Here's some options, in no particular order. They're not mutually exclusive either.
Become a Fighter or Paladin, take Protection Fighting Style to protect adjacent party members.
Become a Cavalier Fighter specifically, use your shield for Warding Maneuver to protect adjacent party members.
Take the Shield Master feat. It lets you reduce damage from spells like Fireball if you succeed on the save, and knock enemies prone after attacking (though this can be inconvenient if your party has many ranged attackers)
In addition to the Protection Fighting Style and Shield Master feat, talk to your DM about using the shield as an improvised weapon that deals damage.
Personally, I'm going to recommend a strength-primary character, instead of dexterity, since smashing with a shield and using Shield Master generally lends itself to high Strength builds to take advantage of that bonus action shoving. While the +x bonus to Dex saves is nice, no matter your character's direction, the number of times it comes up is pretty small - I count only a handful of monsters with single-target Dex saves - the most common of which are drow clerics with the whips, and beholder variants. And the reaction to negate all damage is less useful than you'd think, as it conflicts with your Protection FS. So, you'll have to balance if you want to protect a team mate, or if you're going to gamble on a Dex save coming up this turn.
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I am looking to play a fighter that is mainly focused on protecting others with shields and potentially use shields as weapons.
Feel free to throw any ideas my way as i'm kind of lost in which direction to go.
If you have any general tips on how to use shields please also give me some advice.
Open to multiclass and homebrew ideas.
Race: Eladrin
Point buy
Here's some options, in no particular order. They're not mutually exclusive either.
In addition to the Protection Fighting Style and Shield Master feat, talk to your DM about using the shield as an improvised weapon that deals damage.
Personally, I'm going to recommend a strength-primary character, instead of dexterity, since smashing with a shield and using Shield Master generally lends itself to high Strength builds to take advantage of that bonus action shoving. While the +x bonus to Dex saves is nice, no matter your character's direction, the number of times it comes up is pretty small - I count only a handful of monsters with single-target Dex saves - the most common of which are drow clerics with the whips, and beholder variants. And the reaction to negate all damage is less useful than you'd think, as it conflicts with your Protection FS. So, you'll have to balance if you want to protect a team mate, or if you're going to gamble on a Dex save coming up this turn.