Here are two articles about Monster Roles.

There is not much written about it, aside from a

paragraph or two, but I think that it is interesting. The roles are kind of like the PC classes.
Some monsters are up front fighters, some stay back and hurl spells, others rush in, and others
try to debuff the PCs. These two articles sum up most of the roles pretty well.

The Roles in Combat

4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons is widely regarded as the black sheep of the Dnd family. It did
many things wrong, but it also did many things right. One of the things that 4th Edition did really well
was the inclusion of roles in combat. Since the beginning of Dnd, there have always been some
monsters that were better than others at certain things. Goblins have always been sneakier than
Orcs, while a Troll was always a hard foe to take down. While these things have always been true,
4th Edition was the first edition to truly codify these monsters and define the roles that they excel at
in combat. These roles are an excellent thing for DM's to know because it allows for the creation of
much more tactical and interesting encounters, by simply throwing a few different roles together in
any given combat. The 7 roles are as follows:
Brute:​ Brutes excel at high damage in close quarters while having a lot of HP themselves. They
have low defenses to compensate and are simply meant to be used to get in the parties face. Brutes
love cover and broken lines of sight so that they are not harassed by ranged attacks. A good
example of a Brute would have to be an Ogre.
Soldier:​ Soldiers have high defenses with average HP, and attacks. They serve as the tanks for
fellow monsters, absorbing blows, and discouraging attacks against their weaker comrades. Soldiers
love narrow funnel points, that channel all of the enemies towards them one by one. A good example
of a Soldier would have to be an Iron Golem.
Artillery:​ Artillery have high damage range spells, but very low HP and defenses. These guys stay
on the backline and rain fireballs on the party. Artillery loves the high ground and having cover to
duck in and out of while they rain attacks from afar. A good example of Artillery would have to be a
Mind Flayer.
Skirmishers:​ Skirmishers have average stats but above average mobility. They try to weave in and
out of combat, and try to aim for the squishies at the back of the party. Skirmishers love open-ended
battlefields with lots of cover. This gives them the opportunity to dive into the back line of the party. A
good example of a Skirmisher would have to be a Bullete.
Lurker:​ Lurkers have below average health and defenses, but have an ability that makes them
difficult to target. They wait, hiding in the shadows until they can ambush some poor PC. Lurkers
love having places to hide to ambush the party from. A good example of a Lurker would have to be a
Cloaker.
Controllers:​ Controllers are the monsters who try to force the PCs into disadvantageous situations.
They will move the PC's around, have the party make saving throws, and put the party in a rough
spot. Controllers love terrain that has negative aspects to it, such as acid pools so that they can
force the party to move towards the dangerous terrain. A good example of a controller would have to
be a Beholder.
Leaders:​ Leaders are special monsters who give bonuses to the entire group just for simply being
there. This trait makes them much more of a target but makes your group a far greater threat.
Leaders love terrain that allows them to see the whole battlefield while keeping them safe from any
immediate attacks. A good example of a leader would have to be a Hobgoblin Warlord.
These 7 roles have existed for as long as the game itself. But by simply knowing about their
existence, it is a lot easier to create encounters that entertain and excite your players. Knowing a
monsters role in combat also makes it far easier for you as the DM to decide what you want to do
with them, and how your players will face them in combat. Roles give the DM a solid base to work
from when building an encounter and allow the DM to express a lot more creativity in how they
approach the roles in combat.

Utilizing The Roles

Now that you know what these roles are, let's make an encounter where we throw 3 random roles
together and see how the battle would shape out. Let's go with . . . Lurker, Artillery, and Soldier.
The battle would start off in a very typical fashion. The Soldier will stand close to either the players or
the Artillery. Their job is to not let the party move anywhere near the Artillery. Without the Artillery,
the Soldier has almost no chance of defeating the party. The Artillery's job is simple. Shell out
mortars until the party has to run from cover, or die fighting. And lastly, the Lurker is there to be
something that will push the party out of their comfort zone. The party may be approaching this
encounter as normal, but things will have to change when the rogue almost gets insta-gibbed by
some random thing hiding in the shadows. Through these 3 simple roles, we have created a
dynamic and tactical fight that requires our players to put together the pieces in order to solve the
puzzle. Is it worth it to go after the Artillery while the Soldier is still alive? Do we find the Lurker, so
that we can advance without worry? Questions like these make for tactically interesting fights that
will keep your players hooked until the resolution of the encounter.
Another way to utilize the Roles in combat is by designing the play space around them. Artillery units
are already scary enough, but when they have the chance to fire through arrow slits 30 feet in the
air, they are nearly impossible to deal with. If you want to build a really challenging encounter,
change the terrain to suit your monsters in a way that amplifies their strengths. A Soldier loves it
when all of the enemies have to funnel through a narrow corridor in order to reach anything else.
Skirmishers love open-ended battlefields where they are able to duck and weave until they are able
to get into the parties back lines. Different Roles enjoy different things, so design your encounters
accordingly to what monsters you have available to use.
One of the greatest strengths of using a role-based system in encounter design is that it forces you
to use varied enemies in combat. A combat with 3 Ogres will be nowhere near as tactically
interesting as one that uses hobgoblin warlords, defending wizards, while a shield wall advances
forward. A combat with 3 Ogres can still be a fun encounter, but it will not challenge your players
mentally. However, 3 enemies that behave in different tactical ways can make for an interesting
encounter as the players have to decide who to prioritize. A way to make the encounter with the
Ogres more interesting is to have each of them follow one of the different roles found up above. One
could behave as the typical Brute smashing the party, while another could be throwing rocks from
afar, serving as the Artillery. The last Ogre could then be a Controller, that physically picks up the
players and moves them to bad situations such as pits of tar. If all of your Ogres behaved as Brutes,
however, a lot of depth to the encounter would be lost.
When using roles in your combats, an ideal number to hit for a tactically sound encounter would be 3
different roles in the combat. 3 is the magic number where choices of who to target become more
meaningful, without overloading the encounter with information. Of course, it's totally possible to run
an encounter with more or less roles, but that is up to you and how tactical you want to make the
encounter. A fight with the Death Knight commanding legions of minions should be far more tactical
than one where the mimic stopped being a treasure chest. Another thing to note is that not every
single combat has to be a strategic puzzle that requires hours of coordination to solve. Sometimes it
can be worth it to throw a few Artillery minions in the way of the players and give them a chance to
enjoy their characters strengths. Keeping a balance is important for the health of the game, as too
many tactical encounters will wear out your players and may keep them from playing further.

Conclusion
Roles are something that I would consider a tool in the toolbox. They don't fit every encounter, and it
may not be worth it to pull it out all the time, but when you do pull it out it will get the job done better
than any other tool available. The ability to so easily create a tactically interesting encounter by
simply throwing some roles together makes it a powerful tool that can completely change the feel of
the session. This is also a great thing to have in mind when creating encounters on the spot. A
problem I personally have with improvisational DMing is that my encounters can get a bit stale as I
run them all the same. As long as I am cognizant of the different roles, I can be sure to throw in a
few different roles to spice things up every now and then. Roles in combat are a powerful tool that
can make encounter design a lot easier for the DM and a lot more fun for the players.

I hope that this article was able to inspire you to try out some different monster roles out in your next
combat. If you have anything you'd like to share about the article please comment below. If you
would like to read more guides on how to be a DM be sure to check out my blog at
[Link]​. And as always, have a great week, and an amazing Tuesday!

Building the Encounter 

 The Party Faces down a Beholder

When we talked about Monster Roles in 4th Edition D&D it was part of building an
encounter— You wanted your encounter to be well-rounded, interesting, and a challenge.
So you would load up the front lines with brutes and use artillery from behind to pound on
the players, all while having a controller slowing the party down, and maybe toss in a couple
of skirmishers to swing in and do the big damage to the party is bursts. In 5th edition we do
not have the monster roles to work with so building an engaging encounter is about more
than creating a balances fight of roles to push your party to the brink, in 5e a horde of
goblins can be more threatening to a party than a dragon.

When we look at building encounters with how dangerous even the smallest mook is, it
allows you the freedom to create a challenge that fits the story perfectly. And, if we are
looking at taking advantage of that flexibility we want to make sure that the combat makes
sense and is realistic. We need to look at would these creatures work together, how would
they work together, why are they working together, and who is calling the shots? We also
need to take a look at where we are and what the monster’s motivations are. Having a black
dragon swoop down and terrorize a farmers bazaar in a desert town might not make as
much as sense as using a blue dragon unless our story dictates otherwise.

Balancing the Encounter 

The Dungeon Master’s Guide has some resource on how to balance the XP budget for an
encounter that I have found to be a decent way to start, but for my party, it tends to be a
little on the weak side if I follow. Learning how to adjust the encounter budget is a skill that
is learned over time, but there are plenty of guides on this already our there for you to check
out.

Sly Flourish’s Guide on Encounter Building for 5e – In this Mike Shea goes into great detail
on how looks at action economy, evaluating and adjusting the difficulty of monsters, and
really just diving into the numbers of encounter building.

Unearthed Arcana Encounter Building – This guide is from Wizards of the Coast adding
more tips and advice that expands on the D&D 5e model for designing an encounter.

Kobold Fight Club – Kobold fight club is a great place to do the quick and dirty math to see
how challenging your encounter is. I will often start here and then make adjustments from
there based on my party.

Monster Roles 
  
Will the mighty adventurers survive their battle with a demon

Now comes the time in which we look at our monsters/enemies act in combat, and what
their strategy is. For this, I am going to steal heavily from 4th edition while adding some of
my own preferences in with it.

Artillery – These guys rain arrows, spells, boulders down on the heroes from a distance.
They often have some kind of cover and will tend to hit all of the heroes evenly until a threat
stands out. Do the adventures have their own archer or spellcaster bombarding them? That
will be their first target. These monsters are often mobile and have tricks for getting out of
melee range, and are the most likely to run away should their lines break.

Tactics: Shoot and Run. Stay behind the meat shields. They take aim then cover, if things
get too hot they disperse. Once an enemy has fallen move onto the next.

Brute – Having a brute in the frontline is a great way to keep the melee character from
getting to your leader, artillery, controllers, or any of the more fragile of your enemy team.
These guys are big, brawny, slow, and often dumb. This is your ogre that leads the charge.
They are often easy for the heroes to hit, but they take a lot of damage to drop, and they
deliver a brutal amount of damage back. Brutes tend to like to go toe to toe with whoever is
doing the most damage.

Tactics: Wade into the heroes. Hit them hard. Take the hit. Fight to the Death. Once an
enemy has fallen move onto the next.

Controller – These guys operate a little like artillery in the way that they stay back away
from the heavy hitters and stick behind the soldiers and brutes. But where the artillery is
high damage output, these guys tend to set up zones, do area busts, and cast spells that
affect the heroes ability to fight them. So the example of a wizard sitting on the back lines
flinging webs and fireballs is the perfect example of a controller.

Tactics: These guys will do what it takes to stay alive. They will take out the biggest threat
first and move along trying to knock everyone out before finishing them off. They will
attempt to retreat when the tide turns.

Lurker – Lurkers hide on the sidelines and wait patiently for the heroes to fall into their traps
and when they decide to make their move it is often a deadly affair. This doesn’t mean they
are all hiding in the shadows or in a bog. They could just be that innocent bystander
watching the bar fight, waiting with their poison-tipped dagger for their opportunity for
maximum effect. They are also that black dragon submerged in the swamp waiting to rise
out and cover the party with their breath weapons

Tactics: They look for the perfect target and strike with their most powerful attack once. This
is a one hit pony, after that attack they act like skirmishers, attempting to get out of the fight
and set up their devastating attack again if they can, or slip away to come back and fight
another day.

Minion – Where I tend to think of zombies in the Romero sense of the word, they could also
fall into the minion category. Minions are single purpose creatures who are acting on behalf
of someone or something else. A necromancer who summons a horde of zombies or
skeleton has absolute control over these creatures.

Tactics: They are commanded by their ‘Master’ and will do whatever it takes to follow
through with those orders. When those orders are complete they will stand motionless until
a new order is issued.

It wasn’t bad enough a dragon was trying to rip up their boat but monsters from the sea
joined the fight

Skirmisher – These guys are the masters of getting in and getting out. They typically move
quick and have abilities that allow them to escape trouble. Goblins and Monks tend to fit this
role very easily. They get in to do their damage and then try to get away from the enemy
before they get hit back. While they tend to not want to fight to the death the high level of
riskiness they tend to take also shortens their lives. I like to play these guys as a little bit of
risk seekers, they will often push the limits of what is physically possible for them.
Tactics: Move in Move out. High-Risk High Reward. If things look dire they will run if they
can, they will attack enemies on the ground if there isn’t a better target for them to focus on.

Solider – These are your heavily armored units that are built to hold up the heroes while the
other faster-moving attackers move in and out. They are tanks and act accordingly. They
move up to the hero that looks like it will be the biggest threat and goes toe to toe with
them. These creatures tend to have a higher AC then brutes but less hit points and do less
damage. But, they are fearless and will fight to the death and follow orders to the “T”

Tactics: These guys are going to be you most tactical piece on the board when it comes to
melee. They are going to follow orders and not retreat until called back by the leaders. They
will knock opponents out and move on forward neutralizing as many threats as they can.

Leader – Commanding the armies and keeping them going—That is what these guys do
best. These sometimes take the forms of healers, but sometimes their powers are unique in
that they give other allies of their some kind of advantage. While it is possible that a leader
will wade into the mix of things they are more likely to stay back and command the other
units.

Tactics: Keep their troops up. Call out orders. Stay out of danger. Will call a retreat is
needed, will attempt to escape if things look poor.

Mindless – The Mindless are just that, mindless. There is no strategy and there is only one
thing that drives them, and whatever it is they will get to it. For this, the perfect example is
going to be a zombie. It mindlessly dredges forward, not retreating, attempting to eat the
flesh to the heroes. These enemies don’t use much in the way of tactics. The danger comes
in when they knock someone out. They typically don’t have a reason to move on to the next
person until they are done with their meal. So much like a Lurker, they will attack a hero
who is down, forcing them to fail death saves and slip closer to death.
Tactics: Keep moving towards the goal. Will attack a downed enemy. Fights to the death.

Solo – These are the big bads. These are your beholders, red dragons, and demon lords. It
doesn’t mean that they will fight alone all the time, but they are a viable threat whether they
have help or not. Solos should have the ability to last a couple of rounds of combat while
putting a major smackdown on the heroes.

Tactics: Maximize Legendary actions and lair actions. They move confidently and while
some will fight to the death others will use their powers to retreat to be a thorn in the heroes
side once again. They will not think twice about throwing their allies to the heroes as a
distraction. They also tend to be smart and know how to work on taking out the target that is
causing them the most trouble.

What Role Does my Monster Play? 

 
The fight has gotten ugly as more dead has risen from the grave to fight the party

Well, there are some obvious ones such a ogres are brutes, zombies are mindless,
Hobgoblins are soldiers. Then there are some the might be two or more things such as an
Illithid or Beholder, either of those creatures could be a leader and/or a controller,
depending on the situation in how you use them in the scene you are creating.

For the most part, it is decided on the scene and how you are using the creatures to their
role, but you can look at the way the creators act normally. So while there may be some orc
leaders, they are mostly going to fall into the solider or brute category, but there could also
be archers who are artillery, war priests that are controllers, and scouts who are
skirmishers. Another good guide is looking at their intelligence. Zombies have a 3, that is
about as low as you can get, oozes, black puddings, and gelatinous cubes all have 1’s.
They are clearly mindless. An Arcanaloth however, is highly intelligent (20) and is a spell
caster so easily falls into the controller category, but could also be a leader, depending on
what your story allows for.