Combat and Support

In a lot of video games, as well as most other media-forms, there are usually two types of characters: Those who handle the main-objectives (i.e. the main-protagonist), and those who support whoever is handling said main-objectives (i.e. the main-protagonist's various companions). Sometimes, it's in the form of the soldiers who fight on the battlefield, and the operators who guide their troops from the mission-control room. Other times, it's The Mentor providing teachings to The Hero, who would make good use of said teachings to complete the rest of the mission.

Regardless, you can't have too many people handling a single job. Have everyone handle the combat-role, and they'll die too quickly and easily. Have everyone handle the support-role, on the other hand, and they'll be unable to complete their main-objectives. Split the whole team into two halves, one focusing on combat, and the other focusing on support, and you've just created a well-balanced team that can handle almost anything.

This concept is very much Truth in Television. Everyone can only do so much in modern militaries (and likely long, long past that...at least Older Than Print, since European knights had squires to take care of their equipment).

See tropes such as An Adventurer Is You for more information.

Fan-Fiction

 * Metroid Lambda Squad 1 and 2
 * Combat: Richard, the team-leader; Jenny, the sniper; Joseph, the heavy-specialist; Mariana, the recon-specialist
 * Support: Billy, the demo-specialist; Alexis, the medic; Eric, the computer-hacker; Katrina, the psychokinetic

Non-Video Game Examples

 * Six Student Clique
 * Combat: The Head (male), The Muscle (also male), and The Wild One (female)
 * Support: The Pretty One (female), The Quirk (male), and The Smart One (also female)
 * The Big Five Personality Traits
 * Balance: Neuroticism
 * Combat: Openness and Conscientiousness
 * Support: Extraversion and Agreeableness
 * The Five Man Band
 * Balance: The Hero
 * Combat: The Lancer and The Big Guy
 * Support: The Smart Guy and The Chick
 * Four Temperament Ensemble
 * Combat: Choleric and Melancholic
 * Support: Sanguine and Phlegmatic
 * Four Philosophy Ensemble
 * Combat: The Cynic and Apathetic
 * Support: The Optimist and Realist
 * Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, of the Star Trek fame
 * Balance: The Kirk, as focuses on mediating between The Spock and The McCoy's arguments, all while struggling to invent a third option.
 * Combat: The Spock, as he focuses on the main-objective at the expense of innocent-lives, which is normally combat.
 * Support: The McCoy, as he focuses on saving innocent lives at the expense of the main-objective, which is normally support.
 * Duos, including Brains and Brawn, Red Oni Blue Oni, Sensitive Guy and Manly Man, and Tomboy and Girly Girl
 * Combat: Brawn, Red Oni, Manly Man, Tomboy
 * Support: Brains, Blue Oni, Sensitive Guy, Girly Girl
 * 3rd-Edition Dungeons and Dragons Character Alignments
 * Balance: Neutral Good/Neutral/Evil
 * Combat: Chaotic Good/Neutral/Evil
 * Support: Lawful Good/Neutral/Evil
 * Mighty Morphing Power Rangers
 * Combat: The more physically-powerful Power Rangers, including Jason (red-ranger), Zack (black-ranger),
 * Support: The more intelligent Power Rangers, including Billy (blue-ranger), Kimberly (pink-ranger), and Trini (yellow-ranger)
 * Fantastic Four
 * Combat: The Thing and Human-Torch, due to their aggressiveness, arrogance, and impatience
 * Support: Mr. Fantastic and Invisible-Woman, due to their much calmer and more considerate demeanors
 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer
 * Combat: Buffy, Willow, Faith, Angel, Spike, Riley-strength and speed and slayer powers. Magic in Willow's case.
 * Support: Giles most often, Anya, Cordelia, sometimes Willow in the early seasons, pre-magic. Xander. However, this wasn't set in stone, especially with Giles.
 * Angel
 * Combat: Angel, Gunn, Wesley, Cordelia
 * Support: Fred and Lorne-Fred was physically smaller and Lorne a pacifist. However, like on Buffy, the roles were flexible and Fred sometimes fought as well. Cordelia could also be support in the early seasons, but tended toward combat as the series progressed. Doyle was mostly support due to his preference to avoid fights when possible, but he did become combat a few times.
 * Animorphs
 * Combat: All of the Anis were combat most of the time
 * Support: Tobias, in the early books before he regained his morphing ability and to a lesser extent later on. Erek King and the other Chee.

Sports Examples

 * Baseball
 * Combat: The team at the bat, whose goal is to score runs after hitting the ball before receiving three outs
 * Support: The team on the field, whose goal is to get three opposing team-members out to prevent them from scoring runs
 * NASCAR
 * Combat: The driver
 * Support: The pit-crew
 * Soccer
 * Combat: The middle and front-row players, who handle offense
 * Support: The back-row players and goalie, who handle defense
 * Useful Notes/Cricket
 * Combat: When fielding: The bowler (and sometimes some of the fielders depending on positions) whose job is to dismiss the opposing batsmen. When batting: The top order batsmen to do the all important scoring
 * Support: When fielding: The fielders to stop the batsmen from making more runs and taking advantage of opportunities to dismiss them created by the bowler. When batting: The lower order batsmen to fill out the numbers and make a few extra runs in the time remaining (or when paired with a top order batsmen to just stay in so the other guy can keep making runs as long as possible).

Video Game Examples

 * The Assassin's Creed franchise
 * Combat: High-profile mode, for free-running and combat
 * Balance: Low-profile mode, for sneaking, crowd-blending, and stealth-attacks
 * Support: Includes the following...
 * Assassin's Creed I: Vigilantes (or mercenaries in Assassin's Creed II) for better combat and scholars (or thieves/courtesans in Assassin's Creed II) for better stealth
 * Assassin's Creed II: The Villa (Rome in Brotherhood, Constantinople in Revelations), for more money, tourists, medicine, weapons, and armor
 * Assassin's Creed Brotherhood: The assassin apprentices, for team-attacks and retrieving new gold and items; can level up over time a la an RPG
 * Assassin's Creed Revelations: Assassin's Dens, which need defending in Tower Defense-style gameplay; resourceful for the same reasons as renovating each home-city
 * The Bio Shock franchise
 * Combat: The various guns and plasmids for self-defense and defeating enemies
 * Support: The various tonics and hacked machines for other forms of survival
 * The Bio Ware Star Wars games
 * Knights of the Old Republic's character-classes
 * Combat: Soldier and Jedi-Guardian
 * Balance: Scout and Jedi-Sentinel
 * Support: Scoundrel and Jedi-Consular
 * Knights of the Old Republic's sides of the force
 * Combat: The dark-side and its emphasis on force damage and debuffs
 * Support: The light-side and its emphasis on force healing and buffs
 * Star Warsthe Old Republic's character-classes
 * Combat: Jedi-Knight and Trooper (Galactic Republic); Sith-Warrior and Bounty-Hunter (Sith Empire); resourceful for main-damage and tanking
 * Support: Jedi-Consular and Smuggler (Galactic Republic); Sith-Inquisitor and Imperial-Agent (Sith Empire); resourceful for support-damage and healing
 * Borderlands' playable-characters
 * Combat: Brick (close-quarters combat) and Lilith (elemental-damage)
 * Support: Mordecai (long-ranged sniping) and Roland (healing and supplying)
 * The Call of Duty franchise and a variety of other shooters like it
 * The Weapons
 * Balance: Mid-range weapons, namely the Assault-Rifle
 * Combat: CQB-Weapons, including the Submachine-Gun, Shotgun, and Handgun; resourceful for reaching objectives
 * Support: Long-Ranged Weapons, including the Light Machine-Gun, Sniper-Rifle, and Launcher; resourceful for defending objectives
 * The Vehicles, if there are any
 * Combat: Fast/weak vehicles, including recon-vehicles and aircraft, for capturing objectives
 * Support: Slow/strong vehicles, including tanks and naval-craft, for defending objectives
 * Capcom vs. Whatever, i.e. Marvel vs. Capcom 3
 * Combat: Active-combatants, who do most of the fighting unless tagged-out
 * Support: Reserve-combatants, who can use assist-moves and team-combos, as well as tag-in to take their teammates' places
 * Chrono Trigger
 * Balance: Chrono, Frog,
 * Combat: Robo and Ayla
 * Support: Lucca and Marle
 * Competitive Balance
 * Balance: The Mario, for a balance of capturing and defending objectives
 * Combat: Fragile Speedster and Mighty Glacier, for capturing objectives
 * Support: Glass Cannon and Stone Wall, for defending objectives
 * The Diablo franchise
 * Diablo 1's classes
 * Combat: Warrior
 * Balance: Rogue
 * Support: Sorcerer
 * Diablo 2's classes
 * Combat: Barbarian and Assassin
 * Balance: Amazon, Paladin, and Druid
 * Support: Necromancer and Sorceress
 * Diablo 3's classes
 * Combat: Barbarian and Monk
 * Balance: Demon-Hunter
 * Support: Witch-Doctor and Wizard
 * Difficulty Levels
 * Combat: The easier levels, for newbies who just want to win quickly and easily.
 * Balance: The middle levels, which are in-between the easy and hard levels.
 * Support: The harder levels, for professionals who normally play slowly, safely, and strategically.
 * The Donkey Kong Country franchise
 * Combat: Donkey Kong, Kiddy Kong, and Chunky Kong; resourceful for combat due to their heavy weight
 * Support: Diddy Kong, Dixie Kong, Tiny Kong, and Lanky Kong; resourceful for navigation due to their light weight
 * Doom, especially in co-op and team-multiplayer
 * Combat: Close-quarters weapons, including fists, the chainsaw, the shotgun, and the plasma-gun
 * Support: Long-ranged weapons, including the pistol, the chaingun, the rocket-launcher, and the BFG9000
 * The Dragon Age franchise
 * Combat: The warrior
 * Balance: The rogue
 * Support: The mage
 * Driving Games such as Gran Turismo, Mario Kart, Need for Speed, and Ridge Racer
 * Combat: Lightweight cars, which can go fast but can't handle well; resourceful for straightforward race-tracks
 * Support: Heavyweight cars, which can handle well but goes slow; resourceful for race-tracks with tighter turns
 * The Elder Scrolls franchise
 * Combat: Exactly What It Says On the Tin
 * Balance: Stealth
 * Support: Magic
 * Enemies and Bosses
 * Combat: The end-bosses, who are the main-antagonists that need to be hunted down and defeated
 * Support: The minor-enemies hordes, who act as body-guards to each level's powerful end-boss
 * The Final Fantasy franchise
 * Final Fantasy I's character-classes
 * Combat: Warrior/Knight, Thief/Ninja, and Monk/Master
 * Support: Red-Mage/Red-Wizard, Black-Mage/Black-Wizard, and White-Mage/White-Wizard
 * Final Fantasy II, in-terms of starting-stats
 * Balance: Firion (hybrid)
 * Combat: Guy (physical-combat)
 * Support: Maria (magic)
 * The Final Fantasy II re-releases' Soul of Rebirth storyline
 * Combat: The physical-fighters, Josef the monk and Ricard the dragoon
 * Support: The spell-casters, Minwu the white-wizard and Prince Scott of Kashuan (the latter-character acts somewhat as the group's black-mage)
 * Final Fantasy III's character-classes
 * Combat: Freelancer/Onion-Knight, Warrior, Thief, Monk, Ranger/Hunter, Knight, Viking, Dragoon, Black-Belt, Dark-Knight, and Ninja
 * Support: White-Mage, Black-Mage, Red-Mage, Scholar, Geomancer, Evoker/Conjurer, Bard, Magus/Warlock, Devout/Shaman, Summoner, and Sage
 * Final Fantasy IV, in-terms of character-abilities
 * Combat: Cecil, Kain, Yang, Edge, and Cid
 * Support: Rosa, Rydia, Tellah, Edward, Porom, Palom, and FuSoYa
 * Final Fantasy V, in-terms of personality
 * Combat: Bartz (apathetic) and Fariz (cynical)
 * Support: Reina (optimistic), Galuf (realist),
 * Final Fantasy VI, again in-terms of character-abilities
 * Combat: Locke, Edgar, Sabin, Shadow, Cyan, Gau, Setzer, Umaro, and Gogo
 * Support: Terra, Celes, Relm, Strago, and Mog
 * Final Fantasy VII, again in-terms of personality
 * Combat: Cloud and Vincent (apathetic); Barret, Cid, and Yuffie (cynical)
 * Support: Tifa and Aeris (optimistic); Red-XIII/ and Cait Sith/ (realist)
 * Final Fantasy VIII, in-terms of limit-breaks
 * Combat: Squall, Zell, and Irvine
 * Support: Rinoa, Selphie, and Quistis
 * Final Fantasy IX, in-terms of character-abilities
 * Combat: Zidane, Steiner, Freya, and Amarant
 * Support: Garnet/Dagger, Vivi, Eiko, and Quina
 * Final Fantasy X, in-terms of abilities
 * Combat: Tidus, Wakka, Auron, and Rikku
 * Support: Yuna and Lulu
 * Balance: Kimahri
 * Final Fantasy X 2, in-terms of personality
 * Balance: The brave and compassionate Yuna
 * Combat: The cool-yet-cynical Paine
 * Support: The hyperactive-yet-optimistic Rikku
 * Final Fantasy XII, in-terms of origins
 * Combat: Vaan (war-orphan), Basch (ex-knight), and Balthier (sky-pirate)
 * Support: Penelo (Vaan's friend), Ashe (princess), and Fran (Balthier's sidekick)
 * Final Fantasy XIII, in-terms of fighting-style
 * Combat: Lightning, Snow, and Fang
 * Support: Sazh, Hope, and Vanille
 * Final Fantasy XIII's paradigm-roles
 * Combat: Commando, Ravager, and Saboteur
 * Support: Sentinel, Medic, and Synergist
 * Final Fight, especially in two-player co-op
 * Balance: Cody; middle-weight and balanced between Guy's speed and Haggar's strength
 * Combat: Haggar; heavy-weight and therefore more resourceful for bosses
 * Support: Guy; light-weight and therefore more resourceful for minor-enemy hordes
 * Gameplay Modes
 * Combat: Single-player and free-for-all; the best you can gain help from is yourself in these modes
 * Support: Co-op and team-versus; you have someone to help you throughout, provided you return the favor
 * Gears of War's Delta Squad
 * Combat: Marcus Fenix (cynic) and Augustus Cole (apathetic)
 * Support: Dominic Santiago (optimist) and Damon Baird (realist)
 * The Golden Sun franchise
 * The first Golden Sun
 * Combat: Garret
 * Balance: Isaac
 * Support: Ivan and Mia
 * Golden Sun: The Lost Age
 * Balance: Felix and Piers
 * Support: Jenna and Sheba
 * Golden Sun Dark Dawn
 * Combat: Tyrell and Sveta
 * Balance: Matthew, Amiti, and Eoleo
 * Support: Karis, Rief, Amiti, and Himi
 * The Grand Theft Auto franchise and other sandbox-games like it
 * Combat: Guns, for self-defense
 * Support: Vehicles, for transportation
 * The Halo franchise
 * Combat: Master Chief; his job is to defend Cortana by killing any and all enemies in their way
 * Support: Cortana; her job is to provide combat-intel and computer-hacking for the Chief
 * Heavenly Sword's fighting stances
 * Combat: Heavenly Power Stance, for bosses
 * Balance: Heavenly Speed Stance, for bits of both
 * Support: Heavenly Range Stance, for enemy-hordes
 * The Kingdom Hearts franchise
 * The main-party of Kingdom Hearts 1, Chain of Memories, and 2
 * Balance: Sora, balanced between Goofy's combat-skills and Donald's magic-skills
 * Combat: Goofy, as he's resourceful as a damage-dealer and tank for Sora
 * Support: Donald, as he's resourceful as a spell-caster and healer for Sora
 * Kingdom Hearts 358 Days Over 2' Organization XIII members
 * Balance: Roxas and Xion
 * Combat: Xaldin, Lexaeus, Saix, Axel, Marluxia, and Larxene
 * Support: Xemnas, Xigbar, Vexen, Zexion, Demyx, and Luxord
 * Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep
 * Balance: Ventus, since his keyblades are more balanced
 * Combat: Terra, since his keyblades are more strength-oriented
 * Support: Aqua, since her keyblades are more magic-oriented
 * Kingdom Hearts II:
 * Combat: Sora and Riku
 * Support: Kairi, (The Chick) Donald and Goofy (defense and spells), and Mickey (Supporting Leader, emergency backup)
 * The Left 4 Dead franchise
 * The Survivors, at least in-terms of their respective personalities
 * Combat: Francis (cynic) and Zoey (apathetic) of Left 4 Dead 1; Nick (also a cynic) and Rochelle (also apathetic) of Left 4 Dead 2
 * Support: Bill (realist) and Louis (optimist) of Left 4 Dead 1; Coach (also a realist) and Ellis (also an optimist) of Left 4 Dead 2
 * The Infected
 * Combat: The hunter, tank, charger, and the non-playable witch
 * Support: The boomer, smoker, spitter, and jockey
 * The Legend of Zelda franchise
 * The franchise's two main-protagonists
 * Combat: Link and his weapons and equipment
 * Support: Zelda and her magical-capabilities
 * The Oracle games, in-terms of emphasis
 * Combat: The more action-oriented Oracle of Seasons
 * Support: The more puzzle-oriented Oracle of Ages
 * The four Links
 * Combat: Two of the Links who handle killing enemies and bosses
 * Support: The other two Links who handle puzzles and navigation
 * The Mass Effect franchise
 * The six selectable main-classes:
 * Combat: Soldier, Vanguard, and Infiltrator
 * Support: Adept, Engineer, and Sentinel
 * The two sets of moral-choices:
 * Combat: Renegade, as he puts the mission ahead of everything else, even innocent lives
 * Support: Paragon, as he would abandon even the mission to save innocent lives
 * The Mass Effect 1 squad:
 * Combat: Ashley, Wrex, and Garrus
 * Support: Kaiden, Tali, and Liara
 * The Mass Effect 2 squad:
 * Combat: Jacob, Garrus, Grunt, Thane, Legion, and Zaeed
 * Support: Miranda, Mordin, Jack, Tali, Samara, and Kasumi
 * Mega Man
 * Combat: Mega Man, his brother Proto Man, and Bass
 * Support: Dr. Light, Roll, Rush, Beat, Eddie, and Auto
 * Mega Man X
 * Combat: X (even though he's long-ranged, therefore more support-oriented)
 * Support: Zero (even though he's melee-driven, therefore more combat-oriented)
 * Mega Man Legends
 * Combat: Mega Man Volnutt
 * Support: Roll Caskett, her grandfather Barrell, and Data the monkey
 * Mega Man Zero
 * Combat: Zero
 * Support: Ciel
 * Mega Man Battle Network
 * Combat: Net-Navis such as MegaMan.EXE
 * Support: Net-Ops such as Lan/Netto Hikari
 * Mega Man Star Force
 * Combat: Geo Stelar, especially when he fuses with Omega-Xis to become Mega Man
 * Support: Omega-Xis, as he provides Geo with his powers to become Mega Man
 * The Metal Gear Solid franchise
 * The main storylines of each installment
 * Combat: Solid Snake (as well as Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 2, and Big Boss/Naked Snake in Metal Gear Solid 3, Portable Ops, and Peace Walker)
 * Support: Col. Roy Campbell, Otacon, Mei Ling, Naomi Hunter, Rosemary, Meryl Silverburgh and her Rat Patrol, and so on
 * Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker's Mother Base
 * Combat: Exactly What It Says On the Tin, resourceful for the Outer-Ops missions
 * Support: Troops who stay behind at Mother Base to either heal troops (medbay), restore morale (mess-hall), build new equipment (R&D-labs), or provide intel/supplies during missions (intel)
 * The Metroid franchise's suits
 * Combat: Samus' power-suit and its many variations, i.e. the varia-suit, gravity-suit, and fusion-suit
 * Support: Samus' Justin Bailey-suit/zero-suit, which increases her agility at the expense of fire-power
 * Monday Night Combat
 * Combat: Tank, Assault, Gunner. Played with, since pretty much anyone with Juice is a good leader for an attack on the enemy moneyball and turrets (the Sniper and Assasin tend to be very good at getting it constantly).
 * Support: Sniper, Assasin, Support and Pit Girl as an NPC who is responsible for getting the turrets up and warning their team about their moneyball being under attack.
 * The PC/NPC relationship
 * Combat: The player-character; his job is to complete quests for each non-player character
 * Support: The non-player character; his job is to provide quests, items, information, companionship, and other services
 * Pokémon
 * Combat: The trainer's pokemon
 * Support: The pokemon-trainer
 * Real-Time Strategy-Games
 * Combat: Units, for defending and/or capturing objectives
 * Support: Structures, for producing and/or upgrading units
 * Factions
 * Combat: Weak-yet-cheap factions that are more resourceful for rushing
 * Support: Strong-yet-pricey factions that are more resourceful for turtling
 * The Resident Evil franchise
 * Resident Evil 0
 * Combat: Billy Coen
 * Support: Rebecca Chambers
 * Resident Evil 1
 * Combat: Jill Valentine and Rebecca Chambers
 * Support: Chris Redfield and Barry Burton
 * Resident Evil 2
 * Combat: Leon Scott Kennedy and Ada Wong
 * Support: Clair Redfield and Sherry Birkin
 * Resident Evil 3
 * Combat: Jill Valentine (even though she appeared more support-oriented)
 * Support: Carlos Oliviera (even though he appeared more combat-oriented)
 * Resident Evil Code Veronica
 * Combat: Chris Redfield
 * Support: Claire Redfield and Steve Burnside
 * Resident Evil 4
 * Combat: Leon Scott Kennedy (and Ada Wong in the Separate Ways storyline)
 * Support: Ashley Graham
 * Resident Evil 5
 * Combat: Chris Redfield
 * Support: Sheva Alomar
 * Role Playing Game character-classes
 * Fantasy Role Playing Games
 * Combat: Physical-classes, i.e. the Warrior and Rogue
 * Support: Magical-classes, i.e. the Mage and Cleric
 * Modern/Sci-Fi Role Playing Games
 * Combat: Military-classes, i.e. the Soldier and Sniper
 * Support: Science-classes, i.e. the Engineer and Medic
 * Secret of Mana
 * Combat: Male-Hero (physical-combat)
 * Support: Female-Hero (healing/defensive-magic) and Sprite (offensive-magic)
 * The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise
 * Sonic 3 and Knuckles
 * Balance: Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Combat: Knuckles the Echidna
 * Support: Tails the Fox
 * Sonic Heroes
 * Combat: Knuckles, Big, Omega, and Vector; resourceful for combating enemies with their strength
 * Balance: Sonic, Amy, Shadow, and Espio; resourceful for bits of combat and platforming with their speed
 * Support: Tails, Cream, Rouge, and Charmy; resourceful for navigating platforms with their flight
 * Sonic Advance 3
 * Combat: The player-controlled leader, who does most of the work
 * Support: The AI-controlled partner, who provides extra abilities
 * The Starcraft franchise
 * Balance: The Terran, who balance between the Zerg's cheapness and offense, and the Protoss' priciness and defense
 * Combat: The Zerg, who are cheaper and more offensively-geared than the other two races
 * Support: The Protoss, who are pricier and more defensively-geared than the other two races
 * The core team from Star Fox 64 (not counting ROB 64, Krystal, and Tricky)
 * Combat: Fox McCloud and Falco Lombardi
 * Support: Peppy Hare and Slippy Toad
 * The Super Mario Brothers franchise
 * The American version of Super Mario Bros 2, originally Doki Doki Panic in Japan
 * Combat: Mario and Toad, who are stronger but less acrobatic; resourceful for fighting enemies and bosses
 * Support: Luigi and Peach, who are weaker but more acrobatic; resourceful for platforming through long distances
 * Super Mario Bros 3's power-ups
 * Combat: Self-defense items, including the super-mushroom, fire-flower, starman, and hammer-suit
 * Balance: Tanuki suit, due to flight (support) and tail (combat); also, the statue if it can be used to stomp.
 * Support: Navigation items, including the super-leaf, tanuki-suit, frog-suit, and goomba/kuribo's shoe
 * Super Mario World's power-ups
 * Combat: Self-defense items, including the super-mushroom, fire-flower, and starman
 * Support: Navigation items, including the cape-feather, Yoshi, and the P-balloon
 * Super Mario 64's power-ups
 * Combat: The metal-cap
 * Support: The wing-cap and vanish-cap
 * New Super Mario Brothers Wii's power-ups
 * Combat: Self-defense items, including the super-mushroom, fire-flower, ice-flower, and starman
 * Support: Navigation items, including the propeller-cap, penguin-suit, and mini-mushroom
 * Super Mario Galaxy's power-ups
 * Combat: Self-defense items, including the fire-flower, ice-flower, and rainbow-star
 * Support: Navigation items, including the bee-mushroom, boo-mushroom, red-star, and spring-mushroom
 * Super Mario Galaxy 2's power-ups for Mario
 * Combat: Self-defense items, including the rock-mushroom, fire-flower, and rainbow-star
 * Support: Navigational items, including the cloud-flower, spin-drill, bee-mushroom, boo-mushroom, spring-mushroom, and Yoshi
 * Tales of Symphonia
 * Combat: Lloyd, Presea, and Regal
 * Balance: Colette, Kratos, Sheena, Zelos
 * Support: Genis, Raine
 * Team Fortress 2
 * Combat: Pyro, Demo, Scout, and Spy
 * Support: Sniper, Heavy, Engineer, and Medic
 * Balance: Soldier, since he has the most well-rounded stats of the nine classes
 * The Team Ico Series
 * ICO
 * Combat: Ico, the physically strongest of the pair
 * Support: Yorda, who can magically open any locked door
 * Shadow of the Colossus
 * Combat: Wander; his job is to kill the various colossi through finding and sword-attacking their weak-spots
 * Support: Agro; like any other horse, his job is to quickly transport Wander to each hidden colossus
 * Tower Defense strategies
 * Combat: Purchasing the newer towers, similar to rushing
 * Support: Upgrading the older towers, similar to turtling
 * Warcraft III's four factions
 * Combat: The more offense-driven Orcish-Horde and Undead Scourge
 * Support: The more defense-driven Human-Alliance and Night-Elf Sentinels
 * The Witcher franchise's three fighting-styles
 * Combat: Strong-style; resourceful for bosses
 * Balance: Fast-style; resourceful for bits of both
 * Support: Group-style; resourceful for minor-enemy hordes
 * The World Ends With You
 * Combat: Neku Sakuraba, the main-protagonist
 * Support: Shiki, Joshua, Beat, and Rhyme
 * World of Warcraft's classes
 * Combat: Warrior, Rogue, Paladin, Hunter, Death-Knight
 * Support: Mage, Priest, Warlock, Shaman, Druid
 * Xenosaga
 * Combat: KOS-MOS, Zigguraut 8, Jr./, and Jin Uzuki
 * Support: Shion Uzuki, Chaos, and MOMO
 * The various roles fulfilled by champions in the MOBA game League of Legends
 * Combat: Carries and Assassins whose job it is to deal the damage
 * Balance: Tanky DPS who have the hardiness to take hits for their allies while still dealing enough damage to be threatening
 * Support: Tanks and Supports whose job it is to protect and assist their allies via damage absorbtion, healing, and crowd control abilities
 * Tales of Vesperia
 * Combat: Yuri, Repede, and Judith
 * Balance: Karol, Raven
 * Support: Estelle, Rita
 * However, you could argue that everyone except for Judith and Rita count as balanced.
 * Tales of the Abyss
 * Combat: Luke, Guy
 * Balance: Anise, Natalia
 * Support: Tear, Jade
 * Team Fortress 2 does this, although "combat" is further split into the sub-categories of Offensive and Defensive.
 * Offensive: Scout, Soldier and Pyro
 * Defensive: Engineer, Heavy and Demo-Man
 * Support: Medic, Sniper and Spy