[RPG] What’s the name of the role of characters who buff teammates

partysystem-agnosticterminology

In a RPG party, if

  • Tank → Front line in case the party should be dealt damage

  • Damage Dealer → Deals damage to enemies

  • Healer → Heals teammates

  • etc.

… what's the name of the role for the character that buffs teammates (using spells or auras)?

Best Answer

The term I have heard the most would be Support, as it is their role to assist the other party members.

While in a lot of system Healers double as Supports, or Supports double as Healers, they're not the same thing. It highly depends on the system, though.


For demonstration of these terms: My next character in an upcoming Pathfinder campaign is a "Rogue oriented Heal and Support". Using this exact phrasing got the message across to the group.

Of course, and I can not stress this enough, it highly depends on the system. Support is kind of a generic name to designate a lot of different things.

Healers can be considered support, and are perhaps the most essential and wide represented "sub-specialization"... Until you use a setting where there is no Healer.

Skill Monkeys in D&D/Pathfinder are "enablers" (thanks @Mast for the term - very fitting), and could be considered as Support. But I rarely saw the term Skill Monkey outside of those systems.

So yes, Support is a voluntarily broad term, that might encompass other things - but it suits the description (someone giving buff is a Support) and is commonly used enough for people to understand the role you want to play.