Classes and D&D 4E (my analysis)

[magicbox]

So, I've heard a lot of people weigh in on whether or not there is power creep in 4E D&D. That, for the uninitiated, is the tendency of gaming companies to lure people to buy new books by promising that the new classes/races/everything will be suitably more kick ass than the original classes or races

Comments

[magicbox]

I would whole-heartedly agree that both Halek and Vincent (fighter and warlord respectively) have higher damage output, even assuming that they're using longswords (which they don't). The class order, from highest damage to lowest damage is (assuming one-handed weapons are longswords for those who can wield them and two-handed weapons are greatswords):

Sorcerer
Rogue
Warlock
Barbarian
Swordmage
Ranger
Invoker
Avenger
Shaman
Fighter
Warden
Paladin
Bard
Warlord
Wizard
Cleric
Druid

To switch this to battleaxes and greataxes, the order changes to this:

Sorcerer
Rogue
Barbarian
Warlock
Ranger
Swordmage
Avenger
Invoker
Fighter
Warden
Paladin
Warlord
Shaman
Bard
Wizard
Cleric
Druid

So, yeah, wizards get boned, but this is again only using damage as the metric to compare. There is very little I can do to show how wizards get to pick so many powers that they can choose from compared to the other classes. Every other class is forced to pick from a small selection of powers. Wizards at 5th level can take no just Fireball, but Fireball and Web, with Stinking Cloud as well if they took the expanded spellbook feat (as Jeff did). Sure, they only get to use one of those once per day, but it still is something that can't be measured yet is very important in their power. Rest assured, Jeff's character will be obscene once he reaches 5th level.

[kearsley]

That's what I was wondering, really. So long as wizard improves on a different graph from fighter types, I don't think different starting points are a big deal.

I hadn't looked at the later wizard abilities as, well, I don't really want to learn another's class well enough to have the temptation to metagame them*, but my initial thoughts are that Defender and Leader types are the two necessary roles. Controller is nice, but will be stuck with little to do in many fights. A defender can support a number of strikers, though having too many of the latter versus the former results in the (relatively soft) strikers taking damage.

* Despite Warlord essentially being the class that functions at the apex of its abilities when metagaming.