Voadam
Legend
I will add my voice to the ones wanting 4e monster innovations back in 5e. Neat things that are not difficult for a DM to run but add a lot to the feel of a combat.
Monster roles.
Brutes with high damage, high hp, and low AC that you hit all the time but it takes a lot to take down and they hit hard. Skirmishers who are mobile but not very high AC. Lurkers who pop up for a lot but are kind of glass cannons if you can tag them. and so on.
Monster Types
Minions who are one shots, regular monsters, elites who do twice the attacks and take twice as much to take down, solos who do area effects and have X[party number] hp and some interrupt type action.
Monster Themes
Most monsters have a theme mechanic that goes with them so all gnolls get pack attack or whatever regardless of their other individual powers and you know and feel you are dealing with a gnoll regardless of whether you use a gnoll scout or shaman or even if you reskin mostly use the other stats for an orc berserker.
Monster Powers
Forced movement, movement variations, Conditions, Conditions until save, auras, sacrifice minions, bloodied powers. 4e had a lot of mechanically and tactically interesting monster powers while most 5e D&D ones are just hit, hit with effect, or spell.
It was easy to back engineer these 4e mechanics into 3e and Pathfinder, it can easily be done for an advanced 5e.
Monster roles.
Brutes with high damage, high hp, and low AC that you hit all the time but it takes a lot to take down and they hit hard. Skirmishers who are mobile but not very high AC. Lurkers who pop up for a lot but are kind of glass cannons if you can tag them. and so on.
Monster Types
Minions who are one shots, regular monsters, elites who do twice the attacks and take twice as much to take down, solos who do area effects and have X[party number] hp and some interrupt type action.
Monster Themes
Most monsters have a theme mechanic that goes with them so all gnolls get pack attack or whatever regardless of their other individual powers and you know and feel you are dealing with a gnoll regardless of whether you use a gnoll scout or shaman or even if you reskin mostly use the other stats for an orc berserker.
Monster Powers
Forced movement, movement variations, Conditions, Conditions until save, auras, sacrifice minions, bloodied powers. 4e had a lot of mechanically and tactically interesting monster powers while most 5e D&D ones are just hit, hit with effect, or spell.
It was easy to back engineer these 4e mechanics into 3e and Pathfinder, it can easily be done for an advanced 5e.