Author Topic: What are the real party roles of D&D?  (Read 3491 times)

Offline Power

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What are the real party roles of D&D?
« on: March 01, 2022, 04:05:05 PM »
When you ask about party roles, people often operate in terms of a stupid Fighter/Wizard/Cleric/Thief dichotomy, but we all know there are tons of parties that use different lineups that work just fine. I'm wondering what the real party roles of the game are, and probably we should split it into combat and non-combat party roles.

One thing that occurs to me, for instance, is that Tank is not a real party role. This is because D&D is not a MMORPG and there is no real aggro mechanic to force enemies to attack you (unless we're counting Mass Suggestion, perhaps), so unless your GM is stupidly accommodating by making enemies attack whoever is insulting them at the moment instead of acting like the intelligent beings they are supposed to be, the idea of stacking survival and expecting enemies to just focus their efforts on attacking you does not really exist. What does exist, however, is the front-liner role, which sums up what keeping your party members from harm (as a martial class) is really about much more effectively. Being a front-liner really consists of two parts: (1) standing in front and (2) making it a pain in the ass for enemies to get past you and reach your allies behind you.

So what would we say are the real party roles of D&D, exactly?
« Last Edit: March 07, 2022, 08:29:14 AM by Power »

Offline Nytemare3701

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Re: What are the real party roles of D&D?
« Reply #1 on: March 02, 2022, 07:54:36 PM »
A person to soak hits or otherwise negate damage sources (usually a tank, but could also be a very proactive control caster)
A person to solve environmental challenges usually in the realm of skill checks (usually a skillmonkey, but could also be a utility caster)
A person to kill stuff (nearly any class, including healers, can do this if built right)

Preferably, a jack of all trades in slot 4 so that nobody is stretched too thin during any given challenge.

Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: What are the real party roles of D&D?
« Reply #2 on: March 03, 2022, 02:13:38 PM »
There have been a few threads about this in the past, some more comprehensive than others. I think certainly the roles include:

1) damage dealer(s) (mandatory more than others, but doesn't have to be 100% specialist)
2) battlefield control (could be tank with reach, CC/debuff caster, etc)(not 100% necessary, but very nice to have)
3) healing, damage mitigation (buffs) and negative status effect removal (not 100% necessary, but nice to have. Can also be done via potions, items, etc.)
4) a way to deal with traps (can be a Log (TM), undead, sacrificial summons, or a rogue, etc)
5) face/negotiator (not always needed in all games)
6) Scout (not 100% necessary, but very nice to have.) (Can be stealthy class, caster with a familiar or divination, etc)
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Offline Power

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Re: What are the real party roles of D&D?
« Reply #3 on: March 07, 2022, 08:28:51 AM »
Damage dealer can be split into three types, I think: Single-target melee, single-target ranged, and AoE, but I don't think it's that mandatory in the scheme of things. If your crowd control is strong enough, the damage dealers are basically coup-de-grace dispensers. It's pretty exotic to play without a damage dealer and make a hard control lineup though. Could be an interesting party composition. Then again, I think in the scheme of things, damage dealers can be considered a type of crowd control. It's just that you're controlling the encounter's danger by rendering enemies into harmless corpses. That also touches on one of the problems with damage dealing: It doesn't have much effect until you've finished their last hitpoint. At least melee damage dealers tend to also be front-liners, giving them additional value if they pick their spots carefully. Ranged damage dealers can be too, if they have good AoOs.

I think battlefield control and crowd control can also be split up a bit. Battlefield control is about controlling space to your advantage. Crowd control is about disabling the enemies themselves from being a threat. Part of what makes battlefield control so desirable is because of its no save tendencies. Although the right buffs (like Fickle Winds, which negates enemy archery, or Resist Energy) can also effectively neutralize enemies, and I'm not sure how to classify that one, but I guess that counts as a form of no save crowd control.

Healing I think comes in 3 forms overall: HP healing, debuff/condition removal, and resurrections. So long as you have all 3 bases covered, you're good.
« Last Edit: March 07, 2022, 04:31:00 PM by Power »

Offline Maelphaxerazz

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Re: What are the real party roles of D&D?
« Reply #4 on: March 11, 2022, 12:17:48 PM »
  • Damage. The most fundamental role, as all D&D games have something that needs killing.
  • Protection. This character protects other characters from damage, either by being in the way and using AoO tricks or by magical means or by creating obstacles for the enemy. Basically, Prevent Damage.
  • Healing. All D&D games have things that will hurt PCs, so somebody has to patch them up afterwards. In practice this is a minor role, a side-gig for characters who also do something else.
  • Control. This means Solving Combat Problems: there is some obstacle that prevents the PCs from properly damaging the enemy, and this character overcomes these obstacles. This is almost always a spellcaster in D&D.
  • "Rogue." I put this in quotes because it is an actual class name, but I cannot think of a good general name at the moment. This character overcomes environmental obstacles: locked doors, traps, blockages, stealthy entry, disguises, and so on. The party needs to get to the place where they do damage, and this character gets them there. While a thief-type character is traditional for this, it could also be done with spells.
  • Face. This character solves social problems. Since social problems aren't a constant issue in D&D, the party face always fulfils some other role as well.
  • Buff/Debuff. While not strictly necessary for the game to function, helping other characters do things has long been a standard part of the game.

Offline Endarire

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Re: What are the real party roles of D&D?
« Reply #5 on: April 12, 2022, 10:14:05 PM »
I call your Rogue category a trapspringer.

Protection also mitigates and prevents bad status ailments through increased saves/SR, helpful party positioning, and making it difficult or impossible to target subjects, such as with Wind Wall or Invisibility or fog.

Offline Power

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Re: What are the real party roles of D&D?
« Reply #6 on: April 14, 2022, 11:58:36 AM »
A Rogue by default tends to occupy 4 roles iirc: Single-target damage dealer, trapfinder, sneak, and party face (although not a very good one, owing to their low cha). Well-played Rogues are typically also WBLmancers through UMD. Overcoming terrain obstacles is usually performed more by spellcasters (Wizards in particular) or just mundane items. Skills like Jump, Climb and Swim do help though.

Protection is pretty interesting, as a strong enough protection is borderline crowd control from the opposite end. Instead of directly restraining the attacker from attacking, you render the party impregnable to his attacks. Wind Wall is a good example here.

Offline crazypunk86

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Re: What are the real party roles of D&D?
« Reply #7 on: April 21, 2022, 04:19:39 AM »
There are 5 principal roles that a balanced party will have, those are- a tank, support, carry, striker & face. Some of these roles can be covered by one character and others can have their absence made up for with strategic gameplay. All the character and party is different. Some parties may be self-sufficient enough to not need a strong Support and some could have enough crowd control at their disposal to not need a carry, and still, others might have several people who love roleplaying and naturally fill the role of a face.

Offline Power

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Re: What are the real party roles of D&D?
« Reply #8 on: April 26, 2022, 06:59:36 AM »
You party composition sounds suspiciously like an AoS game's lineup, which is a very different sort of game from D&D. It's unclear what you mean by a "Carry" here, and when it comes to a "Support", the person who heals the party (Cleric) and the person who buffs them (Wizard) are often not the same either. "Tank" does not operate well unless it is paired with other roles, since if you create a defensively-specialized character that does not pose a meaningful threat to enemies, enemies have no good reason to not focus on attacking your more fragile and dangerous party members instead of you. And a face as a character is only necessary if you have a GM who requires dicerolls instead of being content to have the party roleplay their way through social encounters, otherwise it can be resolved without mechanical abilities. But I take your point of how it's important to have someone capable of handling it in general, whether mechanically or through roleplaying.

Offline ketaro

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Re: What are the real party roles of D&D?
« Reply #9 on: April 26, 2022, 06:47:05 PM »
The only real roles are Players and Characters  :cool

In slightly more seriousness, Dead or Alive.
Because you don't need a balanced party of each classic trope role to survive~

Offline Power

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Re: What are the real party roles of D&D?
« Reply #10 on: April 22, 2023, 06:39:58 PM »
  • Damage. The most fundamental role, as all D&D games have something that needs killing.
  • Protection. This character protects other characters from damage, either by being in the way and using AoO tricks or by magical means or by creating obstacles for the enemy. Basically, Prevent Damage.
  • Healing. All D&D games have things that will hurt PCs, so somebody has to patch them up afterwards. In practice this is a minor role, a side-gig for characters who also do something else.
  • Control. This means Solving Combat Problems: there is some obstacle that prevents the PCs from properly damaging the enemy, and this character overcomes these obstacles. This is almost always a spellcaster in D&D.
  • "Rogue." I put this in quotes because it is an actual class name, but I cannot think of a good general name at the moment. This character overcomes environmental obstacles: locked doors, traps, blockages, stealthy entry, disguises, and so on. The party needs to get to the place where they do damage, and this character gets them there. While a thief-type character is traditional for this, it could also be done with spells.
  • Face. This character solves social problems. Since social problems aren't a constant issue in D&D, the party face always fulfils some other role as well.
  • Buff/Debuff. While not strictly necessary for the game to function, helping other characters do things has long been a standard part of the game.
Yeah I'm coming to the conclusion that the real party roles are pretty close to that:
  • Damage-dealer: Very straightforward. You reduce enemy HP to zero. Comes in melee, ranged, and AoE varieties but it all comes down to the same job. There is often an implicit requirement, however, that the damage-dealer be able to perform for many combats per day, allowing him to carry the party through encounters where they are either conserving resources (like spells) or low on such resources. It is also strongly advised for martial damage-dealers to carry backup weapons so that they do not become useless if there is an unusual encounter.
  • Protector: Also very straightforward, in principle. You keep your allies from harm. The most common form is being a front-liner (ie. positioning yourself between the party and the enemies and making it difficult for enemies to get past you), and for most martial-types (not Rogues or, frequently, archers), this is often a second role they take on naturally. However, a party's vulnerable party members can be protected using anything from illusions, monster-summoning, buffs, battlefield control, crowd control, debuffs, etc. There is an implicit requirement, however, that you not be overly resource-limited or circumstantial in your ability to protect party members. For this reason, there is usually a primary protector (the front-liner) and a supporting role (the spellcaster, who uses battlefield control, crowd control, defensive buffs on the party) when it comes to protecting the party.
  • Healer: Often a secondary role, in the sense that you do not want this to be all a particular party member is contributing. There are really 3 distinct subtypes of healer, and it's important to be aware of them:
    • HP recovery: Very straightforward. Any idiot with a Wand of Cure Light Wounds can cover this role. This is very easily handled, but mandatory. This is typically a non-combat role as combat healing is a very bad way to spend your turns unless you optimize some really powerful heals or find a way to heal without using standard actions.
    • Condition removal: Everything from removing diseases to poisons to curses to fatigue/exhaustion/etc to fear conditions to ability damage to negative levels. This is very good to have, but not strictly necessary, especially if you make sure to carry appropriate healing items (will be a lot of items, though) just in case, especially if you have party members that can handle this in partial capacity (like a high-level Ranger). This role is sometimes useful to have in an in-combat capacity, and is probably the single biggest reason for wanting a full-on healer in the party. This role favors prepared casters because the spells are often too many and too situational for spells known but also too useful to not have.
    • Resurrection: Sometimes party members die and you need to get them back. Can be covered if you carry scrolls with UMD (death is not a frequent occurrence in your party... right?) or skipped if you are okay with revolving door parties, but is less skippable if you have to protect fragile NPCs. Occasionally this role breaks a campaign by resurrecting NPCs who weren't supposed to be alive.
  • Scout: Any method of figuring out what lies ahead unnoticed. Typically a mundane role, wielding stealth, disable device, spot, listen, and maybe even survival. Usually only stealth and perception skills are necessary, but traps and locked doors are an issue at times, as is following tracks or getting lost depending on the terrain. Invisibility helps a lot, until higher levels, and it is possible to perform scouting purely with divination spells or by having a Wizard share senses with his flying familiar whom he made invisible. There are really three subroles of scout:
    • Reconnaissance: The actual job of figuring out what lies ahead and providing advance warning.
    • Pathfinding: Figuring out where you need to go and finding a working path for the party to navigate. Probably the most forgettable subrole as basic pathfinding is usually part and parcel of reconnaissance, but sometimes you notice that there is a more specific skillset that you need, when you remember that your Druid, Ranger, or some other class is needed to roll Survival checks or you have to cast divinations to figure out which way to go. Depending on the campaign this is usually totally forgotten but sometimes something that totally wrecks your party if you're missing it. The fun part about pathfinding is that it's the one scouting role your party Thief/Bard/etc is likely to be useless at (but not the Ranger or Druid).
    • Trapfinding: Finding and disabling traps, especially magical traps, that you find on the way. Usually the recon is also the trapfinder (or he will find many of the traps the hard way), but not always. The necessity of a trapfinder depends on the campaign, but it's usually a good working assumption to assume one is necessary, unless you want to manually test for traps (this is your ten-foot-poles, your magnets, your ball bearings, etc) or just send someone with stupid high saves in front (aka "monk trapfinding" or "paladin trapfinding" - but this is also done with disposable summons, like a bag of tricks). The bothersome part here is that not every class can find and disable magic traps out of the box, so sometimes you see the Recon and the Trapfinder being two different characters or trapfinding being done manually.
  • Face: The face man, the one who handles social encounters on behalf of the party. DMs are often torn between whether they'd rather see you roleplay (ie. "stop rolling skills to get past dialogue encounters") or rollplay (ie. "stop trying to talk your way past situations if your don't have the appropriate diplomacy/bluff/etc skills on your character sheet") this one, and it makes a massive difference in how important this is as part of a character sheet. While you can handle face roles with magic spells like Charm Person, Disguise Self, and Suggestion (especially if you can cast them unnoticed), this is typically a mundane role wielding Diplomacy, Bluff, and Disguise skills, as well as Sense Motive.
  • Utility/toolbox: Often a spellcaster, and a prepared caster at that. This is the utility role that carries the circumstantial options needed to overcome whatever obstacle is thrown in your way, whether in-combat or out of combat. This role probably requires further analysis to get a clearer picture, but usually provides the party the ability to fight in unfamiliar terrain, overcome strange terrain, can solve certain puzzles and challenges on its own, and otherwise gives the parties tools they need to interact with unusual threats.
  • Loremaster: The person who can identify stuff and provide relevant information for you. Typically a mundane role, wielding knowledge checks, spellcraft checks, and appraise checks, but it tends to be done by spellcasters like Wizards and Bards, because they have the skills and modifiers for it. Sometimes this role is split across multiple characters.
  • Investigator: Very much a noncombat role, and I'm not sure whether I ought to be listing this. This is the job of uncovering information. The scout, face, and loremaster usually handle sides of this, so does the Survival guy, but there are also a lot of dedicated spells like Detect Magic, Divination, Scrying, etc. and the speak with animals/plants/stone/dead/etc line that have a huge impacts on this. The right divinations pretty much auto-solve many of these quests.
  • Support: A force-multiplier for the party or individual party members. This is when you don't solve problems on your own (unless you are self-buffing) but empower others to do a phenomenally more effective job than they would otherwise by making party members perform better and/or making enemies suck. Buffs, debuffs, and battlefield control are all parts of this. This is the domain of God Wizards, who tend to set up a party with conditions so advantageous that they can cakewalk their way through an encounter, as well as Bards. Clerics are often assumed to be good at this but they actually tend not to have the more impactful support options (although they still have some) without the right domains, prestige classes, etc.

I think I have the breakdown right but I may be missing things. Probably the utility and investigator roles need more examination.
« Last Edit: May 02, 2023, 12:57:15 PM by Power »