A player could get to know the game as a newcomer thanks to her healing cleric Dungeons & Dragons for the first time. But now her “friends” forbid her paladin from doing anything other than supporting.
What is the player reporting? The player AccomplishedEvent672 reaches out with a post to the D&D community on Reddit, as she no longer knows how to deal with her problem. She has been playing Dungeons & Dragons for over a year now with the same fate of having to be the designated support character.
At the beginning, she learned how the game works as a cleric, but all the characters that followed had the same task: a wizard of divination magic, a druid, or an artificer who took care of buffs and debuffs and occasionally got to heal.
Now she plays a paladin in the hope that her gaming experience will offer something new besides just support. They are playing in a campaign that involves many undead and she hopes that she can deal a lot of damage with her radiant damage. But her group sees it differently.
She is supposed to stay in the background, buff the group, and not risk going down in combat. That is her task, and the optimal way to play the paladin as a support class, while she would love to just “roll a lot of dice and deal plenty of damage.” The bard of the group, who is also able to learn support spells, has coincidentally also chosen not to, which is why this task now falls to her.
And slowly but surely, she is getting tired of it.
How does the community react to the assumption that her paladin should only be support? The community cannot understand why the paladin of the player is forced into this role, when the paladin can be so much more versatile and can really deal damage. The Player’s Handbook from 2024 describes this ability to deal damage a bit more elegantly as follows:
[The Oath of a Paladin] is a powerful bond. It is a source of power that allows a devoted warrior to become a blessed champion. Paladins practice the skills of combat and master numerous weapons and armors. Nevertheless, their combat skills are surpassed by the magical power they wield: power to heal the wounded, to strike down foes, and to protect the helpless as well as their combat companions. […] Every paladin fights in the cosmic battle against annihilation at the front lines.
– Player’s Handbook, page 132
And this “front line” should not be taken away from the player’s paladin, as other users share on Reddit:
- “Just as the bard has the right not to choose healing spells, you as a paladin have the right to stand at the front line,” writes physiX_VG.
- “Paladin is the class of striking down! If there is a wrong way to play this class, it is to use it as a healer in the back row! (Although I don’t believe in ‘wrong ways’ to play classes, that’s nonsense),” thinks blauenfir.
- “D&D is not an MMO. You do not have to fit into the trio of tank, DPS, and support. The only wrong way to play is to tell other people that they are playing incorrectly,” comments DreadPirate777
What problem does the player have with this task distribution? Supporting the group is not the issue for the player, as she explains to the community:
“I actually enjoy playing support characters! I loved playing a cleric and a wizard. But I’m just tired of being pushed into this role. I want to be a ‘support’ character when I want to, not when others want me to.“
She adds that she does not know if it is relevant, but that she is the only female member of the group. And with this information, the community recognized another problem, which is not only relevant in Dungeons & Dragons but also widespread in many other games: the stereotype of the female player as support, as this role is often seen as easier and less stressful rather than being the shining damage dealer in the spotlight. MeinMMO author Fabienne also shares her own experience with this assumption.
“I started in the late 80s and had to deal with a lot of crap at the gaming table, mostly that my breasts somehow impaired my ability to do math and roll dice,” writes Voice-of-Aeona, another player, “You are not the problem.”
The player shares that she has talked to her group, but the outcome has been rather unsatisfactory. Apologies were made as they didn’t want to force anyone into a role, but the loudest player held firmly to the opinion that her paladin provides the most benefit in the backline.
However, she thanks everyone for the support and kind words from the community. Perhaps her next character will simply be a barbarian, as another user has already suggested. The paladin is, by the way, a class that is perfect for beginners because, contrary to the assumption of her “friends,” it actually cannot be played incorrectly: Here are 5 classes from Dungeons & Dragons that are particularly suitable for beginners
