Classes vs skills

http://doublebuffered.com/2008/03/13/character-classes-and-skills-why-they-suck/

I can definitely agree that more games need a way to separate role and style in character creation. I often end up going against type in class based systems, because my preferred style/role combination doesn't get much (if any) support.

The obvious answer to the issue of having to choose between solo or group character design, is to allow easy respecing. If a person can easily switch between a group or solo setup, then they are no longer constrained to just one or the other.

I believe the primary issue with having characters that only work in group play, is the issue of being able to make a character that is dependent upon the presence of other characters to work right. The two examples I can think of right away, is the tank who needs others to deal damage for them, and the blaster who needs a tank (or really good healer) to protect them. A part of this issue is the fact that two specialists is almost always better than two generalists.

The most straight-forward fix I can see to the dependency issue, is to give each character a minimum level of damage and defense. One way to do this, is to make offense and defense no longer a trade off, making choices more a matter of style (I would consider any power that reduces damage taken, such as knockdown or knockback in CoH to be defensive).

One way to make solo characters more capable in groups, is to ensure that all characters have a way to contribute their defensive abilities to the aid of others. If their defense only protects them, it becomes useless any time they are not attacked. It would also be useful to give solo characters or powers, advantages that only appear while grouped. Normally, a power that raises the characters damage is less effective in a group than one that lowers enemy resistance (due to the other party members benefiting from the latter) but if the damage raising power provides a larger boost when allies are around, then it no longer suffers that weakness.

Making group characters more capable solo runs into issues with flavor. If someone wants to play a character whose concept is ally buffer that has little real power themselves, trying to make them capable alone doesn't make much sense. One solution to the issue, is to offer NPC allies for people who want a party, but either can't find one, or just don't wish to deal with real people.