Monster Roles + Psionics

I designed a lot of monsters for 4e. I led Monster Manual 3, along with the revision to the game's math. One of my fondest memories of working on D&D is sitting in Jeremy Crawford's home, working through the Essentials monster book from front to back to make final corrections. If we had to work all weekend to get a book out, we might as well do it in comfort, right?

4e had roles, a focus for the monster's design. The role told you what a monster did during an encounter. Soldiers were tank. Skirmishers zoomed around the map and threatened casters. Lurkers, well, lurked. They remained hidden until they attacked.

Roles were fun, to a point. In my experience they made design too samey. The role drove a lot of what a monster did. I also think that trying to define a rigid set of things a monster can do is optimistic. Do we really think this is all monsters will ever need to do in the game?

Looking back, I think roles are a good tool to help guide DMs in design but they didn't quite hit the mark. In design, we never spent a lot of time comparing character abilities to monster ones. They PHB and MM designs were run at the same time, to ensure the books could hit the same release date.

I think 5e could really use monster roles that point at character classes, creating a metagame that allows a DM to build adventures and encounters that account for how classes actually work.

Example: Forcecage. At high levels, this spell can instantly shut down an encounter. If you have a size Large critter, it better not be your boss monster because this spell neutralizes it. Even larger creatures are vulnerable to the spell, as long as the players can mitigate the use of the wall of bars version of the spell.

It stands to reason then that high level monsters, at least ones meant to serve as bosses, need to have a way to counter forcecage. And that's the rub: they don't.

Role-Based Design

Role-based monster design changes that by building monsters in response to what character can do. We can slice characters up into two basic categories:

Spellcasters have full access to spell slots and spell levels. The corresponding monster role is the controller.

Martials rely on attacks to dish out piles of damage. The corresponding monster role is the brute.

Each creature than has at least one of these roles. Powerful ones have both. What does that mean for design?

Controllers excel at countering saving throw-based abilities. You need to attack their AC to pierce their defenses. They have a versatile toolbox that allows them to end spells, turn terrain features against the party, and claim control of areas of the battlefield from a distance. They punish spellcasting by messing with the weave and taxing attempts to spend slots.

Brutes excel at countering attacks against AC. They have lots of hit points and are good at local - the space within their reach - control. They rely on attacks, typically in melee. Their hit points are their best defense.

Target: Ability Score

In addition, each monster is linked to an ability score. Their saving throw-based abilities call saving throws of the appropriate type. Brutes tend to target physical abilities and controllers tend to go after the intellectual ones.

Ability scores are also linked to damage types, with types in this design playing a bigger role in how monsters work. This also points out the natural, narrative disconnect with saves. There are lots of Dexterity and Constitution saves in the game because we expect characters to dodge or endure. For Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma, we need to get a little creative.

Acid targets Dexterity saving throws. Acid effects make spellcasting impossible or more difficult by putting restrictions on action types and deny concentration due to the immense pain they cause.

Cold targets Constitution and shuts down or limits movement speed.

Fire targets Dexterity and has a higher than baseline damage cap. It's your raw damage option.

Force is automatic damage. No saving throw, but no ongoing status effects. It has the lowest but most reliable damage.

Lightning is precision damage that goes after Dexterity and gives casters flexibility. It can hit fewer targets for more damage, or strike a broader area.

Necrotic damage targets Constitution and leaves targets weakened and/or vulnerable to additional attacks.

Poison targets Constitution and typically creates compounding damage over time (1d4 on the first failed save, 2d4 on the second, etc).

Psychic targets Wisdom and reflects mind control, the ability to restrict a target's actions or dictate specific ones in future rounds.

Radiant damage restricts the target's ability to see or perceive and usually targets Constitution.

Thunder damage targets Strength and uses concussive force to push characters away from an attacker or origin point.

So what about Intelligence and Charisma? Wisdom matches only one damage type, but it shows up a lot so I am not as worried about it.

For Intelligence and Charisma, any effect except psychic damage can be shifted to those saves by giving it the psionic keyword. In this case, the target's intellect allows them to resist. You can't move faster than the speed of thought, nor can you punch or endure an effect that unravels you from the inside out.

Intelligence can match against psionic effects that rely on speed of though, capturing all effects that would otherwise be Dexterity-based.

Charisma matches against psionic effects that are Strength or Constitution-based, allowing the force of your personality to repel the attack.

Psionic effects differ in how they are delivered. A normal acid attack might be a glob of caustic goo. A psionic one is magic that tries to transform the target's blood into acid.

Psionics then migrates into the core system, as it becomes a core pillar of challenging caster PCs and a tool that players will want to access to take down big, burly brute monsters.

Wrapping Up

With these tools, as a DM you can build encounters that match your party's strengths and weaknesses. You can be confident that monsters at a certain level are designed with the metagame in mind. They can survive the spells and effects of that level that fall within their role. A well-balanced party is necessary to deal with a well-balanced encounter.