Hill Dwarf Storm Sorc/Tempest Cleric build help needed.

So I am building a new character for a game. Will start level 3 with point buy, sailor background.

I'm not the best when it comes to optimizing. I'm also at a loss when to take multiclass levels. Any help would be appreciated.

Yes I understand he will not be optimized racially or background wise but this is my concept.

He was a navigator on a sailing ship (not sure if pirate ship or merchant yet) the ship is attacked by pirates during a storm and he is left on the deck for dead.
While laying there bleeding he is struck by lighting and infused with power from said bolt. The bolt also had the secondary effect of cauterizing his wounds saving his life.
The ship is found a few days later by a salvage ship from Neverwinter. With this newfound power he joins a adventuring guild to see what he can actually do with it....

Being a navigator he is not particularly strong, I'm going for more caster than melee. The tempest cleric is for some armor and destructive Wrath.

Please help optimizing him with this race. He will be at the end Storm Sorc 1?/Tempest Cleric ? ,2 levels of cleric at least.

Thanks in advance.

I made a Wild Magic Sorcerer that was a Hill Dwarf.

His stats were. 8 Strength, 12 Dexterity, 16 Constitution, 12 Intelligence, 14 Wisdom, 14 Charisma. (14 +2 for con, 13 +1 for wis)

Dwarfs don't need strength for heavy armour. For me, the intelligence and wisdom was purely for role-play. It's pretty well rounded.

I'm running the Tempest Cleric / Storm Sorc build in AL, but using human. The AC capabilities of the build are outstanding. I put strength at 9, so I'm limiting my character to medium armor. I set my dex at 14 for the +2 bonus to AC. While carrying a shield and a focus the character is running around with an AC of 18. Shield of Faith cast a bonus action on the first turn of combat puts the AC at 20. I also have the Shield spell available to push AC to 25 for a round. This feels really good while in combat; however, the DM does roll pretty high and we're fighting giants most of the time. When the character is hit, I pulled it back off the front line, until after I selected the Tough feat. Now the character can take two hits which buys some time for the paladin.

Chromatic Orb is the go to spell. I don't recall if it's Destructive Wrath that maximizes lightning damage or thunder damage, but a maximized Chromatic Orb changes most encounters. The extra 10-ft of movement from casting spells didn't come into play all that often. In fact I found myself forgetting that it's a bonus action to get the extra 10-ft and casting Misty Step and using the 10-ft of movement.

Although I haven't used the maximum damage with Shatter yet, I have a feeling it will also be an encounter changing spell.

If you start as a Sorcerer, you'll have proficiency in Constitution saving throws. Tempest Domain grants Heavy armor proficiency, so it doesn't matter when you take the first level. I would take Mountain Dwarf instead of Hill Dwarf. Starting with 16 Strength and dumping dexterity or leaving it at 10, so you can use the melee cantrips like Greenflame Blade. Twincasting GFB is big damage, and Lightning Lure combined with the Tempest Domain ability lets you reposition enemies at will for better AOE coverage or a twincast GFB.

Point buy makes it really hard to build an effective character that needs 2 different casting stats. Paladin/Sorcerer is strong, Ranger/Cleric fills in some holes with utility spells.
You're going to be swimming upstream, but good luck!

Also I would do Dragon Sorcerer instead of Storm. I think it multiclasses a little better.

Vulf said:

If you start as a Sorcerer, you'll have proficiency in Constitution saving throws. Tempest Domain grants Heavy armor proficiency, so it doesn't matter when you take the first level. I would take Mountain Dwarf instead of Hill Dwarf. Starting with 16 Strength and dumping dexterity or leaving it at 10, so you can use the melee cantrips like Greenflame Blade. Twincasting GFB is big damage, and Lightning Lure combined with the Tempest Domain ability lets you reposition enemies at will for better AOE coverage or a twincast GFB.

Point buy makes it really hard to build an effective character that needs 2 different casting stats. Paladin/Sorcerer is strong, Ranger/Cleric fills in some holes with utility spells.
You're going to be swimming upstream, but good luck!

Also I would do Dragon Sorcerer instead of Storm. I think it multiclasses a little better.

Click to expand...

I understand about the strength, but this guy is going to be full on caster. So strength does me no good. Yes GFB is an excellent spell, just not one for this character.
Point buy is not that bad. I can go 15 in char and 12 in WIs at level one and be just fine. I will only be one set of ASI's behind "fully optimized".
Dragon Sorcs get done to death, I personally think so, I'm going to stay storm.

Thanks for all your input though.

Think I'm gonna go 8 St, 14 Dex, 15 Con(+2), 10 Int, 13 Wis(+1), 15 Cha. I'll boost Con and Cha at 4 then Cha again at the next ASI.

The real question (and one I always struggle with) is what level to MC at? I'm thinking Sorc5, Cleric2 then Sorc13. That does move my next set of ASI's to 11.

What do you think?

I went sorc 3 to get the meta-magic running. I then took 2 levels of cleric to get the flavor of thunderstorms and lightning. I went back to sorc for the remaining levels. I like playing with the sorcery points and possibly twinning Cure Wounds or possibly twinning Chromatic Orb and maximizing lightning damage that turn. Therefore, I wanted to increase my sorcery point pool and thus took more sorcerer levels. Keep in mind you most likely will not play the character past level 12, depending on what your DM has planned.

The problem with dumping strength on a Heavy Armor user...

Plate armor - 65 lbs
Shield - 6 lbs
Adventurer's kits vary but you may be lugging around 30 lbs
Clothes - 3lb
Healer's kit - 3lbs
each extra pouch - 1 lb


Every 50 coins - 1 lb


Carrying capacity if you have 8 strength - 120 lb.

Also heavy armor requires str

Chainmail 13
splint 15
Plate 15

Well, here's the problem. What do you WANT to do? If you want to be a thematic spellcaster, and have a schtick ("I'm a lightning mage!"), there's plenty of ways to do that. Storm Sorcerer, the new Sea Sorcerer, Tempest Theurge Wizard, etc. Note that there's absolutely nothing wrong with being thematic; I love doing it. It's awesome. It also lets you make terrible puns.

"Don't look so.... shocked."


By going Lightning or Thunder, you're going to run into one problem, especially at lower level play: Take a look at the Lightning and Thunder cantrips available.

First, Cleric gets one offense damaging Cantrip, and that's Sacred Flame. Radiant Damage. So you're not going there. Sorcerer has Lightning Lure and Shocking Grasp. So either pull an enemy closer to you, close enough to where they hit you and your low HP having self, or use Shocking Grasp, which requires you to touch the enemy. Again, not ideal, you don't want to be in range to get hit.

Most people see the Tempest Cleric's ability to maximize damage and fall in love with it. And why not? It can totally trivialize encounters. But it's a dangerous game to play, if you ask me. You need to have the right DM. Some take trivializing an encounter as a personal affront. I'm not saying it's right, but it happens.

Dasem said:

By going Lightning or Thunder, you're going to run into one problem, especially at lower level play: Take a look at the Lightning and Thunder cantrips available.

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It would be an extremely great idea to talk to your DM and work out some new Thunder and Lightning cantrips using the Spell Creation rules in the DMG.

Here's one I've been working on for our CoS campaign:

Lightning Flash

Casting Time 1 Action
Range 25 feet
Components V, S
Duration Instantaneous

Quick flashes of lightning strike out at one creature within range. The target must succeed on a dexterity save or take 2d4 lightning damage. Blue crackling lightning leaps out at another enemy within 10 feet of the target. The second creature takes damage equal to your spellcasting ability modifier.

This spell's damage increases when you reach higher levels. At 5th level, effected creatures take an additional 2d4 lightning damage. The damage rolls increase by 2d4 at 11th level, and again at 17th.


Against a single target, the average damage is slightly higher than Sacred Flame (0.5 damage per tier), but with less than half the range.
In turns where you can get two enemies, the damage is similar to Eldritch Blast with the typical + modifier damage invocation, but is close range, and has to be spread around, and the enemies must be within 10' of eachother. Unlike EB which can target a single character at long range with multiple shots.

It rivals the damage of Greenflame Blade, but can not take advantage of a magical weapons. Also is a DC vs dex. So can't take advantage of Oath of Enmity or Sacred Weapon on Paladin/Sorcerer multiclass builds.