Quote Originally Posted by Quertus View Post
Like, even in D&D, if the Face gets a lot of spotlight during the talky bits, it's fine for them to mostly fade into the background in combat (at least at some tables).
One kinda cool thing about D&D is that the go to Face class (Bard) kinda fades into the background while still contributing to the combat with party buffs. So "fading into the background" doesn't necessarily have to mean "not contributing to the fight."

Quote Originally Posted by Satinavian View Post
I very heavily disagree.

Combat doesn't have to be an activity where the whole engages. It might be something, that only the combattants do. Like scouting is often something the scout does alone and like negoatiation is often something the face or the character with the highest social status does. Or crafting is what the crafter does. Or the cyberspace excusion is something the hacker does.

Now there are players who don't like this and want all characters doing all things together, no matter how little sense that makes (everyone fights, even the noncombatant civilians, everyone searchs the books in the library for clues even the illiterate party members who have to rely on pictures, everyone takes part in all negotiations even those that don't know the language, everyone takes part in the secret scouting mission, even the load and big ones)... but i am certainly not one of them.



That D&D so heavily relies on "combat is for everyone" is the main reaso, it can't have proper fighters. Because the difference between someone specialized in combat and a civillian is not allowed to exist for PCs. That is not alwqays the case in other games.
Ultimately I agree with your point, combat can be just another part of the game, and not everyone always needs to contribute to every scene.

I think DnD is kinda designed around combat though, and as a result most of the people who play DnD view combat as a bigger part of the game than say, foraging for food. And a good chunk (but not all) of the rest just haven't played any other system. If the DM is planning tactical combats for a party of 4, and one of them is playing a pure non-combatant, I think it's fair for the other players to get upset if they party-wipe.

Still playing noncombatants is totally fine in my book. The OP just asked about the general consensus, so the issues should at least be brought up.