancient days of yore (the seventies) fighting was pretty much all games were about.

Now, we're more enlightened, and we wait to fight until some NPC does something vaguely annoying. But even so, combat is still a big part of most games. So, for this column I'm going to talk about the different roles a group needs to successfully deal with battle. It's not always realistic or desirable to give a lot of thought to this during character creation (for instance, if your PCs are supposed to be mundane humans thrust into a world of eldritch horror) but eventually, if your PCs get into fights, you're going to have to think about how they plan to get out of them.

There are two sorts of roles during combat, which I will call Fighting and Support. A single character may fill both types of role to one degree or another. For instance, a classic Dungeons & Dragons Cleric is a moderately effective combatant, and carries a variety of magic that can be used for healing, defense, and detection. Most characters will be specialized in one role, and will be less capable in one or more others.

Fighting Roles

This is the fun stuff. Fighting Roles are the ones that focus on the elimination of the enemy. There are lots of ways to do that. A burly Fighter uses his sword, up close and personal. A cunning Wizard uses a magic wand to take out a bunch of enemies all at once. Here are some broad categories:

Line Fighter: This is your basic warrior, specialized in straightforward conflict. The D&D Fighter is an obvious example. In other games the distinction is less clear-cut. A Line Fighter generally uses human scale weapons, and doesn't rely on unusual equipment, stealth, or special abilities. There are exceptions, of course. Almost any method of hurting people can be applied directly to straight up combat. Dedicated Line Fighters are the backbone of a unit. The Line Fighter's skills are almost always applicable, with no special setup or tactics. He is always ready to handle any threat that gets past his more esoteric companions. Characters with other specialties can be good backup Line Fighters. All you really need to be a Line Fighter is a basic weapon and the wherewithal to use it.

Sneak: This character is adept at avoiding combat - eliminating targets before they ever have a chance to threaten the group. To be a good Sneak, a character needs some sort of stealth ability, and a reliable means of dealing damage with minimal risk. The heavy armor and weapons that other combatants use will just slow the Sneak down. The Thief class from Dungeons & Dragons is the archetypical example of a Sneak. Modern Snipers are kind of like Sneaks, too. Any character who can move without being observed has the potential to be a Sneak. Sneaks in combat are most useful for shifting the odds in your favor and taking out selected enemies without starting a full scale combat. A Sneak makes a good pathfinder, scouting ahead for threats, eliminating those he can, and warning the group of those he can't. Scouting and Sneaking go hand in hand, so Sneaks cross over well with Investigators (who I'll discuss in the next section).

Heavy Weapons: The Heavy Weapons guy is adept at taking on large, or multiple threats. His ability to do massive amounts of damage in a very few shots is highly useful, but limited. It's almost a rite of passage for young D&D Magic User players to accidentally incinerate several PCs by unleashing a Fireball in confined spaces. Magic Users in D&D, particularly at higher levels, are Heavy Weapons characters. Cyberpunks with shoulder mounted grenade launchers are, too. So are about half of all superheroes ever made up for any supers game anywhere. (Actually, most of this discussion breaks down for Supers games because of the shear versatility of many superheroes) In settings with modern technology or better, almost any Line Fighter can also be Heavy Weapons. In other settings, the role will fall to a magician of some kind. In a few settings, it's a role that just can't be filled easily.

Defender: The Defender is a very specialized role, and not always easy to execute. The Defender's job is to keep one or more other members of the unit safe. Bodyguard characters are obviously Defenders. So are wizards who throw up magical barriers to protect the party. Barring unusual circumstances, a Defender is pretty much a Line Fighter with extra defenses. He needs to be able to take out any opponent who gets too close, but he also has to be ready to take quite a few hits to protect his charge.

Duelist: The Duelist is a highly skilled fighter who is adept at fighting other highly skilled, single opponents. In all honesty, he's not a terribly useful character overall, but when you really need one, you /really/ need one. Since many RPGs try to recreate the Action genre, opponents who can avoid simple attacks through exceptional skill are relatively common. Whenever your group runs into one, it's the Duelist's job to draw his sword, make a witty remark, and wade into the dance of death. The rest of the time, the Duelist is just one-on-one overkill. Fortunately, Duelist is a specialty that easily combines with others like Line Fighter and Sneak.

Non-Fighting Roles

Of course, running around and killing things isn't all you have to worry about. There are also things running around and trying to kill /you/. Here's a rundown on the other things your group might want to have a handle on:

Investigator: The Investigator's job is to find out what's going on. This can range from scouting ahead to using telescopic vision to get a map of the area. The D&D Ranger is a great Investigator, as is the Thief, and the Wizard. (Actually, if it wasn't for the lousy Hit Dice, Wizards would be good at almost everything) High technology opens up a lot of avenues for Investigators. Matrix Runners can probe computer systems and override spy satellites. Techies can use advanced scouting drones. Just about anybody can climb a tree and use a pair of passive night vision-enhancing binoculars with UV laser rangefinder built in. The Investigator is probably a back up Line Fighter or a Sneak, unless he's a magician, in which case almost anything goes.

Communications: The Communications character's job is to keep everybody apprised of everybody else's activities. In low-tech games this can be pretty hard, short of telepathy or something. In high-tech games, the role can be handled by cell phones, radios, nifty little communicator badges or whatever. In that case, the Communications guy's job is usually just to fix the things when they break, or to bypass various methods of jamming. Communications is a really underrated role. If used well, it allows for the use of tactics that would be impossible otherwise. Even so, you probably don't need a dedicated Communications character. That role can be folded into Investigation, or else it's just something one of your Line Fighters does on the side.

Medic: The Medic keeps the rest of the unit in shape to keep moving and fighting. The Cleric in D&D is the archetypical Medic. In games without ready healing magic, his role is just as important, but probably harder. Like all the Non-Fighting roles, Medic is probably not a character's only combat focus. He'd better be able to defend himself at the very least.

So What Does This Mean to Me?

Now it's time for some practical application. When you're making up your group, or after you've had a little time to see how it's going to fit together, you should figure out how you're going to handle combat.

Start off by figuring out your objectives, both long- and short-term. Learn as much as you can about what you'll be up against, and figure out what roles you'll need to have filled. Figure out which ones you /can/ fill. If your group doesn't have a medic, no amount of wishing will make it so (except maybe in high-level D&D games). That absence will no doubt have an effect on your choice of strategy and tactics.

As your group advances, you should constantly re-evaluate everyone's roles. Many characters won't change much. They'll just get more effective at the jobs they started with. Others, like Magic Users in Dungeons & Dragons, will change radically over time, and you should change your organization to take advantage of that.

I haven't decided what next time's column is yet. I think it's about time to get into actual playing now, though. Maybe a short series on goals.

See ya' then.

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