It is no secret that Dungeons & Dragons is the most popular role-playing game in the world, having inspired countless games and the hobby as a whole. Over D&D’s 52-year history, the game has undergone so many iterations, each of which changed its “feel” while still capturing its high fantasy essence. While there has been some drastic overhauls, plenty of the game’s old bones are seen as structural pillars, embedded in its foundation. Those fossils are what I want to talk a bit about today.

Challenge Rating is an attempt at the impossible — boiling a creature down to a single number to represent the challenge it presents to the players. Painting with such a broad brush fails, of course, to accurately describe a monster, much less an entire combat encounter.

In D&D 5E, a monster’s CR dictates its HP, AC, Attack Bonus, Damage, and Save DC. However, CR can’t describe what makes a monster “challenging.” Creatures with immunities or monsters that attack non-standard defenses are the easiest way to see this system’s failures. An Ochre Jelly’s immunity to slashing damage walls any party with a heavy martial focus that favors swords. The Intellect Devourer can handily stun creatures with low Intelligence scores and slurp up their brains. Both examples are only CR 2, but they punch well above their weight class against the right adventuring party. Giving credit where it’s due, the 2014 DMG at least acknowledges the problem — An ogre could bring down any member of a 1st-level party in one shot, and a Rakshasa is unphased by everything a wizard lower than 12th level can muster.

CR falls even further off mark by failing to consider the context of a combat encounter. Traps, terrain, or external factors such as time limits will heavily shape an encounter. Movement-limiting traps turn Tucker’s Kobolds from a laughable low-level threat into D&D legends. Archers on flat terrain are a trivial obstacle, but a favorable environment like defensible cliffs makes them a MUCH more credible threat. When time is of the essence, damage and attack output become trivial compared to a monster’s health and defenses.

Again, your rulebooks acknowledge all of this. The DMG reminds you of the system’s shortcomings in fragmented sidebars. But if the game keeps warning us that this number is unreliable, why do we keep it?

Instead of leveraging CR as an end-all, be-all measurement, I would use it to keep a monster’s statistics in line, while adding additional classifiers. 4th Edition D&D used a robust set of Roles to describe its monsters:

• Artillery: Ranged attackers which deal high damage.
  

• Brute: Primarily melee-focused monsters with a large Hit Point pool & good damage.

• Controllers: Monsters with attacks and abilities which limit players’ combat options.

• Leaders: Monsters which enhance their allies.

• Lurkers: Fragile monsters with abilities that make them difficult to target.

• Skirmishers: Monsters with high mobility to deliver damage effectively.

• Soldier: Well-rounded monsters which do enough damage to be scary, but mobility and defenses to weather most attacks.

Two decades after 4th Edition’s first release, and just over a decade since 5th Edition’s, we can improve upon this framework with the following roles:

• Archers: Monsters focused around dealing damage at a safe distance. Examples: Archer, Scout Captain.

  • Artillery: Artillery sets itself apart from Archers with attacks with a wider area of effect. Example: Archmage.

• Assassins: Fragile monsters able to access “squishier” party members through speed, stealth, or alternate means of movement. Examples: Assassin (of course), Bugbear Stalker, Bulette.

• Brutes: Monsters defined by a massive amount of Hit Points with higher-than-average damage output and lower Armor Class. Brutes often protect weaker monsters, or serve as a persistent threat to chase down players. Examples: Ogres, Hill Giants.

  • Blobs: Monsters featuring similar Hit Point counts to Brutes, coupled with Resistances, Immunities, and other tricks to survive longer in battle. Examples: Gelatinous Cube, Ochre Jelly

• Debuffer: Monsters which hand out nasty status conditions. Debuffers’ effects can often redefine an encounter by making a straightforward fight impossible. Examples: Succubus, Gorgon.

• Herder: Monsters which shape the battlefield with spells like Wall of Stone or manipulate movement with difficult terrain. Example: Dao.

• Generalist: Monsters which lack specialized features to make them stand out. Despite this, they can still be a threat and serve as a good benchmark to compare with others. Examples: Bandit, Tough.

• Leader: Monsters which inspire allies or grant them bonuses. Typically these monsters are weak on their own, but greatly amplify their allies’ strength. Examples: Hobgoblin Captain, Questing Knight

  • Healer: Monsters with the ability to heal others, just like players. Example: Priest.

• Specialists: Monsters which bypass the standard combat rules in some way to become a more significant threat. Examples: Shadow, Intellect Devourer

Some monsters are best described with multiple Roles. For example, the Dao is a great Herder, but its high Hit Points let it operate as a Brute as well. By considering monster Roles, you can assess the dangers of a combat encounter more qualitatively, and better tailor fight scenes to the strengths and weaknesses of your players’ characters.

While considering monsters’ Roles in an encounter, it’s also important to consider the battlefield. A group of Archers in open grasslands is an entirely different challenge compared to the top of a 50-foot cliff face. The features described in Mechanics for Map Design can skew a fight in either direction – A well-placed drop could keep an Archer safe from harm, or spell doom for a Brute being shoved over the edge.

Lastly, I would like to leave you with another example of my favorite monster Role, the Specialist:

Breath Taker

These warriors have mastered a sinister technique which can rob foes of their breath with a touch. Although their power allows them to overwhelm and slay mighty foes, the rituals involved marred their flesh, carving an irrefutable tally of their sins. As such, a Breath Taker often works unsavory jobs on the outskirts of cities, or taking over criminal organizations. Breath Takers will occasionally form an order to teach their dark art, but these orders rarely last due to scheming and infighting.

Breath Taker

Medium Humanoid, Neutral

Armor Class 15 Initiative +3 (13)

Hit Points 60 (8d8+24)

Speed 30 ft.

STR 16 +3 +3 DEX 16 +3 +3 CON 16 +3 +3

INT 10 +0 +0 WIS 12 +1 +1 CHA 12 +1 +1

Skills Athletics +5, Stealth +5

Senses Passive Perception 11

Languages Common

CR 3 (700 XP; PB +2)

ACTIONS

Unarmed Strike. Melee Attack Roll: +5, reach 5 ft. Hit: 5 (1d4+3) Bludgeoning damage. Strength Saving Throw: DC 13. Failure: The target is grappled(escape DC 13).

BONUS ACTIONS

Constriction. Constitution Saving Throw: DC 13, one creature grappled by the Breath Taker. Failure: The creature begins suffocating until it escapes the grapple.

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