Help me make an elitist support character

[eleclipse]

I'm preparing for a new campaing, 5/6 lvl.

My party will be composed of a: Paladin/sorcerer "tank" - Necromancer wizard - Babarian - Rougue

The theme of the party is that we are all (or most) from rich and noble families of waterdeep, we are all elitist in some way, the paladin is similar to "farnese" from beserker at the start (to give the rought idea), probably evil but mostly "socially evil and generaly unlikeable" like standard corrupt nobility.

I want to be a support character for the group, i was thinking divine soul sorcerer with inspiring leader feat, but i'm not sure (maybe a level in hexblade ? light cleric?)

So i'm searching for both advices on possibile builds that play well with this party composition and mechanics idea that fit well on the concept.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[dickerson76]

Seems the easiest route would be to go either Bard (diva), or maybe Cleric (zealot/uber-pious).

[Aembrosia]

If that rogue prefers melee an open hand monk would support the line up nicely. @light cleric The three martials shouldnt particularly mind getting hit, with rage, uncanny dodge, and plate armor. A monk dropping prone/stun conditions would be much appreciated.

But clerics can heal and they are missing quite a bit of that. Recommending druid over cleric. Circle of land grassland. You breed designer race horses in the countryside.

But of course the best support of all is bard. Go glamor for the mobility. Give the wizard an assist with quickly positioning his minions, with temp hp, early in the fight with your naturally high initiative bonus.
Light healing with healing word, cure wounds. Wide spell selection, hold person and heat metal will often come up in the big city.

[CTurbo]

Bard all the way! Lore, Glamour, or Whispers depending on what flavor you prefer.

You COULD throw in some Divine Soul Sorcerer levels in there if you want to.

Inspiring Leader is a great feat but only after maxing Cha IMO

[sophontteks]

Bards scream pampered nobility and none more then the glamour bard.

[Phoenix042]

My favorite support character I've created so far has to be my battlemaster "support fighter" character.

I went sword and board, took the protection fighting style, and used Variant human to grab shield master. When I hit level three, I went BM and grabbed commander's strike, rally, and distracting attack.

I have an assassin rogue and a THF vengeance paladin in that party. In basically every fight, I can burn a maneuver and my bonus action to convert one of my 1d8+3 attack for a 2nd level smite or a sneak attack.

In one memorable fight against a hydra, I action surged, crit with my first attack and used distracting attack (rolling double the dice), then used commander's strike to give the rogue a reaction attack, and she's got elven accuracy, so she rolls 3d20, and the third one came up 20, so SHE crit plus she was using sharpshooter, so she did like 66 damage with that attack, and then from my action surge I attacked two more times, and the third one also crit so I used distracting attack again, and then the rogue took her turn and rolled with triple d20's again for another crapload of damage.

It was a good turn. I did like 40 damage personally, and the rogue did another 66 or so, and then did even more on her turn.

Twas awesome.

Also, people rate Rally really low, but I just use it before we take short rests to burn my maneuver dice.

I'm like a hybrid tank-support fighter, but when I crit I have maneuvers to burn so I can still dish decent damage occasionally myself.

[Waterdeep Merch]

One of the best bards I've ever seen played the class as a professional critic. He was enormously pompous, arrogant, had plenty of barbs and one liners but no compliments on hand, ever. Vicious Mockery was the crux of it, and he even handed out bardic inspiration as criticisms on how well we were currently doing (or how awfully he was sure we were about to fail, for whatever reason).

Remember- no one's good enough, everyone falls far short, and it is your job to make sure they understand exactly how awful they are at everything they attempt to do.

[CTurbo]

I made a spoiled narcissistic teenage princess Lore Bard once and used her as a long running NPC. She was a Half-Elf and was the most beautiful creature anybody had ever seen, but she was nearly impossible to deal with and used Vicious Mockery and/or Cutting Words on literally anybody who angered her.

Stats were 6 Str, 18 dex, 14 Con, 12 Int, 8 Wis, and 22 Cha lol

Her inspiration dice consisted of her shouting at the team to "hurry up" or "not like that you idiot" lol

[Lord8Ball]

For the build, I would recommend going a lore bard. Your main deal would be to use an inspiring leader and possibly upcast heroism. Magic secrets from the paladin and rouge classes are good. Zepher strike and the smites, in particular, are good options which could be coupled with booming blade.

You must earn the right to healing plebian. Do not think for a moment that the magic granted to me personally from the great gods above should be wasted on one such as you. I am above the common, vulgar, weak, licentious crowd. If anything they should grovel before the splendor of one such as I. Your concerns is nothing compared to me for I am a lion amongst men and conquerer of adversities. Prove your worth and perhaps I may be merciful enough to grant you the touch of Elysium's bliss; however, if you fail me know that I cannot protect you. It is easy to drown in the eddies of fate without the grace of God. I pity you.

[Taebyn]

Divine soul sorcerer gets my vote. Your sorcerors bloodline is no happy accident. It’s from arranged marriages for generations to continue to produce magic users in your family line. Wizardry is fine for those that aren’t born with the gift. Peasant magic isn’t parlor trickery, but there’s just something cheap about it, isn’t there?

Twin spell buffing was pretty Strong.

[Ogre Mage]

You mentioned you are considering a divine soul. I have played that class and found Divine Soul X/Cleric 1 to be a very effective multiclass as you can offload your 1st level spell selection. That's important with very limited spells known.

In terms of deity choice, nothing screams elitist like BANE. But if that is too evil, I could see the blessed of Sune (who tend to suffer from excessive narcissism) or Waukeen (whose pursuit of wealth tends to foster an elitist view) also taking an elitist attitude.

[Blacky the Blackball]

My favorite support character I've created so far has to be my battlemaster "support fighter" character.

I went sword and board, took the protection fighting style, and used Variant human to grab shield master. When I hit level three, I went BM and grabbed commander's strike, rally, and distracting attack.

I have an assassin rogue and a THF vengeance paladin in that party. In basically every fight, I can burn a maneuver and my bonus action to convert one of my 1d8+3 attack for a 2nd level smite or a sneak attack.

In one memorable fight against a hydra, I action surged, crit with my first attack and used distracting attack (rolling double the dice), then used commander's strike to give the rogue a reaction attack, and she's got elven accuracy, so she rolls 3d20, and the third one came up 20, so SHE crit plus she was using sharpshooter, so she did like 66 damage with that attack, and then from my action surge I attacked two more times, and the third one also crit so I used distracting attack again, and then the rogue took her turn and rolled with triple d20's again for another crapload of damage.

It was a good turn. I did like 40 damage personally, and the rogue did another 66 or so, and then did even more on her turn.

Twas awesome.

Also, people rate Rally really low, but I just use it before we take short rests to burn my maneuver dice.

I'm like a hybrid tank-support fighter, but when I crit I have maneuvers to burn so I can still dish decent damage occasionally myself.

I've played a valor bard who used the Martial Initiate feat to pick up Commander's Strike and Maneuvering Strike and he was able to do similar give-teammates-actions support while also supporting people with his bardic abilities.

[eleclipse]

First of all thank you everyone for the aswer! really plenty of inspiration and advices!!


One of the best bards I've ever seen played the class as a professional critic. He was enormously pompous, arrogant, had plenty of barbs and one liners but no compliments on hand, ever. Vicious Mockery was the crux of it, and he even handed out bardic inspiration as criticisms on how well we were currently doing (or how awfully he was sure we were about to fail, for whatever reason).

Remember- no one's good enough, everyone falls far short, and it is your job to make sure they understand exactly how awful they are at everything they attempt to do.


Bards scream pampered nobility and none more then the glamour bard.

Love this! I could really work thank you! even the fey touch of the glamour bard could be interesting since fey can be very elitist and very cruel.


Divine soul sorcerer gets my vote. Your sorcerors bloodline is no happy accident. It’s from arranged marriages for generations to continue to produce magic users in your family line. Wizardry is fine for those that aren’t born with the gift. Peasant magic isn’t parlor trickery, but there’s just something cheap about it, isn’t there?

Twin spell buffing was pretty Strong.


You mentioned you are considering a divine soul. I have played that class and found Divine Soul X/Cleric 1 to be a very effective multiclass as you can offload your 1st level spell selection. That's important with very limited spells known.

In terms of deity choice, nothing screams elitist like BANE. But if that is too evil, I could see the blessed of Sune (who tend to suffer from excessive narcissism) or Waukeen (whose pursuit of wealth tends to foster an elitist view) also taking an elitist attitude.

I really like this! Question i was considering the clichè of a warlock/hexblade 2 / sorcerer one for the obvious reason of medium armor, eldritch blast. Tematically it could work but maybe it's a bit of a stretch for a divine soul (or may it's perfect, i don't know). Since you have played the class what do you think about this vs 1 lvl cleric?

[sophontteks]

So I have 2 elitist support characters and I feel they are pretty special. Maybe it'd be better to describe them rather then recommending a build...

Glamour Bard Tiefling noble from Almraiven. Adopted into a lesser noble family with significant trade ties. His father and his father before him served as the family's personal bodyguard. Nobles love having exotic things they can show off and a tiefling bodyguard is quite exotic.

He is a variant devil's tongue to fit his character and he's already quite a renouned performance dancer in Almraiven. He's a talented manipulater known for his flattery. If anyone watched the series "Versailles" think of the kings brother. Very flamboyant, flaunts his open sexuality, highly seductive. He's a male belly dancer.:smallbiggrin:

Storm sorcerer / paladin The other elitist I have is a Triton storm sorcerer. Tritons are the pinnacle of elitist. They make elves look modest. Surface creatures, to him, are like little children.

Of course he knows absolutely nothing about the surface. Comically so. Surface world conflicts are all small fry to him. Little squabbles between children. He's pretty lawful stupid as a result. Underestimating threats and eager to die for a good cause.

He's more of a blaster then support, but he has subtle spell and we have a variant rule that allowed me to pick up the Triton UA racial feat giving him a hefty 6 support / utility spells.

[Taebyn]

I really like this! Question i was considering the clichè of a warlock/hexblade 2 / sorcerer one for the obvious reason of medium armor, eldritch blast. Tematically it could work but maybe it's a bit of a stretch for a divine soul (or may it's perfect, i don't know). Since you have played the class what do you think about this vs 1 lvl cleric?


I think thematically cleric makes a lot more sense. It could be just a part of your higher education. Also if you went knowledge, the channel divinity could be explained by your birthright. Also taking a level or two of cleric opens up a lot of spells that you wouldn’t have to use your sorcerer slots on.

[Ogre Mage]

First of all thank you everyone for the aswer! really plenty of inspiration and advices!

I really like this! Question i was considering the clichè of a warlock/hexblade 2 / sorcerer one for the obvious reason of medium armor, eldritch blast. Tematically it could work but maybe it's a bit of a stretch for a divine soul (or may it's perfect, i don't know). Since you have played the class what do you think about this vs 1 lvl cleric?

Strictly from an optimization standpoint, Divine Soul X/Hexblade 2 is probably even better than Divine Soul X/Cleric 1. Divine Soul X/Hexblade 2 is SAD, only needing charisma, whereas Divine Soul X/Cleric 1 is MAD. But from a roleplaying standpoint, I think Divine Soul X/Cleric 1 is a more natural combination. That PC is a very special snowflake of his or her deity, drawing power in multiple ways. Being so uniquely chosen might make one feel elitist.