Help me help my players shine!

[Godric]

I'd very much like to set up some circumstances in which my players can shine. Here are their classes:

Dragonborn Guardian Fighter
Tiefling Infernal Warlock
Dwarf Melee Ranger
Human Brutal Scoundrel Rogue
(The cleric is played by me)

Any suggestions?

[Oracle_Hunter]

Um... have you tried killing things? 'cause from what you told us, that's what they seem to be good at.

Do these characters have, well, personality? Perhaps motivations, desires... possibly skills?

[AstralFire]

Personalities (for RP shininess?) Stats (for Game shininess?)

[Fiendish_Dire_Moose]

If you mean stat wise throw challenges at them that focus on their abilities.
If you mean RPwise I wrote up a sheet for my players wherein they have a flaw, a history, and an ability based on their role playing of their character.

[Eldariel]

Which edition?

[Totally Guy]

I had a party of

Dragonborn paladin
Tiefling Infernal Warlock
Elf Melee Ranger
and Eladrin Tactic Warlord (multi-paladin)

The best cool scenes we did were...

There was the scene where we had the good mayor and the evil ex-mayor on a stage. It was a public hand-over of power situation and the party suspected that the evil ex-mayor would pull off an evil sceme here. That's all the party knew but they had a day to prepare.

The Warlord and the Paladin stood by the stage to guard the parties. The warlock stood in the crowd and the ranger stayed on the rooftops looking for assains without looking too much like an assasin himself.

As the defenders said they were readying actions to guard the people on the stage the first at the first sign of anything the paladin jumped in front of the new mayor and the eladrin fey stepped in front of the evil ex-mayor. This action saved the ex-mayor from the assassin. Then there was this amazing combat up to the assassin's room and skill challenges to part the crowd. The warlord had to stay with the evil guy to make sure he didn't cause trouble but still scored a kill with a javelin through a window.

Straight after this the evil ex-mayor bought the party a drink each at the pub for saving his life. They still regard him as the BBEG. Anyway the party decided to distract him with roleplaying there whilst the ranger investigated his house... What happened later that evening cemented the ex-mayor as the BBEG in their minds, he tricked the party into helping him with an evil scheme and it wasn't even reverse psycology.

They all got involved that day.

[Godric]

It's 4th edition and each of the characters have the typical skills of that class, i.e. the fighter has endurance and athletics, the rogue has acrobatics, stealth, thievery, dungeoneering, athletics, the warlock has arcana, endurance, etc.

The rogue loves brutalizing whatever things possible. Intimidating, etc.

The ranger loves melee prowess and is good with interaction.

The fighter...cold tactician, doesnt talk so much unless it's about how to approach a problem.

The warlock...not sure, really.

[Oracle_Hunter]

It's 4th edition and each of the characters have the typical skills of that class, i.e. the fighter has endurance and athletics, the rogue has acrobatics, stealth, thievery, dungeoneering, athletics, the warlock has arcana, endurance, etc.

The rogue loves brutalizing whatever things possible. Intimidating, etc.

The ranger loves melee prowess and is good with interaction.

The fighter...cold tactician, doesnt talk so much unless it's about how to approach a problem.

The warlock...not sure, really.

So... fighting then?

Honestly, that's what I'm getting here - your players like to kill stuff. Therefore, give them opportunities to do so. If you want to up the "awesome" level of your fights, be sure to include exciting terrain (slick paths that can be used for really long charges, gaps in the floor that necessitate flying leaps) and the occasional hazard for the Fighter to Tide of Iron people into (fire pits, windows, etc.). Minions can also help here, though only if your ranger or fighter have multi-target attacks.

Plot wise... well, they're still pretty generic. Generally people feel happy about their character when they're doing something meaningful & appropriate with them. In a game I'm playing I have a street tough Rogue who was raised by a matronly barkeep. His neighborhood is very important to him, and I had a blast when I ended up taking over a Thieves' Guild in order to provide them with a source of protection from the other unsavory types in the city.

Honestly, you have to figure out what matters to them. If it's killing stuff, then think of new and exciting scenes for them to do that.

[DMfromTheAbyss]

I rather like the idea of doing quests that reflect their background. Maybe have the characters actually accomplish something to save their homeland/kingdom/neighborhood, or maybe let them create something bigger than themeselves in the game world by establishing a kingdom/guild/cupcake shop.

Basically your group does indeed look like it's most competent area would be fighting, just give them good reasons for doing their fighting instead of random encounters so they feel like their actually accomplishing something.

Basically you as the DM have to take a serious look at the characters, from a plot perspective and customize adventures they'd actually be interested in doing that showcase their unique flavor. (One way of doing this is to have a "reflection" of a character show up, someone very much like the character. If a character is a grumpy dwarf have an informant at the market with information who is also a grumpy dwarf to really try to draw out what makes the character unique, or maybe just have fun as the two grumpy dwarves try to out grump each other... note this works especially well with swashbucklers... nothing they hate/love more than someone trying to steal the show, just don't overdo it or you'll end up with a linear guild reference)

Having old aquantances, rivals, friends and such doing the asking also helps characters feel involved and a part of the world. Remember the more you draw them into their characters the more fun they have.

Though if they just want to bash some skulls in, hey that can be fun too.

[Yakk]

Dragonborn Guardian Fighter
Tiefling Infernal Warlock
Dwarf Melee Ranger
Human Brutal Scoundrel Rogue
(The cleric is played by me)

Personally, I'd replace the cleric with an alchemist who is a non-combatant who makes healing potions. This reduces the thunder-stealing effects of DMPCs.

So, that group has 3 stealthish strikers, and 1 defender.

An escort mission would be interesting.

Maybe a spec-ops "break into the fort and lower a drawbridge".