A group of people formed up into a team, whose members are split along particular roles and possess skills which complement one another and contribute to the entire group in their own unique way. Many of the most common team roles are listed under
The Index Team. The Team may or may not have an actual name of its own.
Most importantly, the Team has to have
teamwork as its basic
modus operandi; that is, they would seek to tackle any problems that any of their group encounters
together, unless circumstances dictate otherwise (e.g. one of them has been ambushed while away from the others, or the problem involves participating in an official competition of one-on-one matches).
They can sometimes be a
Ragtag Bunch of Misfits. They may eventually become a
Fellowship Of True Companions, if they don't start as one in the first place.
If the team's membership is large enough, there may be two or more characters holding the same "role", though often in different ways; a team may for example have an
Omnidisciplinary Scientist-slash-
Gadgeteer Genius as the tech-savvy
Smart Guy and
The Strategist-slash-
The Chessmaster as the tactics/manipulation-savvy
Smart Guy. Likewise, you may have two Big Guys, each of whom has a distinct fighting style — e.g. one is the long-range heavy-weapons specialist with a mean haymaker if you come up close, the other is the
Big Freaking Sword-wielding close-quarters bruiser — or they're a
Battle Couple duo, with
the female half being possibly a case of
Cute Bruiser and/or
Muscles Are Meaningless (unless
Amazonian Beauty is in play), and their respective fighting styles follow some sort of a "masculine vs. feminine" contrast (and
not necessarily with the "right" sex)
This is the
Super Trope to
Power Trio,
Five-Man Band, and
Five-Bad Band. If it's a military group, it's
The Squad. If enough members are legitimately
Badass, it may also be a
Badass Crew. They can also be a
Dream Team. Compare and contrast
Band of Brothers. See also
Cast Calculus for typical breakdowns.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- The Z Fighters / The Earth's Special Forces of Dragon Ball - the team that kept on growing. Almost all of them started out as enemies and then became The Lancer and finally settled into a different role.
- Mahou Sensei Negima! starts it off in the Kyoto Arc by combining the original Battle Couple-and-mentor of Negi (The Leader), Asuna (The Lancer) and Chamo (The Mentor) with Setsuna (The Big Gal) and Nodoka (The Smart Gal). The group evolves over the Mahora Festival to include several others. By the time the Magic World Arc begins, the Team has reached over 10 people in membership.
- In Soul Eater, there is a complicated example. Maka's Resonance Link team consists of herself (The Hero and The Leader), Black Star (The Big Guy), and Death the Kid (Sixth Ranger, maybe with a bit of The Smart Guy as well). However, there are also their weapons, that all have their own roles. Soul is Maka's scythe, and is The Lancer. Tsubaki is Black Star's sword, and is The Heart. Liz and Patty are Kid's guns, and are The Chick and the Cute and Psycho one, respectively.
- The Sasuke Retrieval Team in Naruto truly fits the Rag Tag Bunch of Misfits type; it was cobbled together from four different three man teams to make one five man team. Shikamaru led the team because he was the only Chunin and The Strategist and brought along four people with unique fighting styles: Choji's meat tank, Kiba's combos with Akamaru, Neji's Gentle Fist and Naruto's shadow clones. The Plan was to work as a team but the Sound Four said You Shall Not Pass one by one until they were all fighting alone.
Film - Live-Action
- The Fellowship of the Ring in The Lord of the Rings, which was formed for the purpose of destroying the One Ring by going into the deepest parts of Mordor and casting it into the volcanic fires of Mount Doom, where it was originally forged.
Live-Action TV
- In Noob by Season 3, the Noob guild has six members, and goes through two notable temporary seventh ones.
- The show has an Ensemble Cast, but Artheon is the closest to the Five-Man Band definition of The Hero. All There in the Manual states that Fantom (temporary member) fills the Jack of All Stats aspect.
- Omega Zell is The Lancer to Arthéon.
- The Big Guy (and usually tank) role has Arthéon, Nazetrîme during her brief tenure, then Fantöm gets hired due to his capacity to fill the role despite the opportunity to show it never coming up afterwards.
- The Smart Guy (and usually the one who nukes), is shared by Gaea (mostly self-serving planning), Ivy (Gadgeteer Genius), Arthéon due to his background knowledge and Fantöm on select occasions.
- The Heart / The Chick role is shared by Sparadrap and Couette, who are also both (sort of) The Medic.
- The Sixth Ranger is naturally Golgotha, the closest thing the team has to a second permanent big guy. Couette, qualifies also with her sporadic presence and Ystos is somewhere between this and Big Brother Mentor.
Video Games
- Every one of the Suikoden games has it. 100% Completion requires having 108 characters on your team, a significant number of which are fighters, and using all their abilities to succeed in certain areas. Go ahead and try to divide them all up into classic character rolls.
Webcomics
- The Order of the Stick is a group of six adventurers and eventually two TeamPets. Some of the roles are distributed among several characters, notably by having two or three major damage-dealers and two people capable of outsmarting the leader.
