Breaking the Holy Trinity Mold

By Zed

The holy trinity: a healer, a tank and a ‘chanter. They delivered the best XP for effort in EverQuest, and over time the sacred three (or some variation on that theme) became a must in many MMOG grouping strategies. Cries of, “Healer needed!” or “Crowd controller needed!” or, “Tank needed!” could be heard across many a land as people tried to build groups, with the aim of earning maximum experience in the shortest amount of (down) time possible. The pervasiveness of the holy trinity ideal can be seen in discussions across many an upcoming MMOG’s forums . Many, that is, except DDO.

Dungeons & Dragons Online will shatter many preconceptions about group needs, none more holy than the trinity. Whilst I fully expect to hear cries of “Healer needed for Quest X” I don’t expect it to be fundamentally necessary for any quest. Why?

An understanding of the pen-and-paper game and its followers should give us the answer. As an avid player in a number of campaigns, I can tell you that with the right mindset you can get away with not having a healer, or a crowd controller, or even a tank (although not having a tank is pushing it a bit far).  D&D’s class system alone can change the thinking of a player. Having a cleric – the traditional holy trinity healer – stand toe to toe with a giant, wielding a flaming great sword and wearing full plate armor isn’t a sight you see in many MMOG’s. Yet in D&D it’s possible, in fact not only is it possible, but with the right set of spells running the cleric can out tank the tank quite easily.

Now throw in multi-classing and you really cause confusion to those accustomed to the traditional MMOG scenario.  Whilst some classes don’t mix well, other class combinations do. Is a cleric 5/fighter 5 a healer or a tank? Or is he both? If you’re looking for a healer in your holy trinity group would you take the 5/5 cleric/fighter if he was the only ‘healer’ looking for a group? What then if the player of said multi-class character chose to fight through combat, buffing self and party and not healing, or only healing after a fight is done?

Even the simplest of roles in the holy trinity, the tank, gets confusing in D&D.   Traditionally, the holy trinity philosophy preaches that the tank is a damage taker: a class who can take a pounding and keep a monster’s attention away from other group members. In D&D terms, the best tank is obviously the fighter. Or is it? The barbarian has more hit points, and damage reduction to boot, yet is impaired by not being able to wear heavy armor. Then there’s the paladin. He has healing spells, Lay on Hands (a form of heal), good hit points and can wear plate armor and wield that great big two handed sword. What of his tanking abilities?  Multi-classing brings in more confusion and complexity.  For instance: fighter/barbarian – an odd combination, but build it right and you can have a pure animal on the battle field.

Even crowd control is vague.  Whilst the wizard and sorcerer could fill the role okay, and it really depends on the spells available in DDO, the bard with his Fascinate song should do equally well or better. Even a rogue with a decent use magic device skill and a wand of Web or some other spell (Fascinate or Sleep) can act as the crowd controller.

But is it even necessary to think in terms of holy trinity in DDO? After all, we know that monsters won’t respawn; experience is derived from completion of quests and not pure grinding on monsters; and of course spell points and hit points only regenerate at rest shrines or in taverns. With these changes to the game the reason for the original holy trinity – most experience with the least downtime – begins to disappear.  

However, won’t this simply shift the attitude of the players from grinding on the best experience per kill monster to the best experience per quest in DDO? Possibly. But will you need the holy trinity for every quest?  

Arguably fighters, barbarians and paladins will always be employed. Not so much for the punishment they can take but for the damage they can deliver. However, ranged fighting through the likes of the ranger should be equally viable in DDO if the right Feats are available.  But the traditional holy trinity doesn’t cater to traps – and deadly ones at that – so suddenly a rogue could be needed, or a cleric who can cast Detect/Disarm Trap (assuming the spell is implemented in DDO).  The combat will no doubt be fast and furious, with the ability to Tumble and dodge out of the way of monsters attacks, which puts more emphasis on the player keeping himself out of harm’s way and lessens the work of the healing classes.

Turbine has always stated that DDO will break the MMOG mold.  The holy trinity is one mold I’m looking forward to seeing well and truly broken in DDO.  However, whilst fundamentally the holy trinity isn’t needed to survive, how that plays out will come down to the community.  Crying “Need a cleric for Quest X” or “Tank needed for Quest Y” or “looking for a Wizard with Spells A, B, C” may become common place. However, the real challenge in DDO will be to forgo the preconceived notion of “holy trinity wins all” and leap into the unknown and experiment with groups of unusual combinations. And if all else fails, just hope Use Magic Device and Wands of Cure Light Wounds are readily available.

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