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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Staffan" data-source="post: 4496497" data-attributes="member: 907">Yes, it does. It provides a shortcut to figuring out monsters that work well together.That's not really what monster roles are about.Monster roles work more-or-less like character roles. You have soldiers, who are straight-forward melee guys with a defensive focus, and brutes who have an offensive focus. Skirmishers move around the battlefield, and often serve as the "default" monster role. Lurkers sneak around, waiting for the right moment to strike, often bypassing the party's defensive line. Artillery deal buttloads of damage from range, and controllers mess with the PCs. Some monsters are also designated "leader" in addition to their main role, these are monsters that have a beneficial effect on the other monsters in the encounter. The Leader stuff tends to be relatively minor in comparison to its other abilities.For a leader example, look at the kobold wyrmpriest, which is a level 3 Artillery (Leader). It has three significant abilities, two of which serve the Artillery role (Energy Orb: ranged energy attack; and Dragon Breath: a close energy attack it can use once per encounter). and one which serves the Leader role (Incite Faith: nearby kobolds get 5 more hp and can shift 1 square).The role differences don't really have much to do with which defenses are attacked, though someone did some statistics work on the MM and showed that controllers more often attacked Will or something like that. Instead, compare the monster encounter to a PC party. A party full of wizards won't work very well, because their foes would be able to get to them and tear them apart. Similarly, a party full of fighters wouldn't be able to deal with some of the stranger stuff.Similarly, a group of monsters become more efficient if you use different monsters with abilities that synergize with one another. A group of four archers (artillery) won't do much against the PCs, because the PCs will be able to get to them easily, and artillery is soft. A group of four grunts (soldiers) won't be able to do much either, because grunts are generally better at taking damage than dishing it out - it would be a long fight, but one heavily in favor of the PCs. But if you use two grunts and two archers, using the grunts to keep the PCs away from the archers while the archers rain down arrows from afar - now we're talking.It should be noted that the monster role "controller" is not the same as the PC role "controller." The PC role is more about area attacks from afar, some of which also push opponents around or debuff them. The monster role is more about the pushing/debuffing part.The NPC/monster rules have wizards as artillery, and clerics as controller-leaders. Though I'm a bit suspicious of those since they list the warlock as a skirmisher, when it's definitely more artillery-ish.</blockquote>

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