Has anyone just ran mono-class parties against different challenge rating encounters to see how well they performed?

I honestly feel that would be real fun, create a dungeon with the same challenge of traps, monsters, and puzzles, and let your party of 4 wizards figure it out.

Then try 4 fighters,

And so on.

Well I would consider doing it if I was play testing content...

But it seems like a lot of work otherwise...

I agree. But I would love to play in a campaign where everyone was in the same military unit, members of the same thieves guild, sailors on the same ship, students at the same school, acolytes at the same temple, etc..

Consider that some classes are a lot more versatile than others.

A fighter is always going to be a damage dealer, but a Wiz can focus on protection, damage, save-or-sucks, manipulation and a variety of other various different effects. Likewise, a Paladin will always be damage focused, but you can have a Cleric be a battle cleric, a healbot, etc.

Casters have a lot more versatility than damage dealers, who make up for their static capabilities oftentimes with bigger numbers. It complicates the comparisons a great deal. You'd need a lot of testing to get a fair "power level" comparison. I imagine battlers will generally be better, but versatile casters will have a lot more ability against special and boss monsters.

Quote from MelodicCodes >>

Consider that some classes are a lot more versatile than others.

A fighter is always going to be a damage dealer, but a Wiz can focus on protection, damage, save-or-sucks, manipulation and a variety of other various different effects. Likewise, a Paladin will always be damage focused, but you can have a Cleric be a battle cleric, a healbot, etc.

Casters have a lot more versatility than damage dealers, who make up for their static capabilities oftentimes with bigger numbers. It complicates the comparisons a great deal. You'd need a lot of testing to get a fair "power level" comparison. I imagine battlers will generally be better, but versatile casters will have a lot more ability against special and boss monsters.

 Indeed!

And I was wondering if it would be fun to roll NPCs this way and just get a feel for how they actually do in combat.

For instance, a game I'm in now, we've had only about one large battle each week. So not much experience, compared to if you just grind out NPC match-ups a couple times before each session starts.

Have played in short campaigns like this in the past. The real key is for the DM to just take into account what capabilities are missing. For example, a party of fighters should face fewer locked doors, 'unscalable' cliff faces, dimensional portals they have to activate, etc. Not 'none' of those things, but fewer. A party of wizards should be tailored with somewhat fewer melee instances they are forced into--make those the big challenges, right?

It's kind of cool thematically. A group of wizard initiates has to journey to rescue their imprisoned master--and without allowing PvP, you can throw in a bit of "and prove who's the most worthy along the way" elements.

If you go with all fighter types, you can introduce rank--they're a military unit, so one of them is in charge. She's got her LT's, they have their sergeants, etc. Very different dynamic from most parties. 

Or a party of all assassins, but they are all disguised as other classes, even to each other. So each player thinks "I'm the hidden assassin in the group!" LOL

Quote from Brotherbock >>

Or a party of all assassins, but they are all disguised as other classes, even to each other. So each player thinks "I'm the hidden assassin in the group!" LOL

I love this!  It's evil and awesome!!

Quote from Tim >>

Quote from Brotherbock >>

Or a party of all assassins, but they are all disguised as other classes, even to each other. So each player thinks "I'm the hidden assassin in the group!" LOL

I love this!  It's evil and awesome!!

I've thought about running a big LARP at GenCon similar to this. Call it 'Pirates vs Ninjas'. Everyone thinks everyone else is a pirate, but they each know that they themselves are secretly a ninja. 

I think some mono-class parties would be harder. But if you could get 4 level 5 clerics or bards to run basically any party. But that is mostly because those two classes can basically be anything.

Quote from mouse0270 >>

I think some mono-class parties would be harder. But if you could get 4 level 5 clerics or bards to run basically any party. But that is mostly because those two classes can basically be anything.

Mono-subclass would definitely be hard. And Ranger, Monk, Warlock, the less versatile classes would present a few more challenges. But imo, the subclasses/pacts/schools/etc really make each class pretty varied in 5e. A party of Monks will have Open Hand, Shadow, and Four Elements just from PHB, add in the three from XGE and you've got a pretty varied party there. Warlock always seems more limited, but with PHB and XGE you have 3 pacts x 5 patrons for 15 different combinations. A party of 6 can have 2 Blades for melee, 2 tones who can divide between combat and utility, and 2 chains who can provide utility, stealth, etc. 

In fact, a party of Monks would force me to run a Shaw Brothers Kung-Fu film campaign, which would be nothing short of awesome. 

If you're doing an accurate party where every member is from the same monastery, all of the monks should be the same school and they might have one member of the party who's a different class.  A party of clerics would all worship the same god/goddess, which would limit them to only a couple of domains.  A party who all belong to the same thieve's guild or who are all sailors on the same ship would probably be the most flexible in terms of the variety of different classes if you're focusing on lore and role playing.

Quote from Tim >>

If you're doing an accurate party where every member is from the same monastery, all of the monks should be the same school and they might have one member of the party who's a different class.  A party of clerics would all worship the same god/goddess, which would limit them to only a couple of domains. 

That's one way to go. But there's nothing stopping a given Monestary from having its members train in different disciplines. If you look at the fiction, like the classic Shaw Brothers movies I mentioned, there are movies like Shaolin Temple or The 36th Chamber of Shaolin where single temples are shown training lots of monks in various disciplines. It's easy enough to say a single temple trains their people as befits their nature and talents--you are connected to the elements, you are connected to shadows, etc. 

For clerics, it would depend on your pantheon. Plenty of pantheons have gods like "BigGod is the god of thieves, sailors, health, and the rising sun"--often seemingly arbitrary combinations. But that one alone could give you 5 or 6 plausible domains.