D&D 5E What jobs does a party need fulfilled?

[borg286]

Treantmonk defined 5 out of combat roles and 4 in combat roles. 5e has tried to tease out many of their jobs (see the Healer feat and nerfing of in-combat healing).
What other jobs do you find typically needing to be fulfilled in any given party, or at least one feels a need to cover when they find it isn't covered.

Social: Either through Intimidation, Deception, Persuasion, or Enchantment someone usually needs to talk to others to get things done.
Scouting: Ambushes, layouts and traps are usually dealt with by someone with a high Dex and prof in Thief's tools and Sneak
Healing: Hit Dice only go so far. Healer/Inspiring Leader extend the working day to acceptable lengths
Utility: Scrying, Flight, Invisibility, Teleportation, Ancient Languages, Illusions, Identify, Detection, needing the thingamabob
Frontline fighter: Casters are usually weak. Someone usually stops the mooks to hold the line.
Damage: If encounters are to end in 4 rounds, the average KPR(Kills Per Round) needs to be at least 0.33, and not everybody is contributing equally. Someone often is the outlier here.
Buff/Debuff: I'm separating out Buff/Debuff from caster as more classes contribute in different ways, but this role, aggregated over the party, gets done one way or another.
Control: This usually gets done by casters that use a rich selection of spells to alter the battlefield and force choices in their favor.


Consequences of not fulfilling a given role
Social: What have you seen done when nobody is good at being Face?
Scouting: Boss rooms turn out to be a surprise. Ambushes get a surprise round. Traps deal damage.
Healing: Use a Healing Kit and Potion of Health when someone goes down. Depletion of Hit Dice simply means either the day ends sooner than convenient or you are taking the dodge action more frequently.
Utility: Casters can't have all the utility spells prepared, nor do they have the best spell. The party usually finds a way.
Frontline: Concentration is lost more frequently, squishies' HP and spell slots are depleted more quickly.
Damage: Monsters get more frontloaded actions, encounters last longer, BBEGs get to cast a 2nd spell
Buff/Debuff: Odds are turned ever so slightly not in your favor. Like a gate hinge, it adds up and the gate finds itself wide open by the end of the encounter.
Control: Just like a game of chess with only 1 player, lacking hard control puts you at the mercy of a controller either on the other end of the room, or the other end of the DM screen.


What jobs did I miss?

 

[Li Shenron]

These are obviously all useful, but nothing is must-have. As you wrote "The party usually finds a way" is the real strength of a RPG.

 

[prabe]

My thinking is a little different. I have a strong preference for characters being able to do at least one thing in-combat, and at least one thing out-of-combat. Out-of-combat, in my mind, really comes down to knowing things, finding things, manipulating things, and interacting with people. In-combat seems to come to ranged attacks, AoE damage, support/buff/healing, battlefield control magic, melee attacks, fire-draw (being the target of enemy attacks). It's probable that neither of those lists is complete.

 

[Stoutstien]

5e is designed in such a way that no role or class is necessary to succeed.

you can have a party that each character cover a little bit of everything and be just fine.

 

[borg286]

My thinking is a little different. I have a strong preference for characters being able to do at least one thing in-combat, and at least one thing out-of-combat. Out-of-combat, in my mind, really comes down to knowing things, finding things, manipulating things, and interacting with people. In-combat seems to come to ranged attacks, AoE damage, support/buff/healing, battlefield control magic, melee attacks, fire-draw (being the target of enemy attacks). It's probable that neither of those lists is complete.

Can you expound on what you mean by manipulate things?

 

[prabe]

Can you expound on what you mean by manipulate things?

Sure!

It's less of a thing if you don't focus on dungeon-crawlng, but things like picking locks or breaking down doors were the things at the top of my mind, along with things like operating vehicles or other sorts of tools; maybe performing. Puzzle-solving might apply, but that's maybe closer to a different kind of thing. "Using" things might have been the better verb there.

 

[Krachek]

I don’t think players should restraint thier pc to social even if they don’t get good bonus,

 

[Shiroiken]

One of the fairly nice things about 5E is that a lot of roles don't require a specialist to pull off (although they make it a LOT easier). IME most characters serve as a specialist for a role, and a non-specialist for another role.

I generally break things down into roles similar to 4E: striker, support and tank for combat then face, scout, tracker, and trapfinder for non-combat.

Combat
Striker - dealing damage is probably the most important combat role, but fortunately in 5E almost every character can provide a decent amount (a lot of bards generally suck at this though). Rogues and warlocks make the best specialists, since there damage each round is unlimited. Paladins and spellcasters can be good at this... so long as those spell slots hold out.

Support - buffs/debuffs, healing, and area control are all pretty useful, but except for healing it's easy to get by without it. Even without healing, it's possible to get by, but it requires a change in tactics, since you'll need to rest more often. Bards, Clerics, and Wizards usually specialize in this role, but most spellcasters can provide some support.

Tank - holding the front line isn't necessary, but very useful. A party can do without by using all ranged attacks and strong movement. Anyone with high AC can do this, but barbarians, fighters, and paladins tend to be specialists at this.

Non-Combat
Face - social interaction can be vital for some adventures, but it doesn't really require someone to specialize in it. Someone with a high Cha, even without proficiency, can usually fill this roll. Since there are 3 primary and 1 half caster that use Cha, very few groups will lack someone who can at least fill this role, if not specialize in it.

Scout - looking ahead for danger is great to avoid surprise, but this is also an extremely dangerous role. Due to the high variance of the d20, even a specialist can be caught, and being away from the party can mean certain doom. Because of this, few characters choose to fill this role, save for Rogues and Rangers.

Tracker - surviving in the wilderness is very campaign dependent. You don't need one even when in wilderness, but it's amazingly useful when you do. Rangers are the obvious specialists for this, but Druids often specialize as well.

Trapfinder - this is the only role that actually requires a proficiency, making it unusual in 5E. Characters with high Perception (or Investigation depending on DM) might find traps, but only someone proficient can disarm the trap safely. Fortunately, this is no long a rogue only ability, so any character can get proficiency based on background.

 

[Lanefan]

You need one or two front-liners (though you can simply never have enough), an outdoor scout (Ranger), an indoor scout and trap/lock bypasser (Thief), a healer, and an arcane caster.

Everything else, while nice, is optional. Most significantly, I don't think you need a specialized "face" unless everyone else put garbage in their Cha scores.