Five-Man Band/Literature

The Five-Man Band is a group of characters whose members fall into archetypes which all complement one another. They are a very specific team with skills that contribute to the group in a unique way. Here are some places where the trope occurs in literature:

* Note: Gunnar is probably as qualified, if not moreso to be The Chick as Spite, despite him being male and physically the largest member of the band. He the extremely placid voice of reason throughout the second half of the series, and although spite is tiny and female, she's the most violent and aggressive character in the entire book. She single-handedly takes out a creature large enough to swallow whole elephants. These two are a complete inversion of whole Five Man Band whereas Sinai and Jacyl play it completely straight.

or

* Varies A Lot: Despite the later novels being considerably more Vimes-centered than Carrot-centered, Vimes remains a classic Lancer in terms of character archetype.

* Note: If anyone is to be shoehorned into being The Chick, it's either Anathema or possibly Pepper's younger sister. Both are enough of a stretch that it's probably best just to consider the role to be left vacant.

* Note: It could be argued that Journey to the West effectively created this trope (literally; written in 1590, this is one of the earliest and best examples of a Five-Man Band), though this depends on the publication date of Le Morte Darthur (possibly 1485). However, none of the characters are any one archetype, either (except the horse, which subsequent authors have all but forgotten); in a strange twist of the trope, for example, the monk Xuangzang, while still being The Hero by default, also falls under the trope of The Chick, because he's, well, the downright perfect example of it - down to his propensity to be captured or put into danger more often than Lois Lane and Mary-Jane Watson combined (seriously; what self-respecting hero needs to be saved from certain death by The Lancer in over 60 chapters of a 100 chapter epic!?)

The Arthurian legends (Le Morte Darthur) have two:

* Note: Vizzini would have been The Smart Guy if he had made the Heel Face Turn along with Fezzik and Inigo. He lost any possibility of being The Smart Guy when he said, "I accept." Brains are not worth dying over.

The Railway Series (Thomas the Tank Engine)

{| class="wikitable" Spiran och staven (The Sceptre and the Quarterstaff)
 * The Hero||Räven (Fox)
 * The Lancer||Eldfågel (Firebird)
 * The Big Guy||Leontas
 * The Smart Guy||Umbra
 * The Chick||Stormfödd (Storm-born) -- well, he is no more mister Nice-Guy when Umbra gets threatened.
 * The Big Guy||Leontas
 * The Smart Guy||Umbra
 * The Chick||Stormfödd (Storm-born) -- well, he is no more mister Nice-Guy when Umbra gets threatened.
 * The Chick||Stormfödd (Storm-born) -- well, he is no more mister Nice-Guy when Umbra gets threatened.
 * The Chick||Stormfödd (Storm-born) -- well, he is no more mister Nice-Guy when Umbra gets threatened.