Most classes can be built to fill a party support or battlefield control niche in one form or another. What's your favorite? Feel free to provide a little bit of detail about the mechanics and play style of your build. I love playing very tactically-minded support characters, so I'm curious what y'all can come up with.
A Battlemaster, especially one using a Ranged Weapon like a Longbow or a Reach Melee Weapon like a Halberd, can exert incredible control over the battlefield. Pushing enemies to clear lanes, tripping enemies to buff an entire round of party attacks against them, disarming them (more useful in conjunction with a push), these are all very useful control abilities, before you even start to talk about the ability to overtly maneuver your allies as well. Has access to Frightened, which while not quite as strong of a soft debuff+hard control as Restrained, is much more flexible in its use.
A grapple-specializing build can be a very fun way to do single-target lockdown (or even two-target lockdown, in a stretch). With a couple of relatively innocuous-seeming concessions from your DM about some RAW-fuzzy mechanics, you can actually use movement to inflict Prone and damage on grappled creatures via jumping and causing your dragged enemy to fall, but even without supplex shenanigans a grappling rogue can be built to still have a fair DPR output, in addition to its control functions.
A Warlock investing in the various Invocations that add pushes, pulls, and slows to their Eldritch Blast can do a lot to shape the battlefield as they like it, especially if combined with Darkness bubble shenanigans. Breaking line of site for enemy spellcasters, maneuvering enemies into and out of OA range for other party members, throwing enemies into hazards, and threatening miles of open battlefield while a distant enemy tries to advance under withering fire are all easy tricks a Warlock can do without significantly optimizing them away from their core class functions. If your DM ever allows you to play an Aarakocra Warlock, they were asking for it!
A halfling luck-o-mancer (Divination Wizard) is a fun control caster, because you can not only control the success of enemies and allies, but the DM themself! Nothing matches the heady rush of absolute control that comes with being able to smugly deliver: "Actually, that doesn't happen, because..."
At very very high level, a Cavalier leaning into reach weapons and Sentinel becomes an unrivaled force of zone control. Pop an Enlarge on them, and watch as a 40x40 zone of control in the middle of the battlefield becomes just completely unnavigable to any mere mortal trying to pass through it!
A Conquest Paladin is also a tremendous controller with all the amazing benefits provided the class chassis.
However, I don’t think any class can beat a Wizard in terms of utility and versatility. You can completely change the course of combat by simply controlling movement and positioning with Create Bonfire.
I play a Lord Bard in one campaign at this time. He supports the party typically by casting Bane to debuff a small group of enemies at the start of combat. He will cast Dissonant Whispers that causes an opponent to flee which gives us opportunity attacks, which might take an important monster out of the fight. He uses silence and invisibility to help our rogue. He uses Cutting Words to cause the BBEGs attack to just miss, keeping our rogue in the fight a bit longer. And when we level to level 6 and I get magical secrets I will get Counterspell and Thunder Step. The first spell should need no explanation, but the second spell will also allow me to rescue the rogue when he gets himself in over his head, which happens frequently in our game. He also gets Song of Rest to help the party between fights. Finally he gets Jack of All Trades, which helps him be the best at several skill checks that don't fit into anyone's niche. If he runs out of spells he can cast Vicious Mockery, which might cause a small amount of damage, but also causes the monster to attack at disadvantage on his next attack, which is often worth a miss. Remember, cutting words is powered by the bard's inspiration and is a reaction, which helps get more out of him each round. - Good luck.
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Most classes can be built to fill a party support or battlefield control niche in one form or another. What's your favorite? Feel free to provide a little bit of detail about the mechanics and play style of your build. I love playing very tactically-minded support characters, so I'm curious what y'all can come up with.
A Battlemaster, especially one using a Ranged Weapon like a Longbow or a Reach Melee Weapon like a Halberd, can exert incredible control over the battlefield. Pushing enemies to clear lanes, tripping enemies to buff an entire round of party attacks against them, disarming them (more useful in conjunction with a push), these are all very useful control abilities, before you even start to talk about the ability to overtly maneuver your allies as well. Has access to Frightened, which while not quite as strong of a soft debuff+hard control as Restrained, is much more flexible in its use.
A grapple-specializing build can be a very fun way to do single-target lockdown (or even two-target lockdown, in a stretch). With a couple of relatively innocuous-seeming concessions from your DM about some RAW-fuzzy mechanics, you can actually use movement to inflict Prone and damage on grappled creatures via jumping and causing your dragged enemy to fall, but even without supplex shenanigans a grappling rogue can be built to still have a fair DPR output, in addition to its control functions.
A Warlock investing in the various Invocations that add pushes, pulls, and slows to their Eldritch Blast can do a lot to shape the battlefield as they like it, especially if combined with Darkness bubble shenanigans. Breaking line of site for enemy spellcasters, maneuvering enemies into and out of OA range for other party members, throwing enemies into hazards, and threatening miles of open battlefield while a distant enemy tries to advance under withering fire are all easy tricks a Warlock can do without significantly optimizing them away from their core class functions. If your DM ever allows you to play an Aarakocra Warlock, they were asking for it!
A halfling luck-o-mancer (Divination Wizard) is a fun control caster, because you can not only control the success of enemies and allies, but the DM themself! Nothing matches the heady rush of absolute control that comes with being able to smugly deliver: "Actually, that doesn't happen, because..."
At very very high level, a Cavalier leaning into reach weapons and Sentinel becomes an unrivaled force of zone control. Pop an Enlarge on them, and watch as a 40x40 zone of control in the middle of the battlefield becomes just completely unnavigable to any mere mortal trying to pass through it!
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
I think Chicken_Champ summarized really well.
A Conquest Paladin is also a tremendous controller with all the amazing benefits provided the class chassis.
However, I don’t think any class can beat a Wizard in terms of utility and versatility. You can completely change the course of combat by simply controlling movement and positioning with Create Bonfire.
I play a Lord Bard in one campaign at this time. He supports the party typically by casting Bane to debuff a small group of enemies at the start of combat. He will cast Dissonant Whispers that causes an opponent to flee which gives us opportunity attacks, which might take an important monster out of the fight. He uses silence and invisibility to help our rogue. He uses Cutting Words to cause the BBEGs attack to just miss, keeping our rogue in the fight a bit longer. And when we level to level 6 and I get magical secrets I will get Counterspell and Thunder Step. The first spell should need no explanation, but the second spell will also allow me to rescue the rogue when he gets himself in over his head, which happens frequently in our game. He also gets Song of Rest to help the party between fights. Finally he gets Jack of All Trades, which helps him be the best at several skill checks that don't fit into anyone's niche. If he runs out of spells he can cast Vicious Mockery, which might cause a small amount of damage, but also causes the monster to attack at disadvantage on his next attack, which is often worth a miss. Remember, cutting words is powered by the bard's inspiration and is a reaction, which helps get more out of him each round. - Good luck.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt