rogues are not high damage dealers in DnD either, they are a support class.
Depends on the version of DnD you play... From 3rd onwards, rogues are in fact, the best physical damage dealers by far... They require possition and are extremely foe immunity dependant, but their sneak attacks beat by far anything other physical combatants can provide. Put in other words, against regular targets
are the best at taking out a single target by physical damage. Coincidently, something that has also been a "tradition" on DnD Rogue class is its
extreme ressilience versus AOE damage (exacerbated to humongous proportions from 3rd onwards)... Something that is timidly represented on D:OS by Headstrong, sadly only entering into play at high levels were 20% bonus will not "patch" the main problem which is the weak effects compared to skill cost of Bodybuilding & Willpower. This "resillience" is needed because they can't just stand there and exchange blows with opposition (That's the specialty of the Fighters, aka Man-at-arms here on D:OS) so they are forced to move around the battlefield all the time.
It is, after all.. an RPG.. not a competitive death match
Not as advertised, true... But every time you mix multiplayer on a game, something THIS game advertises as strong selling point, you have to care about the "ethereal" concept of "usefullness".
On a PnP RPG usually there is no problem at all assigning "solo scenes" were each character specialty shines (be it talking, fighting, exploring or crafting/researching). Sadly, on online environments, you have to provide ways for the entire party to participate in as many different aspects as possible so no player may feel like "loosing their time" when others are taking the lead in whatever activity. That's why it's feels paradoxical that after beating (or lessening) the showstopper that dialogs are usually in multiplayer RPGs with the shared dialog system (or through the "listen" to conversation option, or the conversation log), providing interesting "offspec" activities that can be done in parallel (Stealing, bartering, crafting, character control management and even the excellent OOC/IC concurrent state assisted by the pyramids), suddenly, in the activity that consumes most game time which is combat, Physical classes are overriden by Magical ones to the point of becoming just support most of the time.
Basically, I am disagreeing with your assertion that each class should be equally strong in combat.
Sorry for reshufling the quotes, but 1st I needed to explain how I perceive party mechanics... Sadly, years of MMO terminology have "poisoned" the concept of balance (Due to economical reassons "balance" in MMOs usually ends in cloning). I still adhere to the PnP RPG concept of balance... It's not about every1 having the same whatever numerical output you want to meassure, it's about
every one having a strong specialty and, if possible, balance the ammount of opportunities to show that "specialty". So each player, through his/her character, can feel usefull at some point.
As this is a computer game and not a real PnP session... You don't have the GM as a balancing factor. Instead you have to revise your mechanics to provide this
variety of specialties at the same "costs" and then control encounters so the optimum specialty rotates in a balanced way (And control that the worse one still have a chance).
I will not enter into the encounters in detail because I don't want to spoil... That's why I focused on character creation flaws, instead... But D:OS can be improved on BOTH and, even if solo players don't need this adjustments (But I'm sure that they will welcome more variety in party tactics), multiplayer ones suffer when mixing characters "ways to approach combat".
