There's a lot of discussion around how/ whether casters outpace martial classes in combat, but in my game I've actually noticed the gap more in investigation, social, and stealth encounters. Some bullet points to support this:
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Investigation, Perception, Insight, History, Knowledge, Religion, and Arcana are all Int or Wisdom based skills. Monks may be good at the wisdom skills, but aside from that no martial class has any reason to invest in these skills. The same applies to Cha-based skills. I try to let players roll others skills as knowledge skills in the proper context (rolling Athletics to tell if someone is bluffing about his combat ability, for example) but mental stats are still overrepresented.
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Most class abilities (for all classes, but especially martial classes) only come into play in combat. Those that don't ( like tongue of the sun and moon) are highly situational. However, there are many spells that offer massive benefits outside of combat. Martial classes only have access to class abilities and feats, not spells, limiting their specific non-combat utility.
An example from my game: My 6th-level party wanted to rescue some captive children from a hobgoblin camp. The Wizard cast Feign Death on herself so the party could exchange her corpse for some captives. The Cleric used Pass Without Trace, Blessing of the Trickster, and Disguise Self to get herself and the Open Hand Monk inside the camp. This left the Battle master Fighter with 9 Charisma to negotiate the exchange of the Wizard's body. Thus the Monk and the Fighter contributed significantly less to the success of the plan, and the Fighter was actively doing something she wasn't good at.
Now, my players are all having fun, and they're pretty good about trying to pass the spotlight around. But I can't help but wonder if there's a way to either:
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Allow the Fighter and Monk to use their unique abilities more actively in non-combat encounters (like maybe there are skill or ability uses I'm missing?)
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Better design non-combat encounters to offer clear roles for these characters to excel in
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Encourage my players to make different plans that rely less on casters and more on the martial party members.
If you've encountered similar issues in your games, how have you addressed them? I'd prefer solutions that don't involve encouraging the martials to pursue a certain build, since I think they're already playing the characters they want to play. Giving them magic items is on the table, but not ideal.
Best Answer
Make non combat encounters rely on combat rolls.
This is my normal method to make visiting combat monsters interesting. Players have mostly enjoyed it. When a combat character arrives to meet other characters I have them admire the combat character's weapon, want to duel them, challenge them to a contest of a weapon, or challenge them to some great feat of strength.
I normally make it so that their combat abilities grant them increased presence in negotiations. For example, the hobgoblins might be very impressed with how the fighter killed a giant in the previous adventure, and an arrogant young master who is a level 1 power monster wants to duel them. They'll give them some of what they want if they do it, and more if the fighter can use their combat abilities to sway them.
Don't require charisma unless the fighter asks for something beyond normal negotiation.
A lot of DMs require charisma based rolls whenever something social happens. This tends to punish non charisma people. I personally only require them when someone pushes beyond normal negotiation.
For example, suppose the hobgoblins offer them 2 children for the practice duel. If the fighter promises to channel the spirit of the giant and give a really impressive showing (using action surge to look badass), that might get them more without any rolls. They only need to roll if they ask for more children without offering more rewards.
For monks, leverage their ability to fight unarmed a lot.
Most people need weapons to be useful in a fight. For infiltration and stealth, monks are great as they don't need weapons.
The cleric used disguise self, so presumably other hobgoblins saw them and thought they were hobgoblins?
What about their weapons? If someone chances upon them and harasses them, perhaps to extract some easy coin from these newcomers they can't really draw their clearly not hobgoblin made weapons and use them, or people will spot them. They'll need to go unarmed, or not draw weapons. The monk can handle this hobgoblin harassing them and prevent their disguise from being broken.
Include physical situations in non combat roleplays.
I often include athletics or other things in non combat scenarios. For example, suppose there is a wall around the hobgoblin camp. The monk can get them over easily with athletics. The wizard is likely weak, and would fail to climb it. The hobgoblins might close their door to the fighter, and only someone strong can shove it open.
This lets them use their abilities in such scenarios to get an advantage.