D&D Party Roles Does the Striker or DPS Role Really Exist

May 1, 2018

Our running D&D games without filling party roles series wraps up with the striker or DPS role. We’ve already covered Tanks, Healers, and Controllers. Now that we close in on the end of the series we can reflect on what it means to play without the striker role in the D&D party.

A paladin, ranger, rogue and warlock as seen in the fourth edition Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook. [Images in composite courtesy Wizards of the Coast]

Layeth the smack down in the D&D party

First off fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons is loaded with strikers and character classes that can pile on the damage. The obvious choices are rogue, ranger, paladin, and warlock.

Paladin is pretty straight forward — SMITE!
Hunter ranger archetype has features to add more damage dice. When you combine that with hunter’s mark you begin piling on the damage dice.
Rogue is a one-trick pony with sneak attack. The Assassin rogue archetype lets you pile on even more sneak attack damage. The only real variance will be melee or ranged attacks.
Warlock is an one-trick pony even more so. Hex, eldritch blast, rinse, repeat.

Slather on some damage with another character class

We’ve got the barbarian, fighter, and monk. Both the fighter and the monk get the most attacks in the game, and barbarians can just pile up the damage. The secret weapon to barbarian and fighter is two-handed weapons. This also applies to the paladin too.

Both fighter and paladin can benefit from the combination of the Great Weapon Fighting style and the Great Weapon Master feat. While the barbarian character class might not get a fighting style they do benefit greatly from the feat. Great Weapon Master combined with reckless attack means you are likely to hit.

All three of these would-be tanks can crush the damage especially at high levels. A +10 to damage per attack combined with the Battle Master’s superiority dice, the paladin’s smite, or the barbarians rage damage is just devastating. It really goes to show how D&D party roles really begin to blur the lines fifth edition D&D.

Has running D&D games with 5E completely obliterated the concept of party roles? I don’t think so. They just aren’t as relevant as they might have been before. I for one am glad. To be honest I’ve never put a ton of stock in them and have always encouraged players to play what they wanted, and not to worry about what character class another player was playing.

D&D Heavy Hitters Adventuring Without Them – Running D&D Games without Filling Party Roles

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