D&D General D&D is a Team Sport. What are the positions?

overgeeked said:

Sure they do. Just flip the narrative. The goalie is trying to prevent goals and their team’s loss. The rest of the team is trying to make goals and secure the win. The defender/tank is trying to prevent their teammates from dying and the team from losing. The rest of the team is trying to kill monsters and secure the win. The goalie and the tank have the same goal they just stand in different spots. To me it works better with hockey than American football.

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Maybe, but I come at this from a 1e perspective where the Fighter is supposed to be the main front-line damage-dealer as well as the defensive tank.

You are all talking about character roles. I think the player roles are more interesting...

Well you need a DM, then;

• The face, a player who facilitates group decisions
• The recluse, the player who only voices their opinion when forced to
• The joker, self explanatory!
• The edgelord, who always wants to be unique
• The analyst, whether character optimization or rules, you know this one!
• The mediator, let's all just get along, please?

Y'all are missing the only team that matters:

Eyes of Nine said:

Y'all are missing the only team that matters:

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That’s just A team.

I'm going to try this with volleyball. Have I ever played volleyball in a structured setting? No. Have I watched a lot of volleyball? No. Will any of this be accurate? Maybe. Will I defend my choices? Hard pass.

Setter: not surprisingly this position is in charge of setting up the offense and is a sort of defacto leader even if they aren't the captain. If things are going right you'll be doing a lot in all facets of the game. For players who want to drive the game in all pillars. Wizard, Bard, Cleric, Druid

Outside Hitter: you need someone who can consistently spike the ball. This is the closest to a rockstar in volleyball according to my friend who was an Outside Hitter in high school. For players that want to nova while still being pretty good in other areas. Paladin, Hexblade, Battlemaster, Rogue, Ranger, Monk.

Opposite Hitter: not as many responsibilities as the Outside Hitter. Apparently they are back line spiking specialists, which sounds difficult but the videos I watched of them are cool. For combat lovers that like to hit hard while hanging out in the back. One trick ponies go here, too. Sorcerer, Evocation Wizard, Monk, anyone with Sharpshooter.

Middle Blocker: they're tanks. A little bit of offense, but mostly they are there to play defense. Some people just want get in your face and not break under pressure. Those people are Middle Blockers. Barbarian, Paladins, EK, Cavalier, Moon Druids, Clerics

Libero: they wear a different jersey and are often running everywhere. Sort of a unique back line defensive specialist that sacrifices offense. They didn't get the memo that D&D has a damage meta and want to spend their time doing the other parts of the game well. Artificer, Divination/Abjuratiob Wizard, Clerics, Bards, Monks, Rogues.

Defensive Specialist/Serving Specialist: there may or may not be contention with using either of these as an actual position. More of a volleyball subclass than class if we're using 5e terms. This is for people who can't make it every session. They pop in and out as things go. Useful when they're there. DMs aren't building major story arcs with them in mind, though.

Most classes can be a number of different positions. I just listed good examples.

Fighter
Cleric
Wizard
Rogue - if you include out of combat

Everything else is just some variation of the above
Barbarian - Different Fighter
Bard - 40% Wizard 40% Cleric 20% Rogue
Druid - 80% Cleric 20% Wizard
Monk - Different Fighter
Paladin - 70% Fighter 30% Cleric
Ranger - 70% Fighter 30% Druid
Sorcerer - Different Wizard
Warlock - *Can be anything


I think it's important to note roles are not positions - although certain positions often have roles correlated to them.

Krachek said:

Team sure. The game assume collaboration between players, but also with the DM.
Sport? Competitive play is more a choice of play style.

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The game was never meant to be competitive DM vs players. The 1e DMG and Dragon magazine were full of warnings to avoid that style of play. The players weren’t meant to compete with the DM any more than players are meant to compete against the referee in football. It’s why the DM was called referee in the beginning.

DeviousQuail said:

I'm going to try this with volleyball. Have I ever played volleyball in a structured setting? No. Have I watched a lot of volleyball? No. Will any of this be accurate? Maybe. Will I defend my choices? Hard pass.

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I’m watching the ALCS and was going to go with Designated Hitter, “Fireballer”, “Swordstop” and such, but…

On a serious note

1. Frontline
2. Striker
3. Blaster
4. Healer
5. Support/Leader
6. Control
7. Investigator
8. Explorer
9. Utility
10. Negotiator

With the bolded being the combat positions.

Frontline, Striker, and Blaster are the damage roles. Frontline having a subfocus on defenses and being able to be targeted. Striker being focused on not being targeted via ranger or slipperiness. And Blaster having strong AOE to mop up mobs.

Healers heal and restore.
Support buffs.
Controls debuffs.

Eyes of Nine said:

Y'all are missing the only team that matters:

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But I can neither find them nor afford it...