Fun and effective Support builds

[BobZan]

I love the role of support and I'm always trying different approaches. My party always start on Level 1, so I focus on characters that might live past that and be decent on lower levels. I try to make them "connect" early, with good progression.

If you have some interesting Support builds that 'connect' early or any advice to improve the ones I posted, comment bellow so we can discuss them.

I'm not saying these are the best, I just had some fun playing or theorizing them. I tend to be an optimizer, but I hate to play 't0' builds. I enjoy the role of versatile and different support characters.

Not complete builds, just it's basic approach. If you like any, I can expand it. Point buy.

The Generalist
V. Human - Crossbow Expert
Criminalist or Urchin BG
Bard 1 / Hexblade 2 / Lore Bard x
8 14 14 10 12 16
ASIs in Cha.

This build is not meant to be the best at anything, but decent at everything.

After Lv 2 you'll be able to use medium armor, shield and Eldritch Blast on melee (Crossbow Expert). You'll have Shield spell for added defenses. Decent damage progression via Eldritch Blast. Buffs and Debuffs via Inspiration, Cutting Words and Spells. A lot of skills, thieves tools, expertise. Party face. Get Counterspell as Magical Secret.

The Cleric of War
V. Human - Sharpshooter
Fighter 1/Cleric of War 6 -> Battlemaster 5/Cleric 9 -> Battlemaster 11
8 16 14 10 16 8
ASIs in Dex

This build is a combat heavy support. With high accuracy for sharpshooter and lots of fighting options.

Fighting Style: Archery -> Use a Longbow

Cleric of War will give bonus action attack wis/day. Level 6 gives 2 channel divinities/rest. Battlemaster get Precision.

Cleric 1 you have Bless to improve your party accuracy. Use Healing Word for combat.

Cleric 3 will get Spiritual Weapon, Prayer of Healing and Magic Weapon. Use Prayer of Healing for out of combat heals.

The Ranged Paladin
V. Human - Feats: Healer
Celestial Warlock - Pact of the Blade
8 16 14 10 12 14
ASIs in Dex.

Start with Light Crossbow, get a Longbow on level 3.

You'll have 1+Level d6 bonus action heal to keep your friends alive. With Healer feat you won't need to spend spells healing. After 5th level you'll have some nova damage.

So I was planning on doing a Fighter/War Cleric, based on Ranged weapons. It has nice precision and damage, due to Channel Divinity, Bless and BM Precision while being able to do Cleric stuff. Its idea was to be a fighting supportive character. It was nice and all, until I realized I could do pretty much it as a Sorcerer with cool addons.

Divine Soul Sorcerer gives you +2d4 to either attack or save/sr and you can go with Spiritual Weapon, Quicken Bless, Hold Person, Fireball, Twin Haste, all fun Sorcerer stuff while 'archering' around. What do you guys think? Progression bellow.

Archetype name: Archerer, Fighterer, Sorcher, Arcane Archer?

V. Human Feat: Sharpshooter

8 16 14 10 12 14

LV 1: Fighter 1 - FS: Archery, SW
Lv 2: Sorcerer 1 - Access to Bless, Divine Soul Ability +2d4 Attack or ST
Lv 4: Sorcerer 3 - Acess to Spiritual Weapon & Hold Person Metamagic: Quickened + Twinned or Heightened
Lv 5: Sorcerer 4 - ASI Dex
Lv 6: Sorcerer 5 - Acess to Haste, Fireball and Spirit Guardian
Lv 7: Fighter 2 - Action Surge
Lv 8: Fighter 3 - Battle Master: Precision, Goading, Distracting Strike
Lv 9: Fighter 4 - ASI Dex
Lv 10: Fighter 5 - Extra Attack
Lv 11: Fighter 6 - ASI Cha if you want more Sorcerer power, Martial adept for extra Precision/rest or Resilient Wis
Lv 13: Sorcerer 7 - Access to Death Ward, Greater Invisibility, Polymorph, Stoneskin, FoM
Lv 14: Sorcerer 8 - ASI Cha if you want more Sorcerer power, Martial adept for extra Precision/rest or Resilient Wis
Lv 15: Sorcerer 9 - Access to Holy Weapon, Raise Dead, Hold Monster
Lv 20: Fighter 11 - Extra Attack (2)



VHuman - Feat: Sentinel (Skill: Perception)
Background - Criminal (Skill: Deception, Stealth)

10 14 14 8 12 16

1st - Warlock 1 - Hexblade (Skill: Persuasion, Investigation)
Cantrips: Booming Blade, Eldritch Blast
Spells: Wrathful Smite, Hex

Go with Rapier, Medium Armor and Shield for AC 18 on 1st level.

2nd - Warlock 2 - Agnonizing Blast, Devils Sight
Spell: Shield

3rd - Warlock 3 - Pact of the Chain (Imp Familiar)
Spell: Darkness + Trade Cause Fear for Invisibility

4th - Rogue 1 - Expertise: Stealth, Perception - Sneak Attack 1d6 (Skill: Acrobatics)

5th - Rogue 2 - Cunning Action

6th - Rogue 3 - Arcane Trickster (Mage Hand Legerdemain)
Cantrips: Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Message
Spells: Alarm, Comprehend Languages, Identify

Ok, that's the basics of the build. How I see it flowing on the battlefield:

1- Use your Invisible Imp to Aid you, so your attacks are 'always' made with advatange. Use Booming Blade + Wrathful Smite + Sneak Attack (2d8+3d6+3). DC 14 Wis or Frightened.

Your opponent has some choices now: Dodge, Action to re-do the ability check, attack with disadvantage or move away with Dash or Disengage. It's good for you all the way. Landed a good hit and your opponent did at least a bad action. If he moves he takes 2d8 from Booming Blade and you can give an OA, sometimes will be sneak attack viable.

2- By 6th level you'll be able to cast Wrathful Smite 2/short + 2/long, about 6 to 8 times a day, so you won't be able SPAM it all day. No worries.

3- Use your Invisible Imp to Aid you, so your attack is made with advatange. Booming Blade + Sneak Attack + Cunning Action. Go in, strike, go out (or don't). Your hit will be very similar to the smite: (2d8+2d6+3)

4- Booming Blade + Sneak Attack + Hexblade's Curse

5- Booming Blade + Sneak Attack + Hex

6- Darkness + Eldritch Blast

7- Darkness on your sword and go in!

[Easy_Lee]

Ghost the Ghostwise Halfling Druid: Grassland. Pick a favored ally and hide in his backpack. Communicate via the Ghostwise Halfling Silent Speech, so no one can detect you.

Buff the ally with Longstrider and Haste: the two of you can move up to 240 feet in a round, 300 if he's a rogue or more if he's a monk.

Druids are excellent for support. You can summon creatures, heal, buff, enhance abilities, become a mount, scout ahead as an insect, anything you need to do. The only thing you aren't good at is DPR, unless you make extensive use of summons.

[nickl_2000]

The Rogue 2/ Battlemaster X Grappler strength based. You take expertise in athletics. Grapple your opponent, then on a turn when they are grappled you make a disarming attack to knock their weapon out of their hand and use your movement to drag them 15 feet away from it. They are grappled so they have no movement and can't get their weapon back. You have basically shut one opponent down completely.

In further rounds you can shove them prove and let the Rogue sneak attack at will on the person with advantage or do many other things. You aren't doing a huge amount of damage, but you can certainly change a battlefield quickly.

As you get higher level you can get more than one attack with the fighter levels and take shield master. So you take an attack action, use your bonus action to shove them to the ground, use your attack to disarm them at advantage, use your second attack to grapple them, and your movement to drag them prone towards the parties Rogue who can rain sneak attack fury on them.

[Hiro]

I've got a similar situation: I'm running a ranger 5/Cleric 2 build for support. does that work? with the Sharpshooter and Mobile feats

[Easy_Lee]

I've got a similar situation: I'm running a ranger 5/Cleric 2 build for support. does that work? with the Sharpshooter and Mobile feats

It should work fine, especially with War Cleric for bonus action attacks.

[BobZan]

I've got a similar situation: I'm running a ranger 5/Cleric 2 build for support. does that work? with the Sharpshooter and Mobile feats

What Ranger and Cleric archetypes??

It should work fine, Rangers are 1/2 casters, your spellcasting progression will be fine, while on martial duty.

[Spacehamster]

Ghost the Ghostwise Halfling Druid: Grassland. Pick a favored ally and hide in his backpack. Communicate via the Ghostwise Halfling Silent Speech, so no one can detect you.

Buff the ally with Longstrider and Haste: the two of you can move up to 240 feet in a round, 300 if he's a rogue or more if he's a monk.

Druids are excellent for support. You can summon creatures, heal, buff, enhance abilities, become a mount, scout ahead as an insect, anything you need to do. The only thing you aren't good at is DPR, unless you make extensive use of summons.

Haha this is such an awesome idea! 😂

[Easy_Lee]

Haha this is such an awesome idea! 😂

Thanks. In case you try it, the two big weaknesses are aoe and stealth. Even if you don't move or speak, some DMs will require you to make a hide check if your friend is trying to stealth. Pass Without Trace and Absorb Elements, if you have access to it, are good contingencies.