D&D 5E Class for Pacifist

[Bob_no_Oni]

Greetings again friends,

I had another question now. I am looking at a class that would work well for a pacifist character. I figured out a way to do so within the bounds of the game (and with a code of conduct befitting to a pacifist). However, I was wondering which class you thought would be the best for this? I am looking for certain area's, such as battlefield control and healing. As such, I am thinking either Druid or Cleric would be best so far. Any other suggestions? Thank you again in advance for the help.

 

[Orlax]

Greetings again friends,

I had another question now. I am looking at a class that would work well for a pacifist character. I figured out a way to do so within the bounds of the game (and with a code of conduct befitting to a pacifist). However, I was wondering which class you thought would be the best for this? I am looking for certain area's, such as battlefield control and healing. As such, I am thinking either Druid or Cleric would be best so far. Any other suggestions? Thank you again in advance for the help.

Sorc, wild mage, use nothing but teleportation (like misty step or dimension door) and protection effects (like mage armor and shield). Make sure you will get surges often (a discussion to be had with the DM, my DM has me surge any time he has the authority to do so, and had me roll for every spell cast resulting in some double surges). Blink around the map attempting to avoid combat, but hoping your wild surge will bring something useful to the table. Your character is still technically a pacifist but they're magic sometimes hurts people even though that's not what they were trying to do.

Nah for real though druid is likely your best option and any spell you use to control will likely also deal damage, so being a pacifist in that case is incredibly difficult. However druid gets a good number of buff and protection spells and using those is likely in your best interest to ride that pacifism line.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Rogue.

* The new mastermind subclass lets you use the Helping action at a range of 30'.
* You have a wide variety of skills, that are of exceptional use out of combat.
* With a melee attack, you have the option to Knock a Creature Out rather than kill them (PHB 198). With sneak attack damage, you are more likely to be the one to bring your target to zero hp and keep the alive than anyone else.
* at level 4 (or level 1 with a variant human) the Healer feat lets you be very efficient with healing.

I know it's not battlefield control, but I think it would be a very useful character to have in the party.

 

[jayoungr]

Bard, maybe? Bardic inspiration feels like a form of battlefield control because it increases effectiveness in whatever area is needed. Go College of Lore and choose debuffing/healing/utility spells.

Also, when you say a pacifist character, do you mean one who prefers not to fight personally, or one who will be upset if others fight and refuse to help them in combat? That makes a big difference in the options available.

 

[Sacrosanct]

In 2e they used the cleric for this. There was a pacifist priest kit in the Complete Book of Clerics. A lot of choices there, with all the curing, protection, and sustenance spells.

 

[der_kluge]

I tried playing a pacifist character years ago. I think it was some sort of cleric, and probably used the 2nd edition cleric template that Sacrosanct was referencing. It ended up being kind of impossible to play. As I recall, the party was attacked by orcs in the forest, and round after round had me running around trying to avoid damage, and not actually injure any of the orcs. In a party of 3 people, that was pretty spectacularly bad.

I'd advise against it. Really. D&D is about killing things and taking their stuff. If you avoid step #1, you'll never get to step #2. Plus you'll be in a party that's all about step #1, and then what kind of pacifist are you, really, if you're in a party that does it all the time?

The better approach might be to have an ethos against killing. I'm not familiar with 5th edition rules well enough, but previous editions had a "subdual" damage mechanism. Use a club, or something that will stun. And beat your opponents into submission. Your character could have an aversion to blood, and you could become good at crowd control type effects, as well as things like tripping, stunning, etc. You'd still be able to help every round, but still have a kill count of zero. Then, after the combat, you could role-play your desire to tie up the bandits, instead of slitting their throats, or express your intention of turning them into the proper authorities, or whatever.

 

[Bob_no_Oni]

The main thing is, there are different ideals of pacifism. The one I am dealing with is based on an interpretation of Ahimsa from Indian philosophy that allows for violence when used in self-defense. As such, I would be able to attack anyone who attacked me, but would be unable to attack (directly damage) anyone that attacked the rest of the party. In fact, the dogma for Eldath allows for this exact thing also. I am not talking about pure (or absolute) pacifism.

 

[Greg K]

I'd advise against it. Really. D&D is about killing things and taking their stuff.

No, originally, it was about avoiding fighting whenever possible while finding a way to still take their stuff. Since the 80's it has expanded to be many different things and what depends upon the group.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Good call on the rogue/mastermind choice, Kobold Stew!

For my part, I’d go with cleric or bard, but those tend to be my go-to classes anyway. I’ve thought about trying out a pacifist character – 5e does give you a lot of support options. But I also know myself and know that I enjoy combat a whole lot.

As a DM, I tend to get mildly irked when PCs just knock everyone out. Because then we’ve got to deal with the question of “what do we do with our prisoners?” It’s fine once in a while, but gets old after a while. Sometimes Orc #7 is just a random mook.

 

[mellored]

Lore Bard is probably the best for what you seem to have in mind. Good non-damage control (sleep, hypnotic pattern), skills for talking your way past battles, cutting words can be flavored as a plea for peace, and access to all the key healing.

Valor bards can grapple people, and use weapons to deal non-lethal damage, plus the other bard stuff.

Life cleric is an obvious choice for pacifist. Take the healing spells, boost Con to 20, put sanctuary on yourself, and you can never do any offensive thing and still not be a waste of space. My not be enough battle field control though.

Knowledge cleric can also work, with a little more control and skills, but still access to all the good healing spells.

Trickery cleric is another possibility. Good at temporary distractions, letting your party slip by and free the damsel while the guards chase your shadow.

Wizard (any but evocation or necromancy) also have plenty of non-damaging control effects and a bunch of utility. Though lack healing.