Life Cleric Build Decision

Hey Everybody. My character died recently and was looking for some help on decisions for the new character.

I have decided on a Life cleric to be the central healer of the party. Other party members include: Fighter: Gunslinger, Moon Druid, Assassin Rogue, Necromancer Wizard.

We are using a custom stat array 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 8. It can be adjusted on a 1 for 1 basis with the following conditions, you cannot have 2 18's pre-racial modifiers, you cannot have over 18 pre-racials, you cannot have 2 negative stats, 8 is the lowest you can make a stat.

I have most of the build down but had a question regarding AC. I plan on one of the 2 arrays

STR 14+1
DEX 10
CON 16+1
INT 8
WIS 18
CHA 12

or

STR 8
DEX 14
CON 17+1
INT 10
WIS 17+1
CHA 12

In both cases I plan on going Vuman and taking magic initiate to get shillelagh and good berry.

I would probably be an off tank so is Plate armor that important? Can I get away with just medium armor? it would allow for my dex to be higher with all those benefits.

Input is appreciated.

Those are great ability scores and give you a lot of flexibility. Off-tank can mean that you have more trouble with keeping concentration which takes half a notch off spells like Bless or Sacred Guardian.

Your first stat block is good to keep you from having heavy armor slow you, but STR is basically never used elsewhere by you. IF you use a weapon (and I'm not sure why you would except for OA), you've got shillelagh. So I'd suggest medium armor and the better DEX because it's just more useful.

Unless ... hold that thought. Goodberry + Life cleric is nice out-of-combat healing. If you aren't wedded to it at 1st level though, I've got an alternate thought.

Switch from vHuman to Hill Dwarf. No slowdown in armor, darkvision, +2 CON (for HPs and Concentration saves) and +1 WIS, plus an extra HP per level.

STR 8
DEX 12*
CON 16+2
INT 10*
WIS 18+1
CHR 14*

(* Arrange these three as you like)

Can walk around with plate + shield, 18 CON + extra HP per level, 19 WIS (so even a half-feat can get you to 20.) Alternately +1 WIS&CON at 4th, and Resilient (CON) at 8th. Or drop on of the other scores to start CON at 17+1.

Interesting idea. I am pretty tied to Vuman (almost strictly for good berries). I have a very distinct character model in mind (Count St Germain from the Drifters anime).

I assume off tank because we have a moon druid. I plan on being on the front lines. Character would be lvl 4 so i am planning on starting with war caster as well.

Lvl 8 I was thinking of Observant to really bolster my passive perception

lvl 12 resilient CON

Lvl 16 +1 Wis +1 Con

Background (for character reasons) is Guild Artisan (alchemist supplies)
Skills would be
Human: Perception
Cleric: Religion, Insight
Guild Artisan: Persuasion and survival (since I already have insight?)

If that doesn't work then I will just take medicine then. I want survival to allow the discovery of plants and herbs to create potions. Should I try to swing getting acrobatics instead for grapple reasons?

Don't be so fast to dump intelligence, you might be the only one in the party to take Religion.

Charisma might not do much for you. From experience, being able to wear plate armor without slowing down is pretty important. And Shillelagh is pretty good on a Cleric, but the Nature Domain gets it without needing a feat. This could free up a feat choice and allow you to start with 20 Wisdom.

I will say in my Curse of Strahd game we have a Life Domain Cleric that took Shillelagh and managed to get wisdom to 22.

Rolling 2d8+6 as his melee and converting that damage to self-healing with the Black Staff every turn while he has charges... ridiculous.

The featless shillelagh and the survival skill is tempting but I really like the domain spells from Life a lot more. Most seem like spells I would want anyway which frees me up to prepare more rituals for greater versatility. I also like the still relevant goodberry plus Life healing potions.

Besides the survival training, the other features don't seem to mesh with the character and feel like it might impose on the Druids shtick.

Another question,

Each character gets a free uncommon magic item to start with. I was wondering what would be considered best?

Typically, it is just a +1 weapon but others have gotten a vestment of many styles (he is a changeling), and our druid got bracers which made them crit on a 19 or 20.

I was looking at the uncommon items and these were the most interesting to me:

Sentinel Shield
Cloak of Protection
Goggles of Darkvision
Winged Boots
Mithral Heavy Armor

Any of those heads above the rest? Any thing I missed which is hands down better?