D&D 5E Arcana Cleric: Arcane Mastery (17th level) picks

[Sorry, I meant to post this in the Optimization forum. Mods, could you please move it? Thanks. -Max]

I loaned away my copy of SCAG this week, but my memory tells me that Arcana Clerics at 17th level get to pick one spell off the wizard list for each of 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th level spells. What picks would make it worth it to go Arcana cleric?

My initial thoughts:

9th: either Wish or True Polymorph, depending on whether you'd rather have an army or spell versatility. Wish is less mandatory for a cleric than a sorcerer or bard, because clerics already get to prepare different spells every day, so I'm kind of leaning towards True Polymorph. True Polymorph gets you an army either by creating creatures and finding ways to bring them to your side (Persuasion/bribes/Geas/etc.), or by just straight-up Polymorphing into a Shadow Dragon and murdering a great whacking lot of peasants who then turn into Shadows under your permanent control. (BBEG-only stuff there, not for heroes.) However, Wish does free up your 6th/7th/8th level picks.

6th: Magic Jar so you can take possession of a werebear or weretiger for immunity to normal weapons and more HP. If you took Wish already then this doesn't matter, maybe take Globe of Invulnerability instead.

7th: Simulacrum probably. If you took Wish already then this doesn't matter, maybe take Reverse Gravity or Teleport instead.

8th: Not sure. Maybe Clone or Demiplane? If you took Wish already then this doesn't matter, can take Maze instead.

As you can see, my bias is towards proactive problem-solving in a Combat As War style, not reactive countermeasures. My preferred approach to a problem is to sit safely at home while my simulacrum ( in a werebear's body) leads an assault on the enemy fortress, under cover of darkness and with a battalion of peasant Shadows and several Planar Bound Invisible Stalkers and Earth Elementals for taking out enemy champions. I'll watch the whole thing by Scrying on my simulacrum.

Admittedly this does raise the question of "Why be a Arcana cleric at all instead of just a wizard?" I don't have an answer for that, am currently just exploring the idea of Arcana clerics.

It's actually the 18th level ability, but you were close enough.

While normally taking Wish would sound like a good idea, it's more risky for an Arcana Cleric than a Wizard or Sorcerer. If you end up unable to cast it again, then your 9th level domain spell is wasted forever. For a Wizard, they could just prepare something else instead. For a Sorcerer, they could just switch it out at the next level-up. However, the Arcana Cleric is stuck with a spell they can't cast anymore for all eternity.

As for what spells to put in those slots, I haven't the slightest clue what to do for my own Arcana Cleric. The reason is because I have no reasonable expectations of getting there any time soon, therefore it's not really in my thoughts. Once I get to 17th level, then I'll start weighing my options. I normally don't make plans for builds beyond 10th-12th level. Games never really get further than that.

I assume that you wouldn't ever cast Wish in its risky configuration. You'd just use it as an all-purpose Anyspell. That's exactly what I would do as a wizard or a sorcerer, too. 25,000 gold is not worth the risk of losing Anyspell.

Forgot that the losing the spell part only applied to the alternate Wish effects. In that case, Wish should be your go-to 9th level spell. Anyspell>True Polymorph any day of the week.

Contingency is a good choice for the 6th level slot. Contingency + 5th level Cure Wounds for if you drop below 1/4 HP.

As for the rest of the domain spells, it really varies by what type of Arcana Cleric you're playing. Finger of Death allows you to build a zombie army, one day at a time. Teleport is a good choice for utility.

Oh yes, good one. Contingency: Revivify has good potential too.

Foresight or Wish.

Doesn't Divine Intervention already cover most of the things you'd use Wish for?

cbwjm said:

Once I hit 17th level, I'd probably end up with some blasty type spells, or spells that kind of follow the theme of the domain spells (I'm not a great optimiser).

6: Contingency or Globe of invulnerability
7: Teleport
8: Dominate Monster or Feeblemind (Didn't that used to be 4th level?)
9: Most likely Wish, but I'd also consider timestop or Meteor Swarm

Click to expand...

I believe Dominate and Feeblemind were both 5th level in 2nd edition. The change for Feeblemind is justified though by the fact that Feeblemind is now almost impossible to save against for anybody except a wizard. Dragons, clerics, Pit Fiends, warlocks, lore bards... all of them pretty much stink at Int saves.

I have recently been linked to this thread and I see plety of things that don't make sense to me.

First of, imagine a DM that doesn't let Divine Intervention restore stress-effect caused by casting Wish (even though Divine Intervention can copy Wish which can force reroll - RAW/RAI legal)....
Imagined? Yup, it's the same douche that says casters are OP, when a basic fighter deals 90 DPR with 15% chance for an insta-kill (Vorpal Sword; double both with an action surge.)

Second of, why would you take teleport? The biggest use this spell has is to run away, which you can already do with Word of Recall a level 6 spell (which is awesome BTW, since you can use it across dimensions as well, so it's arguably even better than teleport).

Note: Here is my original thread http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...-choose-arcana-cleric-spells-(Arcane-Mastery)

Hi ghostofchristmaspast,

RE: Wish, I'm not clear on what your question is. What specifically in this thread doesn't make sense? Are you saying that it doesn't make sense to take Wish? Or it doesn't make sense to take Wish?

RE: Teleport, you'd take it for the utility. Word of Recall only lets you run away. Teleport lets you go visit new places (either for fun or because you want to do scry-and-die tactics). Reverse Gravity is more of an in-combat usage. In both cases I'm clearly brainstorming for ideas, instead of advocating them as clearly superior picks, because really, once you have Wish, Teleport becomes pretty situational.

I believe my final conclusion was "I can't think of a really good reason to play an Arcana cleric instead of just a wizard."