Death Cleric Build

I'm working on a Death Cleric build. The campaign won't start for several months, but I like building characters. We're at about the midway point of our current campaign. I'm playing a sword & board Battle Master and I'm having a blast with it. This is our second 5e campaign. I'm working my way through the iconic D&D classes. The first campaign, I was a wizard. I built him and played him as a controller. Throw that Wall of Force, back out of the room, smoke cigarettes in the hallway. Good times. The second campaign, our current campaign, I'm playing a fighter. Kicking butt. I love the Battle Master. Next up: cleric.

Now, I'm not very fond of playing clerics, generally. Perhaps you know how it is. Historically, my favorite classes have been first wizard and second fighter. So it sort of feels like I've had back to back desserts and now I must eat my vegetables. But, you know, every party needs a healer, and I sort of feel like it's part of the social contract to take my turn in the cassock every few campaigns. Bring enlightenment to the heathens. My last cleric was a 4e pacifist cleric. The campaign lasted 18 months. Yeah.

I belong to what one might call an old school, grognard kind of a D&D group. The core of the group has been playing together for about 35 years, some of us for longer than that. We play a very combat oriented game. Our DM enjoys the occasional killing. The night isn't really a success unless someone has had to make at least one death save. And level 1 is particularly brutal. We often lose a character at level 1. So when you build your character, you build him to survive level 1.

Are you still with me? Let's talk about the cleric build. I'm not going for a pacifist cleric this time. I'm going the other way. Hence the death cleric. He's very forward leaning for a man of the cloth. And I like to play tactical, mobile characters. This subclass has real potential in that direction.

So, we start off with a level of fighter, for the Constitution proficiency, the fighting style and the Second Wind. You know, to get through level 1. But then we switch to cleric, because, well, the party is whining a lot and they're still kinda sore about that guy who died in the first session. I kid. We happen to have a blaster wizard who's starting off with a couple of levels of Tempest cleric, so while they will be sore about the session 1 killing, they won't be sore at me. Alas, that bard really showed promise.

Let's skip to level 2:

Human (variant) Fighter 1 / Cleric 1 Lawful Neutral
Feat: Resilient -- Wisdom
Background: Hermit
Languages: Common, Celestial
Str 8, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 8, Wis 16, Cha 8
Fighting Style: Defense
Second Wind
Cleric Domain: Death
Cleric 1 feature: Reaper
AC:19 HP: 21
Spell Attack: +5
Ranged Weapon Attack: +5
Ranged Weapon Damage: +3
Skills: Athletics +1, Perception +5, Medicine +5, Religion +1
Scale armor: 14 AC +2 Dex
Shield: +2 AC
Rapier: 1d8+3
Hand Crossbow: 1d6+3
Cantrips: Chill Touch, Spare the Dying, Sacred Flame, Light
Domain Spells: False Life, Ray of Sickness
Spells Prepared: Cure Wounds, Healing Word, Bless, Inflict Wounds

What am I leaving out? I think that's everything. I hope my improvised format is acceptable.

You may have noticed that the ability score allocation is Min/Max/Max/Min/Max/Min. I don't think I've ever done that before in all my years of D&D. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. But, in this case, it just seems to make sense. The Charisma will bite me at some point, but oh well.

So, it's a Dex build. Obviously, I could have gone Strength. I have the heavy armor proficiency. But I'm not looking for a front line guy here. The cleric's primary job is to stay up and dish out heals. Mobile and tactical.

Besides, the developers built an interesting quandary into the death cleric. He gets martial weapons but medium armor. His offensive features say melee. His equipment says ranged. His channel divinity, Touch of Death , starts out fairly decent and scales well ahead of the average 5e progression curve, but it's a melee attack. He gets a Divine Strike, which works on a weapon attack. I know, it can be a ranged weapon. But work with me here. I'm trying to paint a picture. The death cleric gets no party buff features, no healing frills, so to do my main job competently, I have to get hands on with my fellow party members, yet I'm properly equipped to lurk in the foliage. An interesting challenge, the sort that calls for a mobile, tactical kind of character.

Why ruin that by converting it to a tank?

Now, I have the build all charted out in table format, but I'll spare you wall of numbers and instead just talk through the progression.

• After one level of fighter, we take four levels of cleric to get to the first ability score bump.
• At cleric level 4 (character level 5) we put 2 points in Wisdom (18).
• Then two more levels of cleric to get that second Channel Divinity, which is building, building.
• Character level 8 is a second single level dip into fighter to acquire Action Surge.
• Then two more levels of cleric for another 2 points in Wisdom (20).
• Character level 11 is our third and final single level dip into fighter, for Battle Master.
• Then it's cleric levels to the bitter end.
• At cleric 12 (character 15) we take the Mobile feat.
• At cleric 16 (character 19) we take War Caster or something.
• At character 20 the cleric tops out with Destroy Undead (CR 4) and Improved Reaper

Here's a level 11 snapshot:

Human (variant) Fighter 3 / Cleric 8 Lawful Neutral
Feat: Resilient -- Wisdom
Background: Hermit
Languages: Common, Celestial
Str 8, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 8, Wis 20, Cha 8
Fighting Style: Defense
Second Wind
Action Surge
Battle Master: Commander's Strike, Evasive Footwork, Parry
Cleric Domain: Death
Cleric features: Reaper, Channel Divinity/Touch of Death, Inescapable Destruction,
Destroy Undead (CR 1), Divine Strike 1d8
AC:19 HP: 95
Spell Attack: +9
Ranged Weapon Attack: +7
Ranged Weapon Damage: +3
Skills: Athletics +3, Perception +9, Medicine +9, Religion +3
Scale armor: 14 AC +2 Dex
Shield: +2 AC
Rapier: 1d8+3
Hand Crossbow: 1d6+3
Cantrips: Chill Touch, Spare the Dying, Sacred Flame, Light
Domain Spells: False Life, Ray of Sickness, Blindness/Deafness, Ray of Enfeeblement,
Animate Dead, Vampiric Touch, Blight, Death Ward
Spells Prepared: Cure Wounds, Healing Word, Bless, Inflict Wounds and a whole lot more

Hopefully, I got the arithmetic right.

Battle Master is really made for Strength build melee fighters, or at least someone who is fond of wielding a weapon, but I got a lot of good use out of Commander's Strike with my 4e tactical warlord. The lads will like it. Evasive Footwork builds on the tactical mobility theme (and is fun). And Parry is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

I have given the first four levels of cleric spells some study. There is plenty to like. The one that doesn't seem to get the love it deserves is Magic Circle. Maybe it's just me. My DM likes undead. And my death cleric is going to be a bit of an anti-undead crusader. So, hopefully, we'll be mixing it up with a lot of undead. We'll see.

My death cleric's got a heart breaking backstory where he was forced to put down his small but freshly undead children. After losing his family to marauding undead, he lived for years as a half mad (Cha 8) recluse in the woods (Hermit background), subsisting on a calorie poor diet of berries and twigs (Str 8), until one night he was called in his dreams by the Raven Queen (LN) to dedicate himself to guarding the passage between life and death, making sure that the dead stay dead and the living stayed living. At the moment, I'm calling him Constantine (Keanu Reeves).

He's not going to be casting that Animate Dead domain spell any time soon. What was the Raven Queen thinking? (Int 8)

There ya go. For a grognard, that's a whole lot o' backstory. Now I have to go lie down.

So, this guy looks like he'll be fun to play. Lots of moving parts. He isn't a straight cleric. Cleric isn't getting the full, unadorned 20 level treatment that I gave to my wizard and am giving now to my fighter, but, hey, have you seen how many cleric levels there are where the progression is kinda nadda? I like characters who do stuff. A spellcaster with Action Surge and Battle Master maneuvers will have plenty of stuff to do. And yes, you can cast two spells in one turn according to Jeremy Crawford. It's the bonus action that gets you in trouble.

The three levels of fighter means I miss out on the death cleric capstone and the two levels that proceed it. The only thing that really smarts is the third Channel Divinity per rest. But I'm getting 10 levels of Battle Master maneuvers as compensation, so it seems like a good trade. I'm looking forward to dancing this guy across the grid.

So there we are. Please give me some feedback. I'm sure this concept can be improved, and I'd like to hear your ideas.

Hopefully I have not run on way too long. (Who am I kidding?) This is my first post to these boards, though apparently I've had the account for 11 years. So, uh, hi there. My name is Alatar.

edit: fixed some numbers, gilded a lilly

Have you thought of monk of the long death instead of fighter to go with the theme

Sent from my XT1095 using Tapatalk

No need to quote the entire thing, either quote bits that are relevant or don't quote.

Anyway, I support the idea of going Monk, but only for the first level. Death Cleric really wants to stay in house for their Channel Divinity.

Regardless, there are certain spells a Death Cleric really wants. Spiritual Weapon is amazing. It's a melee attack, so it works with your CD, but it's at an impressive range. Vampyric Touch, which you've already picked up on, can give you a massive health boost when used with your CD.

Consider Magic Initiate (Druid) for Shillelagh and Thorn Whip, allowing you a ranged melee attack (with slight re-positioning if you want to boot), and for your regular attacks to key off of your Wisdom score. In fact, I'd recommend taking it as your racial feat if you're not going to be starting Monk (since while Unarmored Defense is good (and thematic!), Martial Arts grants a bonus action attack with only your unarmed strike, and so wouldn't key off of Wisdom).

Don't worry about capstones, no printed campaign makes it to level 20 anyway.

If you don't mind not learning higher level spells, you can take 5 levels of ranger, you have the stats for it, and your spell slots will still be decent. And you learn Ranger spells like Goodberry and Hunter's Mark.

Goodberry is an amazing heal spell. Before each long rest you can use up all your spell slots creating berries that last for 24 hours. Great for healing after fights.

Picking up a Fighting style won't hurt. You can hang back blasting things with your bow while spiritual weapon moves in to land your Death Domain channel divinities. Your bow attack can benefit from both the 1d8 necrotic and the 1d8 from Hunter around character level 14 or so.

I think the level of Fighter might be superfluous. You could have started as ranger or cleric and taken Resilient Constitution.

hejtmane said:

Have you thought of monk of the long death instead of fighter to go with the theme

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I hadn't thought of that at all. Actually, I've never played a monk. We did run an Oriental Adventures campaign once, back in 3e, but I went with a Vanara Wu Jen on that occasion. That campaign was a bit of a departure for us. We otherwise have almost always played in a homebrew world that loosely hews to the western european fantasy tropes. I originally got into this game to play Gandalf. Still hasn't happened. I also tend to view with suspicion any race or class that didn't make its appearance in 1st edition AD&D. It's part of the deal. There are bylaws for grognards. I did play a goliath once. Hoo, wild times!

Posturing aside, the first thing that strikes me about the monk is that it gets Dexterity proficiency. I rather like that. It builds on a strength and fills a hole in the current construction. But no Wisdom and no Constitution. Those are the two ability proficiencies that directly bolster my spellcasting. I can cover one with Resilient, but not both. War Caster would prop up the Con. But now I'm at two feats for core competencies.

OK, I've overstated that. Wisdom proficiency is not a cleric spellcasting core competency. But it is a saving throw core competency and it supports Medicine and Perception. I really wanna have it. I don't want the other clerics sniggering behind my back.

The monk gets Insight, which will be more useful to me than Religion, given the character's state of idiocy. But no Perception. That's a knock against the monk. My DM employs both skills in his games, Athletics and Perception. I could go looking for Perception in the backgrounds, but I'm already getting Medicine from the Hermit, the only background that features it. I'm not going to concoct a custom background (Hawkeyed Medicine Man). I've already gone to the DMG for the main character class. One must keep up appearances.

The monk is a d8 HP class. That's 11 HP at 1st level rather than 13. By itself, just a quibble. Unarmored Defense starts me off at AC 16. It does build to 18, eventually, but not till halfway through the campaign. So we're looking at a level 1 melee guy with 16 AC, 11 HP, and no Second Wind. Could be a one-shot. But an unarmored cleric would be cool. I could dress him in a cassock and amice. Constantine would look like Neo.

Patient Defense and Step of the Wind are delightful. They more than make up for Action Surge. Flurry of Blows would lose its efficacy for this build rather quickly. Wisdom will grow stronger with time. Dexterity will not. Once I have enough spell slots to do something besides healing, I expect to deliver Channel Divinity/Touch of Death via remotely cast "melee" spells. But Step of the Wind would really add ground truth to the tactical mobility concept. And Patient Defense has a whole lot of utility. Monk level 2 has win all over it.

The monk's level 3 Touch of Death is a bit underwhelming. I do kinda like that we'd spend the the whole campaign confusing Touch of Death with Touch of Death. Way to go, Mearls. But I don't think I'd sacrifice my 3rd Channel Divinity and a 5th level spell slot at 20th for this flavorful yet fanciful feature. I don't think it would get used after 5th level, and I wouldn't have it till 11th. Still, that's not a knock against the monk MC concept. It just renders the Long Death monk MC concept moot. I'd be stopping the progression before anything Long Deathy comes along.

I could see multiclassing with fighter 1 to start, then a bit later monk 1 & 2. Patient Defense would be a tasty treat with a 19 AC. This is definitely something to mull over. Thanks for the idea.

Yunru said:

Anyway, I support the idea of going Monk, but only for the first level. Death Cleric really wants to stay in house for their Channel Divinity.

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Monk level 2 is a big payoff, though. It pumps up the cleric's action economy, which can really use pumping up. I find that very attractive. Action Surge does that too, but only once per rest. How many times does one hear the cleric say, somewhat plaintively, "Does anyone need healing? No? I fire a crossbow bolt." Plunk.

And Step of the Wind lets me transition from safe range to the middle of the scrum very quickly, for that hands on healing, or vampiric touching.

Regardless, there are certain spells a Death Cleric really wants. Spiritual Weapon is amazing. It's a melee attack, so it works with your CD, but it's at an impressive range. Vampyric Touch, which you've already picked up on, can give you a massive health boost when used with your CD.

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I agree. Those will be my Channel Divinity/Touch of Death delivery mechanisms, and I really see Vampiric Touch as a signature spell. It's a delightful way to take down an opponent. I played a necromancer in two 3rd edition campaigns. Vampiric Touch and the old 3e Ray of Enfeeblement were favorites.

Consider Magic Initiate (Druid) for Shillelagh and Thorn Whip, allowing you a ranged melee attack (with slight re-positioning if you want to boot), and for your regular attacks to key off of your Wisdom score. In fact, I'd recommend taking it as your racial feat if you're not going to be starting Monk (since while Unarmored Defense is good (and thematic!), Martial Arts grants a bonus action attack with only your unarmed strike, and so wouldn't key off of Wisdom).

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That is a very good suggestion. Magic Initiate may out compete Resilient -- Wisdom. Thanks for your response.

Vulf said:

Don't worry about capstones, no printed campaign makes it to level 20 anyway.

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We don't play printed campaigns, as a rule. And, in 5e, we do play out the full 20 levels, which we also did in 4th edition. 3rd edition broke down totally by 16th, 14th if you tried at all, 12th if you tried harder. Epic level play was a superheros game.

If you don't mind not learning higher level spells, you can take 5 levels of ranger, you have the stats for it, and your spell slots will still be decent. And you learn Ranger spells like Goodberry and Hunter's Mark.

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I really don't mind missing out on the top tier of spells. Casting cleric spells is a bit like kissing your sister, after all. Mass Heal is an encounter turner, but at that point in the campaign everyone is eyeing the exits anyway.

Goodberry is an amazing heal spell. Before each long rest you can use up all your spell slots creating berries that last for 24 hours. Great for healing after fights.

Picking up a Fighting style won't hurt. You can hang back blasting things with your bow while spiritual weapon moves in to land your Death Domain channel divinities. Your bow attack can benefit from both the 1d8 necrotic and the 1d8 from Hunter around character level 14 or so.

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That does sound like a very effective build. It's got punch and it keeps me out of harms way for the most part. Goodberry bolsters my plain vanilla healing. I'd still want to come in for the hands on healing, though.

Your build underlines the notion that the way to make the cleric impactful is to steal the good stuff from other classes.

Now, that new UA ranger is another deal entirely. Advantage on Initiative combined with advantage on round 1 attacks, available in a single level dip? That's filthy. Probably too filthy to make it into print. Everyone would be taking that. Wizards would be taking that. It would harken back to the first level barbarian dip for just about every 3e fighter. "In our short time together, I've grown to appreciate your civilized ways. Pass me one of those napkins, won't you? I've dribbled some gazpacho on my plate armor."

I think the level of Fighter might be superfluous. You could have started as ranger or cleric and taken Resilient Constitution.

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The fighter gives me three things. Firstly, and most importantly, the 19 AC, Second Wind and even the small HP bump makes me harder to hit and harder to drop, particularly in session one of the campaign, when the DM is most likely to gleefully induce a PC smear. But the AC bump and the Second Wind pays dividends throughout the campaign. Keeping the cleric on his feet is the ongoing competency test that I would prefer to ace. Second Wind also modestly contributes to the cleric's impoverished action economy.

Secondly, the Action Surge gives me some reliable pop. It's the cheese platter. Every character needs a bit of sex appeal.

Thirdly, Battle Master gives me a small collection of tactical tools. It engages my situational awareness. It adds variety. It keeps me entertained.

Is the rogue in an advantageous position? Let's give him a second Surprise Attack with an extra d8 of damage. He's grateful, the DM is chagrined, and I just delivered a melee thumping from the tree line via one of my permanently summoned monsters. Clever me.

Or I've been indulging in some vampiric touching, but now the magic has gone out of the relationship; it's time to grab some separation, make a clean break of it -- Evasive Footwork for a d8 pump to my AC for the journey. And let's swing by some other monsters along the way, cast a few wayward glances, draw some opportunity attacks, burning off their reactions, freeing up the middle for my compatriots, as I exit the fray.

And for those unfortunate times when my tactical acumen has been failing me (it happens), and it's getting down to it, a quick Parry for 1d8+3 of damage reduction may keep me on my feet till my next turn comes up.

Who knows when these occasions might arise, or others like them. Who knows which tool will prove useful next, or when? We've set the table. Now surprise and delight us, D&D!

These are the reasons why I find the MC fighter option attractive.

Thanks for the MC ranger concept. My plan is to do a full up ranger build for the campaign after next, but that doesn't preclude a preview. My last ranger was a 4e half-orc. The damage output was over the top, a bit of a shocker, but the arithmetic was exhausting. I'm glad we've gotten away from that in 5e, and I am looking forward to seeing what this new ranger looks like after the play test.


edit: some flourishes, some capering about

I played a Death Cleric in 5e, and something I found very useful to take full advantage of my "unique" channel divinity. I got myself a feat of Magic Initiate:Wizard , got some decent wizard cantrips, but I got a find familiar spell and a nice evil looking owl to deliver nasty touch spell backed by channel divinity touch of death.

-AT 1Fighter/4Cleric, Using Inflict Wounds as 2nd level spell slot your already doing 13+4d10 necrotic damage. I find this is really helpful as a back of the line caster.

-The owl can move in and out without invoking AOO. My DM allowed me to use readied actions as well, per the PHB to ready inflict wounds to be cast when my familiar moved within range of my chosen target. Yea it uses my reaction, why I myself didn't have a ton of use for, but it was highly effective when it was needed.


As for multiclassing, if your going to go fighter anyways, try arcane archer, making yourself into the old Divine Archer from 3e. It give you some very useful tactical abilities, allows you to stay in the back line, and you can even still cast spells while holding a bow/longbow.

My Thoughts: (I bolded the things that changed)

Here's a level 11 snapshot:

Human (variant) Fighter 3 / Cleric 8 Lawful Neutral
Feat: Resilient -- Wisdom, Magic Initiate:Wizard (Find Familiar,Blade Ward,Mage Hand, Prestidigitation)
Background: Hermit
Languages: Common, Celestial
Str 8, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 8, Wis 18, Cha 8
Fighting Style: Archery( +2 to hit)
Second Wind
Action Surge
Arcane Archer: Beguiling Arrow, Shadow Arrow
Arcane Archer feature:Create Magic Arrow.
Cleric Domain: Death
Cleric features: Reaper, Channel Divinity/Touch of Death, Inescapable Destruction,
Destroy Undead (CR 1), Divine Strike 1d8
AC:18 HP: 95
Spell Attack: +8
Ranged Weapon Attack: +9
Ranged Weapon Damage: +3
Skills: Athletics +3, Perception +9, Medicine +9, Religion +3
Scale armor: 14 AC +2 Dex
Shield: +2 AC
Rapier: 1d8+3
Longbow: 1d8+3 (+2d6 force with magic arrow)
Cantrips: Chill Touch, Spare the Dying, Sacred Flame, Light (Blade Ward,Mage Hand, Prestidigitation)
Domain Spells: False Life, Ray of Sickness, Blindness/Deafness, Ray of Enfeeblement,
Animate Dead, Vampiric Touch, Blight, Death Ward
Spells Prepared: Cure Wounds, Healing Word, Bless, Inflict Wounds and a whole lot more


Read more: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?507438-Death-Cleric-Build#ixzz4S87NDPNK

Coyote81 said:

I played a Death Cleric in 5e, and something I found very useful to take full advantage of my "unique" channel divinity. I got myself a feat of Magic Initiate:Wizard , got some decent wizard cantrips, but I got a find familiar spell and a nice evil looking owl to deliver nasty touch spell backed by channel divinity touch of death.

-AT 1Fighter/4Cleric, Using Inflict Wounds as 2nd level spell slot your already doing 13+4d10 necrotic damage. I find this is really helpful as a back of the line caster.

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Ah, interesting. You grabbed your second feat at Cleric 8, putting off Wisdom 20 to Cleric 12. I've been toying with the notion of doing that with Mobile. And the archery fighting style bolsters the accuracy of 16 Dex well into respectable territory. You're getting full use out of your Dex investment.

I like those Wizard cantrip picks. You sidestep the Int problem entirely. Very nice.

And yes, Inflict Wounds is a nasty piece of work. I think the developers make the touch spells so alluring as a way to spur creative solutions by players. And you delivered. A cleric/archer who delivers touch attacks via his wizard's familiar. That's like a post-modern D&D character you've got there.

I suppose you could deliver Cure Wounds via owl as well. That gets you access to the more potent heals without moving out of the back ranks.

-The owl can move in and out without invoking AOO.

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Yes. my 5e wizard employed an owl familiar similarly. Even when I wasn't using the familiar, I used to send it in to try to draw attacks. The DM never took the bait, and in this way I trained him to never go after my familiar. A well trained DM is happy DM.

My DM allowed me to use readied actions as well, per the PHB to ready inflict wounds to be cast when my familiar moved within range of my chosen target. Yea it uses my reaction, why I myself didn't have a ton of use for, but it was highly effective when it was needed.

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Sure, that's cool. You could also just preposition the familiar. He's entitled to his own Initiative roll. The monster doesn't want to hit your owl. He wants to get past the front line muscle and get to you. If the monster does take a shot at your owl, your DM hasn't been properly conditioned. And his monster is wasting his attack on a tiny owl.

As for multiclassing, if your going to go fighter anyways, try arcane archer, making yourself into the old Divine Archer from 3e. It give you some very useful tactical abilities, allows you to stay in the back line, and you can even still cast spells while holding a bow/longbow.

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I can see that you really had that going on. It's an elegant solution to the Death cleric's designed in quandary -- melee features on a rangy subclass.

Thanks very much for the suggestions. That's a lovely build. And it's great to hear from someone who has played a death cleric.

Coyote81 said:

I played a Death Cleric in 5e, and something I found very useful to take full advantage of my "unique" channel divinity. I got myself a feat of Magic Initiate:Wizard , got some decent wizard cantrips, but I got a find familiar spell and a nice evil looking owl to deliver nasty touch spell backed by channel divinity touch of death.

Click to expand...

Alatar said:

Sure, that's cool. You could also just preposition the familiar. He's entitled to his own Initiative roll. The monster doesn't want to hit your owl. He wants to get past the front line muscle and get to you. If the monster does take a shot at your owl, your DM hasn't been properly conditioned. And his monster is wasting his attack on a tiny owl.

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Just as a clarification, you cannot cast Find Familiar as a ritual if you are not a Wizard class or have the Ritual Caster feat. Find Familiar is a Wizard spell, and "Ritual Casting" class feature only allows you to cast rituals of that class only. So even if you have Ritual Casting as a Cleric, you can only cast Cleric ritual spells.

This means you need to spend a spell slot to cast a 1d4-1 HP, 11 AC Owl and bring it into melee range to cast touch spells.