Supporting A New DM

[Ogun]

My family will be gaming with a new DM.
He is young, but prenaturally smart.
My crew is pretty wild normally, so I want to play a nice stable support character, to make sure everyone has fun.
I anticipate a druid(10 going on 12 daughter), Warlock ( 24 going on 19
son),and either a paladin or a rogue, my wife isn't certian if she will play nice or be herself 🤣
I'm thinking Cleric, or Bard.
Either can offer support, but I've actually never played a bard, in my more than 3 decades of gaming.

All official material is available,and I'm wide open to ideas.
I'm pretty talky in RL, but I don't want to dominate the game, another reason to favor cleric.
I favor vumane for obvious reasons.
I like minions, so Find Familiar has appeal.
A spell centric druid or nature cleric has appeal.
I'm trying not to go too dark, nuetral is better, allowing me to counter any extremes of behavior organically.

OTOH, playing a good Warlock might be more fun.
ChainFey could be a blast, but I suppose it isn't either or.
I'm sure cleric/Warlock is sub-optimal, what with different casting stats an all,but buff spells don't seem to rely on stats much.

Of course bard/Warlock doesn't suffer from this, but now I'm getting further from my design goals.

[Galithar]

Try a Divine Soul Sorcerer Warlock Hexblade Pact of the Chain.

Lots of abilities choices, but choose wisely because you don't get a massive amount of spells. Get a few critical buff/debuff spells (bless/bane early and then things like Haste or Greater Invisibility later to twin cast).
If you split 11 Divine Soul/9 Hexblade you get 22 spells known at Max level, a handful of Invocations and still manage to get up to 6th level spell slots.

This isn't a super optimized build, but the synergy of the classes allows you to still pull your own, and I'm assuming your family isn't full of power gaming min/maxers to begin with.

Start Hexblade for level 1 and leave your Con at an odd score. First ASI I'd take resilient (Con) then for the rest look at Spellsniper (if cover penalties come up a lot or super long range fights are common) Warcaster, and maxing Cha.

For Metamagic I like Twinned, Quicken, and Subtle. The order is whatever you think benefits the most. Twinning cantrips (Ray of Frost) can be great for a little bit of cheap CC. And Quickened Eldritch Blasts give good DPR. Combine the two for some pretty effective low cost power.

[nickl_2000]

So the default answer is, if you haven't played a bard and want to play one then you should do it. Valor would be a solid choice for someone who wants to be mixed up in melee and support others. Also, just because you have a good charisma doesn't mean you need to talk. You can play high charisma as someone who others naturally gravitate towards, but tends to be quieter. The strong silent typer possibly.


From that party though, it looks to me like you need a tanky cleric though. Forge would be a great option with the possible party composition.

[MilkmanDanimal]

I'd actually recommend against Pact of the Chain for a new group, because your familiar winds up being such a phenomenal, amazing scout that the rest of the party winds up just sitting around watching the DM describe the dungeon to you. It's mechanically incredibly useful but really drags things down at the table. Now, if you want to more of a support aspect, Tome gives you those three extra cantrips and you can do a lot with those.

[Millface]

not about classes, but some general advice for supporting a new DM.

I grew up on D&D, my dad played when I was very young, and I started around 12 years old playing with him and his friends. Now, I'm 30 and have my own crew, but we also play with him and his. The first time my dad sat down at my table I was so nervous I could barely talk. This coming from a guy who competed at the state level in high school for speech, I'm no slouch when it comes to public speaking, but my dad was The DM, and I found myself shaking, dropping stuff, and overall just being a bumbling mess for the first hour or so of the new campaign, even though I'd been DMing that same table for going on 4 years at that point.

Turns out it was nothing to be nervous about, he was courteous, never tried to take over the table or anything, and adhered to my rulings without a hint of argument. The point here is to look out for some nerves at the beginning from a younger DM. Make sure he knows that just because you're older, doesn't mean it's not his show. If you're related and play with family alot I'm sure you already know that separation of character and player is HUGE. Nothing kills a game or dinner that night like your mom getting IRL mad at you for disagreeing with or getting heated with her character (this happened to me once, she apologized after).

A DM needs confidence to flourish, and it can be hard for a family hierarchy to shift for the game. Dad is Boss right up unto the point where the game starts, then the DM is boss. Remember that, make sure he feels that (as long as he's not abusive of that courtesy), and you should have a great time regardless of what you play.

Having said that, I'm currently playing a Hexblade/Divine Soul myself and it's excellent. It can support, it can blast, it can do both at once sometimes with metamagic. It's just a great overall build to play when most of the basic bases are covered. Scale Mail + Shield + The Shield Spell can see you tanking relatively well to boot. I have a 23 shielded AC and 6 spell slots at level 4, two of which recharge on short rest, so there's no shortage of resources available there.

[Keravath]

If you want support, some healing, crowd control and the ability to help without stealing the limelight ...

I'd suggest lore bard X/ hexblade warlock 2. I play one of these and it is alot of fun. I started as a variant human and took the resilient constitution feat. It can be very flexible, the warlock dip helps with armor, weapon proficiency, using cha for all attacks and spells, as well as two short rest spell slots, hex, shield and devils sight/agonizing blast for direct damage and some ability to see in the dark. It does delay the bard spell progression but really seems to shore up some of the bard "weaknesses" ... at least what I perceive as weaknesses. He isn't a great primary healer but the druid has access to healing as well (as does a paladin). The lore bard is also excellent at a wide range of skills.

Another option mentioned above is the Divine Soul sorcerer X/ hexblade warlock 2. Divine soul can pick from the entire cleric spell list. On the other hand, sorcerers have quite a limited selection of spells to choose from so you will have to be selective in your choices ... niche spells although nice for the right circumstances might not be the best picks. Finally, the sorcerer/warlock has the eldritch+agonizing blast fallback for direct damage so they can contribute to combat very effectively. They can also quicken this cantrip to fire it off twice in the same round. Depending on the circumstances, the character could twin firebolt and follow up with a quickened eldritch blast though this will use sorcery points very quickly (too quickly in my opinion since the points need to last the entire day ... on the other hand, there is the possibility to deal a lot of damage in one round when that is needed).

Key spells for the support role would be ..
- healing word (1st level)
- hypnotic pattern (3rd level)

.. mix and match others to taste trying to aim for a variety of effects, against a variety of saves, with both concentration and non-concentration options.

Other good ones for a bard include -
- healing word
- faerie fire
- dissonant whispers
- suggestion
- phantasmal force
- blindness/deafness
- hypnotic pattern
- dispel magic

Magical secrets (6th level lore bard)
- fireball
- counterspell
.. lots of others

Divine Soul sorcerer has too many to list and depends on how much cleric you want to mix in with
- healing word
- lesser restoration
- revivify
- spiritual weapon (extra bonus action attack if you aren't using your bonus action for something else ... not concentration)

.. if you are going to be mostly ranged then "guardian spirits" loses some of its utility

.. but the sorcerer has limited spell slots so every cleric spell you take is one sorcerer support/control spell you don't take.
- haste
- fireball
etc.

Good luck! Sounds like it will be a fun game.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

To support your DM:

Do some of the book keeping. Track XP if you all do. Have your copy of the Player's Handbook handy and maybe open it to the cost pages when the party approaches anyplace they can buy something. Help keep track of magic item abilities as they are given out. Maybe help with tracking initiative.

I homebrew a bit for a couple groups I DM now. Them boys have played every D&D game and read most of the Drizzt books plus one fellow read some of the module we were trying. So I homebrew to fight the metagame knowledge factor. If your DM does just reinforce the idea that whatever he says goes. You can ask him a question or two if it seems he misread something though just to make sure.

Help keep the group focused and listening to him also.

[KorvinStarmast]

To support your DM:

Maybe help with tracking initiative. Yes! This is a great load off of the DM's work/burden.

Help keep the group focused and listening to him also. Yes. This. In one of our adults groups I am the one who is the 'let's get back to playing the game' role.

For the OP:
I'd recommend Lore Bard or Circle of the Land Druid; either of them can be a fine support character. Circle of the Land has some potential crowd control spells that help the rest of the party against foes in a fight.

On the other hand, if you really, really want to be able to mix it up in combat, you could do a lot worse than Life, Nature, or Tempest Cleric. You can mix and match when to be more support-like, and when to be more combat like, by the spells your prepare. The cool thing about clerics is, you can pick any of them from the list.

[DMThac0]

Bards are hit or miss with people, they are, imo, more of a "face of the group" class and support roll for combat. Part of the reason I put together the homebrew in my sig. That said, they are a blast to play once you get in the swing of things, they really start to become entertaining when you can pull out tricks and tactics that control the pace of combat, figure out all those nifty little bits of lore and other skill checks, they're extremely versatile.

As to helping out said new DM beyond class/character choice is going to be a huge weight lifted. My wife started to DM and I ended up trying to back seat DM all too much. Eventually I had to learn to sit back and just answer player/character questions and allow her to do all the DMing stuff. However tracking initiative, calling people back into the game on rabbit trails, and being able to subtly prod your fellow players in the direction the DM seems to be headed will make the newbie's job that much easier.

[Galithar]

I'd actually recommend against Pact of the Chain for a new group, because your familiar winds up being such a phenomenal, amazing scout that the rest of the party winds up just sitting around watching the DM describe the dungeon to you. It's mechanically incredibly useful but really drags things down at the table. Now, if you want to more of a support aspect, Tome gives you those three extra cantrips and you can do a lot with those.

The build isn't meant to use it for a scout. Yes it can, but any DM that knows what they're doing isn't going to let you scout for an hour drawing a map of the entire dungeon while your (in this case young) party gets bored. They will put in reasonable defenses against it. A simple alarm spell alerts them to start making active perception checks and BAM your invisible scout is discovered and killed and the dungeon is in high alert, repositioning the troops you spotted and maybe setting up an ambush or two.

The Divine Sorcerer is to allow you to do things like Twinned Cure Wounds on separate distant allies. You stand by one, familiar by the other, twin the heal to go through you and your familiar.