Canon:Role

Roles are ways of breaking characters and classes and class ability selections so that different players have different in-game objectives and strengths. Roles started with four actual classes "Fighter, Thief, Cleric, Magic User" in the beginning of the game, and by fourth edition, have been abstracted into their own system, with "Striker, Defender, Leader, and Controller".

Roles may also be described ad hoc. For example, Treatmonk uses "Social, Sneak, Healbot, and Utility Caster" and "The Big Stupid Fighter, The Glass Cannon", "God", The Waste of Space" in his guide to playing God. The first set are out-of-combat roles while the second is in-combat.