Hello everyone,
We are nearing the end of my first TTRPG campaign and in a few weeks, the DM is starting a homebrew. I joined this one half way through and a friend slapped together most of my level 7 character for me, a basic fighter. For this new campaign I’m hoping to have “more to do” in and out of battle so I’m looking for class advice.
I want to play a support class but I’ve been feeling overwhelmed by the class options. All I know is that I want it to be beginner-friendly support that can heal but also do more - like damage, buffs, or debuffs. Doesn’t have to be all 3!
The group gave me a few suggestions but there was so much back and forth about how complicated they are, I thought I’d pose the question here.
Can someone help point me in the right direction on a simple support? Any help would be appreciated!
Follow-up on question 3: I wasn’t asking about video game mechanics. I’m asking what kind of characters you like. As in what kind of personality, what kind of choices they make, what a scene with that character feels like, etc. It doesn’t need to be traditional Western medieval fantasy if that’s not something you’ve experienced a lot of.
A good TTRPG character starts not with mechanics but with a strong inspiration. Creating an RPG character is a creative act. Filling out the character sheet shouldn’t feel like paperwork, it should feel like exploring a real person. Pathfinder is a game about a team of heroes. What “team of heroes” media do you like and why do you like it? Who are your favourite heroes?
Which character in Avatar the Last Airbender is your favourite? Which MCU superhero is your favourite? Which of the Teen Titans is the hottest and why is it Starfire? Which Star Trek character is your spirit animal?
Moreover, and I alluded to this in the other post, but there isn’t really a “wrong” way to build a character in Pathfinder (as long as you take some basic steps like maxing out the primary stat). It’s only wrong if you don’t like playing them. So we should start with what kind of character you want to play.
I prefer quiet characters over braggadocios ones. Ironically, Gambit is my favorite X-Man followed by the much more appropriate Professor X. I like when characters avoid the spotlight and take care of stuff “from the sidelines.” Some other characters that fit the description (I think, not too into these franchises): Samwise Gamger, Ron Weasley, Podrick
[Whoops, hit send before finishing. Give me a minute to write the rest…]
The race I am leaning is Ysoki, specifically the tiny subrace unique to this campaign. I don’t want to be a hero, I want to support the heroes as they do their hero things. I don’t care if others see how I’m helping as long as my party knows it - I’m not big on getting recognition.
The DM wants to work out our back stories together so he can weave it into the campaign so I haven’t given a ton of thought to it just yet
Interesting. When you say “support”, can you unpack that a bit? There are a lot of different ways of being a support in PF2e. You can be a healer obviously or someone who has an aura that buffs stats. But support can also mean someone who nails the Recall Knowledge check and finds out the enemy’s secret weakness. Or supporting can be someone who intimidates the enemy or taunts them or even someone who attacks them (since tripping, grappling, shoving, and disarming all are considered attacks)
First and foremost I want to be able to heal in and out of combat. But I’m saying Support and not Healer because I want to have other spells/actions to take - like making my party do more (or take less) damage or blind/confuse enemies.
If I’m sounding weird about describing it, it’s because I find my current character pretty boring in combat. I basically just shoot my bow, miss with Electric Arc, or cast Haste. The monk in our party (veteran player) does so many different things and the druid (another veteran) seems to bust out situationally-useful spells every session.
I want more options in a fight so it feels like my choices matter. The problem is…I have no idea what the options are except what I’ve seen in this campaign.
It sounds to me like something with the occult spell list is ideal. A Bard is definitely a top pick since they are all around excellent supports. But they can also be a bit plain since every combat you just play a lingering composition and then avoid getting hit. That being said, I think you could definitely have a good time playing a Bard.
I’ll offer a slightly different suggestion though which I think you might like: the Psychic. They use the occult spell list, so you will have access to Soothe for healing and plenty of solid utility, buff, and debuff spells. And they are a spontaneous caster which is a lot less bookkeeping. But they also are solid damage dealers with stronger cantrips and more varied focus spell options. You will usually have an interesting blaster option on your turn as well as a support option. There are even some subclasses which are wholly focused on being a support (The Infinite Eye being the most support focused subclass). You can pick either Intelligence or Charisma as your main stat, which means you can further support either by using recall knowledge if you go the path of INT, or demoralize, deception, and Bon Mot if you choose CHA.
Sorry for the delay, I started looking into this last night and fell into the rabbit hole…but I’m sold. I put together a rough character on one of the builder sites and started working out the backstory with the GM.
I will be playing a Skitterpaw (unique to this campaign) Ysoki Psychic
Background: Scholar (Occultism)
Conscious Mind: The Infinite Eye
Subconscious Mind: Gathered Lore
Cantrips: Telekinesis Projectile, Void Warp, and Void Step
Spells: Soothe and…undecided because the builder only gives me True Strike as an option…? I think I should have other choices but I don’t know
Soothe seems good enough for what I want but out of curiosity, are there other healing spells to pick up later?
And do deities even matter outside of RP for non-Clerics? I couldn’t quite figure that out…
Every Psychic subclass has one forced spell choice at each spell rank. So True Strike is forced because you chose Infinite Eye. It’s okay because you’ll get more spell options as you go. Don’t feel obligated to use True Strike. It’s rarely going to be as good as other options since you aren’t focusing on damage.
Yeah, the better version of Soothe is rank 2 Soothe, and then rank 3 Soothe, etc. I’d recommend you make Soothe your rank 1 Signature Spell. That way, you’ll be able to cast it at higher levels without needing to invest more spells known.
The occult spell list doesn’t have as many HP heals as the divine spell list, but you only really need one as long as it can be upcasted. As you level up you’ll get access to other kinds of reactive and defensive spells which can cleanse debuffs off of your allies (eg. Lesser Restoration or whatever it’s called now with the remaster).
Also worth noting that casting spells is a very suboptimal way of healing out of combat. Since you are going the route of the INT psychic, you should put a skill point in Medicine and focus on using Treat Wounds outside of combat for healing. Probably also grab Battle Medicine in order to have another healing option in combat.
Nope. Not unless your GM makes them matter.
Ok, great - I’m much more confident in the choice and I appreciate your help in getting there!
Happy to help! Feel free to tag me or DM me if you have more questions down the road. Hope you have a better experience with this character
After reading through this I’d also like to suggest Druid. I’m slightly biased, though, I’m a level 9 druid with a giant otter companion :-)
I would LOVE to play a druid at some point because it’s my favorite fantasy class but after seeing the amount of spells the druid in our party has, I decided to hold off for another campaign.
I decided to go with bionicjoey’s suggestion of a Psychic. I was wavering on all the other options but this one instantly clicked with me when I looked it up so I’m running with it!
Not a bad choice at all, I play a modified Wine (Weed) Oracle in a different campaign - that dude is super fun to play!
I like the druid because it gets me into the collaborative story telling aspect of RPGs. I have to think about what the situation, terrain, mission, etc are to decide on what spells for the day.
Edit: I am wrong on the spell choices 90% of the time. But that one time I lily padded the entire party out of a swamp…
They’re so versatile. That’s what I love about them but also makes me want to hold off until the next campaign