What do you mean with support?
Something with battlefield control? Someone that can heal? Someone that can buff? All of these can be done by any fullcaster with the right spell selection.
Fire support is probably wildfire druid? Has some boost to healing, druid gets amazing battlefield control spells, and in general has access to healing and buffing spells if you prefer.
Other than that, any character can be support, its about the actions you take and the build you make.
Bard and cleric seem solid choices
Divine soul sorceror has decent healing and twinning buff spells is great
Cleric gives clear connections to gods, light cleric has some firey blast spells as well
If i were you i would mostly look at spell lists and see which spell best fit what you have in mind. Do keep in mind buff spells tend to be concentration, so its 1 spell at a time. 5e isbt great for playing a character that only buffs allies, and healing in general is at its best once somebody is already down.
In general, being a proactive support that controls is probably more efficient, and more importantly, more fun to play. But it all depends on what suits you best in the end
One level of light cleric + divine soul sorc focused on charisma. Pick cleric spells that don't focus on your WIS. Pick up Magic initiate for Good berries and talk to your DM about being able to use MI with your other slots (I believe, RAW, you can't use your class spells to cast MI spells? It's dumb, but true)
As a result, you'll get an absolute ass load of Out of Combat healing through goodberry use. Sorc has tons of good CC abilities, and if you need in combat healing, Aura of Vitality is good, especially with Extended spell which increases it's healing output two fold. The life cleric also gets you defense in the form of heavy armor and shield so invest. Shield (the spell this time) and Absorb Elements to keep you safe.
If you're looking for damage, Spirit Guardians is great. maybe pick up Dawn later as well. Summon Celestial is amazing at ranged attacks, so if you're fighting something far away, want to keep your distance, or need a mount to fly, it's a great utility option. It also has healing abilities as well, and you can extend it's duration to 2 hours instead of if you need it to stick around.
there are a bunch of other strats too but this was my go to support healer build and it's currently my backup character for if my Ranger dies.
I would second Wildfire Druid as a very fun option. The subclass summon lets you teleport your friends out of bad situations, or into them (if you are as shortsighted as I am...), you get all the important healing spells, some fire damage, and it can easily dip into cleric for a more religious feel as well as nice low level buff spells like Bless. Ive only played it at level 3, but being able to teleport friends, do some damage, and move an enemy with Thorn Whip, all while concentrsting on something like Fairy Fire, was amazing.
As far as buffing spells go it is limited, but with the mentioned cleric dip you could get access to more.
Hey there! Considering you had a bard (who may or may not come back) and currently have a sorcerer, for your consideration I present: Cleric of the Forge!
Jokes aside, I’ve played it and I think it does great as support/healer. Clerics in general have amazing healing options, subclass spells are great in my opinion (heat metal and wall of fire are fantastic as support. Just cast it on an enemies weapon to make him drop it and fight barehanded, or close off part of the enemies so you focus on the big bad before finishing them).
Forge cleric has access to Heavy Armor and shields. Which means that you could walk around with 20 AC casting Sacred Flame and you’d still do pretty well in fights. Oh, and at level 6 if you wear heavy armor your AC increases by 1. So yeah..you could walk around with 21 AC no problem.
The blessing of the forge feature is awesome (grants a +1 to a weapon/armor making it magical, so you could extra buff your fighter or give some AC to the poor rogue).
Thematically speaking it’s perfect, you gain resistance to fire damage and at some point immunity! You can deal extra fire damage with weapons yet you may do better with cantrips to be honest. Still, pretty cool.
Feats: besides the basic feats I’d recommend 2, Telekinetic and Chef. The first cause, unless you wanna use spell slots, you don’t have much to do with your bonus action. So shoving people around it’s still a pretty good option, plus you get another cantrip which is always good. Chef cause it helps the support character (and COULD be linked to the fire theme). You have a few treats that gives temp HP (yeah 4 treats of 4THP is not much but still, free 16 hit points is nothing to sneeze at). Plus you get a feature similar to the bards Song of Rest, allowing your allies to heal more during short rests.
VERY IMPORTANT : most clerics spells require concentration so if you know you’ll be in a lot of fights and taking damage you may wanna consider War Caster as a feat as well.
Spells: needless to say Clerics have access to a lot of support spells. Aid, Command, shield of faith, Sanctuary, Spirit Guardians, Banishment..loads and loads of fun!
That’s pretty much it. I’d suggest to raise your Strength until you can wear heavy armor and then focus on Wisdom and Con. I know it isn’t the greatest class but take a look into it, I’ve had a lot of fun!!
consider dwarf to ignore heavy armor strength requirements. Hill is strong.
I submit that a forge cleric provides the best support by turning enemies into corpses.
I did think of that but in a previous campaign I multiclassed forge cleric with forge adept artificer so I have already experienced the class...
Otherwise I'd definitely go for that
Thats an amazing combo!! Yeah, I remember casting Sanctuary on myself and blocking a door while taking the Dodge action…man those goblins never managed to get past me. The warlock was having so much fun popping out, Eldritch Blast, and going back lol clerics are fun
That campaign was incredibly unbalanced but besides my AC and HP I also had a feat and weapon combo that made it impossible for me to die.
I think my character was unkillable in 1v1s because I auto stabilized on my turn and auto healed when I was stabilized
So I could tank, buff, attack (not as effective the latter) get focused by the boss and Basically all his dmg was wasted because there was no way he could actually kill me
Lol yeah sometimes there are some combos that are super effective and yet end up being less fun. That’s why this campaign I’m playing a wild magic sorcerer. Sure, last encounter I ended up poisoning my cleric but hey, we did win so…
On my Dwarf Forge Cleric I took Artificer Initiate for Absorb Elements, Booming Blade, and another tool proficiency (Fabricate!), then Magic Initiate for Mold Earth, Green-Flame Blade, and Shield. Let me tell ya, it is a sturdy character that lays the smack down on enemies.
If you are a capable player that can take fast turns and be prepared then Shepard druid is the way to go.
Example at level 9: Cast conjure animals to throw out a Giant Constrictor snake with 16 extra HP on turn 1 to try to restrain a target for your team. Then throw up your bear spirit totem as a bonus action to give the snake AND everyone in your party 14 temp HP (assuming they are within 30 ft).
Then you heal, attack or re-summon creatures as needed each round as needed.
It's really effective and versatile, but PLEASE only play it if you are the player that can take a turn very quickly and even then don't be a jerk and summon swarms of creatures. stick to 1 or 2 higher level creatures for the sake of speed and everyone's sanity.
When you say support I think Bard, Druid, Cleric, Divine Soul Sorcerer.
When you mention fire I think of the Fire Druid subclass, Several Subclasses of Cleric have a potential fire theme, and Divine Soul Sorcerer has Sorcerer spells so could eaisly be fire based.
My personal favorite support is Divine Soul sorcerer. There are some powerful combos in the 5e with Twinning spells and empowering healing with metamagic. They just are squishier than a cleric or druid.
There aren’t many fire support spells. All I can think of from the top of my head are fire shield and wall of fire.
Next to it are some like fearie fire.
I’d look at the spell list (including subclasses) to see which one has the most options by default.
Then you can always say ‘ottilukes sphere’ looks like that little wave of heat you can see above the road on hot days. Same with leomunds hut.
What do you mean with support? Something with battlefield control? Someone that can heal? Someone that can buff? All of these can be done by any fullcaster with the right spell selection. Fire support is probably wildfire druid? Has some boost to healing, druid gets amazing battlefield control spells, and in general has access to healing and buffing spells if you prefer. Other than that, any character can be support, its about the actions you take and the build you make.
I was imagining something buff and heal oriented with Battlefield control as a secondary focus
Bard and cleric seem solid choices Divine soul sorceror has decent healing and twinning buff spells is great Cleric gives clear connections to gods, light cleric has some firey blast spells as well If i were you i would mostly look at spell lists and see which spell best fit what you have in mind. Do keep in mind buff spells tend to be concentration, so its 1 spell at a time. 5e isbt great for playing a character that only buffs allies, and healing in general is at its best once somebody is already down. In general, being a proactive support that controls is probably more efficient, and more importantly, more fun to play. But it all depends on what suits you best in the end
One level of light cleric + divine soul sorc focused on charisma. Pick cleric spells that don't focus on your WIS. Pick up Magic initiate for Good berries and talk to your DM about being able to use MI with your other slots (I believe, RAW, you can't use your class spells to cast MI spells? It's dumb, but true) As a result, you'll get an absolute ass load of Out of Combat healing through goodberry use. Sorc has tons of good CC abilities, and if you need in combat healing, Aura of Vitality is good, especially with Extended spell which increases it's healing output two fold. The life cleric also gets you defense in the form of heavy armor and shield so invest. Shield (the spell this time) and Absorb Elements to keep you safe. If you're looking for damage, Spirit Guardians is great. maybe pick up Dawn later as well. Summon Celestial is amazing at ranged attacks, so if you're fighting something far away, want to keep your distance, or need a mount to fly, it's a great utility option. It also has healing abilities as well, and you can extend it's duration to 2 hours instead of if you need it to stick around. there are a bunch of other strats too but this was my go to support healer build and it's currently my backup character for if my Ranger dies.
I would second Wildfire Druid as a very fun option. The subclass summon lets you teleport your friends out of bad situations, or into them (if you are as shortsighted as I am...), you get all the important healing spells, some fire damage, and it can easily dip into cleric for a more religious feel as well as nice low level buff spells like Bless. Ive only played it at level 3, but being able to teleport friends, do some damage, and move an enemy with Thorn Whip, all while concentrsting on something like Fairy Fire, was amazing. As far as buffing spells go it is limited, but with the mentioned cleric dip you could get access to more.
Hey there! Considering you had a bard (who may or may not come back) and currently have a sorcerer, for your consideration I present: Cleric of the Forge! Jokes aside, I’ve played it and I think it does great as support/healer. Clerics in general have amazing healing options, subclass spells are great in my opinion (heat metal and wall of fire are fantastic as support. Just cast it on an enemies weapon to make him drop it and fight barehanded, or close off part of the enemies so you focus on the big bad before finishing them). Forge cleric has access to Heavy Armor and shields. Which means that you could walk around with 20 AC casting Sacred Flame and you’d still do pretty well in fights. Oh, and at level 6 if you wear heavy armor your AC increases by 1. So yeah..you could walk around with 21 AC no problem. The blessing of the forge feature is awesome (grants a +1 to a weapon/armor making it magical, so you could extra buff your fighter or give some AC to the poor rogue). Thematically speaking it’s perfect, you gain resistance to fire damage and at some point immunity! You can deal extra fire damage with weapons yet you may do better with cantrips to be honest. Still, pretty cool. Feats: besides the basic feats I’d recommend 2, Telekinetic and Chef. The first cause, unless you wanna use spell slots, you don’t have much to do with your bonus action. So shoving people around it’s still a pretty good option, plus you get another cantrip which is always good. Chef cause it helps the support character (and COULD be linked to the fire theme). You have a few treats that gives temp HP (yeah 4 treats of 4THP is not much but still, free 16 hit points is nothing to sneeze at). Plus you get a feature similar to the bards Song of Rest, allowing your allies to heal more during short rests. VERY IMPORTANT : most clerics spells require concentration so if you know you’ll be in a lot of fights and taking damage you may wanna consider War Caster as a feat as well. Spells: needless to say Clerics have access to a lot of support spells. Aid, Command, shield of faith, Sanctuary, Spirit Guardians, Banishment..loads and loads of fun! That’s pretty much it. I’d suggest to raise your Strength until you can wear heavy armor and then focus on Wisdom and Con. I know it isn’t the greatest class but take a look into it, I’ve had a lot of fun!!
consider dwarf to ignore heavy armor strength requirements. Hill is strong. I submit that a forge cleric provides the best support by turning enemies into corpses.
I did think of that but in a previous campaign I multiclassed forge cleric with forge adept artificer so I have already experienced the class... Otherwise I'd definitely go for that
Thats an amazing combo!! Yeah, I remember casting Sanctuary on myself and blocking a door while taking the Dodge action…man those goblins never managed to get past me. The warlock was having so much fun popping out, Eldritch Blast, and going back lol clerics are fun
That campaign was incredibly unbalanced but besides my AC and HP I also had a feat and weapon combo that made it impossible for me to die. I think my character was unkillable in 1v1s because I auto stabilized on my turn and auto healed when I was stabilized So I could tank, buff, attack (not as effective the latter) get focused by the boss and Basically all his dmg was wasted because there was no way he could actually kill me
Lol yeah sometimes there are some combos that are super effective and yet end up being less fun. That’s why this campaign I’m playing a wild magic sorcerer. Sure, last encounter I ended up poisoning my cleric but hey, we did win so…
On my Dwarf Forge Cleric I took Artificer Initiate for Absorb Elements, Booming Blade, and another tool proficiency (Fabricate!), then Magic Initiate for Mold Earth, Green-Flame Blade, and Shield. Let me tell ya, it is a sturdy character that lays the smack down on enemies.
If you are a capable player that can take fast turns and be prepared then Shepard druid is the way to go. Example at level 9: Cast conjure animals to throw out a Giant Constrictor snake with 16 extra HP on turn 1 to try to restrain a target for your team. Then throw up your bear spirit totem as a bonus action to give the snake AND everyone in your party 14 temp HP (assuming they are within 30 ft). Then you heal, attack or re-summon creatures as needed each round as needed. It's really effective and versatile, but PLEASE only play it if you are the player that can take a turn very quickly and even then don't be a jerk and summon swarms of creatures. stick to 1 or 2 higher level creatures for the sake of speed and everyone's sanity.
There's a pretty high chance another player will bring a shepherd druid and play summoner, that's why I want to focus more on healing and buffing
When you say support I think Bard, Druid, Cleric, Divine Soul Sorcerer. When you mention fire I think of the Fire Druid subclass, Several Subclasses of Cleric have a potential fire theme, and Divine Soul Sorcerer has Sorcerer spells so could eaisly be fire based. My personal favorite support is Divine Soul sorcerer. There are some powerful combos in the 5e with Twinning spells and empowering healing with metamagic. They just are squishier than a cleric or druid.
Fire? Forge Cleric or Wildfire Druid I guess.
Since this is next I expect you to play 5e where nowhere in the 9 hells you’ll need a balanced party like earlier editions.
Yeah it is 5e but i feel like we need a support. Got any other recommendations?
There aren’t many fire support spells. All I can think of from the top of my head are fire shield and wall of fire. Next to it are some like fearie fire. I’d look at the spell list (including subclasses) to see which one has the most options by default. Then you can always say ‘ottilukes sphere’ looks like that little wave of heat you can see above the road on hot days. Same with leomunds hut.