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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gizmo33" data-source="post: 3839038" data-attributes="member: 30001">It doesn't?  Do you live in Moria?   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />   I don't really recall the socio-economic details of Moria.  Whether or not the Balrog arbitrated goblin disputes over water-rights is something I'm not clear on.  I suppose I should pick a better example.Maybe I should say this - if *my* version of Moria IMC has the Balor acting as a leader, and other Balors on the 9th layer of Hell serving as Tiamat's minions (pardon the butchering of canon), then doesn't that demonstrate that role is dependant on context and that choosing one role for all monsters of a certain type is overly narrow and cartoonish?The dwarves perspective of the Balor as a brute may rely on their complete ingnorance as to the role that the Balor plays in the Morian goblin society.  Recall that the "dwarvish" perspective is essentially all you get in LotR minus a little backstory from the days of Morgoth.  AFAIK, no one lived amongst the goblins to know exactly how they interacted with the Balrog.  This is relevant to my concern about monster roles because I think they will encourage a kind of cheesy cartoon style stereo-typing.I keep saying "cartoon" because this all really reminds me of the HeMan cartoon where you have the BBEG and the minions.  More quasi-real-world situations actually have many more nuances to leadership and complex relationships, and if DnD is going to go down the road of codifying only the most simple-minded of situations, I think that's too limiting.If a PC in my campaign is such that all of the other PCs better do what he says, we call that PC the "leader".  I guess there's more than one use for the term "leader" but then I suppose there's some morality and value judgement issues here that I don't quite grasp?  It's not that plain and simple to me.  I suppose that "role" really has to do with combat tactics?  Wouldn't "melee" (as opposed to missle, or sneak attack, or whatever) be better terminology?  Whether or not something is a leader is probably an entirely seperate issue from the combat tactics that it chooses to employ.  Robin Hood is a leader and a skirmisher.  King Arthur is a leader and a melee fighter.  Something like that.</blockquote>

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