Example: River

River the Tempter lawyer is primarily a socialite character, with secondary utility as a analyst and provisioner.

With TNs over 70 in almost every social skill, river is an incredibly effective socialite. When it comes to impersonating people, he's a powerhouse: between his Impersonation specialization (for the Deception skill) and his Tempter shape-shifting ability, he roles at 95 to impersonate someone.

He's a good analyst: he has TNs over 50 in several knowledge skills, including Profession: Lawyer, Knowledge: Law, Knowledge: History, and Protocol (which is a Knowledge skill as well as a Social skill). Importantly, he also has the Scholar trait, coupled with a good COG, so he can provide at least minimal analysis in nearly any situation.

He's also an effective provisioner: he has Wealth Level 4 and a high Protocol, so he can simply buy the party things that they need. He's also a member of a Lawyer's Guild, which enables him to draw on that organization's resources, and he has a Level 4 Investment, which is another asset that he can draw on to support the party.

River is all but helpless in combat. His Fray TN is 50, his Ranged Weapons TN is 60, and he is armed only with a crossbow and a dagger; while this allows him to participate in a combat by firing at range, he certainly won't be a primary factor in a fight. (Tempters' average STR and River's low SOM mean that his damage with his dagger is singularly unimpressive.) He doesn't even have armor — even though Tempters have mediocre DUR — so if the enemy successfully engages him, he's in deep trouble.

Despite his exceptional ability to impersonate people (and his acceptable ranks in Sleight of Hand), he makes a poor infiltrator, because he doesn't have ranks in Stealth, and doesn't have any infiltration-focused powers.

Like many wealth-focused provisioners, River's ability to provide for the party diminishes once he leaves his home city; at the very least, he has to convert some of his wealth to Trade Goods or currency.

Lady Katarina the Ratfolk Noble (and secret crime-lord) is trying to step into four of the roles — and she's mostly getting away with it, though not without some important drawbacks.

She excels at her primary role as a socialite: she has TNs over 60 in all of her social skills, and her noble title can be an invaluable asset in social situations. She's also very effective in her secondary role as a provisioner: between her Level 4 Wealth and good Protocol, her criminal connections (represented by her Rat Queen class and her Profession: Criminal [Smuggler]), and her Craft: Chemistry, she has several different ways to provide the party with things they need.

She's also workable as both an infiltrator and a combatant, though with some notable drawbacks. While she has good ranks in Stealth, as well as the Blur and Vanish power, she has low ranks in Athletics and Sleight of Hand, no ranks in Disable Device, and no interesting movement modes; this means that, while she's very good at avoiding detection, she'll lack many of the supporting skills that allow her to get into interesting places or get out with interesting things.

Similarly, while she has the ability to cause heavy damage in combat, she'll be hampered by very low durability. She has good ranks in Melee Weapons, Ranged Weapons and Fray, and she specializes in daggers (for melee) and thrown weapons (for ranged); she also has the Sneak Attack power. Blur, Vanish and Sneak Attack combine powerfully, and her proficiency with Alchemy give her access to deadly poisons (that she can apply to her daggers) and powerful thrown weapons (like Scour canisters). However, she has to be near her opponents to fight them, and her survivability is very low once she's detected — she has no armor, and Ratfolk have low DUR. (Her opponents have a reasonable change of detecting her, since Vanish requires an opposed check; in a large combat, most opponents probably won't see her, but some of them will; to the ones who do, she's a high-priority target with very low durability.) And, of course, deploying Scour and Tar in combat is a risky gambit, especially when throwing them; while the damage she'll cause if she covers three or four enemies in Scour will be massive, she may also put her allies at risk — or even herself, on a critically bad throw.

It should be noted that there's nothing wrong with Katarina's attempt to fit into four of the roles, as long as she accepts the trade-offs she made to do it; and there's nothing wrong with the high-risk, high-reward strategy she's trying to deploy in combat, as long as she accepts the risks associated with it.

Example: General Chandra

Chandra the Drake General is a very focused character: he's a powerful combatant, and even within that, he's amazingly durable — and he packs a powerful punch in melee. He's also a useful analyst and a workable provisioner.

Chandra is terrifying in battle, and almost as durable as you could want a character to be. He has extraordinary innate durability, between his Dragon's Scales, his Bronze Arm (which improves his DUR and Armor), and his Tough trait. And he wears heavy armor over it all — a full suit of plate worn over an arming jacket. Though he doesn't carry a shield, his AV is still a massive 16 (2 for his scales, 10 for the plate armor, 2 for the quilted armor, and 2 for the bronze arm); this means he has a running shot at negating most of a well-struck short-sword blow, which would do 1d10+3+DB DV at AP -1 (a reasonably-built combatant might have a DB of 6). Helping his durability are his high ranks in Fray, and the fact that his bronze arm means that he is always considered armed (and thus he can always defend himself against armed attackers).

Equally terrifying is his melee damage: the Bronze Arm gives Chandra +5 STR, and General Chandra already had good STR and SOM, giving him a massive DB of 8. The Bronze Arm is a formidable weapon on its own, but he's also a master swordsman, and he carries a massive two-handed sword of distinctive Dragonshire design. Taken together, he deals a massive 2d10+10 DV on a melee attack — plus even more if he scores an exceptional success! (Chandra is famous for dealing more than 40 DV on a single attack, dropping an enemy lieutenant — a Wolverine shifter — in a single, massive blow.)

Chandra is also a useful analyst: he has Knowledge: History, Knowledge: Politics [Royal Houses], Knowledge: Siegecraft and Profession: Soldier [Command]. (Don't dismiss these knowledge skills — which might seem to be very narrowly focused — as mere character-building details; they can be invaluable, even game-changing, during any intrigue-focused campaign anywhere in the eastern half of the Emerald Plane — including almost any adventure set in the Kingdoms of Men.)

Chandra has both a noble title (as a Lord) and a high military rank (as a General), as well as a fortune to draw on (he has Wealth Level 5); he also has good Protocol, which allows him to effectively tap into all these assets. These things can make him a powerful provisioner. (The ability to call on the Commonwealth military can be a particularly powerful advantage, for obvious reasons.)

Chandra is not without his drawbacks, of course: his melee-focused combat strategy requires him to be at the front of the fighting, where even his immense durability will be tested — especially by enemy combatants equipped for an armored opponent. (He will be in trouble indeed if his opponents are armed with guns, whose extremely high AP can negate even his armor.) His wealth and title also become more difficult to draw on once he leaves the Commonwealth — the title of Lord-General may be all but meaningless in the wilds of the Ruby Plane. He also has the Distinctive trait, representing both his bronze arm and his far-reaching reputation; this can make him as much a liability as a strength in an intrigue game (at the very least, it requires the party to plan around the need to keep the general stashed somewhere out-of-sight, since he is almost incapable of stealth or deceit).