Useless, yet useful character

[that_one_kobold]

As of late, I've been thinking about a character concept that feels like it has a fine line between fun and interesting, and just annoying. As the obviously paradoxical title says, I'm looking to make a useless, yet useful character. What exactly does that mean? in my case, at least, it means that I want my character to seem pitiful and useless, like by doing no physical damage, but to still do his part in the combat. Now, a few stipulations to note:
- Try to stray from using monstrous races like kobold or goblin, as they already seem pitiful and take from the juxtaposition imo.
- Try to stray away from full casters, as they seem competent on their own. Although if no other ideas come to mind, it works. (Half casters and warlocks are fine)
- Bonus points if the build is pacifist!
I'm excited to see what you guys come up with!

[BigPixie]

What level cause how bout this 2 lvls divination wiz and the rest celestial lock/redemption pally. The support healer who does literally no damage. Bonus points if you exclude EB in your spell selection.



Oh did i forget you will have literally no high level spell slots!:smalltongue: Have fun buddy!

[Unoriginal]

High Elf Lore Bard with only utility spells?

[airless_wing]

High Elf Lore Bard with only utility spells?

Sounds like my first lore Bard: I maxed out Charisma, and worked on high Intelligence, and had high wisdom. Meanwhile, I had mild Dex, non-negative Con, and awful STR.
He is abysmal in combat; basically focusing on removing enemies using illusions and taking Dodge moves to maintain concentration, buffing lies when possible, and throwing out a Counterspell when need be.

Outside of combat, he excels at every task: between Jack of All Trades, Expertise, and amazing social stats, it's nearly impossible to lie to him, he's great at gathering information and he will always gain at least a few contacts anytime he Carouses. He's insanely useful in well-realized worlds/campaigns for that reason alone.

That's my two cents: Lore bards with combat dump stats certainly is far from 'optimized' for combat, but the versatility you gain outside fo combat certainly makes up for it.

[Man_Over_Game]

Dexterity Redemption Paladin seems like a really solid fit. Talk your way out of problems, hurt enemies for hurting you, absorb damage for your allies and remove them/yourself from combat via Sanctuary. Use ranged attacks and medium armor so everyone thinks you're the wimpiest Paladin.

Alternatively, you could go for a "blood healer" build. Divine Soul Sorcerer 2, Life Cleric X. The idea is to use a Twinned Warding Bond while also using Heavy Armor Master to reduce the damage you take for your allies when they take nonmagical weapon damage. Your level 6 Life Cleric feature will also heal you when you heal allies, causing a lot of extra healing and mitigation for your entire team as you play Healbot. Useless on your own, but you really make a team nigh indestructible.

[strangebloke]

How to do this without being a full caster:

Halfling Rogue

Bountiful Luck
Lucky
Magic initiate (cleric)

Wizard(divination) 2
Rogue (mastermind) 2

Whatever else x

Use your familiar to help with attacks. Use your bonus action to help with attacks. Use magic initiate to get guidance and bless. Use bountiful luck to negate bad luck. Use lucky to create advantage out of disadvantage. Use Portent to control monster saves.

Your character will literally be doing nothing visible except running around and screaming and absolutely screwing over the enemy's chances of doing anything. Obviously you can do whatever you like with the rest of your build.

[Rukelnikov]

The Talker:

LoreBard5/Order Cleric1

You just talk: Vicious mockery your enemies, Holy word your allies, cutting word your enemies, you just don't move a finger.

Bark orders from the backline and stuff, yeah its a full caster I know...

If your intention is for the character to seem useless to the table and not "in world", then that's a completely different scenario cause it mainly depends on what the members in your table would recognize as usefull/useless.

[MaxWilson]

Rogue (mastermind) 2

Better make that Rogue (mastermind) 3. :)

[Man_Over_Game]

Better make that Rogue (mastermind) 3. :)

The Mastermind really stood out to me as a solid option, but the Rogue is really dependent on landing those high damage Sneak Attacks, and I don't think there's going to be a solid build that has the player do anything but Attack as a Mastermind.

[NaughtyTiger]

The Mastermind really stood out to me as a solid option, but the Rogue is really dependent on landing those high damage Sneak Attacks, and I don't think there's going to be a solid build that has the player do anything but Attack as a Mastermind.

if the rogue is comfortable not doing damage, 2 helps per round will make others feel like you are contributing... (3 per round until the owl dies)

[stoutstien]

1order domain cleric, 5 glamor bard, rest redemption pally.

[Man_Over_Game]

if the rogue is comfortable not doing damage, 2 helps per round will make others feel like you are contributing... (3 per round until the owl dies)

Ah, right, you can Help as a normal Action with 30ft range.

[Friv]

So, the first thing to get out of the way - obviously, you're going to run into a thing where you lose out a bit if you're not dealing damage, because all the D&D classes are predicated on a certain amount of damage dealing happening.

My basic thought is that your best bet is a heavily Charisma-focused Rogue (Mastermind) / Bard (Lore College), focusing on rogue. Your Rogue levels give you a lot of non-combat skills that are not instantly obvious, let you Help your allies every turn by being distracting with your bonus action, and let you focus on dodging, and in the rare cases that you do hit someone you can hurt them if you need to. Your Bard levels let you spend your Reaction to distract enemies rather than having to double-up on Bonus action Inspirations, gives you even more skills and generally ability at everything, and lets you use your main action to buff and debuff through talking a lot.

The only downside of this build is that it takes a bit of time to come online. I would probably go:
* Bard 1-3
* Rogue 1-3
* Bard 4
* Rogue the rest of the way because you don't want to mainly be a caster.

[RickAsWritten]

I posted this build when someone wanted to build Don Quixote in D&D but it works for this as well:

Barbarian 1 --> Rogue 1-3(Mastermind) --> Barbarian 2-5(Wolf Totem)(Feat: Lucky, Mounted Combatant, or +2 CON) --> Rogue 4-5(Feat: Lucky, Mounted Combatant, or +2 CON)

Variant Human(Inspiring Leader)
STR: 13
DEX: 13
CON: 16 -->18
INT: 8
WIS: 8
CHA: 15

Skills:Animal Handling(Expertise), Survival, Deception, Intimidation, Persuasion(Expertise), Religion
Equipment: Shield, Lance, Dagger, Half Plate, Donkey
AC: 18
HP(@LVL 10): 105
3 Rages/Long Rest

[Shadhael]

Well it doesn't fit your idea of a pacifist, or even someone who doesn't deal much physical damage, but this screams Way of the Drunken Master Monk to me. At least from an RP point of view. You're a bumbling idiot/drunk just stumbling through the battle field, and when you get close to someone you reach a hand out to steady yourself and you land a "lucky" strike right in a nerve cluster. Enemy attacks you, and you stumble at exactly the right time and your foe hits his ally instead. You're "passed out" in the inn's stable, keeping an eye on the comings and going of patrons. You stagger up to the bar and introduce yourself to your mark, picking his pocket as you go.

Everyone overlooks the town drunk/fool. Disguising skill as drunken luck is to me the epitome of being very useful all while appearing to be useless

[NaughtyTiger]

Ah, right, you can Help as a normal Action with 30ft range.

help as action at 30ft range.
help as a bonus action at 30ft range.
familiar help as action until it pops.

[stoutstien]

help as action at 30ft range.
help as a bonus action at 30ft range.
familiar help as action until it pops.
The new UA artificer alchemist can do this too if they pick up a familiar