Best (Low Key) Support character

[tieren]

I have an opportunity to play in a group with my son and a bunch of his friends. They don't have as much experience with the game as I do, but I am really excited for the opportunity to play at a real table again (as opposed to the forums).

That said I don't want to hog the spotlight or optimize in a way that would overshadow the new players. I really want to mainly support the party without a lot of fanfare so I can help them feel more heroic. I don't want to get killing blows or cast flashy fireballs or things, I want to cast bless, and take help actions to give advantage, etc...

I know bards are great support characters, but I don't want to become the face and hog that spotlight either, I really want to fade into the background, to be there and helpful, but more like a Robin than a Batman.

I've never played a cleric, but that is seeming like the way to go. I don't know which domains would be the most supportive without drawing too much attention. For example I don't want to go war and end up a GWM face smasher.

Any ideas?

[Beechgnome]

If you are just working from the Player's Handbook, then Life is a solid choice. Good party buffs and extreme healing will always be welcomed.

However, if you have or can get a hold of Xanathar's Guide to Everything, then Grave Cleric has a tonne to offer a support player... Spare the Dying as a bonus action and the 6th level ability to turn critical hits into regular hits will save your teammates bacon and feel good at the table, and your Channel ability will let your damage dealers land awesome killing blows, which they will welcome.

[Renvir]

It's hard to go wrong with Cleric in your situation. The Guidance cantrip is great. Spells like Bless or Warding Bond will also make you popular but leave the flashy things to the others. As for domain, I'd suggest Knowledge, Light, or Life. Life is just more healing but with a new party that might be necessary. Light will allow you to interfere with enemy attacks with its Flare ability. Knowledge is probably the most low key because it allows you to fill gaps as necessary with skill expertise and their channel divinity powers.

Some other options are Bard (any subclass), Mastermind for bonus action help, Sorcerer for twin buffs, and Abjurer or Diviner general support.

[Unoriginal]

Celestial Warlock, maybe?

[KorvinStarmast]

I have an opportunity to play in a group with my son and a bunch of his friends. They don't have as much experience with the game as I do, but I am really excited for the opportunity to play at a real table again (as opposed to the forums).

That said I don't want to hog the spotlight or optimize in a way that would overshadow the new players. I really want to mainly support the party without a lot of fanfare so I can help them feel more heroic. I don't want to get killing blows or cast flashy fireballs or things, I want to cast bless, and take help actions to give advantage, etc...

I know bards are great support characters, but I don't want to become the face and hog that spotlight either, I really want to fade into the background, to be there and helpful, but more like a Robin than a Batman.

I've never played a cleric, but that is seeming like the way to go. I don't know which domains would be the most supportive without drawing too much attention. For example I don't want to go war and end up a GWM face smasher.

Any ideas?
Take a look at one of the Land Druid choices and see how it fits your needs.
Full spell caster
Can sometimes take beats shape to help with a variety of things.
Plenty of support spells.

Or a cleric, as above.

Best wishes, and I totally concur with your idea to play supporting role for the kids.
(When I play the now and again WoW game with my son and his friends, I tend to be the healer in the instance ...)

[twomp01]

It might be worth it to look at the Grave Domain Cleric from Xanathar's Guide to Everything. You can use you channel divinity to increase your allies' damage and you're better than most clerics at healing and stabilizing them.

[tieren]

I considered knowledge cleric, but I don't want to always be the guy with the answers, I want them to have the fun of figuring things out. (fighting my natural tendencies since I will probably actually know more and want to tell them).

Life cleric seems the obvious choice, but healing doesn't seem to be as critical of a specialized role this edition that if I was strictly focused on it I don't know if I would enjoy it or I would be the most helpful.

I like land druid for some control to aid the party, but then I miss some of the best cleric buffs (like Bless).

In terms of what appeals to me I am really interested in Trickery Cleric, but every guide I see appears to hate it.

[Aett_Thorn]

I considered knowledge cleric, but I don't want to always be the guy with the answers, I want them to have the fun of figuring things out. (fighting my natural tendencies since I will probably actually know more and want to tell them).

Life cleric seems the obvious choice, but healing doesn't seem to be as critical of a specialized role this edition that if I was strictly focused on it I don't know if I would enjoy it or I would be the most helpful.

I like land druid for some control to aid the party, but then I miss some of the best cleric buffs (like Bless).

In terms of what appeals to me I am really interested in Trickery Cleric, but every guide I see appears to hate it.

Trickery Cleric is bad from an optimizing standpoint, but for what you're looking for, it'll probably be good. You can buff the sneaky guy, and have quite a few good party buffs. Going Wood Elf would at least get you Longbow Proficiency which would allow you to make better use of the Divine Strike ability.

[mephnick]

I second Land Druid. Faerie Fire and the like are perfect. It will also give you a good chance to show the new players that the game isn't just damage, but how control and field manipulation can make everyone better. I think you can still be low-key, but it has more interesting mechanical effects than simple buffing and dice manipulation.

[Laserlight]

I have a gnome Knowledge cleric 1 / diviner wizard X and he's been quite helpful although (aside from Fireball) he's never done any significant damage. Bless and Guidance. I've saved our barbarian a couple of times with Sancturary and Life Transference. And Portents--the party rogue loves it when I tell him "On your sneak attack, you crit" and the tempest cleric knows that when she casts Banish, I'm likely to chime in "And the monster's saving throw is a 5."

And they're delighted when I say "That giant is giving us problems, so....Sean, you're a T Rex."

If I were playing this character with kids, when I cast Fireball I'd say "I can't see past all you Big Folk! Where should I put this Fireball?" and let them select the target point.

[the secret fire]

You might want to consider some other options:

- Monks, especially of the Open Hand, are actually strangely good as "support" type characters for other melee fighters. They don't do a ton of damage themselves, but are good at creating effects (stun, prone, removing reaction attacks, etc.) on enemies which allow the other characters in the party to shine.

- Three levels of Fighter to get Battlemaster can have the same effect. If you want to go full support as a Battlemaster, take the Commander's Strike, Distracting Strike, Maneuvering Attack, and Rally maneuvers.

- Druids (though not Mood Druids) can also make excellent support casters if you don't feel like playing a Cleric and don't want to hog the spotlight as a Bard. They get healing, and lots of battlefield control/utility spells, while doing little direct damage.

- although not often talked about as support characters, Warlocks can also fill this role quite well. Archfey Warlocks get excellent controller-type spells (Faerie Fire, Calm Emotions, Plant Growth) which help the whole party. GOO Warlocks can also be excellent in a support role, with telepathy. Invocations taken might include Repelling Blast (for a bit of battlefield control pushing), Eldritch Sight (free always-on Detect Magic), Eyes of the Rune Keeper (read all languages) and Misty Visions (at-will Silent Image).

Clerics are a great way to go for a support character, but there's more than one way to skin a cat.

[The Glyphstone]

The best Loki support character definitely sounds like a Trickery Cleric.

...

What?:smallcool:

[Derpldorf]

Trickery is... well, it can be great fun in a role play standpoint its just... a lot of what you can do with it you can do better with other domains, and what it can do uniquely isn't as useful either.

Personally i would go Arcane for a supporter cleric. Wizard has some nice support spells and the ability to get them as a cleric is really nice. It can temporarily banish a good selection of enemy types and let you deal with them later. All on top of the usual cleric shenanigans.

[Beechgnome]

I considered knowledge cleric, but I don't want to always be the guy with the answers, I want them to have the fun of figuring things out. (fighting my natural tendencies since I will probably actually know more and want to tell them).

Life cleric seems the obvious choice, but healing doesn't seem to be as critical of a specialized role this edition that if I was strictly focused on it I don't know if I would enjoy it or I would be the most helpful.

I like land druid for some control to aid the party, but then I miss some of the best cleric buffs (like Bless).

In terms of what appeals to me I am really interested in Trickery Cleric, but every guide I see appears to hate it.

I'd say if you want to do Trickery, go for it.

Rogues will love your blessings, and channel duplicity can be all sorts of fun. One thing I've enjoyed is taking the Magic Initiate feat and selecting find familiar, and then using invoke duplicity to make another me. Now my Cleric, his duplicate and the familiar can all go into the fray in different directions and I can cast a touch spell from Any of them. Great for when you need to get close to a big bad and inflict wounds or bestow curse or help out an ally with sanctuary or revivify. It's like when they split of the Enterprise against the Borg.

[BobZan]

Celestial Warlock bladelock with a bow and the healer feat.

You do sub-optimal damage as intended, you heal a lot.

--

You could consider someone with vast knowledge to help enlighten them too. Something like a very wise hill dwarf knowledge cleric could be a nice character to play along.

[Vaz]

Mastermind Rogue. It's essentially proxy-DMPC if you want. You provide a mouthpiece for the DM to provide hints to the party if they get stuck. You know multiple languages, have multiple kit proficiencies, 30ft Help Actions, as well as knowing background actions.

The one downside is that other players might feel you're able to dominate thanks to doing immense spike damage with your attack.

[Unoriginal]

Celestial Warlock bladelock with a bow and the healer feat.

You do sub-optimal damage as intended, you heal a lot.

--

You could consider someone with vast knowledge to help enlighten them too. Something like a very wise hill dwarf knowledge cleric could be a nice character to play along.

Why not go Tome or Chain? You get a lot of support options

[Mhl7]

Cleric 1/ Druid X.

You will have a ton of option for support, like literally everything you can come up with, especially if you choose the right subclasses.

Life cleric is not good because it heals all the time, but because he heals just a few times, but when he does, he heals for good.

Shepherd druid are very good support options.

With this build you can keep your party going for dozens of rounds, they will never be unconscious as long as you are not unconscious.

- The BBEG downs the whole party with a fireball? let me cast a unicorn spirit+cure wounds, now they are all back on their feet.
- Your party needs to strike a high armor guy? let me add 1d4 to all of their attacks.
- Your companions like to critical hits and sneak attacks? Here, have permanent advantage with faerie fire.
- The evil wizard can fly? You can keep up riding your swarm of 8 giant bats.
- Run out of meat shields? Did I mention that those bats have 30Hp each (shepherd) for a total of 240Hp?
- Need to strike hard a single target? Surround him with 8 Giant Poisonous Snakes for a total of 16x8=128 damages.
- Need to get rid of a band of mooks? Those snakes can also attack 8 different targets, you know?
- Cross a river? Water walk.
- Underwater adventure? Water Breathing.
- Magic? Dispel it.
- Need a scout? Here, let me turn in to a mouse and have a look ahead.
- A hoard of zombies is approaching? With Spike Growth they will be dead for real before the reach you.
- This house is on fire, we need to get water from the river.. Nevermind, it is raining know.

Will your DM hate you? Definitely. Will your party members love you? Absolutely!

[Protato]

Dream Druids are neat, you can debuff (and in turn boost your party) with spells like Faerie Fire and Entangle, and while you do damage, it's not as likely to kill enemies because of the relative lack of burst damage. Dreams lets you heal people on a bonus action and give temp HP to the party, you can teleport people out of trouble (or enemies into trouble) on a touch, and makes resting safer. Cantrips, you have things like Guidance, Thorn Whip (pulls enemies closer to the party, allowing your melee characters to do more damage), and Produce Flame (don't need to worry about torches or candles as much). Overall, while it might not quite be what you're looking for, it's a potentially helpful class to play, I'd give it a look-over at any rate. I also hear good things about the Shepherd Druid but I haven't played one, myself.

[Mortis_Elrod]

Not sure if it available for you to use, but might I suggest Artificer Alchemist with maybe magic initiate Cleric or Druid for healing spells and guidance cantrip.


You’ll do ok damage, offer magic items, have some nice support options with healing elixir and other goodies, as well as decent battlefield control. Plus you’ll be super good with tools so use that to make potions (Xans has the rules on that ) during downtime. You also get a free mechanical pet.

I know the class is subpar but it might be a good test to see if it can function as your support. Free magic items is pretty nice as a support skill even if they are only ok

[tieren]

Cleric 1/ Druid X.

You will have a ton of option for support, like literally everything you can come up with, especially if you choose the right subclasses.

Life cleric is not good because it heals all the time, but because he heals just a few times, but when he does, he heals for good.

Shepherd druid are very good support options.

With this build you can keep your party going for dozens of rounds, they will never be unconscious as long as you are not unconscious.

- The BBEG downs the whole party with a fireball? let me cast a unicorn spirit+cure wounds, now they are all back on their feet.
- Your party needs to strike a high armor guy? let me add 1d4 to all of their attacks.
- Your companions like to critical hits and sneak attacks? Here, have permanent advantage with faerie fire.
- The evil wizard can fly? You can keep up riding your swarm of 8 giant bats.
- Run out of meat shields? Did I mention that those bats have 30Hp each (shepherd) for a total of 240Hp?
- Need to strike hard a single target? Surround him with 8 Giant Poisonous Snakes for a total of 16x8=128 damages.
- Need to get rid of a band of mooks? Those snakes can also attack 8 different targets, you know?
- Cross a river? Water walk.
- Underwater adventure? Water Breathing.
- Magic? Dispel it.
- Need a scout? Here, let me turn in to a mouse and have a look ahead.
- A hoard of zombies is approaching? With Spike Growth they will be dead for real before the reach you.
- This house is on fire, we need to get water from the river.. Nevermind, it is raining know.

Will your DM hate you? Definitely. Will your party members love you? Absolutely!

As a regular player I would love having all those options and supporting a party that way.

However, I don't want to be the one with the solution to every problem in this game, I want to support the kids coming up with and executing the solutions. That's the low key part. I don't want the reaction to every obstacle to be "what do you have this time Dad?". I'd rather give the stealth bonus to a rogue than sneak ahead as a mouse. I'd rather buff the fighter than take out the threats myself, etc...

I love the idea of the Shepherd druid, but particularly for this game I'd be worried the minion-mancy would take up too much table time and draw too much attention to my turns.

[mephnick]

he Shepherd druid, but particularly for this game I'd be worried the minion-mancy would take up too much table time and draw too much attention to my turns.

Yeah, I'd definitely steer clear of Shepherd. Even as a veteran player I feel overshadowed when the Druid summons 4 tanks that rush passed me.

[Strangways]

Cleric (especially life Cleric) is probably the more capable healer, but Druid is more than capable in the healing department and has more tools to make your players feel awesome. Specificially, Druid probably has the best set of crowd control spells in the game (only the Wizard competes, and they can’t heal). Your Faerie Fire will make it easier for the party to hit their enemies (and make critical hits more likely). Your Entangle will do that too, plus make it easier to divide and defeat groups of opponents. You can’t really go wrong with either class, but as a Druid (either Land or Dreams), you’ll have a lot of ways to make your party members feel like epic warriors. I’d pass on Moon Druid - it’s all about fighting in beast form, and Shepherd - hordes of beasts strain the action economy and risk overshadowing the others in the group.

[Strangways]

I’d also mention, similar to what others have said, that Life Cleric is your strongest Cleric healer, Grave Cleric is also very strong in that department, Dreams is the best Druid healer, and Land has the most spell-casting output. If you go Land, pick the Land Circle that you think is most likely to have spells useful in your campaign setting.

[Nidgit]

Haven't seen enough love for Divine Soul Sorcerer here. Twinned or Quickened heals and buffs? Sounds like a pretty awesome support subclass to me. Other Sorcerer subclasses work too but none are quite as team-oriented.

Other than that any Cleric or a Land/Dreams Druid both make excellent supporters. You could also take a look at Redemption Paladin if you're feeling especially oxymoronic.

[Mitchellnotes]

Sorc would be good as a full caster while limiting the "toolbox" feel.

The problem with any full caster is that just due to the virtue of spells, its always going to have some flash. If the group needed more of a tank, you could do a conquest pally/feylock. The idea of this build would be to capitalize on the frightened condition. Frightened isnt flashy, its just disadvantage on attacks, skills, and they cant move towards you, but, that could end up being a solid all round boost.

Now, fully optimized, a pal/lock could be capable of very serious swingy spike damage. To avoid this, the focus on this build would be to stay at a slight range and eldritch blast. EB does good, steady damage, but is also far from flashy.

So for the build, go lightheart halfling with stats of 13, 14 (12+2), 14, 8, 10, 16 (15+1), and start with paladin 1. Second level, pick up warlock with the archfey pact. Now your eldritch blast is up and running, youve got some spell slots (cause fear and faerie fire could be a good pickups here), and you have 1/short rest area fear. Levels 3-9, go up to paladin 8, going with paladin of conquest. Stick with medium armor and a shield, and you could pick up the protector style or defender. Protector gives another way to boost your allies in a subtle way, and find steed is going to be great. You also get another short rest area fear, bonuses to saves, more slots for spells, and wrathful smite (good option for fear, but mind lower attack stats). Level 8 makes your fears give enemies 0 movement. After this, boost warlock for more options.

While fear is not overly powerful, you can use it to do some wild and fun things. With your mount, you get extra movement so you can "herd" enemies, keeping the away from soft targets or pushing the towards your melee, while still being able to EB, or boost allies.

What you end up with is a halfling, riding a goat or wolf (maybe refluffed to a dire corgi?), herding enemies around the battlefield, giving bonuses to saves, boosts to allies, advantage or disadvantage. ASIs you can pick up +2 to charisma, shield mastery, sentinel,mounted combat or anything else.

This gives lots of roleplaying options, too. Playing it straight, a fey-influenced halfling striking fear and discord, or goofy as a halfling, riding a dog and scaring people....somehow.

There are a lot of options here, even later on you could go chain or tome for more support options (dissonant whispers, great familiar), lick up other control options (lots of positioning choices with invocations), or more.

Also, if you do start picking up more limelight than you want, the DM could throw in a few fear immune creatures. You still have options, but give othrs a chance to shine.

[lperkins2]

So, one of the most fun characters I ever played was a 11 CHA bard. It was an interesting challenge to find spells worth taking, which have neither to-hit rolls, nor an important save (I took heat metal, since the save is only to force a creature to drop a held metal object, since they take more damage by choosing not to drop it, I don't see that as a bad thing). I also took healing word, basically as a ranged spare the dying, since 1d4+0 hp is pitiful. For offence, I used a bow, and had a halfway decent dex score (14).

The point to all this is 5e makes it hard to create a character that is bad at everything, so you can make some rather interesting support characters without fear of being useless. If you play a caster, and don't maximize your casting stat, you won't end up just another blaster/control caster. If you don't maximize your charisma, and don't take perform/persuade, et cetera, you won't be the party face, even if you are a sorcerer or bard.

I would recommend bard, just because jack of all trades gets you someone in the party that has at worst a +0 for everything, so you can fill in anything that is seriously missing. Enhance ability (str) lets you grapple insanely well, even without an amazing strength score, or lets the party fighter grapple even better. Having someone with feather fall and what not, while extremely situational, can make for some amazing escapes and escapades.

[Ogre Mage]

Optimal choices for this would be --

1. Life Domain Cleric is the most obvious choice.

2. Circle of the Land Druid. I strongly recommend grassland as invisibility and haste are strong spells druids normally don't have access to.

3. Divine Soul Sorcerer with cure wounds, twin spell metamagic and a lot of buff spells.

4. Wizard. Abjuration and Divination schools are strong options which do well filling in a supportive role.

[MxKit]

Wizards actually make really great support characters; you can have a few blastery spells and a few attack cantrips so you're not totally useless in a fight/can back up the party in that way too if they really need it, but for the most part you can focus on buffing, debuffing, and battlefield control. Make it easier for your teammates to hit things, including in ways that they won't immediately register as you being awesome (like casting a wall spell to split up a group of enemies). Divination is imo the best school for this one, especially since casting a ton of divination spells (which you'll be able to do, with your Expert Divination feature) can both provide utility and open up some neat story stuff. You can make your teammates and the DM love you! Wizard is also useful in that your highest stat will be Intelligence, which, unless the party already has a Wizard, is likely to be a stat that the other players will like having someone else be an expert in.

As mentioned, Druids are also great support characters; their spell list is greatly geared toward battlefield control, buffing, and debuffing. I agree that Land Druid and Dreams Druid would be your best bets for this one; Dreams gives you a slight Wizard-y flavor without being a Wizard (basically Leomund's tiny hut, and also some cool "opens up neat story stuff" divination magic) and lets you do some healing, and Grassland Druids get access to some great spells, as mentioned. And like Intelligence, Wisdom is a great stat to have high without it really making you seem overpowered to the party, and will again be appreciated if no one else really put a lot of points into it. (Insight, especially, is a skill that can make you very Robin-y, backing up the Batman that is, in this case, the Party Face.)

Also, the secret fire is 100% right—Warlocks make amazing support characters! Yes, you'll have at least decently high Charisma, but so long as anyone else in the party does as well you don't have to be the party face; you can back them up sometimes, however (again, being the Robin to their Batman, as you said). The Archfey and the Great Old One patrons are good picks for reasons already listed, but the Celestial is great too, giving you some healing abilities. I'd actually focus first on eldritch blast-affecting Invocations—not Agonizing Blast, but instead Repelling Blast, Lance of Lethargy, and Grasp of Hadar, for a full suite of battlefield control. I'd say the other Invocations that most fit your concept are Beast Speech, Eldritch Sight, Eyes of the Rune Keeper, Visions of Distant Realms, Witch Sight, potentially Aspect of the Moon, potentially Ghostly Gaze, Gift of the Depths, potentially Gift of the Ever-Living Ones, and Shroud of Shadow.

Finally, I do want to bring up the Mastermind Rogue. It is an option for you, since you can take the Help action as a bonus action and against any enemy within 30 feet of you, and your fellow players will love that! Rogues are, however, intrinsically kind of flashy with their Sneak Attack damage! What you might want to do, though, if multiclassing is an option for you... is multiclass. Pick a multiclass you normally wouldn't go with otherwise, if you were actually optimizing the character! Having 3-6 levels of Mastermind Rogue alongside any of the classes I previous mentioned—or alongside Cleric!—gives you Master of Intrigue and Master of Tactics, a bit of Expertise, and only a bit of Sneak Attack damage, and potentially losing out on some of your higher level spells seems fine in your particular case. Then again, if you go far enough to get your 9th level spell, you can grab foresight (or true resurrection as a Cleric). Foresight is possibly the biggest "pay no attention to the true power behind the curtain" spell in the game, imo. Still, 3 levels of Mastermind would still let you grab it and wouldn't go amiss.

[tieren]

Do you think I should avoid heavy armor concepts (like a nature domain cleric) so I am not the one throwing any group disadvantage on stealth?

[Dudewithknives]

Do you think I should avoid heavy armor concepts (like a nature domain cleric) so I am not the one throwing any group disadvantage on stealth?

How about either an Arcana Cleric human with magic initiate Druid, or a Divine Soul Sorcerer or just a Celestial Warlock.

Arcana cleric with Magic Initiate Druid wearing a breastplate.
- No stealth disadvantage
- 2-3 cleric cantrips, 2 wizard cantrips, 2 druid cantrips and 1 1st level spell like Goodberry, an amazing utility spell.
- All the normal cleric goodness
- Removes hampering spells when they heal someone at level 6
- Pretty nice bonus spell selection
- Can be all wisdom based because of Shillelagh from druid
- Never underestimate having a great insight score
- Changing your spell list each long rest is amazing for utility because you can pick up what you might need later

Divine Soul:
- All cleric and sorcerer spells to choose from
- Subtle Metamagic is THE subtle buff ability
- Even though you are CHA based you don't have to be the face, just do not bother training in Persuasion/deception

Celestial Warlock:
- Bonus action healing at range with a good number of uses
- Pact of chain to deliver healing/buff spells at range
- Pact of tome to get what helps from other classes for cantrips
- If you need to the damage is there for whenever you need it
- Invocations to pick up and customize what you need.

[strangebloke]

Do you think I should avoid heavy armor concepts (like a nature domain cleric) so I am not the one throwing any group disadvantage on stealth?

well, you can always take the armor off if it's really important.

I'm considering this for two games I'm playing in soon as well. My thought process was: keep my turns short, and focus on support and/or tanking rather than control/DPR.

Celestial Chain Warlock is great support. You got a nice bonus action heal, your familiar can aid your martials to give them advantage, and you have access to some fine support spells.

Forge Cleric is another I'm considering. The cleric is basically 'support caster, the class' and giving away a +1 weapon every day will make people love you. Play a hill dwarf, cast a few buffs, hold the front line and soak, and everyone will love you.

Abjuration wizard is super fun as well. Counter enemy spell casters, prevent damage, polymorph the monk when he's out of ki points... good times had by all.

The classes to avoid are paladin, barbarian, ranger, and a few glory-hound subclasses like Necromancer, War Mage, Fiend Pact, Hexblade, Circle of the Moon/Shepherd, etc. Avoid aoe damage, DPR, and minionmancy and you won't be stealing the spotlight. Even a controller wizard will really just set up the martials to deal massive damage.

[XmonkTad]

Monks, especially of the Open Hand, are actually strangely good as "support" type characters for other melee fighters. They don't do a ton of damage themselves, but are good at creating effects (stun, prone, removing reaction attacks, etc.) on enemies which allow the other characters in the party to shine.


I second this suggestion. A monk is a great support because it can help in tons of ways, while not hogging the spotlight. Also, from an RP perspective, playing someone who mostly keeps quiet and offers cryptic wisdom is exactly what you're going for.
Things you do for the party include:
- Stunning things or at the very least forcing BBEGs to waste legendary resistance
- Punching things prone, another way to give advantage, but only to targets your ranged party members aren't attacking
- Functioning without loot (if necessary) so you can make sure other PCs get the armor/weapons that help them shine
- You handle perception, and can ask the DM to reveal important details (grabbing Observant might be good for you)
- You can do stealth, but won't over-shadow the rogue (no pun intended)
- You can help the back-liners by pushing enemies away and stealing their reaction so the squishies can disengage, rather than just being a distraction


Do you think I should avoid heavy armor concepts (like a nature domain cleric) so I am not the one throwing any group disadvantage on stealth?

Splitting the party is bad. If the rogue is going to go on ahead, it's not a bad idea to accompany them (a flanking buddy!), which is pretty much impossible if you're a heavy-armor person. So it depends on the party. If they're inexperience (as you say they are) they're definitely going to split, so I'd avoid heavy armor.

[GlenSmash!]

How about a Mastermind Rogue? Primarily using the Help action in-combat instead of trying to land your own sneak attack. You could pump up odd skill that your party typically wouldn't focus on like Nature, Animal Handling, and that kind of thing.

[opaopajr]

Interestingly enough, a Champion can be great for this, as it can step back or come forward among the group depending on how you accessorize. And, outside of how you play in combat, it can still let other PC specialists shine. Pay attention to your Skills, Tools, Languages, especially through Backgrounds and Feats.

Need Thieves' Tools and or Stealth but don't want to overshadow someone? Take the Criminal background.

Want a bit of magic, but similarly support? Magic Initiate or Ritual Caster feat.

Extra healing and stabilizing, but not too amazing? Healing Kits, or Healing Potions, with action surge, and even the Healer feat.

Linguist with religion/human nature/arcana/history knowledge...? Sage or Acolyte background.

And the cool thing is you can use a Variant Human to accomplish both at the same time, getting a Feat and using a Background.

Basically you become a support heavy. You can do what is not covered, or assist squishies without sidelining them.

[BoxANT]

The best Loki support character definitely sounds like a Trickery Cleric.

...

What?:smallcool:

don't worry friend, i see what you did there

[strake]

I know bards are great support characters, but I don't want to become the face and hog that spotlight either, I really want to fade into the background, to be there and helpful, but more like a Robin than a Batman.


It would be easy enough to enjoy all the support aspects of a bard without bothering to become the face of the party. Perhaps you're always playing a flute and so can't be bothered to talk. Or maybe you are a snobby performer type who won't talk to the common people. Or my personal favorite, you are the story teller who is just following around the heroes so you can properly tell their story and write their grand epic. Even with a 20 Charisma you have an excuse to avoid being the face.

Stick to crowd control/buff/healing and you can spend your combats making sure the party wins without doing any actual damage and giving them all the glory.

[Arcangel4774]

A common issue with support focused characters comes when they only support and essentially do nothing in combat damagewise. For this reason id consider the mastermind rogue, as vaz did. Combatwise you play similar to other rogues, especially if at range, and can use your bonus action to help allies.

[apepi]

One of my favorite support characters which isn't done much is a halfling 2 Divination Wizard/Lore Bard and picking up the Lucky feat. You basically have tons of dice to be rerolled and attacks cancelled. You want to help one of your teammates to auto hit on a roll? Use your Divination dice. Want to help a person succeed on their spell? Bane them and make them fail their save. Want to help an ally from getting hit? Bane and then Cutting Words to bring down the hit. Someone attacks you? Bane and use your Lucky feat. This build has so much flexibility, it is very fun to play even while just being a support. Your goal isn't to heal your group, but to make sure they don't get hit in the first place, which is different than from simply being a healbot (which you can do with this build as well). This makes you feel awesome, but doesn't take the awesomeness from your party members as their feeling awesome is about tanking/dealing damage. And you aren't even awesome, your luckiness just spreads to everyone around you!

In truth, isn't not getting hit better than healing damage anyways? I view not enough people try this build, it is perhaps one of my most inventive builds.

[Drackolus]

I'm quite astounded nobody has mentioned a life cleric 1/ lore bard x.
As for avoiding being the face; the obvious answer is "just don't." Take expertise in Athletics, Insight, Perception, and Survival. Play an Aasimar, Vuman or Hill Dwarf (15 in str, cha and wis, lvl 4 even out cha and con) and max Cha and Wis. Your healing bonus is just there to make your healing more efficient so you don't have to do it as often. Grab spells like Crusader's Mantle and Counterspell. Bless is free.

It's worth noting that an excellent support will stick out too. Not really a ton you can do about it, but being a good support doesn't really take away from other people being good at their roles, so it's okay to do as good as you can.

[polymphus]

Mastermind Rogue could also be a thing. Your whole deal is giving your teammates advantage while darting around doing rogue stuff.

I thought a Mastermind/Battlemaster could be a super interesting multiclass. VHuman, Crossbow Expert feat, get BM stuff like maneuvering strike that gives bonuses, abilities or moves to the rest of the party.

[KOLE]

Dream Druid/Life Cleric for massive healing? You’re in a good spot to be a healer. This way you can let the groms make mistakes and understand how combat works without a “buffer” or tank, and still watch their back by giving l33t h34lz bruh.

[Beelzebubba]

Druid is the best IN YOUR FACE support character. Their stuff is hugely control-based and it's obvious that combats would be much different without them.

I'll repeat what others have said - Cleric of some sort, who does stuff like throw around extra hit points with Inspiring Leadership feat and the Aid spell, and gives other people extra dice with Bless and Guidance, and is the type to bolster by curing bad conditions or dispelling enemy debuffs during the round.