My friend and I were having a discussion about Leaders in D&D 4e.
At any rate, it was suggested that it would be better if our party had fewer leaders rather than more: their main purpose (healing) polarized encounters between too easy and thus causing constant pre-encounters to bleed off healing abilities or too hard once their healing powers couldn’t restore enough to actually matter.
We both want a more tough, thoughtful game – I posited that we should minimize non-IC table talk as much as possible so that people really had to pay attention to what people were doing and saying to plan… rather than hear ahead of time that someone was going to do X power in order to get Y result and then get to have a side conversation about owls before absently being nudged back into game to say what they were going to do. So party working together is one of my goals… but, I also want the game to be challenging for everyone, too.
Our party is made up as:
Elven Druid based around being really fast, Halfling Bard who doesn't really heal, Tiefling Ardent? (This is me!), Human Monk? (Or Avenger), Dragonborn Fighter
To clarify my question into its main parts:
Do Leaders polarize encounters and will multiple leaders polarize encounters?
a. Is this due to Leaders main role as being healers?
b. Will having multiple leaders make the game without a challenge unless there are bleed encounters?