Shannon Appelcline, author of "Designers & Dragons", highlighted that while "OD&D" only had three character classes, "which made it easy to balance a party", "as character classes proliferated in later editions, it became less clear which classes could fill which roles". The 4th Edition classes were designed for specific party roles and these "classes were "unified" in how they were defined and how they progressed. [...] The difference in the character classes now focused on what powers they had and what they could do". Appelcline wrote that the addition of warlock and warlord to the 4th Edition base classes was "surprising" and "with so many new races and classes, it's not surprising that some classics got dropped. The [...] assassin, bard, and druid were all classics that were missing from the class list. This generated even more controversy, and the designers later said that they regretted not saying that the first "Player's Handbook" was just a starting place for D&D 4e".